A trip to California gave sociology students the chance to study and experience all the contradictions the Sunshine State has to offer.

 

The Sociology department took 20 students to Los Angeles and San Francisco to experience American culture, its norms and values as well as the history which has shaped it.

 

After experiencing the close security scrutiny and body scans that accompany global travel, the students arrived in the showbiz city of LA. In Hollywood they saw the spectrum of society from the glitzy excesses of the movie star handprints on Hollywood Boulevard to beggars in the street. A visit to Venice Beach showed how obsessed Californians are with the body beautiful before a trip to Universal Studios.

 

On the way north to San Francisco students called in on Hearst Castle, former home of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, whose life was portrayed in the film Citizen Kane and Stanford University, one of the elite universities in the USA, which is more like a small town than an educational establishment with its own church and shopping mall.

 

In San Francisco students took in the city’s sites including the famous cable car, Fisherman’s Wharf and Alcatraz, the notorious island prison, which locked up many criminals including the infamous Al Capone. Fortunately the students escaped to the airport for a quick body scan before being allowed to fly home.