Surprise!

   The blatantly obvious thing that surprised me the most when I got to Harlaxton, was how big and different it was. I had seen pictures of the college, but it never registers how big it actually is, unless you see it for yourself. It is different because in America you would never find a huge Gothic castle like Harlaxton. For simple reasons though: Gothic literature was born in the U.K. so its not unusual to find Gothic related things here and also there is no castles in America. We are a democracy, meaning we have a say in who gets to rule our country by voting them into office and the U.K. is parliamentary, which means they have no choice. The king or queen is in charge and when they die the next heir in their family becomes the king/queen. Kings/queens/emperors live in castles, presidents live in the White House. In Grantham the other day, the thing that surprised me the most was how all the kids in school were wearing a uniform and all took big city buses to get home. Actually, a lot of people here wear clean cut uniforms. I find that my learning here in the U.K. is also different than back home in the states. I always said that I could probably learn more in a day in another country than I could at school. In my experience so far, I have found that to be very true. Back home learning about other countries really only happened in classes like world history, which for me was back in Jr. High and then I wouldn't have to worry about other countries again. I do not like that because I feel like I am trapped in a bubble of what's going on in America only. Ask me who the president of France is and you will likely get a blank stare back from me. I like learning about the things that British people (and other people besides them) do differently than we do. They know about us because I heard people the other day talking about us "poor American's" with Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton as our basic two choices for president. Maybe it's because I do not pay attention to the news because I always find something sad and depressing has happened and it makes me sad too, bu also grateful for the things I take for granted everyday, even if it is unintentional. I have yet to find any unpleasant surprises, but I have not even been here a full week, so something might happen before I leave.