Britain

After returning home for winter break, I began to notice that college culture was wildly different in British colleges. Here are eight things that shocked me about British universities as a UC Berkeley student. 

I projected my desire to experience change onto a wilderness that is fundamentally not that disparate to my own.

Cry with your nose. Smile with your nose. Think with your nose. Smell is the most articulate language of emotion.

Like a sculptor at a marble block, I’d expected the chips of those less close to gather at my feet, revealing a statue of “true” friends at the core.

I’m an only child with two lesbian mothers, but I attended a boys’ school for most of my life. From as early as I can remember, school was a male space and the home was a female space.

Upon reaching my bathroom on Thursday, I realized that the tube was now a wrinkled shell. The toothpaste was finished and I almost burst into tears.

Our local Berkeley alley is now “dodgy,” not sketchy; elevators are labeled as “lifts;” American friends use “bloody” and “bum” in place of ruder options.

For so long, I had looked inwards at America from the outside. Yet now that I’m across the border, it seems that I am still not “in” America.

Though canceling all student debt would be a bold step, it is vital that the government address the inequities the current system perpetuates.