Game of Scones: May 2012

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Time sure does fly...

...WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN!

When I first got to London with Emma and Shay.

Halfway through my time here with Average Zach & Thomas.

My time is almost done here with Toby, Aysha, Thomas, and Emma B.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Close to the finish line...

I have one more final, Tissue Pathology, and then I am free! I will finally be a senior in college and I can once again wander and enjoy London to the fullest! CAN'T WAIT!!!

"When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." - Samuel Johnson

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Haverford has spoiled me. Spoiled me in the sense that my finals and most of my exams are self-scheduled, unlimited time, and open book. I take most of my tests on my bed and listen to music as I do them. Well, this is the OPPOSITE how anything is done in the UK. So, as I have been talking a lot recently about- I had my first final today and it was a life changing experience. I will recount it here for you:

There are two exam times. 10:30 AM and 2:30 PM. I had the 2:30 PM slot, which is awful since you have to wait all day. You don’t want to do work or study, so you are forced to wait and worry. One thing that is different from home is that the exams are run by an operation that is separate from the university. All the exams are in buildings that are spread around London. There is a building right near Westminster Abbey and mine was at ‘The Troxy,’ which is in West London.

I had to take the DLR tube to get there, which is an overground train. It was around a 30-minute train ride and I ended up in a place that reminded me of Girard Avenue in West Philly. After a short 5-minute walk, we ended up at ‘The Troxy.’ You can check out the site here.

Since we weren’t allowed to enter the building until a certain time before the exam, there were just hundreds of stressed students standing outside studying frantically. Zach and I on the other hand brought no notes with us and were just fooling around, distracting the other kids. As they shot us dirty looks the whole time, we found other Americans who were just waiting to get the exam over with.

Once we were allowed into the Troxy, we were ushered into the makeshift ‘study room.’ Before I go on more about this place, let me explain what the Troxy is. Here is a blurb about the building:

“Troxy is London’s most versatile venue, able to accommodate anything from a live concert for 2,661 to a corporate dinner for up to 1,200 guests. Fashion shows, beauty pageants, indoor sport, award shows, conferences, exhibitions, film shoots and weddings – the scope of events is endless.”

So, what was ‘the study room’ was actually a bar and dance floor with seats and coat racks in it. Instead of being stressed and studying outside, all the KCL students now became stressed and studied inside. Finally, they let us into the actual testing room. When I say testing room, I mean to say ‘arena’ or ‘dance floor.’ The interior of the building is a weird disco/techno themed with pink and purple flowers bedazzling the place. One of the major things, as I was told by my flatmates, was to have my seat number. I was seat #537. Well, it took me around 5 minutes to actually find my place since there were a total of 1,200 seats. I WAS TAKING AN EXAM WITH 1200 OTHER STUDENTS. All of us were taking different exams with different allotted times. It was a hot mess.

I finally found my seat and got myself situated. Let me get into now about the security of this place. First off, they basically had bouncers outside regulating the sidewalks and how we entered the building. We were then informed we could bring almost nothing into the actual testing room. The only thing allowed into the room was pens, pencils, phone IF off, and our ID card. All of this HAD to be kept in a plastic bag. If you forgot a plastic bag, they were selling them for 50p in the lobby. All other bags and jackets were to be put in the ‘study room’ until the end of the exam. When at your testing seat, you ID had to be on the table for the people to check, which they did regularly. Throughout my three-hour exam, there were hundreds of proctors pacing up and down the aisles checking our IDs and making sure we didn’t cheat. They were obnoxious colored vests and almost seemed to hit you as they walked by.

The Troxy when you first walk in. Looks like the entrance to a theatre, right?

A dance floor in an exam room? Yep, the whole floor was lined with desks.

The last thing I want to do: Take an exam with 1,200 other people.

So, as the time for our exam came, a man on a loudspeaker told us the directions of the testing arena and said ‘start.’ At that moment you heard 1,200 students rip open their booklet and vigorously start writing. I took my merry little time looking over each question and answering them.

