Country #2 - the UK (Reading)

October 1989 - March 1990

Before going to Reading as a visiting student I went on a holiday in England with my sister and her son (summer 1989). This was great as I could see what had changed since I had been there as a teenager in the late 70s. We went by car from town to town and slept in B&Bs. We nearly burned the contents of the boot when going up a steep mountain with a full car and a broken exhaust and all of us got scared of ghosts in our holiday place in the Lake District, but all in all it was a wonderful holiday.

Reading was an interesting experience, especially living in a hall of residence with much younger students than I was used to. In Germany you study later and longer (I was 25 at the time and in my 5th year), in the UK many students start with 18 and finish when they are only 21.

Of course I took part in some courses and again realised that the system was quite different: it seemed to be more like in school. In Germany many students have to work while they study, so there is a lot more time for them to do that, and course work seemed to be less.

Another thing that was very unusual to me were the formal dress dinners for the students and the food fights that would take place at those. To be honest, being typical German and not used to the idea to play with something as serious as food, I was appalled at first. Now I see this as something typical of the British culture and in that context I accept it (sounds probably more arrogant than I mean it).

There were more visiting students from many countries and we did a lot together. I especially remember two girls from Greece. When they spoke to each other in Greek they sounded to me like two birds twittering with each other - strange but very nice. I also met a number of German people to whom I lost contact (if anybody remembers me and happens to read this, go on send me a message :).

The handy thing was that my friend Michael who I knew from back home was living close-by in London, so I could go in by train and stay with him on weekends. As you can guess compared to that Reading wasn't exactly exciting - but it had what I needed to survive on my student loan: a big supermarket.

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Things I liked Whoever I met was really nice and friendly and it didn't matter that my English wasn't very fluent at the beginning. The food in the hall - we had great dinners, sometimes influenced by Indian cooking. I also loved the deserts. All those dress-up parties. Fancy dress? Any time! Things I hated The high prices for everything, especially proper orange juice. Not affordable for a student on a loan.

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© Sylke Krämer 2006 Last edited June 2006

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