A couple of weekends ago on a Sunday morning a couple of friends and myself went to the markets near Liverpool Street. I wasn't sure what to expect... I didn't know whether it would look a flea market, a farmers fresh market or just something straight out of the Middle Ages. As it turns out its a mix of all three. There are individual booths with anything from books, movies and CD's to jewelry, used, new & vintage clothes, and hats! They also have fresh food and drinks that you can buy, like delicious pastries and mulled wine.
The first market we went to was called Spitafields Market. It was very neat to see all the little stalls with their different handmade products. There were a lot of clothes, bags, jewelry and other trinkets. this market was probably favorite of all the different ones we explored along with the last market. The last market we went to was the flower market, where all these old timer English men whose families have passed down their stalls through the family sell fresh flowers. It look and smelled wonderful.
I been in school for about 3 weeks now and it is pretty different from the American higher educational system. First of all they go to college for only three years, but they decided what they want to do when they are 15 and then do a lot of prep work in what is equivalent to our high school preparing for those three years of college. It is a very specialized system and requires you to figure out what you wanna do at a much younger age. It is also very individualized and you spend very little time in the classroom and a lot of time outside it doing individual work. Also the classes are most of the times split into two parts, a lecture which usually lasts for about an hour and a tutorial which also lasts for an hour. The lecture part is exactly what it sounds like, a professor giving a lecture & you take notes. The tutorial part is conducted in kind of a more loose structure, sort of a free debate so that students can discuss the lecture and its subject with the teacher and a smaller section of the class.
However, I must admit although I'm sure at the end of all their education in England these students have learned a lot. But just attending a couple of these classes I can already tell that I am receiving a much more intense course load at Loyola and I have never felt more appreciative of my university for preparing me for the big bad world. This is only the start of the semester, but I feel that it is going to be an easy one. I have already studied most of the subjects that I am covering in my classes and it makes me proud to know our higher educational system is doing it job, well in my case anyways.
This past weekend me and about 15 other study abroad students that I have become friends with in my dorm went to Munich, Germany for about 4 days. It was quite the experience, Germany basically consists of Beer, Meat, Pretzels and more Beer lol. I saw a lot and was very humbled by my experiences and have never been more appreciative of being an American than I am now. Germans are not very friendly, the barely tolerate each other let alone foreigners and they do not like Americans. It was very strange to be in a place where you can not read any street sign or understand anyone because you don't speak the same language. They never give out free water, they basically drink beer with every meal (which doesn't sound bad to begin with) and they very pushy. Aside from all my negative opinions about Munich, it was altogether a great trip. I saw a lot of different places and visited a couple beer halls. I even got to retrace some of the event that took place in WWII and what made the trip most worth while was my visit to Dachau which was the first concentration camp started by the Nazi's during the Holocaust.
Dachau was a very humbling and eye opening experience. You learn about these things in school but it is quite different to see it in real life. One of the girls I went with is actually Jewish and all of her family except her two grandparents died in concentration and death camps during the Holocaust and I can not imagine what that experience was like for her. Its winter in Munich so being there and walking around the camp and knowing how cold I was while I had a coat and all other warm clothing on and knowing that these people only had thin linen clothes and absolutely no meat or fat on their bodies just overwhelms you with sorrow. I will never understand this period in world history, how people were able to subject other human beings to the most painful and harshest extremes imaginable will always be a mystery to me and it make me extremely sad to say that humanity still has not learned from this. There are areas in Africa like Dar Fur, where people are still killing one another and conducting mass genocides without a second thought. It will truly be a miracle if the world ever stops looking at how we are different and starts to focus on how we are alike and will end all this turmoil that plagues the human race.
No comments:
Post a Comment