olympic madness

If I've been neglectful at all of my blog the last couple of weeks, it's because of the OLYMPICS. I mean, honestly, it's the coolest thing to be in London for the Olympics, and I'll tell you why (and it will be 85% relevant to field studies, I promise):

1. Melting-pot mayhem: There are already 300 languages spoken in London on a regular basis (seriously, look it up), but the Olympics attracts athletes and fans from about 200 different countries so, as you can imagine, things are a little loco here (but it's nothing that this city can't handle [so far], and all of the naysayers who were predicting massive transportation issues have hopefully been impressed with the way things have unfolded up to this point). One of the things I love about London is that you don't just get a single cultural experience; rather, you constantly find yourself in the middle of a hundred different cultures, like a giant kaleidoscope where every pattern represents fractured pieces of different countries and heritages dancing around each other in fragile harmony. And yes, the Olympics heightens this cultural tension, but cultural influence is something this city does better than anywhere else. And if the influx of athletes and fans from all over the world means that I have a better chance of meeting a hot foreign swimmer, so be it (although with Lochte and Phelps in the pool, who needs foreign?)

2. British commentators: So, I've been a fan of the Olympics since I was a wee little bairn, so I'm really used to my American commentators with their phrases and quirks, and I never realized how much of a difference the British commentators would be. Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised, but it's really quite fun to hear the different vocabulary and pet phrases that the commentators here use. I've heard of gymnastics routines described as "scrabbly," "scrappy," "scruffy," and they refer to people as "nice chap," and "good lad," and say things like, "now, that's the ticket, isn't it just?" It's quite comical. And it also brings me to my next point:

3. British lens: It's been quite interesting to see the British people view their own athletes. The British commentators are so proud of their athletes, and their national pride is infectious. For example, the British men's gymnastics team won the bronze medal in the team finals, and apparently it was an unexpected win, so the commentators were just busting with pride. They were as eager to praise their athletes as we are to praise ours––sometimes even more so, perhaps, because Team USA always sends so many athletes that sometimes we can forget how truly cool it is to come from behind and win the almost-out-of-reach gold medal. With that said, they still recognize and respect athletes no matter where they come from, and when Michael Phelps won his 19th  Olympic medal, the commentators remarked that every single person in the arena stood and cheered for him, knowing what an incredible accomplishment he had achieved and not caring where he was from. It has also been infinitely fascinating to see how they view American athletes––and how many of the American stereotypes, like enthusiasm and team spirit, sometimes hold up in comparison to the other athletes. I've noticed coaches from different countries ignore an athlete after he/she has performed poorly, and American coaches seem encouraging and sympathetic even in those cases––and it's hard to say which method works the best. I'm inclined to think that at times athletes need a tougher hand, but maybe we just don't see that on TV. It's just a different way of responding to performance that could just be chalked up to different coaching styles, but the consistency of the coaching styles across different cultures is telling, because it shows that some cultures value personal achievement over self-esteem, and some value self-esteem over personal achievement.

Anyway, that may or may not make any sense, but there it is.

about the queen and other things

 Question: Who in the world would stand outside in the drizzling rain and freezing cold for hours on end to see the Queen of England float by on a big boat? First of all, me, that's who, along with thousands and THOUSANDS of British people braving the weather to celebrate their Queen. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee was quite the affair, so naturally a 1,000-boat flotilla was necessary. My friends and I arrived hours early, and still were barely able to see for the crowds of delighted drunk people waving the Union Jack as they awaited Her Majesty. Smiles and drinks were passed around freely as the crowd cheered, and momentarily everyone forgot how cold and rainy it was when the royal family passed by (emphasis on momentarily, though).

This is one of the only clear shots I got during the flotilla. I had to elbow a few nice old ladies out of the way and step on some toes, but all in the name of a good photo, right? (I think I must have gotten a drop of water or something on my camera lens, as you can tell from the dot in the middle of the picture. Or maybe it was just an overenthusiastic grey cloud.) Anyway, I have to say that I'm glad I went to the flotilla because I can check that off my list of "things to do once and never again." It was neat to see all the boats and neat to see how much the British really love Queen Elizabeth.

