Week 2: Why not Cornwall?

So, after forty weeks, here it is: my last full day in Cornwall for quite some time. Whilst most people will be returning to Tremough Campus in three months, I will be gone for nearly seven. Seven months without seeing any of my University colleagues will be a strange experience, and by the time I finally return, a lot will have changed, I will be readjusting to life in England: to some extent, it may well be like being a foreigner in my own country, if not my own county. This therefore begs the question: why on earth am I leaving Cornwall for so long? And why don’t I just stay here instead?
Firstly, let me make one thing clear: I am not leaving Cornwall for so long because I hate the place. I am more than happy here, and this first year has been an excellent one: I have founded a new society, FECCLES (Falmouth & Exeter Cornwall Campus Light Entertainment Society), we put on a very successful production in “One Night Only”, and I leave it in the very capable hands of the new President, Dan Scholes, who I am certain will do just as good a job as I did, if not better. Indeed, my departure to Sweden has given someone else the chance to be President, which I think is good for the society as a whole: as enjoyable as being President was, it is not a job one should hold for more than a year. There is nothing wrong with the area – the nightlife could be better, but it could easily be worse – and my church is thriving. I have made an incredible number of friends, and have spent many a day this term either a) having a BBQ, b) going to the beach or c) having a good night out in Falmouth. So I can confidently say that I am not going to Sweden in order to get away from Cornwall. However, as the saying goes, “A change is as good as a rest”, and I would quite like a change from Cornwall: it is not exactly perfect, and to simply stay put because you’re comfortable with where you are is to rest on one’s laurels: I will have to leave Cornwall for good at the end of my degree as it is, so to say that I should stay put just because I like the place is like arguing that I shouldn’t have gone to University in Cornwall because I was perfectly happy in Gloucestershire. I want to go somewhere I haven’t been before, and this is a brilliant opportunity for me to do so.
Some people might assume that I am going to Sweden because I do not like what I am being taught at Exeter’s Cornwall Campus, that I do not get on well with my lecturers, or that I am doing badly in my course: this is also untrue. Whilst some of the modules have not exactly been enthralling, others have been quite the opposite: I particularly enjoyed studying America 1865-1929, the Victorian Occult, and British Political History since 1945. I get on well enough with my lecturers, most of whom are more than willing to give me advice on how I can improve, and my marks have generally been good; I got 66% overall for this year. I am studying in Sweden because, it will give me not necessarily a better way of studying history, but another way of studying history, and I will be able to study parts of history that I would have been unable to study in Cornwall, Swedish history being an obvious example. Again, it is not because I am disenchanted with the English University style of education but because I want to experience the International University style of education as well, so that I have a better sense of why different people study history in different ways.
It is, of course, not an easy decision to leave Cornwall, and I will undoubtedly miss the weekly meetings of FECCLES, the manic student parties, the sampling of Cornish pasties, the ridiculously glorious (if inconsistent) summer weather: heck, I’ll probably miss the weekly trek to ASDA and the kickabouts that usually result in me conceding a sloppy goal à la Paul Robinson. I’ll undoubtedly miss Falmouth Christian Union, and I’ll miss Cornwall just as much as I’ll miss not being able to amble about in Stroud Town Centre, or use English currency. But it would be downright mad of me to reject Sweden just because it’s not Cornwall, and to a certain extent, the fact that it’s not just like Cornwall works in its favour. And with any luck, my seven months away from good ol’ Kernow will make appreciate it all the more when I return.

Right, back to packing: I’ll be back in the Shire at about this time tomorrow. Next week I’ll be giving you a quick “tour” of Uppsala itself. Until then though, I advise all you crazy Cornish bunch to take care, have a great summer, and stay tuned for the next exciting instalment of…
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sweden (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Chris Stanley

Last Tango in Cornwall

Hello! You join me as Roger Federer (also known as the Man in the Iron Cardigan) thrashes Dominik Hrbarty into submission; as Zimbabwe elections appear to be going ahead despite the opposition leader withdrawing from the race; and as Nick Clegg (Leader of the Lib Dems) says he's quite happy being compared with a chihuahua, which does make a great deal of sense, because if the Lib Dems carry on like this then their new leader will probably be a Chihuahua.

