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As I finish packing my things and prepare to fly home in a couple of days, I cannot help but have tears fill my eyes at the thought of leaving. The University of Roehampton challenged me academically and introduced me to a group of amazing people who have now become close friends of mine. These people have made my time here the best I've ever had and having to say goodbye to them is what hurts the most.
In just four and a half months, I have grown to love London even more than I though I would. Living in this city had always been a dream of mine and knowing that I've accomplished that so soon brings a smile to my face. These past few months have impacted my life in more ways than one. Although it's bittersweet to leave, I'm excited to see what the future has in store for me. London will always hold a special place in my heart and trust me, I will be back! PART FOUR. To conclude our travels, we took a five hour train ride from Naples to Venice. We went crazy with the pasta and gelato when we arrived. Especially the gelato...we could not get enough of it! This is also where my love for pistachio gelato began. Unfortunately, we did not get to ride a gondola while in Venice because it was very pricey for a few college girls on a budget. One thing I did notice was that most of the city ends its day pretty early. By 9-10 pm most things are either closed or ready to close down. Regardless, this city was a dream!
PART THREE. Concluding our Barcelona trip we got an a plane to Naples, Italy. We stayed in Naples for four days and had the opportunity to explore Pompeii, see Mt.Vesuvius, and the Amalfi Coast. Naples wasn't the most intriguing of locations but they had amazing pizza and we even got to try "L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele," claimed to be one of the most popular and best pizza spots in the world. Our trip to Pompeii was one of the most educational ones from our entire trip. Our tour guide was very informative and I learned a lot about the ruins and its history. Another day of our stay was spent on the Amalfi Coast. Let me tell you, the Amalfi Coast has been one of the most beautiful locations I have ever laid eyes on. It's stunning in pictures and even more stunning in person! We spent a little bit of time in the town of Positano on the coast and I really wish we could have spent a couple days in the area. The Amalfi Coast has been added to my list of returns.
PART TWO. After Ireland we hopped on a plane towards Spain! We landed in Barcelona and were greeted by the nice warm weather. We stayed in Barcelona for about three days as well and enjoyed lots of food and lots of sangria. It felt like I was living my Cheetah Girls 2 fantasy and in an Ed Sheeran song all at once. In my opinion, one of the memorable spots we visited in Barcelona would have to be the Sagrada Familia. Although unfinished, the modern feel and Gaudi artisitic influence was prominent through its colors and intricate designs.
PART ONE. Our first stop was Dublin, Ireland. We stayed in this city for 3 days and had enough time to explore a great deal of it. To name a few, we took a tour of the Guinness Storehouse, visited the the famous Temple Bar, and did a quick tour of the Dublin Castle. The best thing about this city was not having to spend much on public transportation. Our hostel was located within walking distance of many of the most popular attractions so it helped us save money in that aspect. On our last full day we booked a day-trip to see the Cliffs of Moher and the city of Galway on the West Coast of Ireland.
All of us Hawaii students abroad at the University of Roehampton are required to take at least one course by the UH professor joining us in London, this semester it is Anne Misawa. Anne is an Academy for Creative Media professor back at UH Mānoa and the course of hers that I took was ACM 384 - Diversity of film in the UK. Regardless of my lack of knowledge in film, I learned quite a bit about the hard work and dedication that it takes to complete a project in this industry. Over the course of the semester we viewed multiple films and plays related to UK directors and were required to keep an updated blog site about our thoughts and opinions on each film. Here is the link to my ACM 384 blog: https://ericasfilmblog.weebly.com/blog
One of my major assignments for this class was to create a short 4-5 minute film script. Yes, this was a very short script, but the process to complete it wasn’t short. There was a certain approach my classmates and I had to take to make sure we had a properly developed plot that was easy to understand by our audiences. My script consisted of an unstable relationship between a dad and his father that lead him to spread similar attitudes over the relationship he has with his teenage son. It was difficult putting together a story but now I can say that I know what a script should look like when it comes to formatting! A most memorable moment of this course was participating and witnessing a film production directed and brought to life by a couple of our classmates toward the end of the semester. I got to serve as an extra on one of the films and just being able to see people in action directing, filming, and acting was very amusing. The semester creeped up on all of us faster than we had imagined. My spring term at Roehampton has officially come to an end in regard to in-person classes. Today I had my final presentation for one of my modules and now the only thing left to complete are two reports due by April 23rd. The business professors that I’ve had here have all been extremely helpful and were all very qualified for the topics they were teaching. There really is nothing I can complain about other than having to wait three months to know my final grades. The UK system goes to a long examination grading process to ensure that all marks are given fairly amongst all students. Despite this, I think my academic experience at Roehampton has been remarkable.
