Summer Study and Internship in London

Overall, I had a great experience in this program. I took advantage of most of the day trips and activities they offered, which were awesome. The day trips were to Stonehenge and Bath one day and to Dover Castle and Canterbury another. It was amazing to have these trips pre-planned with transportation and tour guides arranged ahead of time, and all of the locations were gorgeous. I also loved the activities they offered, like Curry Night, Theatre Night (I saw Hadestown!), the Greenwich Boat Tour, and others.

I think that apart from these trips and activities, the greatest gift that CEA CAPA gave us was prepaid Oyster cards. This meant we could travel anywhere in zones 1 and 2 by tube and anywhere in London by bus, included in the cost of our program. That gave us such freedom to get wherever we wanted to go in the city and do and see a lot outside of what was organized by the program.

My classes were not terribly demanding, but they helped me engage more deeply with my internship, the city, and my peers. I took Writing the City: London with about seven other people, which was great because I feel we all really got to know each other through our writing and during our class field trips around London. We explored Covent Garden and read a passage aloud about how it looked hundreds of years ago, looked out at the Thames as we read about the time it iced over, and had a great little goodbye picnic in Kensington Gardens, eating scones and reading an excerpt from Peter Pan. The assignments encouraged us to take inspiration from the city in lots of different ways, and it helped me be creative in my writing and dive a little deeper into my experience abroad. I would also consider some of my classmates to be the closest friends I made in London, and I hope to keep in touch with them! In my Global Internship Course, I did some resume work, a mock interview, and overall got comfortable with distilling and sharing the value of my internship experience. Everyone loved the professor too, and he brought us British snacks every class from Gloucester cheese to Viennese Whirls.

My internship with Rix Inclusive Research gave me a great diversity of experience with different kinds of people and work. I got to sit in on a meeting with Rix and visiting Egyptian professors from Cairo about inclusivity in education. I also got to tag along with them on a tour of a local school that is specifically equipped to support kids with disabilities. Sitting in on a class there and getting to try out some of their assistive technology was really cool as well! On a more consistent basis, I helped out with outreach at an upstart cafe that employs deaf and hard-of-hearing baristas, and got to learn a bit of British Sign Language while I was there. Later on in my internship, I was also able to connect with some locals at Airthrie, a group living facility for adults with learning disabilities. I was there with my fellow interns to chat about health technology like FitBits and exercising, but we’d also get off topic and talk about our favorite spots in London, compare elements of the UK to our experience in the U.S., and discuss one resident’s upcoming birthday party. Both conversations felt equally valuable!

And, need I remind you, this was all over the course of six weeks!

One downside to the experience for me was the housing. The kitchen in my flat was smelly when we moved in and remained that way throughout the program. I spotted a mouse that disappeared into a hole under the cabinetry, and we often had small flies come in through the windows as soon as there was anything in the trash. This was exacerbated by the fact that my roommates did not keep up well with washing their dishes, so there was food residue sitting on the plates and things in the sink. Additionally, there was construction going on in the lobby throughout most of the program, including a few days where we had to enter and exit the building through the fire doors. A maintenance worker also arrived in our flat one morning, not by our request and without notice, and said that he was there to change the fans in the bathrooms. The area was quite residential, which had its pros and cons (really accessible grocery stores, nearby tube station, slightly unnerving feeling at night) but overall I didn't take issue with it and my flatmates and I all had no incidents. There was other housing that other people in the program were assigned that seemed to be better quality.

The other hard thing for me, not related to this program in particular but to studying abroad in general, was that I found it difficult to consistently get enough sleep. That's something to keep in mind when trying to fit everything into your experience! It's really important to rest sometimes too.

In the end, I don't have any regrets about my program, and I think I had a really valuable experience and just a great time in England overall.