Just Getting Started...

So, I've started my classes and internship in London! This week has been extremely hectic, as I've been running around trying to get to where I need to be very often. I last left off after walking around Tower Bridge area of London. The next day, I walked around Covent Garden, a beautiful market that was showing off fresh flowers and the cutest little shops. Many of the shops here were on the pricier side, so I just looked around, but there was so much to look at that I never became bored.

My last day of freedom before classes began, we went on a "royal tour", where a guide walked us around Buckingham Palace and the Westminster area. We saw a small part of changing of the guard and learned all of the interesting royal history. We'll be actually touring inside of Westminster Abbey on Friday, but it was cool to see the outside for now! One thing that strikes me is how old many of the buildings are. When you look up, the buildings just have so much history that you can see and it's amazing to imagine what these buildings have been through.

Yesterday, classes began. I had Diversity and Popular Culture in the morning. Of course the first day of class is always pretty boring, just going over the syllabus and whatnot. But luckily, the first hour and a half we spent in the classroom, but then we have a two hour outing in London to expand on what we discuss in class. This is approximately the schedule for all the classes in JMU's London study abroad program, so that we have some class time but also get to do what we came to London for: explore! So we went to the Museum of London for our outing that class. I could have absolutely spent more time there, just exploring London's history, from their major fire and plague in the 1600's, all the way to present day.

Just a small break to eat lunch, and then off to class again, for my London Theatre class. Once again, class was mostly discussing the syllabus, but in the evening, we went to go see a play at the National Theatre. Before we even arrived in London, we were set to read the book "Small Island" and we saw the play adaption that night. It was even better than the book! You always hear "the book was better", but their stage adaption was quite impressive to say the least. Seeing the emotions on the actors faces sold the story. And my seat was in the 2nd row, so trust me, I could see just about everything.

The past two days, I have been working at my internship. This was the thing I was most nervous for coming into their study abroad program. I had no idea what I was doing, and was nervous that I wouldn't be accepted in the workplace community or that I would just regally mess something up. Well, I was nervous for nothing. My internship is better than I could've ever asked for, and I'm so happy to be working with Upbeat Productions for the next 2 months. I'm certainly still being cautious, figuring out the norms of the office and British work culture, but I'm optimistic that it'll be a great summer. The team I'm working with are very nice and it seems like I'll be getting plenty of experience working in all aspects of video production.

Thursday will be another full day, with my internship in the morning and my Film Adaptations class in the evening. I will post another update in a few days, so be sure to check in! That's all for now, but be sure to check out my photos below from the past few days!

PS: I wrote this last night and fell asleep before posting! Today I had a half day at my internship and an afternoon class- Film Adaptations. Didn't take a single picture today, as I was busy and now just tired! Now I'm off to rest up before my weekend ahead...