 This was the grand boat of the royal family, and if you squint really hard you can see the Queen (she's the cream-colored dot on top). (Oh, and don't mind the grey-haired ponytail man. He's in several of my pictures.) At this point in the flotilla, I had been standing for several hours in the cold, and I thought, "this is really what I came here to see? A cream-colored dot on top a red boat?" It was a bit of a disillusioning moment, but I'm sure it was due to the weather more than it was to the view.

But on to my favorite part of the Diamond Jubilee celebration: a tea party hosted by my ward's Relief Society. We drank cinnamon apple tea and ate delicious treats like scones, tarts, little cakes and sandwiches. We sang all five verses of God Save the Queen (I didn't know there were five. It's a long one!) The British sisters sang the national anthem, and two older ladies who remembered the coronation told us about the grand event. Actually, one old lady stood up and recited the history of the kings and queens of England (an abridged version––took about 15 minutes), ending with the coronation of Elizabeth II, where she went into great detail about the ceremony. It was quite impressive (her memory, that is).

To top it all off, we took a quiz about Her Royal Majesty, which I promptly failed. But I wrote down the answers, so for your pleasure, here's a list of facts you will never need to know about Queen Elizabeth:

1. She acceded to the throne in February of 1952
2. She was in Kenya when she heard about her father's death (the King)
3. She was thirteen when she first met the Duke of Edinburgh (Phillip), who was later to be her husband
4. She and Phillip have been married 64 years
5. His nickname for her is "cabbage"
6. The Queen's official birthday is in June, but her real birthday is in April
7. Her first corgi's name was Susan
8. Willow, Holly, and Monty are the names of the Queen's current corgis
9. Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister when she was coronated
10. She wore Victoria's diamond necklace for her coronation
11. She has nine thrones
12. She's the fortieth monarch since William the Conquerer
13. She wears black while visiting the Vatican
14. She wears the Diamond Diadem to and from the State Opening of Parliament
15. She has her ears pierced
16. She wears blue more than any other color
17. She has eight grandchildren
18. She's 5'4"
19. She has never worn jeans (crazy, right??)
20. She doesn't carry any form of personal identification

learning journal 2: culture in photographs

If anyone would be guilty of romanticizing London, it would be me. But I'm a writer, so I'm allowed my fair share of sentimentalism, right? (:

In all seriousness, I know every city has its light and its dark, and London is not exempt from its fair share of trash. Nevertheless, I love London's culture. So this week I'm giving a tribute in photographs, while I point out different aspects of London culture that my section discussed:

One thing we discussed in class was the blend of old and new that London does so fantastically well. The London skyline is decorated with architecture hundreds of years old side by side with modern architecture, and the two styles seem to coexist peacefully

This is a good example of blending architectural styles--St Paul's cathedral, the lovely landmark pictured here, is visible from the Millenium footbridge, which is a more modern addition

Not much to say, I just love this one. There are so many facets of this city, from the Tube to the buses and busy streets and bridges. The bridges are fantastic

Ah look! Here's St Paul's again, with the British flag and a double-decker bus. Three big London hits in one photo. Really, though, I felt like this was a good example of the narrow streets and close quarters. There's the bus, and look how close the buildings are to it! and then the people... yes, oh yes. London is a busy place

What would London be like without the Globe? One thing this exemplifies is the respect that Londoners have for their history. This, of course, isn't the original Globe, but a beautifully reconstructed theatre takes its place as actors take the stage to perform Shakespeare's brilliant plays

This is one of my favorite sculptures/chandeliers in London (@ the Victoria and Albert museum). It's also another example of the fantastically blended modern art with the more classical architecture. Random note: the man who designed this chandelier also designed one for the Abravanel Hall in SLC--theirs is red, though, not green and blue

One thing London values is ceremony. They certainly know how to march around in uniform. I think the changing of the guard is one of my favorite ceremonies, come to think of it, because it seems at first thought completely purposeless to have so much pomp related to something as small as the changing of the guard. However, their attachment to ceremony is commendable, and I can appreciate the fact that sometimes ceremony itself is purpose enough. Pictured here, though, is not the changing of the guard, but the Trooping of the Colours, which is a celebration of the Queen's birthday

Ah, yes. Here's one thing we don't have in America. A QUEEN. Yes, folks, I saw Queen Elizabeth II in her lovely lilac and fantastically flowered hat. She is beautiful, isn't she?