Before flying to London, I remember Allison, our study abroad advisor from UH, telling our group to bring small gifts for any professors or friends we’d get to know. I’m really glad I took this advice into consideration. This week I gave two of my professors tea packages from home and they were both really happy to have received something. As for the friends I’ve made, I have small boxes of Hawaiian Host chocolates to give, but procrastinating on handing them out is my way of stalling on having to say goodbye. Even though my semester is technically over, I won’t be heading home until mid-May. I’m going to be traveling with some of my friends for the month of April and then with my family in May. I’m trying my best to enjoy and take advantage of every moment I have here in Europe, after all it had always been one of my dreams to visit so now that I’m here, I can’t let the opportunity go to waste!
Roehampton in the Snow!On the last days of February going into March I woke to the beautiful image of snow falling outside my window. This is one of my first experiences with snow (my first being at Disneyland Paris earlier last month) and temperatures below freezing. Regardless of the cold, I was so happy to be experiencing the snow and could not get over how beautiful everything looked.
The Beast from the East was the phrase used to describe winds from Russia that caused major snowfall across the UK during that week. The snow storm we got here at Roehampton wasn't as extreme compared to the conditions further north, but we still felt the chaos of London in such weather (transportation was a nightmare!). Here are some the pictures I took on my walk around campus on the last day of snowfall (03.02.18): This past Wednesday me and a couple of my friends from my marketing class heading to Olympia West for the annual Marketing Week Live event in London. This was introduced and recommended to me by my marketing professor, Caroline Walsh. She mentioned that this would be a great opportunity for those of us wanting to go into the field so that we could experience and learn a little bit about the career. I went to the event on its last day and arrived at the conference a bit later in the day because I had class in the morning. Regardless of this time constraint I was still able to make it to a few of the last workshops. The first one I attended to was called "You're Dumber Than You Think You Are," the next, "Connecting Audience Understanding to Brand Outcomes," and the closing workshop was, "Marketing: The Sh*t That Matters and The Sh*t That Doesn't." All of which were very interesting to sit through. Here are a few pictures from the event:
*I registered for the event as an influencer, as instructed by my professor, in order to get free access into the conference. This is because MW Live charges students for entry.* It’s finally March and that means I have about one full month left of classes because my semester ends on the 30th. I have definitely started to feel the pressure of all these assessments being due soon. However, it has really helped to attend the lectures and seminars. I’ve read previous blog posts from students who have studied abroad at Roehampton and the one thing they all mentioned was to keep up with the readings. They were absolutely right. Here’s a bit of an update on my Roehampton courses:
Project Management
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS We were in Amsterdam for three full nights. Amsterdam is such a beautiful city that left me wanting to return again soon. The people are really nice, transportation is easy, and it’s cleaner than I expected. It was around 9pm when we arrived at our hostel in Amsterdam and my friends and I decided to use a local food delivery app to get something to eat. Everything was in dutch and we knew not a single word in the language. Luckily, we were able to get help from the person at the front desk to get our order filled out. When it came time to pay, they only accepted internet banking, maestro, bitcoin, or cash. Our only feasible option was cash, but none of us had brought any with us so we had to go out to look for an ATM. MasterCard and VISA may be the most popular credit cards, but in Amsterdam we found ourselves not being able to use these too often. If I visit Amsterdam again I will make sure to exchange some cash into Euro’s before leaving. Here are some of the highlights from my Amsterdam trip. PARIS, FRANCE After Amsterdam we took a train to Paris and spent three nights in that city as well. One full day was spent exploring the city and being tourists and the second full day was spent at Disneyland Paris. We were blessed with a beautiful view of the Sacré-Cœur from our hostel room window. Aside from it being my first time in Paris, this was also my very first experience at a Disneyland park and it was amazing. It even started to snow while we were there! Unfortunately, a cold I had been battling for a week hit me the hardest on our Disney day but I still managed to not let it get in my way of experiencing the beauty of the park. Here are some of the highlights from my Paris trip. Surprisingly, after a few day away from London I started to get homesick…for London. I think the language barrier in both city's really go to me during those days but I truly enjoyed being in a different place and exploring new countries.
February 03, 2018On Saturday the 3rd we had the opportunity to tour Hampton Court with the social group. It just so happens that every time we have a social group event we are greeted with gray skies and rainy weather. Regardless, the experience was great!
