National Identity

I've noticed recently that I haven’t seen anything with an English flag on it yet. Only the Union Jack. This surprises me a little because I got into the topic of national identity in one of my modules in semester 1 and discussed a study which was deducted across the UK and which identified that people from England tend to see themselves as English first and British second, whereas in Scotland or Wales for example, people would tend to say that they feel British as a first or main identity and Scottish or Welsh as a second one.

 







I don’t know if this is maybe a tourism thing to sell all kinds of goods with the Union Jack on it or if it’s because Newcastle is a city with many international students. Or maybe it has political reasons I'm unaware of. I just randomly realised that I haven’t seen a single English flag since I’ve come to England.

UK vs. Germany - first impressions

Getting settled over here, I noticed quite a few things already that are different here from how they are in Germany. For some of them I prefer how they are here, but even now I already miss a few things from home.

There is for example the quality of houses, or rather the quality of the materials houses are made of and how well these are put together. (English houses could use some quality “German engineering” :P ) The house I live in now, for example, has extremely thin walls and floors. I can hear every step anyone takes anywhere in the house. Having two levels in the apartment doesn’t help either. Even though there is thick carpet on the stairs and on the corridor of the upper level, it’s still noisy every time someone goes up or down the stairs. I feel a little bad for the couple living in the downstairs bedroom, it must be even louder there. :/ But then again, I’m glad I’m in one of the upstairs rooms.

But the most important difference is the tap water. Since Hamburg has excellent tap water quality, I grew up and lived all my life almost exclusively drinking tap water. Here that’s just not possible because there’s too much chlorine in it. My solution so far: using a filter and buying bottled water. Filtering tap water twice or three times seems to make it acceptable to drink, but it’s still not very tasty. Plus I’m not convinced that it’s the healthiest solution. Bottled water tastes better but creates extra costs and is heavy to carry home from the supermarket. We’ll have to see which one is the better solution for me.

 
 

One thing I really like here is electric showers. Both bathrooms here have a tankless water heater, which basically means that we always have hot water in the shower. This is very useful, if not a necessity, seeing as there are 7 people living in one apartment. And since we all pay a fixed price for rent, no extra utilities, we don't have to worry about creating extra costs for everyone if one person takes longer than the other. I especially like this because I was afraid I might end up paying a lot more for heating during the winter due to bad isolation. Luckily this won't be a problem now.

Something that seems to be a very consistent custom over here (I've seen it in Scotland, too) and is also different from usual habits in Germany, is how to behave when using public transportation. More specifically: buses. Here, people form a queue to get onto the bus. They really line up in the order they arrived at the bus stop. If you get to a bus stop and people are standing there already, you always get in line behind the last one... and don’t try to stand around somewhere else and jump the queue! It’s not appreciated at all. When the bus approaches, you briefly stick your arm out to the side and into the street to let the bus driver know that people want to board. I don’t know if this is specific to areas like Newcastle, where so many buses come by one single bus stop that this is necessary, or if it is a general UK thing. It’s just something that sticks out because it’s different from what I was used to in Germany. Also, when getting off the bus, every single person thanks the driver before exiting. Since buses only have one door, which is in the front, everyone comes by the driver anyways.

In general, people seem to be very polite and friendly here. I noticed this the first time when I was at my local supermarket. When I came around a shelf and someone else came from the other side, we were standing in each other’s way. The other person just said “sorry” and walked around. The first time this happened, I was a little confused, because in Germany people would just see that there’s room to walk around, maybe exchange a look and walk on. You’d only say “sorry” if you know that you did something wrong; if there was something to feel bad for. Maybe it was your fault for blocking the way, so the other person couldn’t pass. Not here, though. It’s not a matter of being right or wrong, of faults and errors. It’s just a way of being friendly and polite. And I like it ;)
Another example for friendly people I already met here is a guy from the local gym. Matthias and I showed up there last week to look at the facility and maybe sign up for a membership, but we didn’t know that we showed up just at closing time. We were prepared to go back home and come back the next day, as any German gym staff member would have told us. But this man just told us to wait a minute for him to fetch his keys, so he could unlock the doors again to show us around. We were both surprised and happy that this man was so nice to take these few minutes out of his own time, when he was supposed to be heading out already.

And there is one more thing I have to mention when talking about first impressions and differences between England and Germany. Traffic lights. Basically, traffic lights for pedestrians are completely redundant. They are simply ignored. Just look if there’s a car coming and walk whenever you think it’s safe. Even policemen do it. Since I saw that, I at least don’t have to feel guilty any more crossing the street at a red light myself. A UK student told me “they are only for children. At least that’s what I tell myself.”

But enough for now... I’m sure I will soon notice more differences between German and British customs that I can tell you about.

Hannah goes… Newcastle

Today I want to tell you how I ended up here in Newcastle Upon Tyne, because I’m sure I didn’t tell everyone (although it seems like many knew that I was “going to England” before I even completed my application o_o ) Anyways, let’s start from the beginning.
As many of you know, I recently finished my undergraduate studies at the University of Hamburg with a Bachelor degree in English and American studies (or simply English language and literature). After my exams were all through, I started looking for a Master programme that would interest me, and at the same time help me get a little bit away from linguistics and literature and a little more in the direction of business management. I checked different universities in Germany and England but just could not find the right one. After my boyfriend got into Newcastle University, I checked their programme list and finally found the perfect one: Cross Cultural Communication and International Business Management. It was an excellent combination of continuing what I had already studied and adding a direction in which I wanted to go. So I decided to apply there as well. Almost three months of anxious waiting and nervous daily e-mail checking followed the application, until I finally got an e-mail in the end of August stating the words I wanted to read!

Woot! But since it was already the end of August and the semester would start in September, there wasn’t much time left to deal with all the official stuff that had to be taken care of...
- Apply for university accommodation.

- Cancel the contract with the landlord for the flat in Hamburg.
- Store everything I wanted to keep in my sister’s basement and attic, as far as space would allow. (Luckily my parents were willing and able to drive by my place several times a week to pick up stuff and drop it off at my sister’s).
- Sell all the furniture I did not store.
- Buy a big suitcase (or rather make it a belated birthday wish)
- Cancel several contracts, such as GEZ, gym membership, internet, etc.
- Apply for financial support from the German government (BAföG)
- Already vote in the upcoming election, since I knew I wouldn’t be around for it

- Order a new ID, so I wouldn’t get in trouble flying back next year with an expired one

- Officially de-register from the address I would soon not have any more
- ...

After everything was settled, I could finally book my flight. By then I already knew that I did not get into university accommodation, but I also knew that I could live with my boyfriend, who left about a week before I did and already found a room.

At least without the trouble of having to look for private accommodation myself, I ended up in this apartment with four bedrooms, three of which have double-size beds. So at the moment, this apartment is housing 7 people. Three couples and one unlucky single. One couple is from Italy, one is from China, and another German will live in the single room. It sure won’t get boring around here. I just hope that we will keep getting along as well as we are now. =)