Old England and Exams.

I think it's a general assumption that Americans are obsessed with Europe because everything is old.  With England, it's all about Jane Austen, those historical films, Lord of the Rings, and of course Harry Potter.  In England, everything is full of history.  It's what makes Europe so novel for Americans.  Something 150 years old isn't old at all.  Walking around York on Roman walls... THAT'S old.

When the musical theatre society was on their way to Scarborough for the festival, I was looking out at the English countryside and exclaimed, 'That looks like Pemberley!' (As in Mr. Darcy's mansion in Pride and Prejudice).  My friend Dom's remark was, 'I always love when Americans come to England.  They realise that these places actually exist.'

Yes, in England, many things I only saw in movies or read in books, were actually real.  For example:

1. Harry Potter:  Students do wear robes and dine in large halls with long tables and benches.
2. Harry Potter:  'Head Boy' and 'House Leaders' also exist in schools.
3. Lord of the Rings:  People actually sit in 500+ year old pubs drinking pints (no hobbits, though).
4. Jane Austen:  Places like Pemberley actually exist.
5. People do tend to live in castles or old castle-like homes.
6. There are cities and towns that are hundreds of years old... and look like it.
7. Jane Eyre:  The Moors... are moor-like with rolling hills and Heathcliff-like ominousness 
8. People are obsessed with the queen.  And royalty in general.
9. Jane Austen:  People drink lots of tea.
10. There are lots of sheep...

NOW.  The most recent 'old' thing I encountered in England was... EXAMS.  I took my first exam today.  It was six hours long on Shakespeare.  I'm surprised I'm even able to type!  But what was it about this exam that was so... Harry Potter like?  Or just... BRITISH and precise?

When I walked into the exam room I got nervous just because it was an ENTIRE HALL (like in Harry Potter when they take their OWL exams).  There was a man with a desk, a microphone, and a massive clock facing the rest of the room (also like in Harry Potter).  The same old filling out sheets properly was standard, raising hands to go to the bathroom, etc.  We had our 'designated lunch break' and massive panic ensued and we went back into the massive, daunting hall.

But what was it that made me giggle inside after that six hour long saga?  Not only was the 'moderator' so precise that five minutes BEFORE the time was over we had to start organising everything, but what was it...

We had to tie our booklets together.  With a STRING.  A string, I say!  I just thought... surely a stapler would work, or a paperclip.  We are in the year 2010.  It was so entirely endearing.  And it made me think:

Yes.  Coming to England, I sometimes feel like I am living in a Harry Potter movie, or a Jane Austen film, or just... my own vision of England where everything is old and traditional.

I get to do this two more times.  And while I probably won't miss the stress of being in such a formal hall with such strict rules when I go back to America, there's a part of me, in a very nostalgic way, that will miss that sort of - intense, traditional, precision that is... England.

Even those bloody exams with their Harry Potter halls.  And string.

*Edit: When I took my Chaucer Exam there was a student writing with a pen and bottle of ink.  As in... feather and a bottle of ink.  Like what they would've written in DURING the Middle Ages.