I just made it through my first week of classes and internship, wow.
On Monday I had my "day off" which consisted of only one class. I woke up early and went to the bank and grocery shopping. Then I had lunch at home and I had my Media in Britain class. My tutor, as they're called here is named Dr. Portonova. She is from Italy and wore the most amazing pair of sequenced blue sneakers, or should I say trainers, to class. I got really lost on the way to class because the building is a little bit off of the main campus. She talked about the main aspects of British media, and told us we'd be splitting into groups of four to make presentations to class and to have in class discussions. Me and Julia, a girl on my program are in a group with two acting majors from Shenandoah Conservatory.
On Tuesday I had my first full day of my internship. I went in at nine and met with Bex, my supervisor. She showed me around the building. It was a really cool building, the whole place was covered in paintings, and cool designs and art, there wasn't an inch of white walls. She told me more aboutthe organization. They have two drop in center and a alternative school in addition to programs in a huge number of public schools. Not only does the organization offer art therapy, it also has general art programs, sports, cookery (as they call it here) and they have someone who references each child in their centers and helps them find counslers, doctors, get back into school etc., whatever the child may need. For my first dayI helped Bex with a report she had to do. I went through the huge database of volunteers and made a spreadsheet of what each of them does and at what school, it was quite the process. For lunch Bex showed me around the neighborhood, it turns out i'm two blocks away from the Tate Modern (which has FREE admission), I hope I can go at least scope it out for my lunch break one day. Overal the first day went great, it was cool to learn more about the organizaition, meet a bunch of the staff and start being productive!
Wednesday I had work again but I went to the Urban Academy one of Kid's Companies centers. The fashion class their is doing an exhibit at the Royal Academy(which is "a unique organization that is independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate"). which is a pretty big deal. Kid's company has their own fashion line called Bare threads label that is work produced by young people at kids company. One of their projects is "hoods that hug" which are basically a hood and scarf attached, each with their own unique design.
This is a picture from their website of one of the hoods. The exhibit is of a huge variety of hoods, made by the young people in the program. The reason I went to help was that some of the hoods weren't finished and the exhibit was on Sunday. I spent most of the day weaving a hood that was made up of three interwoven hoods, it's hard to explain but believeme, it was quite the process. It was really cool to go to Urban Academy and see what Kid's Company does in action since i've only been at the office. It's pretty amazing that they have made an entire alternative school and that that is only a small part of what they do.
Thursday I had classes from 10-5. yikes. It was nice to have a little break from my internship though, and I think that's how it'll feel while i'm here. Since the weeks are so long I'll be glad to switch back and forth between classes and work. My first class of the day from 10 - 1 was my modern British art class. We had a cute young-ish professor. He's an anthropologist, who makes his money doing music and is has lectured on the philosophy of medicine, and likes African drumming and jazz. Quite the array of interests. He talked about the basics of the class, and how all art is abstract, interesting, i'm excited about it.
Friday I had my internship again, I did this big filing project organizing all of the volunteers and updating the status of the ones who are no longer volunteering, correcting the files and database etc. It was tiring but, call me a dork, I actually really like office work! Friday night we went to a few different pubs and generally wandered around.
Sunday we went on a tour of Cambridge! It was the last activity that Ms. Watkins had set-up for us. The bus left our flats at 9:15 in the morning. We drove to Cambridge and picked up our guide who narrated as we drove around. It was interesting to hear about what a huge history the town has, see all of the really old time colleges (there are sooo many in Cambride, almost as many as Cambridge, MA haha)
Caius College (it looked like Hogwarts!)
For lunch we went to the dinning room at Caius (pronounced Keys) college. Apparently visitors aren't allowed to eat there, so we felt pretty special. It was this old time dinning hall and we all sat at one long wooden table while servers brought us each course of our meal. It felt pretty grand hall first night of the year back at Hogwarts grand feast kind of deal. We had a yummy warm roll and butter (you know how I like my bread!) broccoli and carrots, roasted potatoes, pork, and a berry tart for dessert, it was great. I'm appreciating free food here even more than at Clark.
Punting!
Our cute punting driver
After lunch we went punting. Picture riding in a gondolla with a man pushing you, but the boat is flat and you're in England. It was a ton of fun. Our guide was cute and funny and it was nice sightseeing via a boat. After the punting we hung out in Cambridge till we had to go home and chilled in a pub overlooking the water.
It was quite the week, I'm tired just writing all of it, but it's nice to continue to feel more and more settled.
