Haruspex Games

It’s been nineteen days since I arrived in America, and things are starting to settle into a rhythm that’s not entirely unfamiliar. I’m starting my second week of classes, and have largely settled into living in College Park. That’s not to say I’ve gone native, but I’m also not feeling so much like a stranger in a strange land. The novelty is wearing off in places, but by no means does that mean things have grown boring; just that the honeymoon period can’t last the whole year.

In one of the international student lectures given just after my arrival at the University we were told about adjustment to new and unfamiliar cultures. They classified three main groups of people; Rejectors, Adopters, and Cosmopolitans. Rejectors tend not to cope with integrating into a new culture, and often isolate themselves with the emerging view that returning home is the only option. Adopters fully integrate into their new culture, and tend to lose much if not most of the traces of their old culture. Cosmopolitans tend to adapt to their host country’s culture, and adopt some aspects of it. But they don’t lose much of their former culture, and can easily return home or relocate elsewhere. I feel they’re missing shades of grey in those groupings, but I’d place myself tentatively as a Cosmopolitan. I’m sure my situation is made easier as I’m not jumping to a vastly different culture, and I’m sure my experience is also coloured by my location just outside Washington D.C.. I always felt there was a risk of failing to adapt, or make new friends and becoming isolated out of shyness and a lack of confidence. (but hell, that’s half the reason I decided to do this in the first place; to make myself confident by doing something that’s in many ways scary). But I’m confident now that I’m going to continue adapting fairly well. I’m also making some good friends, which I hope won’t be too surprising for anyone.

My first week of classes was kind of uneventful. I was sort of forced to enroll in a course called Philosophy of Literature, which was a combination of English Literature and Metaphysics, and so wasn’t related to anything I’m looking to pursue in my third year. I managed to drop it and take up Symbolic Logic instead, which funnily enough is a lot more interesting, at least to me. I’m not a big fan of studying English Literature. And anyone who’s mentioned Metaphysics to me will also know that I have no truck with that kind of bullshit. Other than that the only eventful occurrence is how my Philosophy of Science course has sneakily renamed itself Introduction to Philosophy of Science. We’ll see how that pans out.

Finally, I attended my very first (and probably, hopefully, my last) Frat Party. Let’s just say it wasn’t exactly my scene. Let’s also just say it was like condensing a thousand-person nightclub into a bedsit. I think the best part of the night was coming out of the party to a set of streets positively swarming with Freshmen. Hundreds of them roaming the streets looking for a place to party; a place that’ll let them in. As I stood there tired, hot and with my head frazzled from playing games of beer pong, it looked more than a little like the battle of Helm’s Deep. the first wave of freshmen poured towards the frat house I had emerged from and promptly crashed against its walls and retreated, turned back by the announcement that the party was full, and now a guest-list-only procedure was in place. More and more came, only to be turned away by impromptu bouncers. Those rejected groups filtered away to seek greener fields. But they just didn’t. stop. coming. I felt that soon the sheer weight of their numbers would overwhelm the defences, and the party would be swarmed by a mass of bodies, teenage anxiety, and burgeoning sexual frustration. I exchanged a look of solidarity with the low-ranking fratboys sent here to hold the line, and with that I gathered my homies and left.

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Oh, also, I’ve been listening to Sufjan Stevens’ new EP All Delighted People. If you’ve ever been interested in him definitely go buy it here. Or listen to it for free here.

And if you’re as interested as I am in loud-quiet-loud Icelandic post-rock then give these guys a listen. Their first album is just as good, if not better.

I meant to write something to let people know how I’m doing earlier, but things have been pretty busy. Everything’s started to settle down now, and my classes start tomorrow, so I thought I’d get something written down now in case anyone back home wants to know how things are.

My flight out here was not, I’m going to say, too bad. We set out from Heathrow on what was a seven hour flight. I thought it’d be okay getting through that; I had a book, I had a couple of magazines, and the in-flight entertainment had both Toy Story 1 and 2. Sorted. Round about the two hour mark I noticed on the navigation map ahead that we were near Glasgow, and we were starting to turn. At first the turn was expected; we were heading north and we couldn’t keep going that way forever. After a couple of minutes we were heading south. Turns out someone a few rows ahead of my seat was ill, and we had to head back to Heathrow so he could get off the plane. Took us two hours to get there, then we were on the ground for another two, unable to leave the plane. It wasn’t so bad though. Turns out How to Train Your Dragon is some pretty damn great entertainment. It also turns out Green Zone suddenly turns into one long  incomprehensible gunfight about three-quarters of the way in.

The first few days were mainly just buying everything I need, and getting to know the immediate area. College Park is definitely a student town. Not in the way Leeds is a student town; it’s a collection of retaurants and convenience stores clinging onto the gigantic university campus. It does have some darn nice restaurants though.

I went into Washington D.C. a couple of times, and saw a fair bit of it. Saw The Mall. Saw Georgetown. Saw a fair few crazy people as well. One of them kicked a tree. He was really going at it so I left him to it. Also saw a rickshaw-driver crash into a woman’s car, deny it, and then quickly attempt to cycle away, passengers in tow. The woman dragged his rickshaw back and then stood in front of it, turning from barely over five foot tall to the tallest and most intimidating person in the world. I went up the Washington Monument on my second day in D.C., and that was pretty impressive. it stands at 550 feet tall and there are eight viewing windows you can look out of on the 500 foot level. I have some photos of all of the city from up there, I’ll try to put a couple of them up here soon.

I also went to the Lincoln Memorial, and as I was reading his inspirational speeches from the walls I saw a guy wearing a backpack that had a confederacy flag badge stitched into it. Fair enough, I thought. I read Glenn Beck, the conservative television host and paranoid schizophrenic, gave a big speech there this previous weekend, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Apparently it was in aid of restoring America’s lost honour. APPARENTLY he didn’t know the date was significant when he originally set it up, and it was just divine providence that it fell on the same day as the anniversary of that said speech. I’ll be honest; I think that’s a little presumptuous.

The time between my first few days and now has been filled mostly by looking upwards at improbably large buildings. Such as the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Centre, which has a theatre in it that’s about as big as any professional theatre I’ve ever been in, the College Football Stadium (go terps!), and especially the Comcast Centre, which has two main purposes: to host basketball games and to cow foreigners into a state of shock and awe. I’m going to say the Comcast Centre was about as big as all the University of Bristol buildings combined. I was there for the beginning of term speech for new students, and was promptly taught how to sing the chant for the Maryland Terrapins, along with at least three thousand freshmen. They had brought out the marching band and the cheerleaders. The marching band. The cheerleaders! I’m in America, I thought. It might sounds strange, but that’s somethng I have to make myself  comprehend anew daily. It’s quite the realisation.