Tour of Wapping and Writing for My Internship (Week 12)

By:

Noemi Guzman

Published:

Countries

Demographics

, ,

Majors

, ,

Regions

Noemi Guzman

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Hello <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> College of Saint Benedict <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2023 <i>Destination city & country:</i> London, England <i>Program provider:</i> FIE <i>Major/minor:</i> Social Science / Secondary Education & Political Science <i>Demographics:</i> Hispanic/Latinx, First-Generation College Student, LGBTQ+ <i>Future career aspirations:</i> I aspire to be a 7th grade civics teacher! <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> Be involved in my community; Try a new dish; Develop a global mindset

This past weekend has been one of my absolute favourites on this trip so far. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit Italy with some of my closest friends. I was able to try new food and gain a new perspective on a different culture. Through my other experiences from visiting different countries I have gained a new love of immersing myself in a new culture. I think it is something special and I will forever be grateful for the opportunities study abroad has given me. While in Milan, we also got the chance to take a day trip to Switzerland. It is probably the prettiest place I have ever been to. I have very much enjoyed learning about different cultures on my weekends.

After having an amazing weekend, I started off the week by having a tour of the Wapping Docks. Through my British Life and Cultures class we were given the opportunity to take a tour of a part of London that I had never heard of. I truly did not know what to expect during this tour but I was happy we went on it. It was a bit further than I expected it to be but still an interesting area to observe. We walked around the area and saw how old factories were turned into apartment buildings. There was oddly large amount of pubs in that area but they all had a bit of history attached to them. I think there was even one pub that was established by the people when the area was first starting to form. The community gathered together to keep the pub running after it had been struggling and I thought that was very interesting. It is heartwarming to see a community gather together to keep something special and meaningful for everyone. Towards the end of the tour we stopped by this statue that commemorates where the mayflower left London. I personally didn’t even think about where the mayflower had even left from so it was interesting to learn more about it. After the tour ended, a couple of my classmates and I went to a pub nearby named after the Mayflower. They had some very good food there. What I thought was interesting was that they had a book where people who had ancestors on the mayflower can sign their names. Nonetheless, it was a good experience to have and I enjoyed it.

This week at my internship I worked on creating more content for the website. I started on a new piece that revolved around suicide prevention. I struggled on coming up with ideas on what exactly to focus on. It took quite a bit of research but I finally landed on writing about what to do if you are concerned. I actually found this factsheet pretty difficult to write. I am not used to writing about sensitive content like this so I struggled on using the right language. I did write a first draft that my supervisor gave me feedback on and it helped me immensely. Again, I continued to struggle with not using academic language. It was hard to make it personal and not just throwing statistics. After revising it, I think it turned out pretty good. By the end of the week, I had finished it and uploaded it to our website!