One thing I have come to learn about exams in the UK is that they are all essay based. No matter the class, you WILL be writing at least 2 essays. Which is ridiculous since I am taking a science class and none of this can be written in essay format. Fine, there were like 30 multiple choice questions, but it was only 15% of the final finals grade. Half of the questions were insulting to my intelligence. Like “What is the color of the sky?!” and the other ones were beyond impossible to answer. “What percentage of Europeans have HSV and HIV and can do 40 pushups?!” Those MCQ were either like a statistic or date that would only be possible to answer if you had photographic memory. Basically, they make it hard for you to fail and impossible for you to get an A.

Then I moved onto the essays. I had to choose 3 out of the 6 provided. It was recommended that it would take around 50 minutes per essay. Well, after I wrote an essay in 20 minutes, I realized that I would finish this exam….way too early.

I should also mention that you could not leave the exam room (even to pee) for the first 75 minutes and you couldn’t leave the room when you had 15 minutes left. Don’t ask me the logistics behind this. What I should also mention is that even though my exam was 3 hours, some people only had a 2 hr or 1.5 hr exam. So while I was writing, masses of people would just get up and leave. This was probably the worst and most stressful environment one could ever be in while taking a final. It is seriously dumb.

We were given an exam booklet and I filled all the pages, so once I ran out of room and had like 40 minutes left, I just went back and revised. The exam was three hours and seriously could have been done in two. Since I knew I had so much time, I wrote slowly and clearly.

Also, I do not understand how three essays properly represent what I learned this semester. I studied so much freaking information and unlike a normal test that tests complete comprehension; I was expected to write full in depth answers on just 3 subjects. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Moreover, for some people there final exam is 100% OF THEIR GRADE. That ONE test determines their grade. Those essays they write in those 3 hours depicts ‘everything they have learned in a term.’ Excuse my French- but that is bullshit. There is ZERO incentive to go to class if you have no homework or participation grade. You can teach yourself the information and just ace the final test. Also, while all the exams are essay form- the teachers put up ‘past exams’ with ‘past exam questions.’ What people have come to realize is that the same exam questions are asked every year SO PEOPLE JUST MEMORIZE THE ANSWER TO THOSE 3 OR SO QUESTIONS AND STUDY NOTHING ELSE. THAT IS JUST DUMB. Why even study?! Why learn?! You just memorize facts for 2 days and you are good to go. This system MAKES NO SENSE. ZERO SENSE.

So while I was taking my exam and being treated like a criminal by the proctors, I successfully finished my first exam. I laughed the whole way through since I could not really believe that all I had done this term was accumulated into 3 simple questions that could have been written off of wikipedia. While this was just one exam, I predict the next two to be similar. At least they will only be 1.5 hours…

Oh, let me not forget how I had to hand in my final exam. When the time was called and we stopped writing, we had to tie all the PAGES UP WITH A STRING. Like a third world country, WE TIED OUR EXAM UP WITH STRING. DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?!?!

I can now cross "taking a final exam in a disco/techno theater with 1,200 other students" off my bucket list.

After my exam, I talked to the English students in my class and they complained that the exam was so difficult. I will never say that an ‘exam was easy,’ but I would never go as far as saying this exam was that difficult. Please…I wasn’t certain if had taken the same exam when I was talking to them.

I took the tube back to my dorm and let me just explain what the tube is like in the heat. It is an oven. I was dripping sweat and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I felt so bad for the men in suits. I felt faint just riding on it for 30 minutes. It was unbearable. There is zero ventilation and this is just one reason WHY I AM SO HAPPY I WILL NOT BE HERE FOR THE OLYMPICS.

For dinner, I celebrated being done with one exam by going to an American diner with my English friend, Tom. Since I have been studying I haven’t ventured into the actual main heart of the city for almost a month. It was so nice to walk to Waterloo, see Big Ben, walk down Strand, pass Trafalgar Square, walk into Leicester Square, and into Soho. I got to see London again and it was so refreshing. When we came back, we made sure to walk along the South Bank of the Thames. It was lined with pub goers and businessmen. The weather is so nice I can’t even handle it.

