Woohoooo queue Estelle -- my core course just touched down in London town!
Dang that was a bad dad joke.
I'm gonna restart.
Greetings friends! This week, my core course had our Program Study Tour. Every core course travels to a city outside of Denmark and has its own individualized program, including academic and cultural visits relevant to the field of study. My class got to go to LONDON !! Since our personal travel week was first and our core course trip was second, I had been looking forward to this trip for a while! Though, for some weird reason, I felt slightly nervous the day before leaving for my trip. I was completely packed, I felt comfortable leaving, I was excited for the adventure ahead, but I just couldn’t shake the last minute nerves. Maybe, I thought, I was nervous about being the one dweeb to mess up the time difference (since we traveled early on the morning of Day-Light-Savings) and somehow not get to the airport at the correct time; or, maybe I was anxious about registering for classes at 2:30 in the morning smack dab in the middle of our trip, or apprehensive about leaving Cope. Nope — I realized when I was goofing off in my common room that night, that my anxiety was solely stemming from the fact that I’m definitely the weirdest kid in my class, and you really see people’s true colors while traveling. So, I guess I was nervous for people to see my weirdness manifest outside of the classroom and running around a city. But, I had nothing to worry about.
My core course got along great, and everyone was excited, pooling in various recommendations they got from friends studying in London, times they’d spent in London, and research we’d done about the city. Ya know, in order to see as much as we could see during our free time. Hey, what do you say, here's a play by play, day by day. Sorry.
Here's how the week went, and let me tell you it was AWESOME!
SUNDAY 00
The wake up call came early, but was made a bit better by the extra hour of sleep our body clocks got from #fallback— shout out to day-light-savings being the night before our departure. My class met at the airport at 7:30. If I haven’t already mentioned it, getting to CPH airport is arguably one of the easiest commutes to ever exist. Its a 15 minute ride from my Metro stop, and about 25 minutes from Nørreport. Piece of cake. You get off the train and boom you’re right where you need to be, on your way to the terminals. Its easy to navigate, manageable when running late, and the people - of course - are always willing to help. When I hopped on the metro at about 7:13, in thew process of fixing the birds nest sitting on top of my head, I heard my name come from my left. What do ya know! Two pals from my core course were sitting right there! They had gotten on a couple stops before me. It was nice to have a couple people to show up with. We met our class, printed our boarding passes, checked our bags (thx DIS), and were on our way! The funniest part was seeing everyone head for the Starbucks once we got through security. Yikes, I thought, until I saw my Danish teacher in line behind me. I guess it was more acceptable then.
MONDAY 00
Our first full day in the big city got off to a nice start with breakfast at the hotel. They had yummy eggs, a giant fruit bowl, hash browns, cereal, you name it! We all filled our bellies with fuel for the day. ***I was especially happy because there were tons more options than there were during Core Course week. *** I was so excited for the activities on our agenda: 00 Wimbledon 00 and the 00 London Eye 00 !! How often is it that you take a field trip with your class to one of the most well-known, historically significant sporting events in the world? I’d be willing to bet not that often. We took the tube to Wimbledon, which was a cultural experience in and of itself. Oh, and incase you were wondering, everything from transportation passes to tickets to two meals per day was paid for by DIS, which was so nice.
00 Wimbledon: Have you ever thought about looking at a major sporting arena from a birds eye view and distinguishing that specific event it from other events of its type. Take the Stanley Cup, the Super Bowl, or the World Series, for example. If you look at an ice hockey rink, a football field, or a baseball field, what do you see? The field, the fans, the players. Sure, you can identify which sport it is, but could you immediately distinguish which event specifically is taking place. Now, if you look at the US Open from up above, you see tennis courts. But, if you were to look at Wimbledon from a birds eye view *perspective*, you see grass. And, if you know a little bit about tennis, follow sports, or if you’re from the UK, you know immediately that’s (italics) Wimbledon. I had never thought about that before. Grass is such a central part of Wimbledon’s brand; it’s part of what they sell, along with the status and BLAH BLAH BLAH.
We got to the grounds and met with the director of Education for Wimbledon’s brand
TUESDAY 00
Breakfast: eggs again.
Activity:
WEDNESDAY 00
Top five favorite memories from this semester.
1. Edinburgh Furman game
2. Finding Emil
3. Biking with Gerald
4. Dinner with Chriss and Haley
5. Singing in Stockholm
Tuesday was an interesting day. We started off with an academic-focused visit at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It was super neat to hear about the marketing, branding, and campaigning strategies from a starkly different perspective at WWF. Though its objectives are arguably tangent to Wimbledon's, both are selling a mission and targeting lucrative audiences, there was recognizable variation in the messaging strategies and tactics used by an NGO. I felt I was able to compare the ins and outs of marketing a world-class sporting event brand and a global NGO. Two behemoths in vastly different industries. Two business-minded enterprises with tangent interests. Neato.
We had some free time before our next activity, which was so FUN! We went to a Voice on Demand Workshop. We got to learn public speaking techniques, including breathing, posture, and footing, first-hand from a cool British actor dude. We all had a good laugh during the breathing and tongue-strengthening exercises. Lots of "wowowoweoeoeoeowewewewe....."
We ended the night eating a delicious dinner before heading to see Wicked !!! What a treat! I had seen the show once before, but a long, long time ago (and during my uncomfortable emotional-suppressing tom boy years). So, it was nice to see the show again as an adult. I had greater appreciation.
THURSDAY 00
FRIDAY 00
This week was quite a whirlwind. Lots of newfound academic insights, as well as cultural appreciations. My biggest takeaway from London would have to be that the taxis are the cutest thing I've ever seen and I think the iconic New York City Yellow Taxi Cab trend needs to hop on board with British taxi style.
