Our group is comprised of thirty American students from various colleges in the States, mostly colleges or Universities on the East coast, that are attending the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham, England. Denise and Sandy are the directors of the program. Denise is a professor (called a "tutor" here) at the Park campus of the University, and Sandy has her own hair-cutting business on the side. They are incredibly sweet and helpful - and delightful!
All of the BCA students live and take classes with all of the British - and otherwise - students. The program also includes weekend excursions, one of which I discussed in my last blog entry. Officially, the program lasts from September 15th to December 15th.
On Sunday all of the English students moved in the dorms. Each student in Regency Hall gets a single room with a bathroom. There are four floors (on one side of the building there is a fifth floor), and then each floor is divided into three flats. Each flat has around seven or eight students that share one kitchen. My "flat" has three American students: Jessye, Michelle, and Amanda (all students from Messiah). Then there are three British students (two girls and a boy). We've met them and they all seem nice, but hopefully we'll have more contact with them as the semester continues.
Orientation:
This week, all of the BCA students are going through an orientation. The University of Gloucestershire (pronounced "gl-ow-stuh-sher") has four campuses, and we have gone to three of the four. Because I have two majors, I will have my English classes on one campus (Francis Close Hall) and my Communications courses on another (Pittville). From my dorm, Regency Hall, it takes about fifteen minutes to walk to FCH and around twenty minutes to walk to Pittville.
In addition to the five courses I'm taking for my majors, I (and all of the other BCA students) will be required as part of the program to take a one-credit class about British Life and Culture. The class (called a "module" here) will meet weekly and will include various special speakers who have occupations and knowledge that is relevant to the course material. Today we learned about the British Educational System.
One major difference between the Universities in the US and the Universities here is the grading system. According to my handbook, the grading scale is as follows:
70 and above: A, Excellent
60 - 69: B, Good
50 - 59: C, Satisfactory
40 - 49: D, Sufficient for the award or credit
Denise also informed us that only 5% (!!) of students attending the University of Gloucestershire end up with A's. Many of the students in the program are coming from Messiah College, so Messiah has a conversion table already set in place for students returning to the college from this program. One student last year received a thirty-something which would be failing here, but when she went back to Messiah it was counted as a C+. I don't understand this, but hopefully Houghton will be gracious to me.
So far this week we've had tours around Cheltenham (pronounced "Chelt-num") and basic tours of the campuses. The rest of the week we will be shown more detailed tours of the campuses, including a tour of the "learning centre" (library).
This weekend we will be on an excursion to Cornwall.
Freshers Fortnight:
Because we're new students, we are encouraged to do all the stuff Freshmen do. But everyone seems to get into the events and activities of Freshers Fortnight. We were told about all the activities the other day, although I didn't really pay attention to the info. Monday was the beginning of the two-week party time, kicked off by a Disco. Apparently there'll be some guy from Britian's Got Talent who swallows things completely and then regurgitates them. In any case, the next two weeks will be full of activities. I probably won't be involved in too many of them, but apparently all Universities have a Freshers Fortnight each year, so I thought it was notable enough to blog about.
Cheers (which actually means "Goodbye," "Hello," or "Thank you" depending on the circumstance),
Emily
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