The Pound + "Induction"

In today's installment of my British adventures, I thought I'd discuss money. Specifically, the British pound in all its glorious nonsense. Here you see a 50, 20, and a 5. I didn't have a 10 handy, sorry. While the paper currency is kind of pretty and colorful- the 20 is purple and the 50 is red- I'm constantly annoyed that the bills are different sizes. Ok, I get that that might make them more instantly recognizable, say, if you can't be bothered to look at the money in your wallet. Or if you're blind. Not trying to hate on the vision impaired. But the 50 doesn't fit in a lot of wallets, and it makes for a very awkward folded up mess if you try to stick money in your pocket.

And now for the coins. Don't even get me started on the coins. I'm sure I'll figure them out eventually, but it is SO annoying to have like 2 pounds (in weight) in your pocket/wallet. The coins on the left are 1 pound. I didn't have any 2 pound coins handy, but they're a bit bigger and have silver bits. Next, that stupidly large coin is 2 pence. 2 freaking pence. The coins on the far right are 1 pence. Two of those only takes up slightly more space than one 2-pence coin, so is there really any reason to have them? Especially because I always seem to have ton of the stupid things around. Next to the 2 pence is the 20 pence coin. Again with the British and their superfluous coinage. Then the 10 pence. There's also a 50 pence coin that I don't have at the moment. It is bigger than the 2 pence, silver, and edgy like the 20 pence. I do like that the Queen is older and wrinklier with a double chin in newer coins and younger and, well, prettier in older coins. Good to see the Brits are at least realistic.

So that's British money. Every 5 pounds is about comparable to $8.50, which makes me cringe every time I buy something. A lot of things are much more expensive here than in the states, especially food (although not alcohol, go figure.) But I'm pretty much willing to go along with that because social services (especially health care and prescription coverage) are pretty much awesome here. No fees for visiting a general practitioner and no charge for prescriptions. You just pay a flat 7.50 pound dispensing fee to the chemist where you get your prescription filled. And, no dealing with stupid retarded health insurance companies (here's looking at you Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. See if I EVER get you again.)

Anyway, today was Induction Day for the Centre for Medieval Studies. Oh my gosh, I'm so glad I'm here. But more on that in a minute. First, some reflections on how the UK education system differs from the US.

1) US schools are way, way, WAY more on top of things.
2) US schools are way, way, WAY more on top of things.
3) The grading system. Apparently we should expect to get much lower grades than we're used to. Here, we should be pleased if we receive a 75. I'm not so sure about this, but we'll see how it goes. Basically, they have much higher expectations for what deserves an "A". "A" work should be basically publishable, according to the CMS. Also, "A's" are not really expected. "C's" are totally fine, and a "B" is really good. Also, they don't use letter grades, just percentages; I'm just using corresponding letters for ease of explanation.

So today we showed up at King's Manor as instructed at 10:30 am. We were given a short tour of the Manor by a current PhD student and then had 1.5 hours to kill in the little cafe. So we used our free drink vouchers and got coffee/tea/hot chocolate and sat around for a looong time. Then we got our pictures taken for a wall of students type thing. That took about 2 minutes. Then it was back to the cafe for lunch and killing another 1.5 hours. We, like most people, had lunch and then went to a local pub to hang out on their back patio and chat.

Then we got to congregate in the same room where Northern England was governed from during the 1500s. Pretty cool. We listened to the standard welcome address, introduction of the faculty around that day, got a list of our advisers, and learned about our various skills module options. Which I thought was funny, since we'd already had to sign up for those, but oh well. Then we got tea and cookies. I love how Ireland/the UK has tea breaks. It makes me so happy. Anyway, then we all got to take the dreaded "informal Latin test."

Designed to help divide people up into various skill levels of Latin, I think the test served more to frustrate everyone there because at least all of the people I talked to were like me and hadn't really used much Latin in a couple of years and were at least a bit rusty. The test consisted of a Medieval Latin passage we were to translate. It would've been helpful if I knew ANY medieval vocab, but at least I knew that Rex Childebirthe was a king and not something to do with dinosaur childbirth. And then we heard about all the different discussion/reading/research groups we can join, lectures that go on throughout the semester, and the Lords of Misrule, the CMS's very own medieval theater group. This term, the play is Beowulf. Apparently anyone who is anyone participates in some way with the Lords, so I suppose I'll have to go to the interest meeting/auditions on Thursday.

So in addition to taking an extra skill module (we're really only supposed to take 2, but I'm stubborn, so...), I plan to try out the Late Anglo-Saxon Reading Group, the Medieval Religion Research Group, the Anglo-Norman Reading Group (although that doesn't start until next term), the Medieval Manuscripts Research Group, and various lectures by Patchwork and the Political Culture Research Group. And that is only a fraction of the available interest groups. That in a nutshell is one of the big reasons why I chose York; because the program is pretty big (there are about 35 MA students this year), there are a lot of options and available resources that you just don't get in smaller programs. In case you couldn't tell, I'm really excited and I can't wait for classes to start next week. This week is pretty much just class briefings, which I think are like those silly first lectures where you go and meet the professor, get a syllabus and textbook list and then skedaddle off. Tomorrow I'm going for a tour of the York Minster library and then a tour of the main campus facilities used by us Kings Manor folk, which from what I can tell is pretty much just the library. But more on that later. :)