Home Sweet Home -- Part Three

5. Utilities. Gas and electricity are much more expensive here. Thus, it is quite rare to enter a home that is heated to oven-level as one sometimes finds in the U.S. Hot water heat is the norm, and boilers are on a timer so that the heat is off entirely at night or when the home's occupants are away at work during the day. Often rooms are closed off by interior doors so that only the rooms that are occupied are heated. Air conditioning is not common, but would seldom be necessary in this climate.

Our boiler is on a timer -- no heat at night or when we aren't at home.

6. Decor. The way a home is decorated inside, of course, reflects the tastes of the individuals who live there. These vary considerably in England, just as they do in the U.S. But on the whole, I'd have to say that Brits tend to have less "stuff" in their homes -- fewer things on walls, fewer "knick-knacks," even less furniture than most Americans have. One might expect smaller homes and smaller rooms to be more crowded, but the opposite tends to be the case. It's a natural human trait that "stuff" expands to fill the available space, but my general impression is that English homes tend to be less cluttered than those in the U.S.

Our home decor might be described as "modern thrift shop," but is not typical. We are in institutional housing, after all. The woven throw over the chair is for keeping warm on winter evenings, as the fireplace is not currently functional.

Of course, our home here is rather out of the ordinary in that it has had a series of occupants over many years. The furnishings are a bit spare and somewhat mis-matched. There is nothing fancy here, as everything technically belongs to the College. Directors move into it as it is, leave their own small, personal touches, and then leave it all behind to their successors. As we've often commented, it is a house "decorated by committee" over the years. Still, it's comfortable and serves our needs, and we're happy to call it "home" for the year.

Home Sweet Home -- Part Two

3. Lots. Perhaps more a function of being in an urban area than of the country, the size of a residential lot is considerably smaller than we're used to in the American Midwest. Many houses here (including ours) are "semi-detached" which means they share a common wall with a next door neighbor. We'd call them duplexes, except that each side is owned and maintained independently.

Ours is a "semi-detached" home. The neighbors own their half separately, even though they are in the same structure, and even selected a different color of window casings.

Few people have any sort of front yard at all. We do have a tree in front of the house, but many of our neighbors have bricked over the space in front to park a second car, or just to eliminate the tiny patch of grass that would otherwise be there. Most front yards are surrounded by a hedge, fence, or wall. The back yard (or "garden" as it would be called here) tends to be long and narrow. Some gardens are exactly that, others a grassy lawn, still others are paved over.

The refrigerator is small, but it's surprising how much fits inside.

4. Appliances. Almost all appliances are smaller (our refrigerator fits under our counter top, roughly the same size as a dishwasher in the U.S.). We miss having a dishwasher (some Brits do) and a garbage disposal (we've not seen one here). Gas or electric room heaters are common (see #5 in Part Three).

Smaller, under-counter appliances require getting on one's knees!

Other appliances, such as TVs, microwave ovens, or computers, tend to be much like they are at home. The difference, of course, is that all house current here is 240 volts (compared to the U.S. standard of 120 volts) and the wall plugs are big, clunky objects with three large, rectangular prongs, and all wall outlets have a switch next to them, to turn the current on and off. Switches are just the opposite of the U.S. -- up is off, down is on.

Big, clunky plugs are standard in the U.K.

Computers and other electronics don't seem to care about the voltage, so long as one has the proper plug adapter or cord. However, anything with a heating element or motor, such as a toaster or a hair dryer, is best bought here rather than brought from the U.S. Our American appliances burn up rather dramatically when plugged into 240 volt current!

Home Sweet Home -- Part One

In addition to the one in which we're living, we've by now had occasion to be inside a number of English homes. We've recently had dinner invitations from several people we've met, as well as popping in at the neighbors from time to time. I started to make a few observations, but it turned into more than a few. So this will be the first of several posts.

