15 December: things that were good
So tomorrow my folks are coming to see Brighton and pick me up to go back to London. We'll spend a few days there, and then on Wednesday of next week, fly to Spain, where we'll tour Seville, Cordoba, and Granada. Plans for going home are shaping up slowly, and it looks like I'm definitely going to be in NYC at some point, though whether that's before or after the New Year is beyond me (see, the winter is definitely the best time to be in the city: all of the dog crap stays frozen on the sidewalks instead of stuck on the bottom of your shoe).
I suppose I just wanted to say a few words about the good parts of being abroad for this term, cause I'm afraid I may come off as too sarcastic about my time here sometimes. First of all, I have to say that I couldn't have hoped for a better place to be than Brighton. As much as I love London, it's big, sometimes unsafe, and always a little more expensive than being here, and Brighton has tons to offer the two universities that are here.
Second, I really liked my Languages and Compilers class, to my great surprise. I took the class as part of a deal with the Comp Sci department to get a CS minor back at Vassar. I was thinking I would be bored out of my mind by detailed discussions of how the internals of a computer work, but it couldn't have been a more interesting class, and I feel like I understand a lot more about computers than I did three months ago.
Third, my flatmates have been really nice, fun, easy-going people to live with. Some of the American kids living in the residence halls here haven't bonded at all with their neighbors, and that couldn't be farther from the situation in my house.
Fourth, I have found that I really really love ultimate frisbee. I am definitely joining the team when I get back to Vassar next year, it's too fun to pass up.
Finally, it's quite an education just to be in a place where Americans aren't the majority, where people do things differently. With some issues, for example which side of the road to drive on, neither country's approach is clearly better; whereas with others (public health care, teaching styles), there are obvious merits to the ways in which either country handles things. During our last frisbee party, I managed to have an animated conversation with a guy on our team about how America's history as a colony-turned-superpower versus England's history as an colonizing-empire-turned-regular-country yielded different attitudes about increasing social diversity in both countries.
If nothing else, I'm definitely gaining perspective while I'm here.
Anyways, no more mass emails from me for a while, I promise. Happy holidays to everyone, and a happy new year!
-matt