Sir John Soane Museum & Chinatown – 8th Week at NYU London!

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Michaela Greenlee

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Michaela Greenlee

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Hello! <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> New York University <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2024 <i>Destination city & country:</i> London, United Kingdom <i>Program provider:</i> NYU London <i>Major/minor:</i> Global Public Health <i>Demographics:</i> Caucasian/White, Hispanic/Latinx <i>Future career aspirations:</i> My future career goals involve becoming a university professor of public health in the social and behavioral sciences. I hope to conduct research in my own laboratory that explores how to mitigate health disparities among low-income and racial/ethnic minority populations. As a future professor, my mission is to empower my students (particularly females and students of color) to volunteer in my lab and develop a passion for working towards health equity. <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> My top three goals for my time abroad include developing a comparative lens to analyze differences in health care infrastructure between the United States and United Kingdom, building strong and professional relationships with my internship mentors, and becoming an independent individual who can learn to take accountability by navigating through challenging situations.

Hi everybody! This week was pretty busy for me since I was assigned a few new midterm projects/papers, but I managed to find some time to explore London a bit more and I’m excited to share my experiences.

On Thursday, my architecture class and I visited the Sir John Soane Museum at Lincoln’s Inn Fields which features the extraordinary house and museum of Sir John Soane (1753-1837), architect of the Bank of England. In 1833, Soane obtained an Act of Parliament to come into effect at his death, vesting his house and collections in Trustees to be open to the Nation as a museum. His house is full of eccentric artifacts, including Greek sculptures, colorful carpets, and treasured art masterpieces by Hogarth, Canaletto, Turner and Piranesi. However, the special thing about his museum is that he made an effort to incorporate as much natural light as possible – the use of mirrors, candle-lit chandeliers, and stained glass windows in nearly every room of the house makes it a very illuminated space. One of my favorite features of the museum/house is the glass saucer dome (pictured attached below) because of the beautifully intricate floral design at the top!

On Sunday, my friends and I decided to go to Chinatown because they wanted to make me try dim sum for the first time. We ate at an upmarket Cantonese restaurant called Plum Valley which is known for its extensive dim sum menu where we ordered vegetable dumplings, pork, prawn, and cream custard-filled dumplings. The taste of everything was incredibly rich and especially satisfying because of the fluffy inner consistency and soft, velvety outside texture. I highly recommend the custard-filled ones because they have a very creamy and sweet taste that practically melts in your mouth!

After having our meal, we explored Chinatown a bit more. While walking around, we admired the festive lantern decorations hung high above the shops and the gorgeous, colorful gateway entrance. It was so tempting to go inside each shop because each one offered a unique product, ranging from bubble wrap ice-cream waffles, to pork buns, red bean cakes, and bubble tea! Finally, we ended the day by doing some shopping on Oxford Street.

As for my internship experience, I’m looking forward to producing another communications piece for the Institute of Women & Children’s Health. I’ve been tasked to interview a researcher and clinician at King’s College London to get their perspectives on the importance of preterm birth awareness for World Prematurity Day on November 17th. This interview will be complemented by an infographic that I will be creating to highlight the issue of preterm birth, including its prevalence in the UK and risk factors. Once I have it completed, the video and infographic will be shared on the Institute’s website for the public to view.

Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to read my 8th blog post! This weekend I have other activities planned, such as seeing the musical Pretty Woman with my friends and going to volunteer at a beach clean-up event in Whitstable. Be on the lookout for my blog next week! :)