The Channel Islands

After a lot of inner conflict, I decided to follow my heart and do my field study in the Channel Islands.  The Islands are in the Channel, just off the coast of France, but they have a lot of British influence.  That is ultimately why I made this decision.  In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of an anglophile.  I love English culture so going to the Channel Islands was the best option for me.  Most of my time will probably be spent on the island of Guernsey, but I hope to visit the other islands as well.

Flag of Guernsey

The different islands

The Channel islands in relation to England and France

Now, picking the destination was only half the battle.  The second half is choosing a topic to study.  I've been struggling for a while now wondering what questions I want to answer while I am over there.  I originally wanted to look at the concept of feminism, but as much as I love women's studies I didn't feel right studying this topic.  Honestly, what I really wanted to study was simply what it was like to be a Guernsey person (so an identity study).  However, my professors continued to say that I needed a topic that was more focused.  Then it hit me.  I have always been curious about the English connection with tea.  Growing up, knowing nothing about England, I would sometimes pretend to have an English accent.  This was always followed up by a phrase along the lines of, "Let's have TEA and crumpets."  For some reason I knew as a child that the English love their tea, and I want to know more about that.  So my question is "To what extent is tea culturally significant in the Channel Islands?"  We will see where my study goes from there, but I feel pretty excited about the concept.