I have never experienced anything so mind blowing as the University of Nottingham, since I am not use to such a big school. The University of Nottingham is probably over 20 times the size of both the population and area of Linfield. There are so many students that security guards had to be at the orientation-week fairs for crowd-control and the orientation fairs included so many free gifts that students were walking around with tote bags full of free goodies.
What is even crazier, is the number of buses available to take you around campus and to the different campuses. At Linfield, it takes less than 10 minutes to walk from one side to the other. However, I am glad there is a bus because I live on one of the campuses and all my classes are on another.
Below are some pictures of The University of Nottingham. Both older and more modern buildings can be seen.
Displayed is a brown wood and lots of glass -windowed bowl shape building with thin, steel, vertical beams. The building is surrounded by a small river of water with a small bridge to get to the building.
Beyond orientation week, the first first week of school provided some new learning experiences. After the introductions to all my classes (here they are called modules), I realized 2 main things: the majority of classes are graded on one end of the module exam or essay and while they do speak English, some words are spelled differently then in America. For example, in the UK, they spell behaviour and colour. In contrast, we spell it behavior and color and Linfield’s classes are based on exams and coursework throughout the module, instead of one big essay or test.
My History of Science professor showed us a cut-out of Einstein’s blackboard he wrote on when he taught a lecture at the University of Nottingham, probably nearly 100 years ago. However, it is in German so I cannot read it, but I will be writing a research paper on Einstein, so maybe I will look into what that blackboard says.
It’s taken me a while to adjust to all the differences. I definitely have been feeling like a outsider here, but I have met some amazing people from all different backgrounds as the University of Nottingham has a high international population. I have really enjoyed meeting so many new people. I even have become friends with a girl studying here from Texas, which is a crazy coincidence since I grew up in Texas. I guess even in a big school, it’s still a small world.
Cierra