Students@UM-Flint

L.S. Lowry’s depiction of Piccadilly Gardens For many Brits living in the mid-20th century, the above image defined the city of Manchester. “Everybody thought we walked around with little dogs,” my landlady Kate told me, mocking the impression of Manchester that still stays with many citizens of the UK. In a time before the internet, […]

Behind me in the above photo is Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Great Britain. Its Scottish Gaelic name means “mountain with its head in the clouds,” but the tour I took provided a rare, unobstructed view of the peak. Other than a few sheep and some simple farmhouses, the Highlands appeared idyllic, even untouched. […]

In 1933, Spanish poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca gave a lecture entitled “Play and Theory of the Duende.” The goal of this speech, he said, was to “try to [give a] simple lesson in the hidden, aching spirit of Spain.” What followed were words tinged by ancient mystique and gypsy culture as Lorca described the […]

“I said I would never touch American soil,” my adviser Eva told me, laughing as we walked the streets surrounding the University of Manchester. Having grown up in Spain, she heard a great deal about US intervention in South America. In countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Cuba, the US government had supported rebel groups […]

When I told people I had never flown before, they were pretty surprised. “Never? . . . Not once?”, they would ask. Nope, never. So when I told them I was going alone to Manchester, UK, they were even more surprised. I arrived after a 24-hour delay last Friday, having faced the loss of a […]