It feels weird being back in Copenhagen after being gone for so long! I am so fortunate that my core course, Strategic Communications, was able to travel to London for 5 days for our long study tour. A long study tour is a week long trip to a specific location in Europe with your core class and professor where you explore the destination and have field trips/lectures specific to the corse while you’re there. I have always wanted to go to London and this was the perfect trip to see the major sights and landmarks!
We started the trip with a walking tour of Notting Hill. After the walking tour, we had free time to explore there before we met up all together for dinner. Notting Hill is a unique neighborhood packed with history and pop culture references. When I got back to my hotel that night I immediately put on the Julia Roberts Notting Hill movie and was able to recognize the filming sights!
The next day consisted of a group lecture about Winston Churchill and Saatchi&Saatchi, both iconic British figures. This information session tied in important British history as well as contemporary significance that relates to what we have been learning in our Communications course. Later in the week we were fortunate to visit the Winston Churchill War Room Museum. The museum was in the underground rooms where Churchill led his team to victory during the war in the 20th century. As we walked through the exhibit, we learned about not only what the rooms were used for, but got to learn in depth about Churchill’s character and accomplishments throughout his life. This museum is definitely a must-see if you’re ever in London!
When in London, you just HAVE to go to the Theatre. Our class convinced our professor to take us to the musical Wicked (he thanked us afterwards).
We also took a bus for about 2 hours to Oxford where we got to explore the city and have a walking tour of the University. I have always heard snippets about the prestigious university, but never quite understood how it worked or what it looked like. The tour was extremely informative and answered all of the questions I had. Who knew there were 39 colleges within Oxford University! The history of the university and the Oxford town was very interesting and definitely worth the trip out there.
Another one of my favorite activities was going to the Saatchi&Saatchi Museum. In addition to being a leading global communications and advertising network, the owners also have a passion for collecting modern art and therefore opened a gallery for people to view their collection. Here are some pictures of some of the work featured:
My favorite view of city was from the London Eye. Being so high up and seeing the city lights at night reminded me of what I see flying out of my hometown, DC, from the airplane window. A bustling city that does not sleep. Many people will argue that London is “too American” to make the visit to, but I would argue that there is definitely a distinct British culture that is different than NYC or DC. Plus, I am a huge fan of Pub culture 🙂
Abroad Squad 