John Triplett: Winchester College 2014

 John Triplett: Winchester College 2014

Beginning

      No less than two days after Commencement, Anthony, Seth, Harrison, and I congregated at the small but comfortable Nashville airport to head out for our great adventure. Thankfully, most of our traveling went pretty well considering that we had long layovers between each of our connections and that there were no luggage mix-ups. The first of our flights was a short hour and a half one to Chicago. We arrived in Chicago at 7pm on May 31st and then our flight to London left at 9:35pm. It was about an eight hour flight over "across the pond" to get to London. The plane ride was filled with movie-watching and futile attempts to fall asleep. We arrived at 11:25am London time at Heathrow which is a massive airport. Thankfully, we found our way to customs where we got through without much trouble. Then, after picking up our luggage, we were met by a man from Winchester driving an SUV which we piled all of our luggage into. Winchester is about an hour and fifteen minute drive south of London, so we piled in the car and started the short journey. Besides being a little freaked by driving on the "wrong side of the road", we were all very tired and tried to admire the lush landscape but just drifted in and out of sleep.
       Upon arriving at my boarding house, I was warmly greeted by housemaster, Mr. MJ Winter, and shown where my room and everything else was in my house. After being introduced to the guys in my year(grade), we promptly went to the local movie theater and saw X-Men Days of Future Past. Although I had never seen an X-Men movie before, it was pretty enjoyable. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with and getting to know the guys. At the end of the day, I fell exhausted into bed after a spicy dinner from a local Indian food place. The next morning I awoke to this view from my room: 

View from my room

 Academics

    At Winchester, academics are the same intensity as at MBA. Although there is much less busy work and written assignments in the British system, they still learn at the same level we do at MBA. In general their classes are more discussion-based rather than lectures like we have at MBA. They learn mainly by discussing and thinking about ideas and writing essays. Personally, I enjoyed the discussion-based classes more than lectures because they were in general more engaging and personal. I really enjoyed discussing ideas and issues with my classmates. I feel that they were not caught up in simply getting their work done, but they focused more on the process of learning itself and enjoying it. They also focus more heavily on individual subjects at Winchester. Students in their 11th and 12th grade years must concentrate on 3-4 subjects. Students then have two separate classes for each subject and thus two teachers for each subject. For example, I took Latin, Economics, and History while at Winchester. I had a Latin grammar class and a Latin literature class. Overall, I enjoyed all of my classes. Although, my British History class was a bit dry at times, my classes were engaging most of the time. 

       In Latin grammar, we discussed several grammatical topics and did weekly translations. In Latin literature, we read a chapter of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita. Economics was broken into one class of Microeconomics and one class of Macroeconomics. For History, I took one set of 19th century European History and another of British History. Overall, I really enjoyed my classes. I am very thankful for all of my teachers who promptly accepted me into their classes and took me in as one of their own students. I'd say my favorite class was economics because of the way both of my teachers presented the material and made it applicable to today's world. In fact, I read a book on income inequality while at Winchester called "The Spirit Level". I was also given a few weekly issues of The Economist which I greatly enjoyed. 

     Another academic difference between Winchester and MBA is that Winchester holds classes six days a week as opposed to five like MBA since Winchester is a boarding school. Although it may seem like this is entirely too much class time, both equal to about the same amount of school because Winchester has half-days on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. They hold classes from nine am to one pm on these half-days while on regular days it runs from nine to three thirty. Thankfully, they both equal to about the same amount of class time.
    Winchester also has a special course called Div. This class meets about 3 to 4 times a week and is a discussion/english type of class. There is no set syllabus to the course except that a set amount of literature be read every year and "Div Tasks"(written homework for the class) be due once a week. Everyone has a different Div don(teacher) each year. I had the head of the history department, Dr. Guymer, as my Div don. His class was very enjoyable. We discussed many different philosophies, ideas, and current real world issues. I remember one class period in particular in which we discussed the developing ISIS situation and aggressive Western Foreign Policy and its effects. We also read a few D.H. Lawrence short stories and watched a couple movies. Overall, it was a very intriguing and engaging class which always promised something new and exciting.