While I gave myself the night off tonight, back to work tomorrow in order to survive through my last two exams! Tissue Pathology and the Physiology of Exercise!

Here are some pictures from my walk tonight:

China Town with the Union Jack & Chinese Flags

Leicester Square

Covent Gardens

Walking along the South Bank. You can see St. Paul's Cathedral in the distance.

The South Bank along the Thames.

New and interesting artwork in front of the Tate Modern.

A sax, Millennium Bridge, and St. Paul's Cathedral.

I am seeing 'A Comedy of Errors' in Brazilian Portuguese on May 30th!

The Evolution of my Room

Living in London for almost 6 months, I have acquired....a lot. Also, while traveling I tried to pick up postcards from each place to decorate my walls. Now my room is full of character and pizzaz. Weird to think that I will be having to pack everything back up so soon to head back to America!

BEFORE

AFTER

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Sunburnt in London?!

I think nice weather has finally hit London for good. I don't want to jinx it, but today it was almost 75 degrees. Basically when the sun is out, Londoners flock out of their homes and just strip down to minimal clothing in order to take in some sun. If there is sun, every park in London is full and no one is being productive.

I did work in the morning and then went on the weekly group date to our Indian buffet for lunch. While I had planned on being productive in the afternoon, it was just too nice to go back to my room and do work. I took my work to the park behind my dorm called Tabard Gardens and sat with some friends.

Living in London, I have learned that I am culturally ambiguous. People that I look Spanish, Italian, Jewish, annnnd mostly Middle Eastern. This is a prime example: So, I am sitting in the gardens listening to my music and this older woman walks up and literally sets up camp right next to me. I thought nothing of it, but she suddenly started talking to me. I had to take my earphones out to understand her, but when I did I realized she was talking to me in Arabic! It took me a couple seconds and then I replied that I don't speak Arabic. Well as it turns out, the Middle Eastern woman is taking English classes and needed help on her homework. I ended up basically helping this woman cheat on her homework since I ended up doing all the writing. Anyways, in the end she thanked me in her broken english and swore she "thought I was a Muslim girl." I wasn't offended, but more confused. Maybe it is the fact that I haven't gotten my eyebrows done in a while? I'm darker than usual? Whatever, that was not the first nor the last time I will be told I look Middle Eastern.

Obviously being in the gardens with friends meant I was not going to be productive at all. Which is just GREAT given that my first final is Thursday. That being said, I had one of the best days in a while. After being cooped up in my room being slightly depressed/lacking Vitamin D, it was nice being outside with friends. A big group of us started to accumulate, which was nice since people are starting to leave and I want to make sure I spend time with everyone before we all separate. A couple hours later we headed to the Roebuck Pub for a drink and to soak up more sun.

When I got back to my room, I realized that I had gotten burnt! This is laughable due to the fact that there is almost NO sun in England and the one time I venture outside, I get some color. I mean, I LOVE it since I am the most pasty EVER. I am giving a presentation on medical cannabis tomorrow for a class, so I decided to bake brownies for my class. (Get it?) Hopefully they like them/the joke.

I actually just got back from a local pub. Most of my flatmates are done and we want to spend as much time possible together before I leave. Next week we are planning on going to an amusement park right outside of London as a flat! Can't wait!....I just need to survive this next week....

Here is an accumulation of pictures of where I live/the sun today!

The Saturday Flower Market in Shoreditch.
All plants go for a 'fiver!'

The Saturday Flower Market in Shoreditch.

A plaque commemorating the original Shakespeare Globe Theater.
The original globe is about half a mile away from the
one on the Thames now.

Walking down Borough almost at Great Dover Street.

Tabard Street! Also known as Stab-ard Street. It runs
behind my dorm and has the park along it.

Walking back to my dorm on Tabard Street.

On Tabard Street. On the left is the park. On the near right is
estate housing and in the distance on the right
is my dorm.

An apartments neighborhood right next to my dorm.

Once a week, we indulge.
The workers know our name now. It's scary.

