Day 3: London Photo Frenzy and London Eye

This morning we had our first session of our academic programme, where we got to meet the staff who will be teaching our "Questioning Citizenship" class, as well as talk more about what we wanted to get out of it, and what the class entails.

We all, more or less, expressed that we are interested in experience a different part of the world and step outside our comfort zones in order to truly understand UK culture. We also expressed our hopes in learning more about citizenship, government, and how all that compares to issues going on right now (health care, sustainability, etc).

Our class runs through a program called Crucible, which was established by the government 5 years ago in order to enhance research-intensive universities. The particular Crucible program at Roehampton is focused on Human Rights.


We went over our course syllabus... and that's when we realized how much work we have to do! Basically, we will be in class for 70 hours, and we will have academic sessions on the following topics:
Citizenship and Democracy
Public and Private
Patriotism and Identity
Markets and Citizens
Security and Terror
Rights and Responsibilities
Citizenship Beyond the Nation State
Progress and Sustainability
Knowledge and Power

So it should be very interesting! We will receive marks (grades) by way of 6 reflection essays and one group-made 10 minute film that explores the meaning of citizenship in a variety of ways. We were quite shocked to become acquainted with the British grading system. It's also scaled out of 100 points, but they are much more stingy with the points: 70+ points is excellent, 50-70 is good, 40-50 is okay/passing 40 or below is failing. Very different!

For the second half of the day, we split up into 2 teams to do a London-wide photo frenzy. With some light competition versus the opposing team, we were able to get comfortable using the tube (underground railway) in order to get around London and to make it to all the destinations.

Typical tube station

We started out at Waterloo station, where we became enlightened by the romanticism of the clock tower there -- to "meet someone under the clock tower" is both very common and sometimes considered romantic!


My team (Alex, Nadia, Jason, and I) got off to a REALLY good start by losing our disposable camera on the first tube that we took. Oooops! We ended up just taking the pictures with our digital cameras, so it was fine. We visited Trafalgar Square, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, and Big Ben. It was actually quite hot out so we had to take several breaks and ended up not making it to all the destinations (Picadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace), but it was very fun! :)

Ben and I! (Get it?)

Outside of the Tower Bridge!

First bad pun of the trip: singing "I can't be Thames!" to the tune of Miley Cyrus's "I can't be tamed."

We all met up at the London Eye, the largest ferris wheel in the world, to take our ride! It's a 30 minute ride and when you get to the top, it's such a fantastic view of London!

View from the London Eye

Representing Fulbright!

After an exhausting (but fun!) day of walking and touring, we were all excited to head back for dinner and relaxation. Most of us ended up hanging out in the communal kitchen in Bede Hall. One lady who is also staying in Bede for a Philosophy Conference came in and talked to us a bit about citizenship in philosophical terms... it was a cool tie in to what we are studying.