Hi everyone! My name is Victoria Cure and I study Law with
American Law at the University of Nottingham. For the next year I will be
studying at the University of Connecticut, School of Law. Living in New England
is not a totally foreign concept to me – between the ages of two and six, I
called Massachusetts home. I went to an American school, had American friends
and even had an American accent! Since moving home to the UK I had always had a
soft spot for America and so when the opportunity came up to study abroad in
the USA, I just had to apply!
On a rather sunny morning on the 12th August 2013
I boarded a plane to Newark from Heathrow, feeling slightly nervous at the
prospect of moving 3372 miles from home. The feeling was somewhat different to
that I had experienced when moving into Hugh Stewart Hall at the start of my
freshers week in 2011. Back then I always knew that my family weren’t more than
a couple of hours drive away and effectively that I could pop back to Solihull
for home comforts whenever I fancied. Now though, I knew the next time I would
be able to drink orange squash, have proper Dairy Milk chocolate and see home was
going to be in four months time, at Christmas. But you know what, that
knowledge, although slightly nerve wracking was actually pretty exciting!
As soon as the plane touched down at Newark, things started
to get interesting! As I stood up to wait to leave the plane, I noticed a women
standing at the front of the cabin. After trying to work out whether she was
just a lookalike (because it appears the camera puts on a few inches in height and
because I think she may have had some plastic surgery since I last saw her on
TV) I realized that Sharon Osborne had been on the flight. Unfortunately
though, there are no photos – airport security is pretty strict.
Even though a lot of the place names are the same - there’s
a Manchester and even a few Nottinghams – don’t be fooled, America is pretty
different from the UK. Firstly there was the heat! Although we’ve been assured
that the heat was nothing compared to the scorching summer they have had this
year, to my pasty British skin mid-August felt pretty hot. Secondly there are certain words and phrases
that when said lead to a few blank looks on people’s faces. Aside from the
obvious ones like sidewalk/ pavement, trunk/ boot, there were a few other words
that people had never heard of – people think when I talk about orange squash
that I’m talking about the vegetable. Thirdly, at every society meeting or
event, there will be food. This is definitely something that I think we should
start in the UK! If you go to enough meetings you can pretty much not buy
groceries for the first week or two! On that note, when you walk into a
supermarket over here be prepared to not be able to recognize most of the foods
and products even though English is your first language! Lastly the drinking
age in the USA is 21… this normally means not only that you can’t drink but
also that you won’t be let into the bar. However, turning 21 in the US is a pretty big deal and its cool to be able to say that
you celebrated your birthday in Vegas or New York. There is still fun to be
had, even if you aren’t 21. Connecticut is located in an ideal position to
travel to New York and Boston! In the next few weeks I’m planning on visiting
these cities and will keep you up to date on my adventures!
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