A month in the U.K.

The STEP project I chose was Global May Great Britain. This consisted of living in London for a duration of a month and obtaining a better understanding of the culture in the United Kingdom. There was class mainly Monday through Thursday with excursions around the city of London after class. The excursions went along with the lessons taught in class and in a way that we started back in history and worked our way towards what is happening there now. Most of the sites we saw were known historic sites, like the Tower of London, and some were newer like Brick Lane. There was also a weekend trip to Scotland to get a full understanding of the United Kingdom considering Scotland and England are united.

The thing that stood out to me the most in England, was the way people acted. In general, the people there were more kind than here in the United States. I thought that it would be like your typical American big city where people don’t care. I also didn’t have a lot of faith that adjusting to London life would be okay. I was scared at first because it is a giant city and I wasn’t all that sure about the tube systems. I thought that it would take a while to understand how it works. That wasn’t the case though. The people there were also very willing to help you get somewhere if you didn’t know the way. If you stopped someone on the street or in the tube asking for directions, they typically would help you and not be annoyed that you asked them for directions. I think I took New York City and then applied to every big city. But every city is most likely different and can’t be applied to other cities. London is definitely one of them. It was completely different.

The main thing that led to my conclusion of people being nicer in London was at one point, I was entering a tube station and there was a homeless person outside of it. In England there weren’t many homeless people and the majority of them were very nice. This one person though was on their knees and didn’t seem too well. There were three people around him asking if he was okay. You could tell by their tone of voice that they genuinely cared about this man’s well-being. They were even asking if he has been to a shelter before and if he went anywhere for resources and help. I would’ve thought that London being a big city, it would be more like the cities here in America. Meaning that we tend to care more about ourselves than others and that we would just walk by a homeless person without a thought. I realized then that just because it is a big city, doesn’t mean that it would be like the cities I am used to.

From this, I also learned to be more openminded. Everyone there was very welcoming and wanted to know more. They would ask questions and respect our thoughts and opinions. They also tried to relate to you. To them, it didn’t matter who you were, as long as you were a good person. Everything blended there. It didn’t matter where your were from or what your culture was, it was all a part of the Britain culture. What was interesting is that normally people say that British food is bland and boring. But The U.K. and especially London is known for the ethnic food. It was nice to see different cultures becoming part of the main yet remaining separate.

I thought that living in London would be scary and would take time getting used to. But it turns out that it wasn’t at all. I normally would have said I will never live in a big city. I had been to New York City and didn’t like it and that is what caused that opinion. When I got to London though, I really liked it. It wasn’t like New York City at all and it didn’t time a lot of time to get adjusted to. I thought taking the tubes would be hard, but it turned out to be very easy. Becoming adjusted to London life wasn’t scary and turned out to be great. I now think it would be great to live in a big city. Maybe not New York City though. Being in a big city in another country really made me stop and think. I had to remember to not freak out if something didn’t go according to plan. I had to step out of my comfort zone and learn how to navigate somewhere that I’m not used to.

The main value of this trip was experiencing the culture of England. I had always had an interest in different cultures. I think that it is a great experience to see what people from other countries do. Some of it I like and some of it I don’t. I think that it is important to see what other people do. In order to learn, you have to understand the whole, not just a small part of it. In the future, I want to be an occupational therapist. In doing this I will be seeing patients from a variety of backgrounds. They most likely won’t be of the same culture. Seeing how people of other cultures were treated in England really made me want to be there for others if they are having a hard time adjusting. In our time now, for some cultures it can be very hard. I want to be able to be there for future patients and not just to help them with hand-eye coordination. I want to be able to have a positive impact on someone and to let them know that they are accepted.