Blenheim Palace and Stratford-upon-Avon

Our travel experience was spectacular today. We took off in the morning to Blenheim Palace, which is just a bit north of Oxford right outside of Woodstock. The palace was beautiful! The grandeur is indescribable, and we didn’t even get to see the gardens. The 11th Duke of Marlborough currently owns the palace and is of the Spencer-Churchill line, the same Churchill as Winston. Winston was born and engaged at the palace, even though he was never really in line to be Duke. The tour was headed by Antonia Keaney, who was brilliant. She kept calling out, “Huntsman!” to get our attention, and it caused me great laughs. Like I said, I didn’t have enough time to see everything I wanted to see, but I loved it and want to go back to finish.  The tour impressed me because it represented a totally different mindset to be raised in. Aristocracy is mostly nonexistent in the States; arguments can be made for the Bush and Clinton families, but no family has the generational roots that the Dukes and Royal Family of England has. The aristocrats have a totally different view on life, as demonstrated by their significant wealth and fixtures around the palace, like bells for servants. It reminded me that we are products of our circumstance, and with a simple juxtaposition of me into some totally other circumstance, I would be a different person. Because of this perspective, my value for other people and cultures intensified because I better appreciate that every one else has had different life experiences than I have. The various experiences shape others’ personality and views, and everybody has different perspectives and thinking patterns. Maybe this is obvious, but I was just reminded today because of the thought of growing up in a palace.

After the palace, we ventured to Stratford-upon-Avon, the home of William Shakespeare. We wandered the town; ate dinner with the Brad (USU alum) and Vicki Jackman, a couple that is here for a lecture tomorrow; then attended Love’s Labor’s Lost, a Shakespeare play that was, for this production, set in the early 1900s because of WWI. The town was interesting, but we wandered around more than we actually did anything. Dinner was also great because the Jackman’s sat at my table with Lisa, Kyle, and Preston, so we carried on all through dinner. I was surprised at how natural the conversation flowed, especially at how much I had to say. What I mean is that if I am trying to impress somebody, I get worse at figuring what to say or talk about. For me, conversation came very easy tonight. I am more confident, now, in my ability to interact with professionals, a confidence that I have been working on and want to translate to interviews and networking. The play was interesting; I had never seen this play, so I had a semi-difficult time following the plot because of the Shakespearean language barrier. But it was a great production, and the end was very powerful (they sent the four main male characters off to war to fight in WWI). I forgot much of my Shakespeare acumen, at the dismay of Elaine Street, I am sure.

The day was wonderful. I am pretty sold on England now. Maybe I won’t come back?

Wednesday in the Closed Cafe

The lecture at the SAID Business School with Teppo Felin (raised in Finland, undergrad at BYU, PhD at Utah, professor at BYU, professor at Oxford) was excellent. I enjoyed the subject material, which was about strategic management and horizontal structures at Valve, and the guy was a really cool guy. After our lecture, Taylor and I wandered around the market, and that was fun. I was surprised at the free samples and the cleanliness of the grounds. In markets in Africa, the shops would not even consider free samples and no market was a good market unless there was filth and the awful stench of willey. I think that I almost unconsciously expected it to be filthy and smelly like Ghanaian markets, but it was much more enjoyable and more like the Summer Fest in Logan that I attended this last summer. I guess it may just be strange being in a developed country rather than an undeveloped country, like everywhere else I have been. Taylor and I had great conversation as we toured the market, picked up my suit from Next, and walked back to St. Anne’s.

My conversation with Taylor sparked a question I wanted to pose to a student. I won’t divulge his name, but we are close and I was surprised at something Taylor had said about him. I approached him in his room and asked him about the issue, which was forward, but I felt I came across as non-judgmental. We also have a good, personal relationship, which I would not be able to claim with some other students. Anyway, we discussed the issue for a minute, and we ended up talking about talking about the issue, if that makes sense. I said that I knew I was being forward, but anymore I have been less and less averse to asking forward questions because I am becoming increasingly confident in myself. I mean, I am trying less to worry about what others think about me and my actions and just do whatever I think I need to do. Forwardness in questions is a product of my trying, and being able to bring up and discuss uncomfortable topics is another. He related to my sentiments, although not quite so deeply, and even thanked me for bringing it up. It showed me that it really was valuable to bring up those questions directly to the person.  Pardon the vagueness and the lack of ability to explain my meaning, but it is a significant lesson I am learning, and I am glad I am learning it.

I also need to manage my time better. I spent several hours today on a bio that should not have that long, and I needed to spend time on my library research assignment. I dislike writing bios here, especially when we have valuable research time at the library. In a more empowering frame, I need to better allocate my time resources so that I can effectively use the library time and finish my assignments. It’s a tough lesson I learned today because I wasted a whole day’s worth of library time, but I am going to fix it as the week proceeds.

