Arrival and First Full Day

I'm officially in the UK now! It's been a whirlwind, these past three days, so I'll have to catch you up to speed. On Friday, I flew out of Philadelphia International airport to Toronto. It was the first time I had ever flown by myself or internationally. I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly and helpful my fellow passengers were. Two Canadian businesswomen took me under their wings and guided me through the tedious process of filling out landing cards and helped me navigate the Toronto airport. After a four hour layover in Toronto, I met up with one of my fellow Fulbright participants and we boarded the plane to London.

As you can imagine or as you may have experienced yourself, international flights to a different continent are LONG. It didn't help that there was a mechanical issue that delayed us for almost an hour either (apparently part of the plane was missing - very comforting). I was able to catch some sleep, however. For those of you who have never flown long distances, airlines provide little pillows and blankets for such occasions. I made good use of mine! It was quite cold on the plane. Our plane had a touch screen on the back of every seat on which you could watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, play games, or look at a map of your flight. The map section also had the altitude, time and temperature listed. The temperatures at 35,000 ft can get to be over -50 degrees Fahrenheit!

When we arrived in London, we went through immigration and then took a cab to Exeter. The cab ride was about three and a half hours. We all slept on and off. The highways reminded me of the ones we have at home, except of course the English drive on the left side of the road!

English cars tend to be much smaller and compact than those in the U.S. The license plates are much longer than ours however, and, except for the numbers, their general appearance makes no distinction between counties or even different parts of Great Britain, unlike in the U.S., where the country's large size makes such obvious distinctions necessary. When we arrived in Exeter, we found that many people, including our programme (British spelling) coordinator, Lyndon, don't drive very often or even own cars, depending on where they live. In some cities, like London, public transportation is much more convenient than driving (rather like our own New York City). In Exeter, everything is within walking or cycling (biking) distance, so people tend to walk more than they drive, though we definitely see a fair number of cars.

To backtrack a bit, when we first arrived in Exeter it was HOT. It's still hot now, except for the evenings. I was quite surprised, given England's usually cooler climate. The English were surprised too. They're all very excited for the warm weather, but for me, I'd like it to be maybe 10 degrees F cooler (I'm still getting used to the Celsius system here).

The view from my room

There isn't really much air conditioning in England, at least that I've seen (our dorm is not air conditioned and neither are most of the buildings on campus). Buildings are generally designed with cooler temperatures in mind, so they insulate more than anything else.

Our first day included a tour of the city of Exeter. We ate at an Italian restaurant (many of the restaurants are multicultural - Indian restaurants are particularly popular). We walked to the 800 yearl-old cathedral, the quay (pronounced 'key''), which is along the river Exe (there were swans EVERYWHERE) and up and down the streets, including the High Street (every city in England has a high street). Of course a tour downtown wouldn't be complete without a pub visit and we found cosy (British spelling) accommodations in the Fat Pig. My fellow Fulbright participants and I each had a half pint of cider (our first legal drinks!). The cider was good for me because it was only lightly carbonated (I can't drink anything that's heavily carbonated).

Holland Hall

Today, our second day, included breakfast at Holland Hall, where our accomodations are located. We had a very nice gentlement walk up to us about 9:30am to give us a bottle of champagne that he wasn't going to finish off. After we stowed away the champagne in a mini fridge and finished catching some sun out in the courtyard, we attended the Fulbright and University of Exeter ISS orientation. It was very relaxed, fun, but still informative. Valerie Schreiner, the Fulbright Summer Institute Programme Coordinator gave us a 'UK 101' quiz, similar to a pub quiz (minus the pub - we were in a meeting room on campus), which are quite popular in the UK. After that, one of the University of Exeter ISS ambassadors or 'buddies' gave us a campus tour. Exeter's campus is quite beautiful - there are botanical gardens everywhere and it has the highest tree-student ratio in the UK. Some of the cooler sites on campus include a clock tower and the Forum, a new space that joins two older buildings - the Library and the Student Guild - together. It's a very modern and open area with wavy architecture and skylights that open in response to increases in temperature. It also features a seminar room with large touch screens (think gigantic iPads) which are connected to wall monitors. If you'd like to see what the Forum looks like or learn more about it, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQnf4g1jycM

After that, we took another trip to town to the legendary and extremely popular Firehouse pub for a Sunday roast and some more cider (the Firehouse's cider was sweeter than the Fat Pig's). Legend has it, the Old Firehouse was the inspiration for the Leaky Cauldron in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Rowling is an Exeter alumnus. Supposedly Gandy Street in Exeter inspired Diagon Alley as well, so of course we all had to visit that too! The street is curvy and full of character, though of course completely free of magical shops like Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and Flourish and Blotts (unfortunately).

The cushions made from fat

The castle ruins

Then we visited the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) which was very cool. One of the exhibits was called 'Wasted' and featured artwork made from human body parts - a miniature palace made of ice and milk teeth, a hanging decoration made from hip joints taken from hip replacement surgeries, and chairs with cushions made from excess fat taken from liposuctions. The exhibit is intended to challenge viewers into thinking about issues of health, ethics, and art. The RAMM is also connected to a large garden which surrounds the ruins of a 2,000 year old Roman wall, which once completely encircled the city. We walked part of the wall and then down to the gardens and the ruins of a castle that was built into the Roman wall several hundred years later (it's the oldest castle ruin in England). If you want to learn more about RAMM, visit: http://www.rammuseum.org.uk/

Inside of the cathedral (taken by me)

My new friends and I took a trip to the 800 year-old Exeter Cathedral after that. We had only looked at the outside the day before. The inside is absolutely breathtaking. I had seen it before on Google Maps street level view (you can drop inside this particular building), but it's completely different in person. It was awe-inspiring to say the least and the pictures I took unfortunately did not and could not do it justice and neither can words, really. You'll all just have to hop across the pond and visit yourself =) If you would like to do the next best thing and take a virtual tour of the cathedral, visit: http://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/

Photo of Exeter Cathedral (not taken by me)

We spent a leisurely half hour on the Cathedral Green, the large green lawn that spreads out from the cathedral. People will often play rugby and other games on the green, exercise their dogs, or just sit and talk.

After that, we went to one of England's many Indian restaurants, The Curry Leaf. We all ordered appetizers (we were still a bit full from the roast) and swapped food with each other so we could try different things. One of the appetizers was this cold round...thing with crunchy yellow...stuff on the top. The server told us to eat the whole thing at once, in one bite. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't eat it in one bite and it ended up exploding on me, which was embarrassing, but was worth it for the laughs and story alone.

We finished off the day with some toffee and banoffee pie (banana and toffee) ice cream at the Ruby Diner. I wish we had banoffee ice cream in the states because it was one of the best flavors of ice cream I've ever had.

We're off to Dartmoor tomorrow and the European Centre for Environment and Human Health to start off our Leadership, Sustainability, and the Southwest Fulbright Week!