View from the library

Winchester College's renowned library, formerly a brewery

One of the main academic buildings

View from the main courtyard("Flint Court")

Athletics

      Unlike American schools, athletics are much less intense in the UK. Winchester has quite a reputation for having particularly bad sports teams. Despite these features, participating in sports at Winchester was still a blast. On my own, I often ran around the town of Winchester and the surrounding areas and worked out in the athletic facilities. I often took advantage of the rowing machines in the weight room. Unfortunately while I was at Winchester most of the sports which I enjoy were out of season. However, I did try my hand at cricket while I was there. I was able to play for house in the house cricket competition. I was not exactly the best at cricket, but I had fun learning how to play it! On a daily basis though, there were football(it's still just soccer) matches in my house's "yard". Unfortunately, I had quite the accident after I had been there for only 5 days. I was attempting to account for my vast lack of soccer skills in these games. Almost everyone could dribble circles around me. So, in the middle of a game, there was an unmissable opportunity to get a goal, and being as eager as ever to score my first one against someone else, I sprinted to the ball and put my foot through it, only to find my big toe smashing against another boy's foot. I promptly stopped playing. Through the massive bruising that ensued and the forced visit to the doctor, I found out that I had broken my big toe. Despite these troubles, I still thoroughly enjoyed playing soccer in my house's yard. For most of the rest of the term, I played goalkeeper often bringing on comparisons to the legendary Tim Howard. I also participated in American Football Society with two of my housemates. We played two-hand-touch once a week, and we had a great time doing it. One of my housemates and I often had in-depth discussions about football. He had recently taking a liking too it, and we talked about our favorite teams and our predictions for the upcoming season. 

Soccer fields

House Lifestyle

     At Winchester, since the students all live in about twelve separate houses, there is more of a house culture rather than a general school spirit. I was living in Kenny's while at Winchester(also known by its more proper name Fearon's). Kenny's had the reputation of having dreadful cooking, but I found to not be all that bad. It certainly wasn't spectacular, but the food was often good or average. For breakfast, they often served beans, bacon, eggs, and pastries. For lunch, they served a multitude of dishes some highlights of which were chicken curry, fish and chips, assorted meat pies, steak and potatoes, and several others. They often served similar dishes for dinner as they did for lunch with some added salad, assorted fruits, and desserts. Overall, I found the house lifestyle to be quite enjoyable. Even though I spent a mere five weeks there, I grew quite close to my housemates, especially those guys in my year. Besides living and often hanging out with his housemates, a student will often participate in various activities and competitions with his housemates. My housemaster, Mr. Winter, was quite a nice man who gave me good advice and company. 

Street View near Kenny's

Road my house was on

Exeat

There was a short two and half day break in the middle of the term during which I stayed with my friend Ed Spencer and his family. They lived in Winchester itself, so we traveled a good bit during the break. On the first day we traveled around the county of Hampshire to various sites such as Jane Austen's House, Gilbert White's house, and the countryside. Then on day two, we walked around areas of London and saw various sights. It was quite a fun time and one that I will always remember! 

Me with my friends Eisenhower and Churchill

Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

Up close view of Houses of Parliament

Jane Austen's Home

     

View of the Thames from the London Eye

Picture of Houses of Parliament from London Eye

Me at the bank of the Thames

Winchester the Town

     Winchester itself is a small town about an hour train ride south of London. It is most famous for it's renowned cathedral. It has many small shops and stores and nice areas to walk through. I would go into town about once or twice a week with friends to buy items, get something to eat, or just walk around. 

   

Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral from front

World Cup

   The world cup was a meaningful part of my experience at Winchester. I watched many of the matches and really soaked in a different, soccer-obsessed culture. It was very fun watching the USA matches and poking fun at the guys in my house for England's struggles in the cup. I remember watching the USA vs. Ghana match with an American in my house and absolutely losing it when the US scored the winning goal. It was a great night. My time at Winchester would have been much different without the world cup

    Overall, I am very thankful that I was able to have this amazing experience. I would like to thank Mr. Gioia, the Warners, Dr. Townsend, and everyone else who made this exchange experience possible for me. It was truly a life-changing experience and one that I will never forget. I will forever be indebted to the guys at Winchester and everyone else who made this exchange possible. To anyone reading this blog thinking about going on exchange, you should definitely do it! It is such a great time that you will never forget!