‘’Basically the middle of nowhere‘’

Hi, my name is Kieran, I am a 3^rd Year American Studies Undergraduate at the University of Nottingham and I’m studying here at Emory and Henry College in Southwest Virginia for this academic year. The primary motivation behind me choosing this course was that I would be given the opportunity to study abroad, so to say that this year is a big deal for me is something of an understatement. When we grow up we are bombarded with images of America and American culture, so perhaps maybe that’s why the United States fascinates me so much.

I chose Emory and Henry primarily because of its location (the school is basically set in the middle of a mountain range), which suggested a great deal of outdoor extracurricular activities in prospect. The downside to this arrangement is the remoteness – not only did I have to take a connecting flight from Atlanta, it took another hour’s drive from the tiny local airport in Johnson City to make it to the town of Emory, Virginia, which is essentially just the campus and a couple of shops. ’We’re basically in the middle of nowhere’, was how one student put it.

The people here are startlingly friendly even to strangers, which makes a strange though welcome contrast to living in Nottingham – you would be hard pressed to take a walk around campus in the daytime and not see someone you knew. The strangest thing I’ve noticed is how much difficulty people have had pronouncing my name correctly. While I can understand having to repeat my name if I had an inordinately large forename and a triple barrelled surname, I have never before encountered an entire culture of people who struggle wrap their tongues around my own. I have been asked if I was a Karen, a Kareem and even a Quran –unsurprisingly, I have had to content myself with being known simply as ‘that British guy’.

While I make it seem as though the pace of life here is slow and without excitement, one American institution that endures even here is one catalogued by a number of my fellow bloggers, the never ending obsession with college football. The number of people on campus increased five-fold as people flooded to watch the Emory and Henry ‘’Wasps’’ in action for the season opener (‘Why Wasps?’ I asked a fellow student. ‘We’re the only ones in the country with that mascot’, was the enigmatic reply). With a travelling support of around 100, there were around as many opposition players as supporters, which either says a lot about their support base or our remoteness, and in the absence of an away dressing room the opposition had to spend half time clustered together under the shade of a nearby tree, in full view of the home stands. Even in the face of these inconveniences, they would surely have been less than content to leave with their tails between their legs, having been trounced 49-14. While the score meant for a less than enthralling second half to the game, I get the impression a closer game will be more than worth the free admission price.

In all, my first few weeks in Emory have been enjoyable and infrequently exciting. While I find myself struggling to say I have actually achieved anything over recent days except make a few friends and study Harry Potter, I get the impression there is far more to this place than meets the eye.

And did I mention there ‘s a TRAIN that runs through the campus?