Our street

1. Similarity. It took us awhile to realize that part of the reason we got so easily disoriented in and around Nottingham (and indeed, all across the Midlands area of England) is that so many homes, and so many entire blocks of homes, look very much alike. There was a huge housing boom here in the 1920s and '30s. Lots of housing was needed very quickly as people flooded into the industrial cities.

Another street a couple blocks away from where we live.
You can see the difference, can't you?

Dark red brick was used for almost all of the construction in this region, though there are stucco accents on the front. Usually these fronts are white, but some go to a cream or almost pastel yellow color. A very standard two story floor plan was common.

And yet another nearby street. Differences are subtle.

Although there are subtle differences, one house is distinguished from another in this area by location and by details one does not readily notice on the outside. There is considerable individuality on the inside.

Red brick, as far as they eye can see. Welcome to the English Midlands!

2. Size. Most houses here would be considered small by current American standards. We find our home very comfortable for the two of us. I can easily envision living here if our girls were still at home as kids, though they would certainly be sharing a bedroom rather than having rooms of their own. I think things might get a bit cramped with a growing family. There are no basements. The kitchen gets to be a problem as soon as a second cook or helper is introduced (more on kitchens later). Some houses have garages, but most people use them only for storage as it would be a very tight fit to get a car into them -- even the smaller cars common here.

Getting used to the smaller size, we find ourselves thinking this makes much more sense than the huge homes currently in fashion in the U.S. We pay for quite a bit more space than we actually need (and then pay more in property taxes, utilities, etc.). Smaller would be better for the environment, as well as for our bank balances.

Night Life

Given our stage in life, we should not be viewed as the optimal sources of information about night life in Nottingham. For a more comprehensive treatment of the subject, it might be best to seek out the blogs of some of our students. Nevertheless, we can share how some old people have enjoyed recent evenings in our fair city.

On Thursday evening we attended a fine concert by the London Philharmonic under the direction of Marin Alsop (an American woman) with Stephen Hough as the piano soloist for two Liszt Piano Concertos. This is world class music! It was just a 10 minute bus ride away for us, at the Royal Concert Hall in City Centre Nottingham.

We've attended several events at the Royal Concert Hall and the Theatre Royal, which are adjacent to one another. The Theatre is a delightful old Victorian venue that frequently hosts plays just off the London West End district, but at a fraction of the price. Most recently we've seen the classic "An Inspector Calls" and the West End revival of the World War I play, "Journey's End."

The Concert Hall was built in 1980, but has a definite 1960s look and feel to it (not a proud moment in architecture). Nevertheless, it has excellent acoustics and hosts top artists. On Thursday we sat in the fourth row where we could see the pianists technique up close.

Friday evening was "Light Night" in Nottingham. The city (or someone?) hires companies to put on various displays, such as a light show projected on the front of the Council House (city hall) and a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy theme light display on the old wall of Nottingham Castle. Bands were playing, costumed actors were on street corners, and there were people everywhere.

We particularly enjoyed a rather eerie display of cloudy plastic human figures, lighted from within and suspended on cables over the church yard of 14th century Saint Mary's Church. It appeared that the ghosts were floating over the church yard. And there we were without my camera -- drat!

Saint Mary's was also aglow on the inside with hundreds of candles and a free concert by their excellent choir. Unfortunately, the large number of people coming and going, and loudly buying their tea and coffee from the ladies at the back of the church, made it difficult to hear.

No one we asked seemed to know why or how long Nottingham has been celebrating Light Night. But because the local churches seem to be very much involved, my speculation is that this was originally a February 2 event. The ancients long recognized 2 February as the mid-point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It is observed by the Church of England as "Candlemass," the day of blessing candles to be used through the year (a festival superceded in America by Ground Hog's Day).

What surprised us was that, even with hundreds (thousands?) of people milling about the City Centre on one of the coldest nights of the year, all the downtown stores were closed up tight. In the U.S., the only reason for a city putting on a festival like this would be to attract people to the shopping areas. The Brits seemed to have missed the memo on the business opportunities here. We old folks would have gladly paid double for a hot chocolate after an hour of wandering in the cold. But pubs full of university students, or church ladies pushing caffeine, were the only games in town.

