I hated my time as an undergrad at Delaware. Well, I didn't hate all of it - I had some good times and I still have a lot of fond memories of the place - but I was pretty depressed most of the time I was there. Academically speaking, I was happy: I loved my professors and the courses I took, and I was a content and eager student. I learned a lot, and I am thankful for that. Socially, however, I was miserable: the shitty house parties, the shallow people, the same boring bars and few things to do, all of it made me unhappy. I just didn't fit into all of it, and I'm sure I can thank Delaware for my fondness for novels and drink. I suppose now though, when I think back on it, it wasn't too bad and that I'm probably being melodramatically whiny, but when I was there I couldn't wait to be done with it all. I remember the day I graduated from Delaware, when we had all gotten our replicate diplomas and all of the speeches were said and done, and everyone tossed their hats in the air....I think? See how memorable it was for me? Well, anyway, I remember that I didn't toss my hat, I just took it off and headed right for the fire exit, walked right out of the building without waiting for my family or friends and got right in my car and drove straight back to my apartment. I was done, and so happy to be done, and I wanted to get the hell out of there and away from uni.
But this time, at Queen Mary, things are much different. It sounds silly, but it's nice going to uni in a big city, and not only a big city but a big city in another country. It's nice to meet new people, and new professors, and learn something new.
I have already mentioned how busy I am, but I failed to mention that I am happy at Queen Mary despite workload and learning curve challenges. Since leaving Delaware, I have missed academia, and Queen Mary has been a deliciously sweet breath of fresh air.
Queen Mary's Mile End campus is small, but not too small. You see a lot of the same people from day to day, but there are enough nooks to escape to. It's small enough for all the administration to be in one building, and to walk across campus in about 5 minutes.
There are also a few cafes and whatnot for students to hang out in, and even a campus bar. Yes, a bar - coming from a teetotaling country, imagine my shock when I found this campus bar and its student-priced pints. I usually don't go there too often, because it has a kind of trashy environment, and usually undergrads go there and get pretty hammered, which is a little too reminiscent of DE for me. I was also taken aback at the Linguistics MA introduction party to see professors filling cups with wine and going around with bowls of chips and chatting. It was a bit kitschy, but delightfully friendly and the best way, in my opinion, to be welcomed into the department. Generally, however, I have been quite surprised by the acceptance of alcohol on campus, especially in a country where most everything is banned and you are watched on CCTV all day.
But thankfully, this lax attitude is ubiquitous around campus. It's quiet, tidy, and never too crowded (save the fire alarms, which are strangely frequent). It's (apparently) quite safe, and every Thursday there is a cutesy farmer's market in front of the Students' Union where vendors peddle organic produce and various overpriced grilled sandwiches which are gobbled up by overly trendy students (but hey, for most of them, they are licensed to that at this point in their lives). You know, the air about Queen Mary's campus reminds me of a poster/t-shirt that is popular here at the moment: it's a vertical Union Jack crested by a crown and the following phrase set in P-22 Underground - "Keep Calm and Carry On". Somehow, it seems quite appropriate here.
One unique and interesting feature of the campus here is the graveyard situated smack in the middle of the campus. Yes, a graveyard. And not any graveyard, a large Jewish graveyard; Mile End - the East End of London - used to be a largely Jewish area, although sadly you wouldn't guess it today. At the moment, much of the cemetery is enclosed by construction safety walls, but I think it is nice that they have retained it and are in the process of preserving it. It's always good to see history being saved, and it has the nice quality of reminding you that everything you learn here and all the money you spend on it will ultimately be a waste, a kind of aptly placed memento mori. It's also filled with squirrels, whose comical antics can be quite distracting and fun to watch when you get bored at the library.
Nuevo Cemetery
And the library is usually where I am while on campus. Queen Mary's library is by no means great - it isn't huge like UD's and most of the books are geared towards the sciences and engineering, but it's not bad. It's a bit strange for me because I never went to the library as an undergrad at Delaware, hated it; but at Queen Mary's library I find I am better able to concentrate and am less distracted than I am at home. Plus, there are a few good spots to hide and study. I have a favorite one tucked in a corner where there is a small table and a window looking out over the cemetery and the chemistry lab beyond with its fog-spewing nitrogen tanks.
If the library gets too crowded and loud, or all of its 162 computers are being used to check facebook, I go to the Lock-keeper's Cottage. The Lock-keeper's Cottage is an old house next to Regent's Canal where the Mile End lock-keeper used to live with his family, and which Queen Mary modified into a humanities graduate student center and tacked some pseudo-modern architecture onto. It's nice because you need to have a PGT card to get into, which means that it's usually quiet (aside from the occasional Spanish postgrad) and secluded, and, as it looks over the lock, a serene environment with the sound of water spilling through the lock and the *ting-ting* of bikers on the towpath opposite. There are always a few computers free there, and it's a good place to go and get some group work done while having a cup of tea, and watching the boats go through the lock.
The Lock-keeper's Cottage, in greener times.
The one thing Queen Mary does have in common with Delaware is the awesome staff - everyone in the Linguistics department has been so kind, helpful, and resourceful. There's no shortage of brilliance in that department, and despite occasional spoonfuls of condescension (which I suspect are deliberately placed to encourage us students, in an odd way), we are all on a first-name basis, which is quite nice. Everyone is approachable - human - and willing to go out of their way to help you. Or perhaps this perception of mine is just crossing the faculty social protocol between undergrads and graduate students? I doubt it, though. Regardless, I owe it to them and my studies here the past two months for helping me finally uncover my niche and find happy comfort in that.
On a final note, I should tell you about my favorite study partner, Phoebe Samuel Guedalla. She was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1819 and now lies parallel to the library, outside the window of my favorite study nook. When I lose interest in sociolinguistic theory and its quantitative studies, I look out over her sarcophagus and daydream about her: what she looked like, who she was, how she came to England, and what she did with her life. Was she happy? Did she have children? Was her death peaceful? Could she have known in her life that she would one day be surrounded by a university? Will people think about me like I do her when I am long dead.....
And then I come back to reality, and phonetic variants no longer seem that important anymore. Perhaps that memento mori is a bit too potent and aptly placed.
On a final note, I should tell you about my favorite study partner, Phoebe Samuel Guedalla. She was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1819 and now lies parallel to the library, outside the window of my favorite study nook. When I lose interest in sociolinguistic theory and its quantitative studies, I look out over her sarcophagus and daydream about her: what she looked like, who she was, how she came to England, and what she did with her life. Was she happy? Did she have children? Was her death peaceful? Could she have known in her life that she would one day be surrounded by a university? Will people think about me like I do her when I am long dead.....
And then I come back to reality, and phonetic variants no longer seem that important anymore. Perhaps that memento mori is a bit too potent and aptly placed.
