It is usually at this point in a person’s study abroad experience that he begins to settle into a new environment and seek acceptance in a new and strange society. I am happy to say, that has yet to happen.
London has grown as a civilization in its own right; everyone who lives here experiences new cultures and ideas every day. To try to become “part of it” is almost hypocritical. Instead we all find ourselves as veritable Indiana Jones—constantly exploring, getting lost, and trying not to get run over by large rolling rocks (well…buses).
For most of our group this was our first full week in our internships. I wake up at 7:30 before the sun has revealed the silhouettes of construction cranes marking the view from my flat and attempt to find that beautiful balance between burning hot and freezing cold that the shower sadistically enjoys oscillating.
If I manage to pour my Sainsbury’s cereal and “semi-skimmed” milk without spilling everything, I know my day will be looking up. I do my best to pull out the right pair of pants and matching button-down shirt so I will enter work looking “smart” enough to pass muster amongst those sophisticated older people with real jobs.
We all commute; most pack like sardines in the Tube. I stumble outside, curse at myself for not studying somewhere tropical, and throw on my headphones as to enter my own musically magical land of “it is definitely not 8 in the morning”. I get to walk to work. It is about a 30 minute cultural excursion through a university, children’s playground and open air market (right) until I reach #15 John Street which houses the Chartered Institution for Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM…thank god for acronyms). When I am not declining offers for tea, I am working alongside a fellow intern and two co-workers in a comfortable and light basement office. I’m at the bottom of a 4 story office building which clearly still wishes it was a house.
It does not take long to learn about the politics going on in a workplace—and it is nice to see that no country is immune. But my experience has been marked by a significantly less stressful, more open, environment than I am accustomed.
Knowledge extends beyond one’s scope of work. An environmentally disheartening pile of glossy academic, news and industry magazines circulate to all office workers who are encouraged to read, learn and debate. It is, well, heartening.
This was a unique work week for me, because I spent most of it out of the office…and part of that time was spent in a swamp. London has everything, even an 87 hectare nature preserve of wetlands which houses native and endangered species from wetlands across the world. As part of “World Wetlands Day”, CIWEM was holding an annual conference about watershed management in the UK. And what conference would be complete without a tour of the London Wetlands Center?
Tours of the Center left at midday. I got there at 12:20 after unintentionally deciding to explore the completely opposite direction of the Center by bus…wrong bus. Navigational skills aside, I learned about a problem the Wetlands Center was having with invasive species.
Invasive species include any living organism not native to an ecosystem which acts as Godzilla and destroys the delicate balance of the system. The Wetlands Center was having a problem with the American Minx. This intruder from the United States doesn’t fit in; and maybe out of angst or a sincere effort to reach out for help, the minx responds to this hatred by eating the eggs of endangered species. Conservationists told me they respond by killing the minx. I gulped.
Now, I am not saying that I was brought over to England in the 18th century so I could be hunted for my fur, but, when hearing that story, I couldn’t help but hope that I wasn’t some American minx amongst the happy balancing act of London. At what point do your cultural differences beautify the melting pot, and at what point do you become the minx?
In our first London class, I learned about the estranged sense of nationalism that broadens Britain’s horizons. As long as I keep learning about my environment and keep an open mind, I will be a contributor. Our whole group will. On Friday I went to the Natural History Museum (right) and walked on the catwalk above the dinosaur exhibit, observing those observing panels about a species long extinct. I then walked over to the luxury superstore called Harrods and watch someone pay 4 pounds for a piece of chocolate. They were two completely different places—but somehow it fit together. I was learning something new.
-David
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