Write Your English Music
After an excellent but busy trip to North America, complete with visiting my Grandparents in Houston BC (halfway to Alaska), a trip to California, trail running with Mom and Cristina in WA, and Josh's Graduation in Michigan, I jumped on my 14th plane in 6 weeks and headed back towards this part of the world.
The little puddle jumper from Grand Rapids to Chicago was uneventful, except that they (evil American Airlines) managed to snap one of the roller wheels off my carry-on bag when they gate-checked it. And didn't even say they were sorry. It was raining in Chicago so our flight was delayed, then someone wanted off, and they had to take their luggage out of the plane, so we left Chicago 2 hours late, making a 7 hour flight into 9 hours of plane time, but such is the joys of international travel.
Arriving in London, I jumped on the Tube taking me to the hall/hostel associated with the Institute of Education, right in the heart of London. It was hard to get my suitcases (since one had a snapped off wheel) up and down the stairs of the Tube and then through the streets of downtown. I got to the hall 15 minutes after I was supposed to meet Michelle, my brother's Australian ex-girlfriend, who was my guide for the day. I dropped my suitcases, changed into flip-flops and headed out to where we were to meet.
Michelle took me to see all the big landmark buildings in the city, stopping in various pubs along the way. A few observations: Peas- British people apparently are big aficionados of these little green pellets. I ate lots. Pubs- There really are a lot of these. Funnily dressed soldiers - I was disappointed in that there were no soldiers to be seen at Buckingham palace, but we found some later, so that made up for it. That was day 1.
The absolute diversity of people in London is amazing. All shades and accents can be found within a few city blocks. It was strange coming from the All-Dutch, 99%white graduation at Calvin College, which was cool in its own way, to the super diverse heart of London.
The next day was my meeting with Pat Pridmore, the advisor for the International Development/Health Promotion program I'm considering at the Institute of Education, University of London. I had a excellent conversation with her, mostly about what I want to do career-wise and how this program would fit it, or not. Even though the meeting was only an hour I spent the whole day poking around the University District, the student lounges and the bookstores. It was fascinating.
It leaves me conflicted about grad schools.
IOE is in London, which in itself much cooler than the program in California or Seattle that I'm considering. This program covers International Development, Education and Health, all three of which I'm very much interested in. But is that trying to cover too much material in a mere 4 modules over the course of a year? Would it be better to do a program on just one of those aspects? Should I work a few years and pay off my scary student loans before taking more education (read debt)? There is apparently no financial aid in the UK. Unless maybe somehow I'll work on being more Canadian. I've heard there are scholarships for Commonwealth countries?
So my London visit raised more questions than it answered, but that's OK since they are ones that need to be raised. If you have input on any of the aforementioned questions, feel free to comment. I'm open to suggestions.
For now, I'm back in Dhaka. I have 60 weeks or so left of my time in Bangladesh. I hope to make the best of it and am working hard at not letting questions of my future distract me too much from the tasks at hand.
The little puddle jumper from Grand Rapids to Chicago was uneventful, except that they (evil American Airlines) managed to snap one of the roller wheels off my carry-on bag when they gate-checked it. And didn't even say they were sorry. It was raining in Chicago so our flight was delayed, then someone wanted off, and they had to take their luggage out of the plane, so we left Chicago 2 hours late, making a 7 hour flight into 9 hours of plane time, but such is the joys of international travel.
Arriving in London, I jumped on the Tube taking me to the hall/hostel associated with the Institute of Education, right in the heart of London. It was hard to get my suitcases (since one had a snapped off wheel) up and down the stairs of the Tube and then through the streets of downtown. I got to the hall 15 minutes after I was supposed to meet Michelle, my brother's Australian ex-girlfriend, who was my guide for the day. I dropped my suitcases, changed into flip-flops and headed out to where we were to meet.
Michelle took me to see all the big landmark buildings in the city, stopping in various pubs along the way. A few observations: Peas- British people apparently are big aficionados of these little green pellets. I ate lots. Pubs- There really are a lot of these. Funnily dressed soldiers - I was disappointed in that there were no soldiers to be seen at Buckingham palace, but we found some later, so that made up for it. That was day 1.
The absolute diversity of people in London is amazing. All shades and accents can be found within a few city blocks. It was strange coming from the All-Dutch, 99%white graduation at Calvin College, which was cool in its own way, to the super diverse heart of London.
The next day was my meeting with Pat Pridmore, the advisor for the International Development/Health Promotion program I'm considering at the Institute of Education, University of London. I had a excellent conversation with her, mostly about what I want to do career-wise and how this program would fit it, or not. Even though the meeting was only an hour I spent the whole day poking around the University District, the student lounges and the bookstores. It was fascinating.
It leaves me conflicted about grad schools.
IOE is in London, which in itself much cooler than the program in California or Seattle that I'm considering. This program covers International Development, Education and Health, all three of which I'm very much interested in. But is that trying to cover too much material in a mere 4 modules over the course of a year? Would it be better to do a program on just one of those aspects? Should I work a few years and pay off my scary student loans before taking more education (read debt)? There is apparently no financial aid in the UK. Unless maybe somehow I'll work on being more Canadian. I've heard there are scholarships for Commonwealth countries?
So my London visit raised more questions than it answered, but that's OK since they are ones that need to be raised. If you have input on any of the aforementioned questions, feel free to comment. I'm open to suggestions.
For now, I'm back in Dhaka. I have 60 weeks or so left of my time in Bangladesh. I hope to make the best of it and am working hard at not letting questions of my future distract me too much from the tasks at hand.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home