So, with only a week or so left in Cornwall & Devon, what am I going to be up to this week? Well, today is probably going to be spent packing and wondering if I should put some of my stuff in storage when I'm not going to be back until February. Tomorrow, I will be in Exeter visiting my friends at Streatham Campus and having a good ol' natter before saying my goodbyes there. Wednesday I'll be back in Cornwall by lunchtime in order to do a "Training Session" for the up-and-coming Open Day. Thursday I shall be going out into Falmouth one last time (Club I ahoy!). Finally, on Friday I will be showing soon-to-be Freshers around the campus and telling them all to do either a) do History, b) join FECCLES or c) both.

As for Saturday? Well, I get kicked out of my room at 10am, catch the train at 12 (who knows what I'll be doing during the two hours in between), and get home... er... eveningish. I'm back in the Shire by 5pm, so prob back in time for dinner, huzzah. Hopefully I'll bump into most of you on Thursday night, but if I don't see you before I catch that rickety old Sprinter from Penryn station, then take care, and good luck for next year, especially if you're in FECCLES or one of the "History Massive". But now, to packing!

Signing off,

Chris S

Week 1: Why Uppsala?

I, Chris Stanley, being of sound mind (sort of), and age 19 and two thirds, have decided to keep a blog. It is something that occurred to me a week or so ago, and it seems to me to be the best way of informing as many people as possible about my time in Uppsala/Sweden (from mid-August to mid-January). I have started it now because it is precisely 50 days until I go to Uppsala, which gives me a suitable time frame to describe the build-up to my departure. Today is also the birthday of my brother Alastair (who’s 22 by the way), which makes the start of this blog all the more significant, and gives me a handy starting point.

Like most of my friends, Al, upon hearing that I was venturing to Uppsala wanted to know, “Why Uppsala/Sweden?” The truthful answer is – I’m not entirely sure. After all, this is me you’re talking about; I’m notorious for not thinking things through! I think part of the reason is that I wanted to go abroad after Sixth Form at some point, but I didn’t want to do a gap year. Why not? Well, to me, gap years appear to involve a great deal of thought, individual organisation, fund raising and planning, and being the lazy swine that I am, I decided that if I was going to go abroad, I was going to let someone else do most of the organising. I also felt that if I applied to do a gap year, I would soon run out of things to do, as has happened to several of my colleagues, who after spending a few months hurtling around the globe have now fallen back into the usual state of working part-time in order to raise funds. Thus the cons of a gap year seemed to outweigh the pros, and I went straight from Sixth Form to Cornwall Campus. Despite this non-international move, I was still open to the idea of studying abroad: whilst I have been on three foreign exchanges (to Göttingen and Munich in Germany and Ancenis in France), and enjoyed each of them immensely, I haven’t really studied abroad properly (although I did learn the Latin word for elephant whilst in Germany, “Elephantus”).

I was admittedly unaware of the Erasmus programme (which is enabling me to go to Uppsala), but once I had heard of it I was immediately interested in what it had to offer, and thought it a good opportunity. The choice of countries was limited: sadly, Germany and France were unavailable, as were Spain and Italy, as these countries’ universities only accept students who are studying the respective language at Uni. I was not too concerned about this, as I ideally wanted to go somewhere different, but this did only leave a few countries to choose from: Holland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Turkey. I had originally wanted to go to Denmark/Copenhagen, but apparently that’s for Sociologists only, so with Denmark out of the picture, I went for Uppsala/Sweden. Why? Well, it seemed to me to have the best University (Uppsala Uni is the Scandinavian equivalent of Oxbridge, and is by far the best Uni around) and the best atmosphere of the bunch: also, the Swedes seem to be very eager to practise their English whenever possible, and many of them also speak either German or French, both of which I studied at A-Level. Furthermore, the history of Sweden is particularly interesting to me, and I shall be going into more detail about just how interesting it is in future bulletins.

So then, five key reasons why I’m going to Uppsala:

I wanted to go abroad, but without taking a gap year.
I wanted to go somewhere different.
I wanted to go to a well-established foreign University.
I wanted to go somewhere where speaking French and German would come in handy.
I wanted to study Swedish history, and what better place to do that than in a Swedish City?

So there you are: for anyone who couldn’t understand why I was going before, hopefully that makes it a heck of a lot clearer. If you have any further questions about why I’m going to Uppsala, drop me a message and I’ll get back to you when I’m free, or feel free to leave a comment. Next week I’ll be explaining why exactly it is that I’ve decided to “abandon” Cornwall for the disturbingly long period of seven months. Until then though, I’ll see you all next week for another enthralling instalment of…

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sweden (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Chris Stanley