Still no Internet
service!! We were able to find out this
morning that Homerton is extra crowded this summer for summer/international
classes and that we got shifted to the only housing unit on campus that doesn’t
have WiFi service; they don’t use this housing unit during a normal school year
for students. Due to this slight (BIG)
problem for all of us, we have to go to the lobby of the student union to get
Internet service or wait until we get to the Duxford Airbase.
Breakfast hasn’t been
the greatest (Sarah, you were right! J) so far; we’ve only been given a croissant, 2
pieces of cheese, and 2 pieces of ham, plus fruit. The lunches though have been great so far;
sandwich, potato chips, fruit, water, and muffin. Our dinners have varied; we have gone out to
eat at various restaurants so far but today we ate dinner on campus at the
dinning hall – that brought back some fond memories at Shepherd! Speaking of our dinning hall, I joked this
morning at breakfast with everyone in my group that the dinning area reminded
me greatly of the dinning/common area from the Harry Potter movies (you gotta
love the English school architecture)!
I got some huge laughs from that compliment (mainly from the Brits), but
everyone was apparently thinking the same thing.
Once the taxi dropped
us off at Duxford, we began our introduction to the social media outlet that we
will be required to work with/introduce to the students for the upcoming school
year – RADIOWAVES! At first, we were
given a brief overview of the formation of the RADIOWAVES technology and then
the two representatives from the headquarters gave us a tutorial about the
different functions (similar to Facebook and Twitter but heavy restrictions on
personal updates) and how we would browse the system. After that was over, like clockwork, it was
tea and crackers (cookies) time…not a fan of tea but of course I ate the
cookies! When our break was over, we returned
to the classroom and were given our assignment before lunch – in groups of 4,
we had to search the British Air Museum and find 3 distinctively different
things and find the common similarity with each to video tape so that we could
upload to our social media page. My
group identified – spam in a can, microwave, and the cockpit of the Concord
Airplane; each person had a different responsibility for the assignment. I was the actor of the show, since my
computer technology and video taping skills are limited, who conducted the
introduction and was able to throw paper airplanes at the bulls-eye target on a
British fighter plane from WWII…how many people can say that they were allowed
to do that at the Smithsonian or Udvar-Hazy?? None…they would have been
attacked by the SAWT team, national security, the Secret Service, or some other
law enforcement group if someone would have sneezed on it. Nick did the video taping and voice over and
Jessica spliced it all together using her MAC computer for our
presentation. Each group created something
different which was to the liking of the instructors – we didn’t’ come close to
having anything similar!
After our classroom
session was completed for the day, we had some time to browse through the gift
shop before we were scheduled to go on our tour of the living quarter so the
Duxford AirBase. I purchased some
British postcards of British propaganda from WWII so that I could create my own
poster and laminate it when I return to school on August 15th, and
some British ration coupon books to compare to my US ration coupon books to
explain to my students. Our tour guide
for the living quarters was very knowledgeable about the base and everything
that happened here between 1918 when the base opened and 1961 when it
closed. The more that I listen to the Brits
talk with their English accent the more I enjoy it! Sarah you will be happy to know that I now
understand why you enjoy studying the English culture so much…it’s like a
tractor-beam!! Every British person who
I’ve come in contact with has been sincere, helpful, and funny. Makes me wonder why we wanted to break apart
from them back in 1776…just kidding (Viva la America!!)
After 3 very busy days
of non-stop touring and walking, we were given the night off for some much
needed free time. Once dinner was over,
everyone in the summer residency program, headed to downtown Cambridge to take
in the sights and stop by 2 British watering holes (The Old Derby and the
Flying Pig – now I remember why we broke away from England in 1776; weird names
like that) to relax and get better acquainted.
Tomorrow, the weather is suppose to be in the upper 80s and we are
required to wear dress clothes and shoes to visit another local airbase, but
also, we will be touring a cemetery in dress shoes…does anyone else think that
this will not end well? Haha.
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