Dickinson College Humanities Program in Norwich

Watching Woodstock on BBC 4 (40th anniversary…Ritchie Havens, The Who, Hendrix…yeah baby!) and felt that I should tell you what I’ve been up to. I got to London yesterday and did a lot of grunt work like getting railcard applications for you and filling out applications for your Oyster cards (subway and bus passes). Today was fun though. I practiced my tour on the ruins of Londinium (Roman London) that we will end at the Museum of London. From there I walked through Canary Wharf, an area that used to be docks and shipyards. Twenty years ago it began development as a financial hub with skyscrapers for Citi, HSBC, and Barclays (which we will visit with a Trustee), among others. I walked under the Thames (yes…you read it right) to Greenwich and practiced that walking tour. I’m glad I did. I had never been to Greenwich before and found that the route I had devised was akin to climbing Everest. I decided to take it easy on you. I’m replanning the route with nearly all the same locations. While there I had to stop into a pub (The Spanish Galleon), get some bangers and mash (just the right amount of rosemary in the bangers, and the sweet onions in gravy were excellent. Washed it down with a pint of S. Africa’s finest (Bishop’s Finger) and watched Chelsea win in extra time. Have I told you how much I love my job! Walking from 08:30 to 18:00 leaves the calves a bit tight. I hope you are walking and bringing good, broken in shoes! I decided not to post photos today because I don’t want to spoil the novelty for you. I can only hope that the weather is as glorious next Friday when we go to Greenwich as a group and stand on the meridian line, from where all time is measured.

If you haven’t already, get an RSS feed for posts and comments. This will be particularly helpful once you all start blogging, which you will have to do at least every other day in London. Make sure to create a category with your name and add tags as appropriate.

Since it was only optional and I’m guessing we won’t discuss it as a group in London, I thought I’d start a thread on Zadie Smith’s White Teeth. I just finished it yesterday, and I thought it was incredible. I’d say that Salaam Brick Lane probably gave me a much better idea of the diversity of immigrant experiences in London, but White Teeth addresses themes integral to all immigration with such well developed characters and a clever tone and format. Among the themes I thought most relevant to our London course are the malleability of identity (in a place as full of possibility and diversity as London), the differing eastern and western attitudes toward history (especially as it relates to Samad and his relationship with Archie), as well as the primacy of history (trying to run away from it or trying to hold onto it) in the lives of recent immigrants.

Did anyone else like White Teeth as much as I did? What else did you think was interesting or relevant? For those who read one of the other optional novels: have other writers drawn on these same themes when writing about immigrants in London?

I got together with my best friend from high school yesterday, and she’s about to start her third and final year at Cambridge University. She gave me three pieces of advice which I think we’d all benefit from, so I thought I’d post them here:

1. The website http://www.studentbeans.com/ apparently is a discount site geared towards UK students. She says she hasn’t paid full price for meals from chain restaurants (like Pizza Express etc) for ages, since you can print useful coupons and vouchers from this site. I have yet to really explore it, but it looks useful!

2. I’m not sure if this is part of what we receive from Dickinson as part of tuition, but she mentioned getting a “Young Persons Rail Card,” which will get us discounted train tickets throughout England as students. This site seems to have all the information about it: http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/.

3. On an earlier post about cell/mobile phones, I added my (long) two cents and said I thought I was going to go with a plan from O2 which would occasionally provide me with free international call minutes. My friend told me to look into TalkMobile, since you can apparently call America with your regular cell phone for only 4p a minute! I found out from my other British friends that http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/ is the best place to compare deals, and they (the Carphone Warehouse) have stores where you can buy your phone in person and talk over deals with a real person. She also told me that every carrier will have cheap/free phones in the actual stores that they’re not advertising online, so they might not be as expensive as they appear.

Anyway, I just thought I’d share my new intel…I have quite a few British/expat friends, so if people find this stuff useful I can probably post more as I find it out :).

Did anyone else just get an email from UEA with a list of the modules they made it into for the fall? I just got an email listing SIX modules I’m apparently registered for in the fall, but I think it’s a bit fishy for several reasons. First of all, we’re only supposed to be taking two UEA modules in the fall, right? Secondly, I didn’t sign up for ANY of the modules on the list at any priority level, and thirdly, none of the modules make sense to take for my major.

I was just wondering if anyone else had gotten a similar, confusing email. I responded to the email as I was told to do if I had any questions, but I’d feel a bit better if anyone else had a similar email or if Professor Qualls had any suggestions as to what this could mean.

Thanks!

Ok, so here I am again with another post on my findings. I have to go out and purchase converters for all of my electronics, such as camera charger, computer, etc. I have a MacBook and since my computer is probably one of the most important possessions going abroad with me, I called up Apple to see how they would fair in England. Apparently, Macs have something built in that they do well with converters abroad. They also have a feature (that I have yet to find) that can allow the DVD player to play the European-style DVDs. The only problem is you can only switch back and forth from this function a limited number of times. It is also good to make sure your Mac is covered under AppleCare abroad so that it is protected. Yay Macs!

Hey everyone! So these past few days I have been doing some research on cell phones. I have an At&t phone that can be activated to be used abroad. They have this World Traveler plan that (at least for my phone) it would cost me $5.99 a month in addition to $0.99 a minute. My text messages would cost $0.50 to send but nothing to receive. They made it seem like a good plan, but $0.99 a minute seemed a bit pricey to me. I have skype, which does have a feature to call telephones and I forget exactly how much it costs, but it is pretty inexpensive, you just have to use your computer. Right now I am going through other types of phones. Here are my findings:
Orange– www1.orange.co.uk
This mobile service is based out of the UK…to call to America (under their Pay Monthly plan) would be 1.10 pounds. Under their Pay as you Go plan it is 1.30 pounds per minute. The site was a little confusing, so you might have to check this yourself.
Virgin Mobile– www.virginmobileusa.com/rates/InternationalCalling.do
It is $0.20 per minute in the UK, with $0.20 to send a text message, $0.10 to receive one (This is probably in addition to a certain package and paying for the phone).
O2- www.o2.co.uk
Under Pay & Go there is a service called Discount Country if you will be frequently calling one country. For the US it is 9p per minute and 2.55 pounds per month. Discount Country is also available to pay monthly. It is 9p per minute as well, plus 3 pounds a month.
International Traveller Service is only available under the per month category. It seemed to be geared more towards business people. It would be 2.99 pounds per month and 17p per minute to the US. For some European countries it would be 17p per minute.
Vodafone–www.vodafone.com
I have not gotten a chance to check out this site yet.
Magic Jack– www.magicjack.com
I could not get this link to work for whatever reason, but it is supposed to have good rates.

To me, the Virgin Mobile seemed like the best deal for me. Of course, you all know you have to purchase a phone and pay for a package in addition to the international rates. If anyone has any other findings or advice, please post it! Thanks!

We are trying to get around the city (and surroundings) of our new home. Thought you might like to see some photos.