Chris Shilton
Summer in Georgia is like being trapped inside of a car on a hot day with the windows rolled up and the air conditioning off – a suffocating heat so thick with humidity you can drink it.
“Beautiful day,” Chris Shilton said.
He sat down on the concrete bench shaded by a large tree on front campus. He wore a dark colored T-shirt with white, faded writing and a pair of loose-fitting blue jeans.
“I love the weather,” he said. “It rains all the time in England.”
He smiled and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose towards his pale blue eyes.
Shilton leaned forward, placed his elbows on his knees and extended his arms outward, fingers interlocked.
He stared straight ahead at Hancock Street baking under the midday sun.
“I hope I’m not too boring,” he said.
First Impressions
Shilton is a senior at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, a city of more than one million people in northeast England.
Shilton came to Milledgeville to study for one semester at GC&SU.
“I expected more from Milledgeville,” Shilton said. “I expected it to be bigger.”
But bigger is not always better.
The University of Northumbria has almost 60,000 students.
Shilton likes having classes with only 10 students, compared to the 60 to 70 students in his classes back home.
“The classes are much smaller, more personal,” Shilton said. “There’s more room for debate among the students, which is interesting.”
Shilton said he has already learned a lot in his short time in the United States.
“I thought all American people were stupid and ignorant about the rest of the world,” Shilton said.
“I came with a preconception of American people which I have been proved wrong about, to be honest with you. Everyone’s a lot more educated and intelligent than they give them credit for around Europe.”
Even though he has not even been in the United States long enough to see all of Milledgeville, Shilton already considers the trip a success.
“I’ve really enjoyed it so far,” Shilton said. “It’s more than I imagined it would be.”
And then as an afterthought, he said, “Milledgeville is smaller than I thought it would be, but the university is fantastic.”
Rounders For Men
On Sept. 3, the Georgia Bulldogs beat the Boise State Broncos 48-13 between the hedges. Shilton had planned on going to that game, his first football game, but he didn’t make it up to Athens.
“I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get to go, but I heard that (the Bulldogs) gave them a whoopin’,” he said. “I hope that I get a chance to see a football game.”
Shilton is amazed at the popularity and the spectacle of college sports in America.
“The stadium in Athens holds almost 100,000 people,” Shilton said. “There’s nothing like that in England.”
There are, of course, college athletics in England, but they do not receive the same level of attention as American collegiate sports, Shilton said.
In England, it is rare for a college sporting event to be on television, and they do not get much ink in the newspapers.
The exception is a boat race between England’s two oldest universities, Oxford and Cambridge, a tradition that goes back 174 years.
Of course, this is not the only difference in American and English sporting tastes.
“I miss soccer a lot,” Shilton said.
Soccer is England’s most popular sport, but it is barely a blip on the American sports radar.
“I’ve got to watch a couple (soccer) games since I’ve been here, but they’re on late at night,” Shilton said.
For Shilton, like most sports fans, one sport is never enough.
“I enjoy cricket and rugby as well,” Shilton said. “I’m not strong enough to play rugby.”
Most Americans are at least familiar with the striped shirts rugby players wear. The game is hard to describe without going into much detail, but if football and soccer got together and had a badly behaved child, it would be rugby.
Cricket is similar to baseball, but it is played with a flat bat by men dressed in what appears to be their Sunday clothes.
“I don’t like baseball. I think it’s boring,” Shilton said. “Baseball is rounders for men.”
Rounders is a game similar to baseball that kids play in school. The major differences are that the ball is pitched underhand and the batter uses a small bat that is held with one hand.
“The fact that in baseball you can play two games in one day and it doesn’t seem to stretch them physically disappoints me,” Shilton said.
Shilton had never heard the most enduring baseball maxim: “We’re not athletes; we’re baseball players.”
He laughed out loud, then quickly regained his composure. He smiled and nodded his head in agreement.
“Cricket is a proper sport,” Shilton said. “It’s an English gentleman’s sport. Any game that takes five days to finish is a good game.”
And Americans complain that baseball games are too long.
Two Things You Never Talk About At A Bar
The University of Northumbria has an exchange student agreement with the University System of Georgia. Shilton chose to come to GC&SU because he liked what he read about it on the Internet, but it was not his first choice of schools. It was his third.
“I had a choice of three,” Shilton said. “I put down on my list: Armstrong Atlantic, Kennesaw and then GC&SU.”
Shilton liked Armstrong Atlantic State because it is in Savannah; he liked Kennesaw State because it was close to Atlanta.
But first choices are not always the best choices.
Political science was not Shilton’s first choice of major.
“I was planning to study the law, but I became disinterested in it,” Shilton said. “I found it a little rigid, and I thought the political side of it was more interesting, so I decided to focus more on that.”
The conversation turned to a topic Shilton had spent the last three ____ studying – politics. He straightened up. His face was more solemn, thoughtful.
“There are a lot more churches here than in England,” Shilton said. He stared across Hancock Street at the former church turned Student Activities Center.
Shilton is a conservative, but stresses that there are some major differences between British and American conservatism.
“I don’t think there is such a religious slant to British conservatism,” Shilton said. “The British population has moved away from religion being a strong reason to vote, apart from Northern Ireland.”
But Shilton believes that the heart of conservatism in both England and America has very similar goals.
“The British Conservative Party wants less state interference in people’s lives, less taxation,” Shilton said. “More freedom for the people.”
“Reduction of the welfare state is something that British conservatives, if they get into government, would like to do,” he said. “They also want to cut down on spending on management of the National Health Service and wasteful spending across the government spectrum.”
Shilton is not at all impressed with Prime Minister Tony Blair, who he believes is more style than substance.
“I think he just wants to be remembered as a great war-time prime minister,” Shilton said.
Shilton follows American politics. He and his friends had an election night party in 2004. Together, they drank beers and watched as results came in from the United States.
He does not want to offend anyone and carefully picks his words.
“I don’t think George Bush is the most loved president in Europe,” Shilton said, a slight smile on his lips.
Cheers, mate
There are certain things that know no boundaries – universal truths. College students around the world share similar experiences. Shilton, like all college seniors, now must look ahead to life after school.
“My long term goal is to become a member of Parliament in Great Britain, but there’s a lot of options open to me,” Shilton said. “I’m thinking about joining the police or maybe officer training in the army in England.”
Shilton looked down at his watch, signaling his time was up.
“Well, I better be getting to class,” he said. He stood and picked his book bag up off the bench. “I’m sorry. I tend to be a bit boring. Cheers, mate.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 7 2005. Filed under News.
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