Hampton Court was the original Tudor palace. We got to tour Henry VIII's home, the Georgian Palace, the chapel and the royal gardens. Cardinal Wolsey was the original designer of the palace before Henry VIII took it as his own and enlarged it. As I walked through the palace and saw the intricate designs of the tapestries and amount of rooms on the property, it is made obvious that Henry wanted to display his wealth. This coming week is ‘Reading Week’. We are given a full week of no classes to catch up on our module assignments. Some professors give out mid-semester assignments to turn in or deadlines for assessment drafts. I personally did not get any extra assignments and made sure to get most of my work done before next week so that I could take advantage of that time to travel.
With that said, two of my friends and I planned trips to Amsterdam and Paris during those days. My last class of the week is on Thursday afternoon so I booked my flight to Amsterdam is for Thursday night. Let's just hope everything goes smoothly and I make my flight! A couple of my friends and I spent our afternoon in Camden exploring the Camden Market. All I can say is that the food was amazing!
I highly recommend anyone who visits London to spend some time exploring some of the many markets that are held throughout the city. Camden is extremely diverse and by far one of my favorites. Check out their website to see some current events and foods: https://www.camdenmarket.com/ January 20, 2018The days prior to this had been so beautiful with clear skies and actual visibility of the sun. Unfortunately, on the day of our boat cruise it was cloudy, rainy and cold. We then headed down to the Old Royal Naval College which originally served as a hospital for seamen in Greenwich. This site has featured many major film productions like Pirates of the Caribbean, James Bond’s Skyfall, Thor, Gulliver’s Travels, and many, many, more films we all love. Standing in these places and actually seeing them in real life has a completely different effect than just seeing images of them behind a screen. After this we headed down to the National Maritime Museum to look at Nelson trafalgar’s coat that is on display with a bullet hole on it’s left shoulder and blood stains on its sleeve. We also made our way up to the Royal Observatory where the Prime Meridian is located and I had the opportunity of standing on two Hemispheres at once. After out tour was done a group of us went down to the Greenwich market to get some food and headed home.
It’s been one week…
Less than 2 weeks...Christmas is over and I can’t stop thinking about how fast everything has happened. Another semester has quickly come to an end and a new year is just days away. I will be on a flight to London in less than two weeks and as of now it all still feels like a dream. Here are some of the things I’ve been up to over the past few weeks in order to help prepare for my trip: 1.) Host University Application & Registration: After receiving my acceptance to study abroad from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, I proceeded to complete the host university application process around mid-November. It was not too complicated in comparison to the study abroad application I had to complete for Mānoa. About a week later I received an email from Roehampton notifying me that I had been accepted onto their study abroad program. I will be assigned to on-campus living accommodations and will be able to register for courses once I arrive at the university.
Choosing courses has been quite a stressful process since I don’t know what my actual courses will be until I register in person. But Allison, my study abroad advisor, has helped me make a list of different courses that can serve as backup if my first ones don’t fit my schedule. 2.) Booking my Flight: Luckily, I was able to book my flight along with two other students studying abroad in London. Knowing that I won’t be traveling alone makes the idea of traveling half-way across the world more comforting. I booked my flight through Student Universe at a discounted price (https:/www.studentuniverse.com/) and all I needed was my school email to make an account. I purchased a one-way flight and was told that I may have to answer some questions when I go through customs & immigration in London. However, I have letters from both Mānoa and Roehampton about my student visitor status which should be enough to get me through any questions. As for the visa, fortunately we are not required to have one to travel to London for the semester, so that’s one less thing to worry about! 3.) Money Arrangements: I didn’t already have a credit card so I had to make sure I applied for one (I highly recommend it). My mom signed me up for an American Express credit card and I also registered for the Hawaiian Airlines mastercard. I was told to try to find a credit card that offered 0% foreign transaction fees since I’ll be making purchases abroad. I personally would not recommend the American Express credit card because it has a 3% foreign transaction fee, but I guess it’s still a good back up card to have. On the other hand, the Hawaiian Airlines credit card has an annual fee, but is a good option for travel because they have no foreign transaction fees. Aside from these, I also have my bank debit card. I sent out a travel notice to my bank to make sure they are aware that I am traveling out of the country and don’t freeze my accounts when I make any purchases. I purchased a pack of RFID protectors from Amazon to protect my credit cards when I’m traveling around Europe. Some wallets already come with RFID protection so that’s another option to consider. I’m not sure how effective the RFID protectors I bought are, but better safe than sorry! 4.) Phone: Aside from these things, the next thing on my to-do list is to get my iphone unlocked for international travel. My carrier is AT&T and they don't include international data and texting with my plan (unlike T-mobile), so I will need to have it unlocked to switch out SIM cards once I’m in Europe. With all that said… I should start packing now and avoid procrastinating any further!
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AuthorHi, I'm Erica. Please join me as I spend my spring semester in London! Archives
May 2018
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