Exactly three days separate me from the land of fish and chips. The anticipation is beginning to build as well as the anxiety...what do I pack? Have I planned accordingly? Do I have everything I need? These thoughts and thousands of others are racing through my mind at breakneck speeds, and yet...nothing can overshadow the excitement!
I am going to be spending the next 16 weeks abroad. In a foreign country. In London, England! The list of possibilities seems endless right now. Although I am there for school, to study and take classes, I am also there to immerse myself in the culture.
I have my class schedule all set. With my three architecture classes and one advertising class, I will be able to draw on the culture and design of the country as well as my own experiences.
In my advertising class, I will be introduced to the practice of advertising, studying how this complex, symbiotic communications business works: the industry as a whole including regulation and ethical standards; advertising agencies and their internal structure; relating with clients and their customers? While the course will cover the basics of traditional media, it will also focus on non-traditional vehicles such as word of mouth, social media and shopper marketing.
My studio class is currently shrouded in mystery, but Skyping with the coordinator earlier in the semester along with my fellow students, spiked intrigue as to the topics and design methods we will be covering this semester.
One of my architecture classes seeks to explore the European city and its representation. The course presents, investigates, and discusses the fundamental elements which defined the urban form and the territorial organization of the European city. We will be called to research and to think about space, architecture, and life as a process of re-organizing problems and disputes among individuals and their communities, to research different histories of city making and the urban as a project, to think of the role of representation both as a cultural and political tool and, ultimately, to expand your knowledge of what the city is, how it works, how it is constructed.
A survey of British architecture is certainly the class which seems to offer the most travel opportunity and offers a broad overview of architecture, art and urbanism in the UK and of London in particular, its historic context, development, precedents and character. Throughout the semester, we visit a contrasting variety of urban areas, architectural statements and historical precedents in London, Bath and Cambridge.
Along with my classes I have accepted a position as a student liaison in my pre-arranged housing which will allow me to act as a bridge between the other students and the staff at the London Center. This wonderful opportunity will be shared with about 30 other architecture students whom I have already had classes with my past three years, and about 200 other students from the university in total.
I will have the chance to travel to Edinburgh with the University, as well as when my parents visit for my spring break! Trips to Paris, Stonehenge, Winsor Castle and Bath, await me on my journey across the Atlantic! Taking to the sky in only three days, there is so much to do and even more to see when I land!