The Blue Eyed Maid - a pub on the bottom floor and the Indian restaurant/buffet
on the second floor. At night (every night), the pub turns into a karaoke bar.
Mostly adults go to the Blue Eye Maid and are always awful at singing.

Friends lounging in Tabard Gardens.

Tabard Gardens with The Shard in the distance.

Tom and I in the park.

Tabard Gardens right behind my dorm.

SEE THAT WHITE DOG IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PICTURE.
That dog is in Tabard Park EVERY DAY and I see it ALWAYS
when I walk to class. It is the happiest dog I've ever seen (except for Simmy)
and is so well behaved. I NEED TO MEET THIS DOG BEFORE I LEAVE.

Some of the group in Tabard Gardens.

The London Bridge and the 'City of London' borough at night.

I splurged and bought the special Diamond Jubilee Magazine (seen on left).
It was super expensive, but necessary...obviously?

Monday, May 21, 2012

Football & Banksy

This past Saturday was the Champions League football final between England’s Chelsea and Germany’s Bayern Munich. I don’t go out of my way to watch football games over here, but whenever there is a big one on, they are hard to miss. Either the pubs all over London are showing them or one of my flatmates is watching in the kitchen.

What I’ve learned over here is that there are multiple football leagues and the best way for me to describe them is by depicting an onion. An onion has multiple layers almost like the leagues here. There are multiple leagues in England and there are in some ranking order. Obviously, the most famous one is the Premier League, which has teams like Chelsea, Arsenal, Fulham, and Liverpool. These are the big names. Under the Premier League are like tons of other leagues, but go down in descending order on how good they are. The Football League Championship is ‘Level 2’ and then Football League One is ‘Level 3.’ Under that it goes Football league Two, Conference National, and then all the way down to Northern Premier League Premier which is the worst league. This is super confusing since I never know which team is in what league or which league is better than another. Obviously, this system is more complicated than back at home where in American football we just have the AFC and NFC or in baseball when we have the American League and the National League.

To make matters worse/more complicated, each team is never really safe in their league. Every year, they not only compete to win their league, but to either move up a league or remain in their league. For example, the bottom three teams of the season from the Premier League are demoted down to the Football League Championship. For the Football League Championship, the top three teams are promoted up to the Premier League and the bottom three are demoted down to the Football League One. This ‘top three’ and ‘bottom three’ is approximately the same for all 8 leagues. I guess all this movement makes each season new and exciting because you get to play new teams each year and its always stressful since you never know where you’ll be.

By the way, those leagues I just talked about are just for England. The game I watched on Saturday night was the Champions League, which is a league for all the teams in Europe. I am not sure how the teams get chosen to play in the finals, but this year it was Chelsea versus Munich. Ironically, Chelsea didn’t win the Premier League title (Man City did) so I really have no idea how they got to the Champions League.

I wouldn’t have even known about this game if it weren’t for Oren having a mini-watching party in our kitchen. I went in to make dinner and suddenly the whole KCL hockey team was there, so I decided to stick around and watch the game with them. The game was exhilarating and it was hilarious hearing the guys screaming at the screen. No one really like Chelsea, so it was basically a lot of screaming of “wankers” and other curses I will refrain from writing.

Basically, Chelsea is known to be that team that plays awful for most of the game and then suddenly scores in the last 5 minutes to win the game. Everyone hates it and everyone recognizes it. Throughout the game Munich was outrunning and having more shots on goal. It was 0-0 up to the 75’ mark when Munich finally scored. Everyone was cheering and they thought that would be the game. Well lo-and-behold around the 85’ mark Chelsea scored some crappy goal to tie it up. The boys were furious and were even angrier due to the fact that they would now need to watch overtime. “If they would’ve only just let Munich win!” 30 minutes of overtime later, it was still 1-1, which meant penalty kicks. The boys were literally furious and were sure that ‘Chelsea being Chelsea’ would some how win even though they deserved to be crushed 4-1. Anyways, Munich scores first on the penalty kicks and Chelsea misses. In the second to last penalty kick, Chelsea gets it in and Munich misses, making them TIED AGAIN IN PENALTY KICKS. So basically it came down to the final penalty kick for both sides. Everyone was screaming “Typical Chelsea.” Well, the Munich kicker got cocky, tried to do a fancy kick, and hits the post! With the last kick, the Chelsea player scores and wins the League.