An Education

There have been several messages responding to my recent post about final exams, with a number of questions about the British educational system. So, a primer:

The UK government provides free education to any child here beginning with Nursery School for age 3 and above. Nursery School is optional, but attendance is required for Primary School beginning at age five.

There is no "kindergarten," so five year olds begin at "Year One," and Primary School runs through "Year Six." However, in some areas there are separate buildings for "Infant School" (usually through Year Two, often with Nursery School in the same building) and "Junior School" (years Three through Six).

Beginning at age 11 (what would be sixth grade in the U.S.) students move to Secondary School, which runs through age 17 -- the end of compulsory education in the UK. Again, sometimes the secondary grades are split between different buildings, depending on local decisions.

In the Third Year of secondary school (around age 13) students make decisions about what subjects they will continue to study -- usually eight to ten, including maths (it's always plural here, never just "math"), English, one or more sciences, languages, art, music, etc. This is the beginning of their specialization.

At the end of Fifth Year of Secondary School (10th grade in the U.S. or roughly age 15) students take a battery of standardized tests known as GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) in their chosen subjects. How they do in these largely determines their future. Only those finishing in the upper half or so of GCSE scores will be university bound (but this is a much higher percentage than even a generation ago).

For historical reasons that no longer make much sense, the last two years of Secondary School are called "Sixth Form" or "College." (This is why it is so difficult for people here to get that "Luther College" provides university-level education. Over here, a "college" is a Sixth Form high school.) In Sixth Form, students choose to further narrow their studies to just three or four subjects.

At the end of Sixth Form there is another battery of standardized tests called "A-level Exams." Results of these exams come out in late July or early August, only about six weeks before the beginning of the university fall term, so there is a huge amount of chaos at this time as students find out if they will attend the university of their choice (to which they have been provisionally accepted based on a "prediction" of their A-level scores provided by their college instructors) or will have to enter the "clearing" process to find an open slot at some lesser institution.

The University of Nottingham, where our Luther students are studying, is considered a top-tier school, not quite up there with Oxford or Cambridge, but close behind. So they are in with some tough company when it comes to their academic peers.

King's College, Cambridge

University is a three-year program, but there is no "liberal arts" curriculum, nor are there "general education" courses. Students select their major from day one, and that is all they study. So biology majors take only a set sequence of biology classes and labs, psychology majors study only psychology, English majors only "read English," etc.

Part of the challenge for our students is that if they take an upper-level class in, say, religion (to fulfill their Luther general education requirements for one basic and one upper-level religion course), they find themselves in a classroom full of religion majors who have studied nothing but that subject for the previous year or two. Same with any other course in any other subject.

One thing in our students' favor, however, is that their classes in all subjects have been -- by some measures -- somewhat more comprehensive: Classes at Luther, for example, all meet for 180 minutes per week (either 90 minutes TTh or 60 minutes MWF) for 15 weeks per semester. British university classes usually meet only once or twice a week for two, 10 or 11 week terms per year. And our students are already in their third year of a four year program.

The big controversy here is that university tuition, which was free prior to 1998, was capped at £3,290 (about $5,200) this year. Next year the tuition cap will rise to £9,000 (about $14,250 -- plus room and board, which for most is a rented "flat" off campus with several roommates). British students and their parents are questioning whether they will be getting their money's worth.

Thus, British students graduate from university at about age 20 or 21 and begin their careers very well-versed in just one subject in which they've specialized. Our students graduate at age 22 or 23, hopefully with a bit broader understanding of the world as a whole. But, at a substantially higher price.

Snowmaggedon!

The Siberian cold that has been making headlines as it slowly marched from east to west across Europe collided with the warm, moist Gulf Stream air right over Britain this past weekend. It began to snow in Nottingham on Saturday afternoon. It was just flurries at first, but gradually the snowfall became more intense and it began to stick to the ground, rooftops, and trees.

