A Week and a Half in England Already!

I have just realized that i come from one of the most misunderstood countries in this world. Contrary to common belief here, no, there are not 52 states in the U.S.; “Friends” is not representative of American life; and I don’t play American football, drive a fast sports car, and have a cheerleader for a girlfriend. Most Britons in this area have never met a living, breathing American—and from the volume of American pop culture that floods their TVs, radios, and cinemas it is obvious where some of these sometimes strange conceptions come from. Except for the 52 states. That just blows my mind.

I have also found that my conceptions of British life were particularly misleading. Although a certain degree reservation is apparent in society, it definitely is not a cold, quiet place. Most people on the streets are glad to give directions and have a little chat about the weather or what it’s like on the other side of the Atlantic or anything else for that matter. In fact, being an American is such a novelty here that I find sometimes when I’m speaking in class everyone will turn around and watch with an overwhelming sense of fascination. It seems to be an outgoing, passionate country which is something not very well represented in our attitudes and understandings of the Brits.

Last Wednesday I ventured down to Liverpool to see what was going on with the Chinese New Year celebrations and met up with some fellow American students at the train station. We made it down to the pier and Albert Dock, stopping at the Tate Gallery of Liverpool to take in some art. The gallery is great, although a bit overbearing. There’s a great representation of Impressionist to modern day British art, along with a floor dedicated to contemporary American art. On the third floor is a collage exhibition by Peter Blake (think the album cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) which chronicles the history of collage, outlining its powers to comment on political and social situations along with quite a few works by Blake himself (along with a couple of things done by Paul McCartney, which I didn’t really like that much). McCartney recorded a CD especially for the exhibition as a kind of a soundtrack. Great stuff.

I made it down to the red sandstone Anglican cathedral which was completed in 1978. It was massive but lacking the history of some of the other cathedrals in this country. I finally found my way to Chinatown but found nothing going on, ate a Cantonese meal of questionable quality (and worse results) and came back to Ormskirk.

Last weekend i went down to both Chester and Manchester, one being a beautiful city full of Roman and medieval history and the other an homage to the Industrial Revolution and bad city planning. Chester is an incredible place, full of Roman relics (a full wall around the city, an amphitheater) and two-tier Tudor architecture. Most of the cathedral was built in the 1200s and stone caskets are on display (among a great deal of other relics) from the 1100s. There was a great sense of ambiance and spirituality here that was lacking in Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral, although Chester’s was quite smaller. I also found a museum that had some great displays of Roman life in Chester with quite a few perfectly intact tombstones that were found in the city walls during renovations.

In Manchester we stayed with a friend who lived at home with his parents so I got to experience a great deal of English culture that is lacking in the dorms. And tea and crumpets. There was a large Chinese New Year celebration on Sunday, with kung-fu demonstrations, t’ai chi, a dragon, and deafening fireworks. Chinatown was packed and the festivities were a bit disappointing. I managed to stay in the spirit of things and catch a Chinese movie called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This, on the other hand, was far from disappointing. Although the whole movie is in Mandarin and there’s subtitles (which can get distracting), it’s still an incredible film and very much worth seeing.

I have the dream schedule here at Edge Hill—no Thursday afternoon classes, no classes Friday, and no classes Monday, which gives me a lot of flexibility with my weekends. The only hard part is deciding with place to go. I think I may stick around Ormskirk this weekend and make a few daytrips to get acquainted with Liverpool (the nearest big city) and maybe even make it up to Blackpool and Lancaster. Who knows…I still have a day to decide.

Well, I think that’s about it for now. More to come soon.

Ryan Barnes