Cream Tea

A "Cream tea", sandwiches with white bread and the crusts hot tea with milk, cucumber cut off, scone with jam, butter and clotted cream...all served with great ceremonious elegance (mainly for tourists these days) around 4 in the afternoon. It is said to have originated as the upper class hold over between lunch and the later evening meal.

The Captain and classmates attended a Cream Tea as part of the British Life and Culture course. The history of tea continues to surface in different courses' content -- historical empires, commodities and business, and culture. It's even focal for theater in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Fun cultural facts provided by our coordinator include:

• 80% of office workers now claim they find out more about what's going on at work over a cup of tea than in any other way;
• The British drink approximately 165 million cups of tea per DAY (compared to only about 70 million cups of coffee), or about 60.2 billion cups per year...40% of the nation's fluid intake!
• People in the Republic of Ireland drink even more tea per capita than Britain!
• China produces about 935,000 tons of tea annually;
• 96% of British tea is consumed from tea BAGS (not loose tea); and
  
• 98% of tea here is consumed with milk.

Election Day

"Arrghhh! Me thinks this election day tis a long one..."
The Captain and his friends all voted in the American presidential election last week (or longer ago) by mail (and some ex pats voted by email, all depending on the state in which you are registered).

We woke this morning with a European world of eyes, all watching and waiting for election day excitement...but our home continent was still sleeping! Braced for election day, our morning news had no more to say than last night's news. We reached lunch time before the polls even opened in New York. And now, school day's end for the Captain here in London, Californians have only just begun their days.

This is one of the peculiar events where time zones matter enormously.

Election coverage begins on BBC and other television stations tonight at 11:45 p.m. GMT and will continue until 6 a.m. Of course, Californians won't have gone to bed by then....

A Teacher's Tale

Greetings -
Captain Ruter asked me to post some of my stories and impressions here. I'm one of two Southwestern faculty in London this semester with the Captain and 18 other SU students. Two additional faculty also teach SU students -- an Englishman who is a long time teacher of British Life and Culture, and a young American writer who studied at Oxford is teaching theater.

"Learning" in our program is quite holistically understood. In addition to classroom time (what students typically consider their "education"), various configurations of students are constantly on the move. Last week alone, I know about a field trip to Whole Foods London (the corporate headquarters is in Austin and so to see the store's entrance into the European market offered interesting contrasts), a modern interpretation and performance of Oedipus at the National Theater (the classic play drew on modern costumes and a male chorus reminiscent of ancient times) , a night time ceremony at the Tower of London (where guards have ceremoniously and relatively privately closed the tower nightly for 700 years), a trip to East Putney to learn from the Imam at the London Mosque and to be guests at a delicious meal, a local musician who came to our school building to talk about and play a wide variety of music (followed of course by an outing to the pub for conversation), and a risk management officer still employed by Lehman Brothers in London coming to explain elements of the worldwide credit and banking crisis. And these are only the activities I attended.

Outside of classes this week, I also joined a Southwestern alum and her husband to see a special Mark Rothko exhibit at the Tate Modern museum (a modern artist whose work I first met when I studied in London during college), went on a Ghost Walk of east end pubs with locals I met in a community education course, and saw a documentary film about Liverpool called Of Time and the City. I also did daily life things like going to the local gym, food shopping at the grocery store and produce shopping at a local market, and staying current on my reading. Life is very full here, in quite a diverse way.

