{"id":562,"date":"2015-09-28T03:43:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T03:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/?p=562"},"modified":"2015-11-10T18:41:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T18:41:38","slug":"trading-in-the-flip-flops-and-coffee-for-the-rain-boots-and-tea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/?p=562","title":{"rendered":"Trading in the flip-flops and coffee for the rain boots and tea"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jordan<\/a><\/p>\n

Jordan Bolker<\/em>
Year Abroad: Senior<\/em>
Term: Fall 2015<\/em>
Major: Journalism<\/em>
Program: University of Sunderland in Sunderland, England<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Studying abroad is on everyone\u2019s mind when arriving in the college years, especially for those with the travel bug like me. So, when the opportunity came for me to spend a semester in England, the possibilities, opportunities and new beginnings became endless.
\nI arrived on British soil on Friday, Sept. 11, 2015, around 6:30 a.m. Of course, the jetlag kicked in quickly and I was in serious need of sleep. The weather was rainy and gusting with wind, just as I had been told would happen continuously. Regardless of my eyes wanting to barricade themselves shut, I was finally in England and on my way to my home for the next three months: the University of Sunderland.<\/p>\n

Though it\u2019s part of England, Sunderland is different. Because it is so far north that it nearly touches Scotland, it\u2019s the northern Scottish accent that rules the streets. There are no sexy, proper English accents that we\u2019ve all seen in the movies within more than 100 miles. They speak rougher and faster, and it takes almost a full minute to comprehend what the citizens are saying. At least they\u2019re friendly about giving you directions or advertising their clubs and bars when they hand you a coupon for a free pint.
\nAlong with their accents come their sense of style. I can sum up men\u2019s daily apparel in just five words: skinny jeans, hair gel and gauges. The men definitely know what it means to take the time to look good, and it fancies the women quite well. As an American citizen, however, I can\u2019t imagine what sort of comfortability a man can have in wearing skinny jeans all day. The women follow suit in style with these words: lipstick, black jackets and leggings. No matter what the occasion is, British women are always ready to dress up when they want to go out. Everyone typically owns a black jacket as a final touch on an outfit, and the lipstick is mainly in dark shades for the autumn weather. However, leggings cannot be that warm when the weather drop to below 50 degrees by 9:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

What has really been giving me culture shock is the driving here in Sunderland. Of course, we were told that their cars were made to be small. In fact, through the entire week, the largest car that we\u2019ve seen on the road was a Range Rover. It\u2019s clear that what America believes is big and what England believes is big are two very different things. The steering wheel in every car is on the passenger side, and they have to drive on the left side of the road. Even though I\u2019ve only been here for a week, I don\u2019t think I could ever get used to their way of driving. We now have to look right and then left to figure out which way the cars are coming and then make a run for it at the crosswalk. They park directly on the curb, which we know is illegal in the United States. But because the roads are as small as the ones we see in Naperville, I can understand why curb parking is an appropriate option in England.<\/p>\n

These are just some of the major culture shock differences that my travel companions and I saw during our first couple days across the pond. We have yet to see much outside of our campus city, but we\u2019ve certainly seen and learned more than we expected. Stay up-to-date in the next post to come from NCC in Sunderland. As they say in England, cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Studying abroad is on everyone\u2019s mind when arriving in the college years, especially for those with the travel bug like me. So, when the opportunity came for me to spend a semester in England, the possibilities, opportunities and new beginnings became endless. I arrived on British soil on Friday, Sept. 11, 2015, around 6:30 a.m. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":563,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions\/563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}