So far, I'm enjoying the majority of my classes (except for the math one that is sooooooo kicking my ass)... As I suspected when I chose it, Biomedical Engineering is a very interesting course and contrasts so starkly with the Food Chemistry that I've always known... However, I do realize that chemistry is truly my first love and though I fully intend on completing this masters, the next degree or job is going to be chemically centered...
Now London is everything I thought it would be and more. I'm in the E1 district, not far from Central London... but I've never been sight seeing. Mostly I keep to East London. My course is A LOT smaller than I orignally thought it would be... there's only seven of us in the course, every single one of us comes from a different country and academic background and only two of us speak English as our first language (me and a mixed Irish boy, although technically, we both grew up with two simultaneous first languages).
The diversity of my coursemates is just a microcosm of the metropolis that London is. In truth, I only know a handful of British people. It seems that everyone is from a different country. And surprisingly, there are fewer people that I would have expected who know:
1) Where New Jersey is (next to New York is my usual response, and I always get a lot of 'ooooooohs' and 'aaaaaaaahs' for it)
2) Where Haiti is (only French people seem to know so 'next to Jamaica' is my other common response).
So strange... I didn't realize how homogeneous my background was... yeah, I went to Rutgers and I come from New Jersey, both of which are incredibly diverse, but at home, everyone's Haitian... In Kingdom Hall, everyone's Haitian.... I have to get out of the habit of only being able to explain thingss or describe something with a Creole word because people don't get it.... and it's that... little things like that that hit me hard and make me realize how far away from home I am. And while great to be here, I didn't expect to miss home nearly as much as I do some nights...
The neighborhood where Queen Mary is located is known as Stepney Green. I think it's known as little Bagladesh... there are sooo many Bengali people here, it's not even funny. Which makes me think of another interesting point... London in general has more hijab wearing Muslims than I have EVER seen in one geographical region. It's definately a lot different from home.
Another thing I noticed, when people here say 'Asian' they mean from any country on the continent of Asia, not as we tend to think in America, East Asians or Pacific Islander... Even I myself have a tendency to do this and refer to anyone brown as 'Maybe Indian or Middle Eastern'. Small difference, but I think it's very significant.... There are so many things that are different.
And as expected, I get a lot of flack for being American whether it's about obesity, consumerism, pollution, politics, even GEOGRAPHY, you name it, someone's taken a stab at me for it... although it has been noted that as I have a passport, I'm to be held to a higher standard as I've actually been outside of my country's borders.
I think this will be a reoccuring theme for the next couple of blogs: how DIFFERENT everything is... mostly it's a good thing because it makes me really think critically about myself and where I'm coming from (which too few Americans do)...
Sorry this post isn't as jazzy and artsy as my past posts.... the next will be though... :-)
So another year of sharing my thoughts and personal growths with you is coming up...
So Lend me your Ears (and Hearts for Another Year)
And I'll sing you a song... and I'll try not to sing out of key...
~ LondonFoundGirl ~
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