Between classes and on outings, I enjoy deeper conversations with students. At our home campus, we each seem to move so quickly from class to class that we often miss reflection time together. Here, we have conversations about what we're seeing and learning and wondering. For example, as we walked back to the train from the Mosque visit, several students and I had a long conversation about the paradigm that must exist within the Imam's world such that he could have such clarity about ideas we considered old fashioned (such as gender construction and roles for women in society). Getting our minds around that, and staying out of a judgmental place, took nearly the entire walk. Along the way, two of us noticed that we had hesitated from asking about terrorism -- we could not even get our minds around what we actually wanted to know. We had both been relieved when the British Life and Culture teacher asked the Imam about life for Muslims today in light of Muslim extremists' violence. And then of course, we needed to make sense of the Imam's responses. But meaning making is so often non-linear. On the train home, a student asked me if I might advise her on how to become more diplomatic in communications and how to coach others to be so. That quickly led to another student expressing an interest in the field of teaching and learning and her own fear that she might too quickly make assumptions about others. And then we found ourselves relating back to an in-class discussion about "elegant power" and the negative perceptions some people from "third world" countries have about American foreign policy and our approaches to economic development. Which of course, the week before the American presidential election, led us to talk about the elections and the policies and the the process of voting, our own assumptions about participatory government contrasted with the underlying assumptions held by some other countries where citizens follow rather than participate. There seems no end to the magnificent loops and links we can knit even between our actual official outings.

Willis Harman's Global Mind Change, a book several students and I have read for one of my courses here, calls what we are doing "paideia" -- the Greek concept as "a society in which learning, fulfillment, and becoming human are the primary goals and 'all its institutions [are] directed to this end...Education was not a segregated activity, conducted for certain hours, in certain places, at a certain time of life. It was the aim of the society" (p. 142-143). In Greek society, "Paideia was education looked upon as a lifelong transformation of the human personality, in which every aspect of life plays a part. It did not limit itself to the conscious learning processes, or to inducting the young into the social heritage of the community. Paideia meant the task of making life itself an art form, with the person the work of art" (p.170).

I am clear that paideia is happening among us here in London this semester. Each student (and each faculty) will have his and her own narrative about how that occurred or what he or she "did" while in London, but it is the sum of the experiences (not the least of which are the spaces in between "the" experiences!) and the relationships -- with each other, with people we meet here, and with how our relationships shift with those at home when we return -- that seems to most characterize the learning of studying abroad.

I hope each Southwestern student -- and all students everywhere -- take the opportunity to paideia.

Many thanks to all who are making this experience possible, for me and for each of us -

Dr. Neville

Just pure fun...

"Argggg matie -- Ah'v got sem jokes fer ya!

Why 'r Pirates thought ta be sa mean?
We jist arrrrrrrrrrr!

(Argh me mate tis goord tha humor here is, eh?)

What's a pirate's favourite type a' music?
Arrrr and B!

An' what was tha name of tha man who made King Arthur's round table?
Sir Comference!


'Tis tha best 'a tha British humor ya see!"

The Hadrian Empire

In addition to field trips outside of London, the Captain and classmates go on adventures all over London. Recently, they visited the British Museum's special exhibit on Hadrian, an early emperor credited with transforming the Roman Empire. Even though the Captain himself has lived through centuries of history, being up close and personal with artifacts, images and text from 100 AD profoundly brought home lessons about the rise and fall of empires over time.

Oxford...

Oh how the Captain's adventures have continued....

Off the group went to Oxford, town dating back to artifacts from before 12,000 BC, and the university and colleges dating back to 1167.

Dispite the onset of fall, students and the Captain bundled up for a guided tour and some personal time. As a group, we went into Oriel College grounds. The Captain is certain famous Piratologists have studied at Oxford, because the likes of other such famous names have: JR Tolkin, William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, CS Lewis, Sir Walter Raleigh. Even the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland came from an Oxford student in need of fantasy tales to occupy his charge (the Headmaster's daughter named Alice!).

The Captain also appreciated the laws of equality of which he heard tell...the library is so well protected that even Charles I, King of England, was not allowed to have his servants remove war strategy books on his behalf; he had to turn up in person!

Among places various people visited were the Christ Church (where some of the Harry Potter films were made), an Alice in Wonderland exhibit, the markets, and the museum.

Some students followed their CAPA guide to a local pub for lunch, a pub she had enjoyed as an Oxford student. There, two of her friends from Oxford days joined a table for lunch to discuss American politics, British sentiment about English royalty, and life at Oxford. The pub was, ever so coincidently the Captain is sure, the one now famous where American former president Bill Clinton did not inhale...

By the time students returned to London for the weekend, everyone was exhausted.

