Experiential Blog #9

The information that I gathered on this study abroad trip that was most meaningful to me was probably the information about how much the Gothic literature really affected the society everywhere all over the world. This could very well have changed some situations I experienced in the past because now knowing that the Gothic is everywhere I will look at things with a lot more understanding of architecture, literature, and all the more Gothic details of the stories I read. This new information can change my perceptions and interpretations by allowing me to fully understand that just because it isn't dark and looking Gothic doesn't mean it shouldn't have a Gothic interpretation because of the way the characters are treated and also how they live their life.

Experiential Blog #8 Some of what I learned

What I have learned in the Gothic class relates heavily to my daily life because as we learned in the class the Gothic is everywhere. It is in many of the things we read and watch on TV, it is in so many modern movies such as Hunger Games and Harry Potter, and it would be nearly impossible to name them all. I have learned that the Gothic is not just about horror and gore it’s about instilling a fear or intimidation into those around it. It is about the repressed desire, emotion, and experience coming out in the form of rebellion. The learning experience here is much more involved and individualized compared to the learning experience back home because we work closely with our professors and our peers. We utilized group projects and gatherings to collaborate ideas and communicate different understandings. One of the important bits of knowledge I acquired during my experience on this study abroad trip is that even though in this culture things are communicated, and for that matter done differently in general, we are all still human which means once the communication barrier is broken, it is not hard to merge with the second culture.

Experiential Blog #7 Peoples attitudes

People’s attitudes here about time are starting the day early and ending it early; people like to have as much of the day remaining as possible. People here talk quieter so the personal bubble becomes a bit smaller because you need to be able to hear what the person next to you is saying. Most people in the UK treat foreigners very well as if we belonged here; in some other countries the language barrier determined how much the citizens liked us. People respond somewhat neutrally to negative behavior because they aren’t really sure how to respond without escalating the situation, so instead they just apologize. The number one clue that helped me figure out the attitudes of the people in these different places was the loudness of their voice and the personal distance they allowed me. I always assumed we were loud in the US and we are, however the difference is not extreme to me. I now know that I need to be mindful of the personal distance and volume of the people around me and adjust correspondingly.

Experiential Blog #6 Listen to what is around you

I have observed that in different locations people talk in different ways. For example in Vienna Prague and London everyone is much quieter especially if there is a larger group of people or just having a personal conversation. I will talk primarily about London because I speak the language. I noticed that when you are saying goodbye to someone here it is common to say something along the lines of "cheers". I also noticed that apologies are very common and quite frequent about things we don't normally consider worth apologizing for. In our native language we mostly ignore small interruptions and just ask the other person to carry on while here it would be grounds for an apology. I come to the conclusion that it is only slightly more formal than our language and much more polite and clear. communication here in London is very easy to understand and also easy to pick up on.

Experiential Blog #5 Emotions

My emotions are primarily stable and don't require much expression but when I am happy I typically express that by smiling or laughing. When I am in a place of work or study I try to take things rather seriously and avoid having any inappropriate emotions for the given time. I noticed on this trip others have caused and or have contributed to a lot of drama with there emotions and need to tell everyone everything and personally I think it is just a bit annoying I prefer to keep personal things of myself and others to myself. Everyone deals with emotions a bit differently and the conclusion I've come to is that it is best to keep things that are normally kept private private, and some people don't deal with this the right way because for some reason they feel the need to tell everyone else. My personal and cultural insights I have come to as a result of attending to my emotions this way is that drama and violence is easily avoided by just being passive when you feel the need to say or do something that is inappropriate for the situation.

Experiential Blog #4 Prague

Prague is probably the opposite of what I expected. I was anticipating a run down corrupt city filled with poverty, drugs and alcohol. Prague is one of the cleanest cities I have every been to. The building are all different from totally classic Gothic to modern hybrid styled buildings no cookie cutters here. I learned that the culture of Prague is hardly what I expected, even being the party city it is a highly functional city with lots going on and lots to do. Prague is open for business. Prague has a ton of greenery and tons of public places to hangout which is also not what I expected I thought the city would be very crowded with buildings and industry, but not at all. For entertainment the list goes on and on, we went to tour Konopiste, Prague Castle, the bone church and also the Kafka museum. I had a lot of fun just walking around and exploring the different things to do around the city.

Experiential Blog #3 Vienna

I expected the buildings in Vienna to be very classical, older and smaller. I expected a very quiet city with a limited amount of quiet people. I got something totally different, what I saw were very narrow connected building that were very tall and lots of them block after block. There were tones of people and from my experience it was not the quietest city. I was disappointed that most of the interactions I had with the locals in Vienna were very short and rude, I believe this to have been caused by the language barrier but it is hard to tell. The landscapes were not exactly what I expected either. I expected much more greenery and small relaxing areas with public seating. It's possible we were simply in the wrong part of the city but there was very little decoration with greenery and very little public seating if at all. Although this posting sounds negative I had an excellent time in Vienna because of all the things to do for entertainment such as st. Stephens spire view, many places to shop and buy souvenirs, and best of all the food is fantastic every where you go.