CK in the UK

Last December, I was honored to be selected as a recipient of the Marshall Scholarship. This scholarship, which was established by the United Kingdom in 1953 in recognition of the Marshall Plan, finances the graduate education of American students studying in the United Kingdom. Even though the world looks very different today than it did last December (and certainly much different than it looked in 1953), I am extremely excited to have this opportunity and grateful for the Marshall Scholarship which is making it possible!

At the same time, I know that many of the people who made this experience possible for me are back at home in the United States. To help share the stories of my U.K. experiences with them, I am starting a blog! (Please note that all thoughts and opinions shared in this blog are solely my own.) This first blog post will cover all of the highlights from the time my flight left Kansas City to my first days out of quarantine.

My adventure started with a flight out of Kansas City, which was followed by a long layover in Chicago. This gave me plenty of time to finish downloading episodes of my favorite shows (including The Office, of course!) before embarking on my transatlantic journey. My Aer Lingus flight from Chicago to Dublin was quiet and pretty empty (which was not really surprising, due to the travel restrictions in place as a result of COVID-19). All passengers were expected to wear masks at all times, except for when eating meals. The flight staff also wore masks at all times (except for when they were doing the well-known safety demonstration in which we were reminded to put our own oxygen masks on first in the case of an emergency).

After landing in Dublin, my passport was stamped and I was sent on my way to London. I was met at the London airport by a minicab driver, who took me to Reading. This was my first view of the United Kingdom (and also my last opportunity to see the world outside of my room for a while).

Once I arrived at the University of Reading, I was immediately able to move into my accommodations. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had two glass doors that opened out to green space directly from my room. I was also relieved to see that the bedding bundle I had ordered ahead of time was already in the room, largely because this meant that I could go to sleep right away (and make up for my lack of sleep on the plane).

With my suitcases finally hauled into my room and the door closed behind me, my 14-day quarantine period officially started. To prevent the potential spread of COVID-19, I had to stay in my room for two weeks. I wasn’t able to leave my room for any reason (barring an emergency). Fortunately, the university staff were extremely supportive! When I moved in, they brought me two bags of staple food items (including ingredients to make spaghetti). Since I didn’t have access to my pots or pans (because they had yet to arrive from the shipping container that I sent them over on ahead of time), a staff member brought me a brand new set of kitchen supplies. This included everything from pots and pans to a can opener and an orange peeler. So while I was certainly alone, I was never really completely on my own.

Without any classes, the first week of my quarantine went by pretty slowly. To stay busy, I spent time video chatting with friends and family members back home, reading some of the books that I managed to cram into my two suitcases, and re-watching every single episode of New Girl. I also worked on creating resources for the Teachers Pay Teachers website that my mom and I recently started (which you should definitely check out if you teach high school students).

My classes officially started during the second week of my quarantine. I am completing the MSc Agricultural Economics program through the Graduate Institute of International Development, Agriculture and Economics at the University of Reading. This term, all of the core course content is online. However, I still have the opportunity to attend weekly in-person sessions on campus. Each of my modules (or classes) has one of these interactive session per week. Students who are not able to attend the in-person sessions are able to opt for online live sessions instead.

Being back in the classroom (even if it was a virtual classroom) really helped energize me during the second half of my quarantine! For this term, I enrolled in the following modules:

• Food Security and Development
• Resource and Environmental Economics
• Consumers, Producers, Markets and Trade
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Econometrics
• European Food Systems Education and Training Programme (EFSET)
• Research and Study Skills for Independent Learning
• Personal and Professional Development Programme for International Students

When my first week of classes ended, so did my quarantine period. My first trip out of quarantine was to pick up my biometric residence permit and my campus card (both of which I was unable to pick up until I had completed my quarantine). Afterwards, I walked to the Co-op grocery store on campus and bought as many groceries as I could carry. (I also learned not to forget to bring reusable grocery bags next time, since the plastic grocery bags cost 10p or 13 cents a piece.)

With these trips out of the way, I was able to spend a bit of time walking around the campus. So far, my favorite spot on campus is Whiteknights Lake (which is roughly half a mile’s walk from where I live).

With that image in mind, I think this is a great place to end my first blog post! Thank you for reading it! Feel free to reach out to me with any thoughts, or leave comments below. And if you’re interested, you can “follow” my blog by scrolling down and entering your email address in the box at the bottom of the page!