A Few Thoughts from Monday and Tuesday

Jetlag has been awful. I didn’t sleep as much as I desired on the plane ride over the Atlantic, and all day Monday, I was very tired. To help us adjust, we needed to stay awake, so John and Shannon organized a day of activities to keep us going. We had a couple hours of free time, so Seth and I wandered around and got lunch. He also came suit shopping with me, and I noticed that the service from most of the associates we interacted with was not as friendly as they are in the States. The lady at the sandwhich shop we ate at for lunch was brisk and brief, as was the gal at the coffee shop when I grabbed a hot chocolate. At the suit store, nobody came to our aid as I wandered around the suit section; I had to ask for help (although when I did, they were nice and interactive). Maybe it is because I am an American: the two workers in the food shops were French, and maybe they dislike tourists. The gentlemen at the suit store were my age and British, so maybe there wasn’t as much tension there, but merely cultural differences in store associate/customer relations. We met up for a walking tour of Oxford, which was really nice, but I could not stay conscious. I kept falling asleep, even walking or standing. The lady that gave us a tour was very knowledgeable and responsive, but I’m afraid I missed parts because of my inability to stay awake. I still don’t know where everything is in Oxford, but I got better today as we walked around.

Our morning started off with a wonderful breakfast and an induction into the Oxford library. We all must take an oath to protect the library before we received our Oxford cards, and it was a neat ceremony. Our inductor, Helen, was brilliant. She was very well spoken and eloquent, maybe because she has told the story several times or maybe because it is culturally significant to be articulate. We were inducted in a wing of the Bodleian library that is right behind the place where they filmed all of the hospital scenes from Harry Potter. We took a tour of Duke Humphrey’s library, a wing full of old texts dating back to even the 12^th century. The culture in the library is very different than the States: silence is critical, and even small conversations are unacceptable. We went into the small readers-only section (readers are those with library cards; keeps the tourists out) and caused a scene not because of our noise, but because of our presence. They subsequently kicked us out, but its interesting that such quietness is regarded so highly as that the mere presence would make people so upset. The culture is just different I guess, and we underestimated the power of a group of 28 quiet people.

Lunch today was also strange for me. I realized that my normal restaurant habits and requests make me uncomfortable because I think that culturally it might be strange. For example, I felt bad asking for tap water because it usually isn’t something you ask for. When you order water, they give you a bottle of water instead. I probably wouldn’t have done it had everybody else not done it, but it actually seemed not such a crazy thing to the server who put a lemon in the water. We also shared food, and I’m not sure if that is acceptable either. In an effort to be sensitive to the culture, I have become very paranoid of my American presence. Even though I do need to be aware, I don’t think I need to be so worried about it.

Huntsman Scholars: An Overview

            I figure I’d start my journal will a brief overview of the program I am in. I interviewed and got into Huntsman Scholars in the spring, which means I set apart my fall semester for an intense semester cumulating in a four-week trip to Europe. The scholars who get into scholar semester are top notch students, and thankfully, we all get off quite well. I honestly like spending time with every person in the program. Anyway, we are studying several different topics, from European Union institutions to international law, international marketing to economic systems. Our classes all blend together, so its hard to specify which topics we have covered because they have been so integrated. We met with the same group of 25 students every day for the last five weeks. It has been a great time so far.

            The purpose of the program is to provide an integrated educational experience to develop specific characteristics that will be beneficial for our personal lives and careers. We have learned to read through large reading assignments; we have learned to write through 30 plus papers we have had to write. We have learned communication skills through professional interaction with our professors, various presentations, and negotiation simulations. The unique set up of our program allows us to do really cool projects like replicating a meeting of the Council of Ministers in the EU. The work has been time-consuming and intense, but not necessarily difficult.

            All of our work on campus is supposed to prepare us for and compliment our time in Europe. We are visiting governmental organizations like the EU, NATO, and WTO as well as private businesses like Disney, Google, Microsoft, Monsanto, and Medopad. The goals are to expose us to European business culture to get us an international business mindset as well as to help us form an international network. We are also supposed to perform some informal primary research to utilize in our final projects that are due after we get home.

            All in all, I get to have a great educational experience with awesome people with a fantastic trip to Europe. I was really anxious and stressed coming into today, but right now as I am waiting to board the plane, I don’t feel any of that. I am just excited to go. I have to keep a journal about the trip, so I will continue to write every day. It may be boring because we have to do some analysis of our experiences and explain, but you can keep up with my travels at least!