Scotland and the Highlands

The Southwestern group set off to Edinburgh via train Thursday morning, meeting at London’s King’s Cross station. Guide Bob, wearing a kilt, met us at the Edinburgh station and led us on a coach tour of old and new town. We quickly settled in at the Point hotel before dispersing for walks and pub meals. (See Thursday's Edinburgh photos here.)

Friday morning, all enjoyed a full cooked English breakfast: scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, tomatoes and baked beans! ...the haggis was yet to come (see Friday's photos here). Who knew what adventure lay ahead of us when, at 9 a.m., a quiet looking man called Martin gathered us in the lobby. He was our new tour guide, coach driver and comedic historian (all at the same time!) Martin was a self proclaimed “wild and sexy” Scotsman insisting everyone answer roll call with a fierce battle cry, “Ayeeee!” (to which the captain approved, “close enough to Arrrgggghhhh fer me tastes.” He set the tone for what he would continue to remind us was a journey into Scottish history: merciless battles, violence and death.

As we reached the Abby in Dunkel, the Captain rested in a tree by the river while students explored.

We stopped in Aviemore for lunch. Then, we continued on to the Culloden battlefield to hear the story of the Jacobites’ last attempt at rebellion and restoration against the English in 1745 under “Bonnie Prince Charles”. One mate commented, “I feel so bad for the Jacobites! They were so close to winning Scottish freedom and then just got slaughtered.” (Captain Ruter learned about the tactic called ‘Highland Charge’ which worked in theory as Highlanders charged down a steep incline, but which proved wholly ineffective when trying to charge across a flat, boggy marsh...only bringing merciless battles, violence and death).

Now near Inverness, we made a mad dash to the Loch Ness for a 60 minute “3-hour tour” (images of Gilligan’s Island floating through the captain’s mind) in search of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster! Back on the coach, Martin – king of wild and sexy Scotland and all knower of Scottish history (battles, violence, and death...) – taught everyone our now classic Loch Ness hit song, the refrain of which was: “What’s that coming over the hill? Is it a Monster? Is it a Monster?). And along we went, singing into the Highland dusk.

By now, the group had collectively seen 17 white horses. Martin assured that by Scottish legend, this meant we had all earned the prospect of finding Deep Scottish Love (“but only if everyone will claim that love way wavin’ thar fingers inta the air... arrrrgggghhhh...” protested the captain).

The captain and his mates liked the Hostel where we bunked for the night. “It felt like camp, but with a pub and a musician” one reported. Another commented on dinner’s feature of baked potatoes with haggis (or chillie con carne and “salsa” for the less adventuresome). Nearly everyone at least tried haggis, “it’s not as bad as I thought it would be; it’s only bad if you know what it is.”

We were captivated by more stunning scenery on Saturday. (See Saturday's photos here.) In spite of the Highland rain, everyone hiked. One student described, “it was astoundingly beautiful and serene.” Some filled water bottles with mountain water, others enjoyed wild blackberries along the path. Overall, a good time was shared. Yet, in order to avoid a Deep Scottish Rebellion by the now thoroughly soaked crew, Martin changed our picnic plans and drove us to Fort William for Morrison’s grocery story café. No one complained about the long wait for a hot chicken soup lunch indoors.

Through the afternoon, we saw the lochs, Ben Nevis (the highest peak in the British Isles), crossed the Atlantic ocean (well, actually a bridge over a high tide from the Atlantic...), and William Wallace’s legends from Brave Heart (after which Martin played his favorite soundtracks for “freedom” and even created an on-coach light show to the music). We passed the Doone Castle, where Monty Python films were made. And along the way, we even stopped to meet Haymish, a “har-ee coo” (a very hairy Scottish cow!!).

Martin returned us safely to the Point Hotel in Edinburgh. Sunday morning, everyone explored Edinburgh before meeting promptly at 2:45 for our coach transfer to the train station for the train to New Castle and back to London. With great dreams of doing home work on route home, almost everyone was thoroughly exhausted. Our 6 hour journey passed with naps, post card writing, a bit of reading, some music, and a few more naps. (See journey home photos here...)

A good trip was had by all.