A Medley of Observations

It has now been a week since I first arrived at Newbold (a week to the hour actually). And over the past seven days I've jotted down notes here and there in a journal about small things I've noticed in my short time here - cultural differences that is. I'd like to share a few with you now and again over the next several months that I am here.

When transitioning from an Adventist high school to an Adventist college, you are likely to get the "you're an adult now" speech. It will invariably include curfew, worship attendance, mixed gender settings, and drinking/drugs. Instead of being in your room and asleep by 10, you can now stay out 'till midnight. Instead of attending every worship, you can now choose three a week you'd like to go to. Instead of never being allowed in a room alone with someone from the opposite gender, you just can't bring them into the dorm. And instead of never ever being involved with anyone who drinks or deals drugs, you just can't do either on or off campus personally.

The dean orientation at Newbold went something like this: Just let us know if you're going to stay out all night. You aren't required to attend any worships, but we'd recommend it. You can have guys in your rooms, but only 'till 10 o'clock at night. And if you have a drinking or smoking problem, we'd like to help and just ask that you don't partake in either on school property.

Very different speeches. The most bizarre to me is what is called "Visitations" where girls and guys can spend time together in each others rooms until 10 pm every night. My neighbors will be playing video games with their boyfriends when a guy will come up to my room and knock on my door inviting me to hang out in the lobby with a bunch of friends. Do you not find this odd? What would happen if our American Adventist institutions tried this?

I've had many interesting conversations with British students and graduates about their career goals and what they are currently studying or have studied. I've found one common thread in these conversations that has been quite interesting: students will choose a course to study at a university not because they are interested in pursuing a career in that particular field but because it's practical. Many students will spend three years studying biochemistry just to become a more well-rounded person and then go on to study theology or literature. Or they will study theology to become more familiar with intellectuals but they will have no interest in God and will later take up a job at a marketing company. I've talked to a math major who never wants to do math again but thought it was a practical choice and a chemistry major who's thinking about teaching english in Japan. How much pressure would that take off of us "Undecided" majors to pick something we want to do for the rest of our lives at age 18?

It's about a 30 minute walk each direction into Bracknell, the nearest shopping to Newbold, from Binfield. I've gone in three times in the past week to one particular shopping center called Princess Square to buy cereal, a new curling iron, and get money from the ATM. The first time we went in, we shopped in the afternoon 'till about four o'clock and stopped at a cafe for tea. We were there an hour, drinking our tea, and when we left at five all the stores in the whole shopping center were closed - even the cafe we were in was closing. This was a Monday.

Every shop - no matter what it is (except gas stations) closes at 5 p.m.: department stores, grocery stores, cafes, everything. One of the British guys I was having tea with, upon my asking if the stores always close early, said, "Well, around the holidays they have late-night shopping where the stores are open 'till about 9 p.m." This was unbelievable to me. I mean, the prime time for shopping at stores in the states is from 3-9 after schools get out in the afternoon/evenings. The Costco parking lot is nearly completely full after 3:05. Coffee shops in Walla Walla and College Place are considered to close early when they aren't open past 8 p.m. Would America be able to fuel its economy if stores closed this early? Would college students actually have to go to bed at a decent hour because they didn't have any caffeine in their blood from their late-night coffee runs? Granted, this is a much smaller town than say - London, but even there most stores are closed by 7.

In the near future I plan to post a blog with a campus tour of pictures and some more pictures of the quaint English town you too will come to know - Binfield.