My last few pictures exemplify London's never-failing talent of surprising me. You never know, in London, when you're going to walk around the corner and see giant furniture made out of turf, or 

beautiful graffiti art (this picture seriously doesn't do the whole scene justice. It's astounding)

Also, on my final note, I'd like to say that London knows how to put on Macbeth. I have a jacket stained with stage blood to prove it!

learning journal 1: a word on culture

When I reflect on culture, my mind instinctively refers back to the most drastic encounter I've had with a different culture. Maybe drastic is the wrong word; apparent, blatant, or obvious may be better words to describe my experience living as a missionary for 18 months in Uruguay.

I expected it to be different, and I was right in that it was different--but I never could have guessed or predicted the things I would learn from the Uruguayan culture. Being a missionary is obviously different than, say, a field study or a sightseeing trip, in that missionary work brings along with it the culture and customs of the LDS church. Sometimes it was difficult to separate the culture of church I'm familiar with to the culture of the church found in Uruguay. I was put off at the beginning by the casual nature of church meetings, by the different interpretations of temple and gospel covenants, by the frankly honest (and in my opinion, rude) comments that members frequently made. It took me awhile to appreciate the beauty of what the people of Uruguay brought to the gospel, and it took me awhile to see their spirituality and the sincerity of their prayers. Once I started to see the differences as reflections of their culture, I started to appreciate our differences.

I appreciated their honesty. When they were talking about another person, they aren't afraid to say, "oh, yeah, the fat one" or "the one with the big nose" as reference points. While at first I considered this a little rude, I started to recognize that when, in American culture, we are referring to someone we do all we can to "nicefy" any defects in their person. "oh yes, he's the one who is slightly rotund," or "large-framed," or some other euphemism that helps us avoid the elephant in the room.

I also appreciated their peacefulness. They took siestas and hardly ever over scheduled themselves and sat around in the evening drinking mate with their amigos.

Yes, I realize that I am stereotyping to some extent, but you get the idea.


And the thought that I can appreciate the culture of London as completely different than my own inherent culture is exciting. While I did spend six weeks in London, I felt that I didn't even scratch the surface of their culture. What I did see, like the general reservedness that first seems like coldness but is in essence politeness (yes, I'm addicted to -ness in this sentence), or the pride in their ancient heritage (age over size), helped me begin to see the persona of a Londoner. So yes, I am looking forward to expanded my knowledge of their culture and learn what I can from them.

Yup, that's all for today.

why am i doing this?

That's a good question. When I question my motivation for participating in a field study, I can trace my train of thought back to the moment I received the email from Dave Schuller encouraging former study abroad students to participate in field studies. First, I jumped at the chance to go back to London--I love London, and I haven't stopped thinking about going back since the study abroad I went on in 2010. I realized, as I learned more about field studies, that it was an independent, almost completely autonomous experience where I can study what is most relevant to what I want and need. This was an important turn of mind for me; I realized that I could make this field study entirely relevant to my studies in a creative writing master's program.

First, the classical British essay is fundamentally important to my studies in the genre. Essayists like Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, GK Chesterton, and Virginia Woolf all published in London and interacted with the city and culture. What better way to gain an experience in the classical essay than to study in the place where many of the canonical personal essays were created? London is also hub to so many of the subjects and topics that interest me--food, travel, family history, to name a few--and exploring these subjects in the context of learning about the classical British essay is nothing short of a magical possibility to me.

I don't know if this is completely answering the prompt, but to zoom out to a more general motivation, I want to participate in this field study because I want to learn from the culture of London, of England, and I want to gain experience through receiving insight into different viewpoints and perspectives. I admit, when I did the study abroad to London, I was more concerned with seeing London than I was with much else. There is, indeed, much to see. But this time I hope to not only see, but learn from London and to make it a part of myself.

And that's why I'm going.