The program I am attending in London is largely an internship program where us journalism students are placed at various publications throughout London. However, since we don’t for sure know what those placements are yet, I have been doing many touristy things all over London. I’m excited that we have much of the next week free because I know we will be insanely busy once we start working daily.
Yesterday was the first day since we got here where we did not have anything scheduled until the evening. Therefore, we did the obvious college-student thing to do—slept in late. It was very nice. I can safely say I am over my jet lag now. Me and a few of my flatmates got up and went to Piccadilly Circus because we didn’t get to fully explore there the other day. We ended up walking over the National Gallery building, which was simply gorgeous and went to the Portraits Gallery right next door. It was a nice thing to do since we only had about an hour to see it. The day went by very fast because by the time we woke up (really, really late), got our Tube passes for the month, navigated the Tube, and walked to where we were supposed to be it was nearly 3:00 in the afternoon.
I really liked the Portraits Gallery. They had some interesting modern stuff and the portraits of all the monarchs from centuries ago where are really cool to see. There were also paintings of Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, people who I actually knew some stuff about. The Princess Di stuff was kind of heartbreaking to view though.
We then ate dinner at a really cute, quaint Italian restaurant near the museum. They had really good food, although we were so hungry it probably wouldn’t have mattered what we ate. One tip for travelers—soft drinks in Europe do not come with free refills. I knew this when I came here, however I quickly forgot when at this restaurant.
Then we navigated the Tube again to get to Imperial College for our first British Life and Culture (BLC) lecture. We got a little lost after we got off the Tube at what we thought was the closest stop to Imperial, but I’m not convinced it was. The first lecture was pretty interesting. We had a local college professor speak about just general history, culture and politics in the UK. She was really interesting and spoke about everything from Obama, to terrorism, and history.
We talked a little about how journalism has drastically influenced how much Europeans like Obama. The press apparently chose very early to support Obama and the media was not very balanced about how much they covered McCain compared to Obama, which I thought was very interesting. The press here differs from the US in terms of the basic rules they follow—like balance and transparency, which were all emphasized very heavily in journalism class, although that is not necessarily true for all media outlets.
There are also a lot of cultural differences in the UK: most policemen don’t carry guns, citizens are not required to carry around identification even their driver’s license when driving a car, most Europeans view themselves as working class, where middle class is seen as an insult, but it is the exact opposite in the US. It was all very interesting.
Europe in general is also much more food and environmentally conscious then the US is. The portion sizes are a lot smaller than the in the US and many of the grocery food labels have tips for staying healthy or advertise why the food you are buying is healthy. The food also has almost no preservatives, which makes stuff expire very quickly. It is somewhat annoying that I will probably have to go to the store a few times a week when I don’t want to eat out, but at the same time, it is probably much healthier for you. Going to the grocery store was quite an experience. You do have to package your own groceries, which for me seems to be the most significant difference. Besides that, the grocery stores are not hugely different. They have larger take out foods, and obviously have different brands, although many familiar brands appeared but with different flavors.
According to our speaker for BLC, I am living in one of the wealthiest areas in London, which I guess is good. I suppose the fact that this flat is relatively small and has its quirks should not surprise me because I am in London, but I was surprised to know that this is one of the most cosmopolitan areas considering that.
London is also much more environmentally friendly than the US. The German students I met yesterday kind of had the attitude that it is our responsibility to take care of where we live, which is very true but I suppose the US hasn’t caught on to that yet. Recycling and conserving energy is taken to an extreme here compared to the US, although it is easy to adapt to in this environment. I will definitely continue what I’ve learned at home.
Anyway, sorry this blog entry is so long. I want this to be culturally informative as well as telling you about things I’ve done, so I hope you find it interesting. Tomorrow I'm going on the BLC field trip to the Museum of London, which should be fun. More blogging to come!
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