[Side note: The Munich took a penalty kick and got it in! That is almost like a field hockey goalie taking a stroke and scoring. It is almost unheard of and I was so proud for that goalie!]

Let’s just say no English people were happy. But all the Americans on my news feed were there most excited. Goes to show how no British people never really support the big teams.

Anyways, throughout the game I was amazed/stupefied by the football talk going around me. Almost every guy in England can name each player on each team and their manager. Like, there were continuous arguments about this guy being traded and this manager getting fired. Yes, Americans know other players on other teams, but keep in mind there are around 5x more teams in England for football. Also, I don’t know exactly how trading works here in England, but I don’t think players have such long contracts to teams, so they are traded pretty often.

A lot of the boys were Tottenham fans and supposedly had to route against Chelsea because if they lost then they would never get this player, or that manager, or that player would leave the team. Whatever, it was just super stressful in that there is so much to worry about since no player is ever really tied down to a team. Also, in football, team coaches are fired more readily than at home, so they kept on talking who was going and staying. Lastly, betting is huge here, so a lot of guys lost a lot of money on this game!

Chelsea: Champions League Champions

This is a random thought, but it has to do with football. So, Americans always support our soccer teams, especially during the Olympics. What we don’t know is that we aren’t playing against the other countries’ best players. Over each summer is the Euro Cup, which is basically like the FIFA World Cup, but for just Europe. The Euro Cup is a bigger deal than the Olympics for Europe and this is where they send all their best players. That being said, since the English National Team will be playing in the Euro Cup, they will not be playing in the Olympics. The National Team will not be supporting their nation. And this is for all of Europe. So when we loose to these teams like Spain and Germany, American soccer should be embarrassed since we are loosing against their backups.

Moreover, since no one really cares about football in the Olympics, there are still Olympic tickets for the English football games! HA! No one even wanted to pay for them!

Watching football in the UK has really been enjoyable. I felt so damn British watching the game with Oren's friends and cheering on teams. I understand the game more and feel some more connections to teams. I understand why it isn't big in America too. It is not a high scoring game, not the quickest game, and there aren't a lot of fights. But man...when a game is on and you walk by a pub that is literally overfilling with fans holding a pint...THAT's the life. That being said, never try to go to a bar or pub on a game night. It is super awkward when you walk in and there are no seats and everyone's eyes are fixated on the screen.

[Side note: One of Oren's friends was literally the most British thing I had ever met. He had the most posh accent and was so proper. He is from Suffolk and when I asked him to describe the place in three words he said "farms, wealthy,.....very wealthy. His father WENT TO THE ROYAL WEDDING AND MET KATE. And his family has a crest...WHATTT? Things like this still exist.]

Earlier that day, I took a study break by finding the new Banksy art in London. I went on a Banksy scavenger hunt earlier on in the term, but this piece was literally done over the weekend. The graffiti went up Thursday and immediately hit the news. Zach and I went to find it and when we did, it already had been covered by plastic protecting it from the crowds. It is truly amazing how Banksy gets away unnoticed since he does his art in such public places. Like, you’ll see in the pictures below, the graffiti is right off a main road ON a busy store.

The graffiti done by Banksy is depicting a young sweatshop worker bent over a sewing machine. Everyone keeps on saying it is ‘just in time for the Diamond Jubilee’ as if Baksy did this as a message to the Queen. Out of the graffitied sewing machine is real Union Jack bunting that goes across the wall. Most of it has been removed so it can be kept under Plexiglas, but some still remains. After Zach and I saw it, we went into the Poundland store in which the graffiti is drawn on and saw that the store was selling the same bunting! That means Banksy probably walked into the store, bought some bunting, and then directly graffitied it onto the wall! Amazing!