Have you ever wanted to travel abroad? You, as a student, can travel abroad by yourself or with classmates through the office of International and Off-Campus Study. This spring break, I will be joining the ENG 225 class, Writing Through Experience, as they study abroad in London. This class is so much fun to be a part of and has been very beneficial expanding our creative writing skills! It is also offering us a new lens through which we determine what creative writing can be. The goal of this class is to develop the student’s creativity when describing narrative events that the writer personally experiences. For this class we are keeping journals, publishing on our own blog forums, and will collaborate on a class travel website! But the highlight of the entire class will be the week we spend in London, UK.
On Friday March 15th, ENG 225 will depart from BWI along with Art and Fashion classes. These students and faculty will not be returning until Saturday March 23rd. While abroad we will be partaking in many different kind of activities, going to events, and exploring new locations. For the English class the purpose of this exploration is to fuel our writing, which will culminate on the trip. Students will get the chance to see a Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. We will also be exploring the London Wetland Center, Globe Theater, and British Library. At the British Library, we will be in contact with a Stevenson English alum who has been working there for some years. We will also have time to ourselves to explore the city at our own pace, see sites that aren’t already on the itinerary, and try different restaurants. Goodness knows, I’m most excited about London’s blossoming food scene.
Before we leave for London, the English class had to determine whether we could all navigate to different locations, without devolving into absolute chaos, or not. This past Saturday ENG 225 took a field trip to the Baltimore Museum of Art. Planning the time, place, transportation, and duration was all up to us students and we were able to come together to make decisions relatively effectively. Once we were at the museum we decided on a time to reconvene and were set loose. It was very fun to be able to explore a museum at our own pace. At the pre-established time we met up again, discussed our experiences and headed to lunch. We were able to eat together and begin establishing the connections that we will need in order to get the most out of our travel abroad.
I am very very excited to be traveling abroad in a few weeks and I highly recommend to all who have the opportunity to use Stevenson resources and travel while you can.
Photos: Wikipedia.org, Baltimoremagazine.com