Alvin Zhang '16: Winchester College 2015

My trip to Winchester was one of the most interesting and unique experience I have ever had in my life. Previous to this trip, I had never gone to a foreign country except for China (which for me is not too different from home), and I was excited to set foot on Europe for the first time. Upon first setting foot in England I was immediately thrown into a new world- sub-60 degree temperatures in the middle of summer, cars with steering wheels on the right side, and extremely narrow streets were just some of the major differences I noticed within the first day of arriving.

The main street of Winchester

Athletics

The Athletic program at Winchester was a very different and unique one from MBA. While they didn't have good ol' American football there, they had a variety of sports such as cricket, water polo, football (the real kind), and even sailing. As a rather unathletic person, I was surprised at how much fun I was able to have while playing sports there. I was learned how to swim quickly without goggles in waterpolo, and learned how to be focused and balanced in archery.  I even played a little chess with the Winchester chess club. The inter-house competitions were also a blast. It was fun to watch my house, Morshead, compete with other houses in events like tug-of-war and volleyball. All in all, I really enjoyed the athletics at Winchester because they were really team-building and easy to enjoy.

One of Winchester's many cricket fields

Academics

Winchester's academics really left an impression on me because it was so focused on class discussions and understanding broad concepts, instead of memorizing specific details for tests or quizzes. I took a total of four classes: English, Div, Chemistry, and Theology/ Philosophy. In english, our studies of TS Eliot really changed my views on modern and postmodern poetry, as it was a stimulating challenge to uncover the meaning and purpose of what seemed like a jumble of random words. In English we also discussed Tennessee Williams' Streetcar Named Desire, and it was cool to have already known the major ideas and plot points of the book (shoutout to 10th grade english).

A strange picture in the music building

Another interesting class was the Div. It was cool because there was no set thing we were supposed to learn; instead, the class was based on whatever the Don (Winchester word for "teacher") wanted it to be about. Sometimes we would be discussing Russian history, while other times we would be arguing over whether or not the Beatles were part of the Illuminati.  

Chemistry was also a fun, but really difficult class. Most of the things they were doing was way over my head, but in the end it was always fun to mix various substances in labs to make them turn bright blue or to simply light stuff on fire. 

My most memorable class at Winchester was probably Theology and Philosophy, and it was unlike any class I had ever attended in the US. In this class we learned about philosophies such as existentialism (by Jean Paul Sartre) and Predestination. Questions like “is goodness something inherent to the universe?” were ones discussed often in class, with many debates becoming very heated. One interesting assignment we had was to prove the existence of God, using various ideas such as morality or divine purpose. 

School car show

Culture

While at Winchester I noticed a lot of cultural and lifestyle differences from the states. It amused me to watch my housemates eat things like hot dogs and pizza with forks and knives. Known in the house as "chira", I was another addition to the house's diversity, which already included people from England, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, and many more countries. The vocabulary used at Winchester was also different. Teachers were called "Dons", the word for lazy was "crusty", and the word for doing homework was "toytime". Upon the first day of arriving, I learned that the school actually had a whole book dedicated strictly to its unique words, and that in the past first year students would have to memorize for a test! The school culture was also pretty diverse; Winchester had a lot of student-run plays and comedy shows, but it also had a lot of guest speakers to talk about topics such as philosophy or medicine or sports.


Exeat!
The best part of the Winchester trip was most certainly the long weekend, called the "exeat". During this weekend I got to visit London and its many attractions and museums. Below are some of the pictures I took in London during the Exeat.

One of the many royal seals in England

Big Ben

This was a gallery on African weapons in the British History Museum

All in all, the Winchester exchange was an awesome trip that really opened up my eyes to life on the other side of the pond. I would like to thank Headmaster Gioia and Mrs. Warner for making this trip a possibility. This was a great experience, and one that I will never forget.