Wait—I actually have to STUDY while I’m ABROAD?!

Everybody knows that study abroad isn’t really about studying. It might be a touchy subject, but I think it’s perfectly acceptable to admit that academics might be, as well as rightly should be, slightly under par from the normal standards. Part of the learning experience gained from study abroad in my opinion is the ability to adjust to a new culture. That being said, I feel like ASE makes a commendable attempt toward getting their students to focus and providing them with an engaging course load. Admittedly, though, it’s hard to attain a steady balance between actually getting work done and actively socializing. I’m new to the UK, but I still cling steadfast to my US study habits. And by ‘study’, I mean major procrastination. I’m writing this blog entry while uploading photos from a weekend trip to Wales, listening to music, watching British YouTube videos and only occasionally Googling information for my class presentation. Yeah, about that… At home, I procrastinate for useless, insensible --ungodly, even-- reasons, but since I’m here in Bath for a limited amount of time I think I’m a little more justified in my last minute habits. Why not visit my friend in Swansea today? I can study tomorrow.

Overall, the structure of classes at ASE is fairly conducive to maintaining a balanced, manageable workload* for the most part. Everyone takes four classes or three classes and a specialized internship. No student can take more than two classes in one day to prevent exhaustion I suppose. Each of these classes meets once a week for an hour and a half and is capped off at roughly fifteen students for an intimate seminar setting. Which means you totally can’t forget to finish your reading. But in comparison to other programs, where students take classes at large universities, ASE students form a much stronger, enduring bond with their ‘tutors’. ‘Tutor’, we learned during orientation week, is the proper equivalent to what we consider a professor in the States. Apparently in England, ‘professor’ is only a term bestowed on academics of the highest rank. In any case, the structure of classes functions nicely because it allots plenty of time outside of class to pace through the reading; but most importantly, it also means that no one has classes on Friday. I have to say it’s beyond excellent to have a permanent three-day weekend. Plus, I have Tuesdays off. When I return home it’ll definitely take some time to readjust from three days of work and four days of leisure.

Explaining the academic affiliation of ASE though gets a bit tricky. Unlike most study abroad programs, ASE does not technically operate through a university. Tutors, primarily from Oxford, travel once a week to Bath to teach their courses, so the program remains very self-contained. Basically, ASE can be likened to the private school version of study abroad. The sheltered environment prevents students to a certain extent from meeting young British people, which consequently forces them to mingle and associate more frequently with fellow ASE students. Regardless of the obvious effort of the social coordinator and the student aides, ASE does not provide the same involvement and interaction since it’s comparatively removed from such types of activity. Personally, I believe it is pretty telling that I haven’t visited, or even tried to visit for that matter, either of Bath’s universities: Bath Spa University and University of Bath, and yesterday, when two girls asked me for directions to the school I couldn’t adequately guide them, but I could supply a lucid explanation on the location of the Roman Baths. Yet, in ASE’s defense, the isolated arrangement invariably generates a more private, personalized connection between student and tutor than an enormous university could hope to create. Often the ASE tutors empathetically dismiss trivial technicalities inherent to study abroad programs full of planning and paper work. Still, meeting British students my age seems like a fairly vital component of a study abroad program.

However, if I truly altered anything, I would probably advise against signing up for four literature classes. Although it’s not a staggering amount, the reading does tend to accumulate during paper week, when life inevitably turns into a hectic mess. Honestly, that’s why this particular blog entry was somewhat delayed. Ranting aside, I find all of my courses really engrossing, and I literally, literally, can’t believe that I’m almost half way through the semester already. Sometimes classes here don’t quite feel real, perhaps because I’m only momentarily transplanted here, so everything constantly seems so marvelously surreal and spectacularly novel. Which makes paper writing more than minimally difficult. Don’t get me wrong, normally I don’t mind studying it—in fact, given the subject, I even love it. Truthfully, I’m kind of a dork. But study abroad is like an indescribable vortex of a hyper, suspended reality with a paradoxically sluggish and rapid pace. There’s so much to do and see that scheduling becomes necessary but intermittently overwhelming. My schedule provides me with plenty of free hours for local touring and day-trips but at large I don’t enough time to fit in absolutely everything. Thirteen weeks won’t cut it; I need a whole year. So I don’t have any patience for studying at this moment. Academics can pine for me back at home- I have unlimited time there, but not enough for my brief stay in Bath. Let’s get all Rousseauian instead! Forget books— Right now, my classroom is the UK & abroad. (But I promise I’ll swing a B, Mommmmmm!)

*paper week(s) non-withstanding

**please note that these are all pictures of cool things I’ve done while NOT studying