Wow, wow, wow! Only two days in here in the UK, and we’ve been super busy! After we landed in Heathrow at 8 am local time, we got on a 2 hour bus ride to where we were staying. Once we got there, instead of relaxing in our hotel rooms, we dropped off our luggage and went out! Not something to be expected after a long day of flying. We walked to a place called “The Malt House” and ordered lunch there. Of course, with the first meal of the trip, there was one thing I had to get with being in England: fish and chips. After lunch, we set off walking around Birmingham! We walked along the canals that are plentiful. A fun fact about the Birmingham canals, there are more mileage of canals in Birmingham than Venice! Crazy! While walking through the city, we first walked through the Chinese Quarter (or China Town back in the States). We the went into a beautiful church called St. Martins which is located in the Bull Ring, which is a large shopping area in Birmingham. From there we made our way to a town called Digbeth, which is nicknamed the “coolest town” in England! Finally, after a long day of walking, we slowly made our way back to the hotel. We had walked about 20,000-22,000 steps after getting off the plane in London!
Today, we went to the university we will be studying at: Birmingham City University. It’s quite a lovely campus with so much green space on it! While we there, we were introduced to the professors that will be teaching us while we are here. After the introductions, we were able to ask some questions and there certainly is a lot of differences between the US and UK. One thing that caught my attention was that it’s common in the UK to earn a degree in 3 years naturally. Coming from the US, it’s either 2 or 4 year degrees mostly unless you do summer classes. Another thing was the amount of testing they do here. They regularly test students starting at young age once every year to get prepared for the tests called the GSCEs. Think of it as a more rigorous SAT that only seniors in high school would take. After the introductions today, they provided us lunch and we then went to the art museum. There were a few cool sections. My favorite was about films in Birmingham. Afterwards, we then went on a walking tour of Birmingham. It was here that we learned the fact about the canal mileage in Birmingham. We also learned that the inventor of the Baskerville font was from Birmingham too. I also got a picture with the members of the group Black Sabbath on the Black Sabbath Bridge since they were originally from Birmingham. And, ok, it wasn’t really them it was just metal pictures of them.
Also, here are some other fun/random facts or things I’ve learned so far in Birmingham. First, Birmingham has the safest tap water in all of England due to the canals. Second, the hotel room here is interesting. I have to put my keycard in a slot in order to use AC while in the room and there’s no dresser to put my clothes in. Finally, Birmingham is home to the most under-24-year-olds here in England as well!
These first two days have been nothing but awesome and fun! I can’t wait to see what else Birmingham and England have to offer as we move further along in our trip!