Big, wet flakes began Saturday evening
(photo by Alex Forbes)

Because it's England, where things are wet much of the time, the snow was the wet, heavy kind. And because it's England, where snow is relatively rare, there is neither the equipment to remove it, nor the collective knowledge of how to deal with it, that we bring from the upper Midwest.

The student flat on a snowy Saturday night
(photo by Alex Forbes)

Several of our students had gone into the city center, by bus of course, but wound up walking two miles home because the buses had stopped running by late evening. They were also much entertained by watching drivers spin their tires on streets that wouldn't have been much of a problem back home in Iowa, Minnesota or Wisconsin. Traffic came to a standstill.

Nottingham traffic came to a standstill
(photo by Alex Forbes)

Fortunately, most people didn't have to go to work on Sunday morning, so the "grit teams" had a chance to drive their trucks along the main roads spreading salt. There are no snow plows here. Nothing has been done to the side streets or sidewalks. Most people don't even own a snow shovel.

Our "garden" (back yard) in early Sunday morning light.

Officially, the total snowfall here was seven centimeters, or just about 2.75 inches. I'm not sure we even got that much where we are. But the cold air is forecast to hang around for several weeks (it's only 37 degrees Fahrenheit this afternoon), so we may get more.

Final Exams

Our students have just finished their final exams for the fall semester. The academic calendar here is rather unusual from an American perspective. After 11 weeks of fall classes there was a month-long Christmas break. Then two weeks of exams to see how much the students remembered over the break.

The spring term began this week, immediately following the fall exam period. But this term is even more unusual. It will go for only eight weeks before a five week spring break, two more weeks of classes, and then three weeks of exams.

Another key difference is that most classes (called "modules" here) have only one or two student evaluations each term. That means that a student's entire grade for the class will depend on, perhaps, one paper and one final exam; a couple of papers; or perhaps a single paper or a single final exam. That puts a lot of pressure on students at finals!

One of our students blogged about her exams, and (with her permission) I've stolen some of her report:

"I was very nervous for my first exam at Nottingham. Aside from the unpleasant thought that this exam was worth 100% of my grade, the nerves came from the fear of the unknown. I had been told that exams were held in large lecture halls or in the gym because they have several modules take exams at the same time. ...


"In fact, it was basically like taking the ACT [American College Test, a standardized U.S. university entrance exam] all over again but everyone had different exams.... But I was worried. What if the questions were way harder than I had anticipated? Did I need pencil or pen? How much paper did I have to work with? ...


"We were finally allowed into the Great Hall. Each test taker was an assigned seat. I had seat 1. On my desk was a booklet of lined paper, my test questions (flipped over, of course), and a half sheet of paper with my name, ID number and a place for me to sign. This half sheet was proof that it was the correct [student] who showed up for my... exam and not an impostor. Just to be safe, we had to present our ID cards for the moderators to compare ID numbers as they collected the signed attendance sheets.

"[Five] minutes to go time. A short, grey haired man in a tweed suit jacket and khaki trousers stood at the front of the hall. [Stereo]Typical English man. He told us we had two hours to complete the exam. We couldn't leave the hall within the first hour or during the last fifteen minutes of the allotted exam time....
"Begin! Everyone feverishly flipped their exam question papers. I flipped mine over with less enthusiasm. I read through the questions, noting which ones I could adequately answer. I only needed to respond to three questions and lucky for me, I had found four questions I knew I could answer well. I began writing. An hour and 46 minutes later I had completed my three questions. I set down my pen and stretched out my hand.  Since I was within the 15 minute "YOU CAN'T LEAVE" zone, I just sat at my desk and stared at my completed answers....


"So I had done it. I had survived the exam process.... So far so good.... Exam results come out mid-February, so I have a few weeks to wonder if I can really cut in the UK university system."

Fortunately, our students all report feeling similarly about their exams, and we trust that they will all get good news in a couple weeks.