STEP Reflection
Name: Type of Project: Study Abroad
My STEP project was a study abroad trip to London, England where I took a class on British politics, history and literature. The class attended class excursions daily that took us to historic sights and monuments as well as tours of different parts of the city that differed vastly in culture as well as socioeconomic status and ethnic backgrounds. The class as well as the excursions this class offered a deeper understanding of the city over the classic Big Ben and Buckingham Palace idea so many have.
My view of the world changed tremendously during my STEP project through my experiences in London. Though the United States and The United Kingdom are similar through a shared language and similar political ideas that are becoming more popular in both places, they have vast differences that are not as easy to see at first glance, but become clear when you look closer. A considerable difference between the United States and the United Kingdom is culture. Growing up in the United States, our culture is ‘normal’ and all we know. London was fish and chips, tea, Big Ben and the royal family to many children and there is very little growth in knowledge about the country after. By experiencing life in London, I realized that England in my mind was more like a fairytale, nothing like the real, living, always changing city I came to know. London is historic and modern, there are skyscrapers next to ancient storefronts, and people who have an entire family tree who have lived in the same city since it began, and people who came the day before. The coexistence and meshing of different cultures is a much rarer sight in the United States, but is a commonplace in London’s culture. By witnessing the comingling of many diverse cultures, I have become more driven to be more accepting in my own communities in the United States and, more specifically, my Ohio State family.
One event that lead to my changing views of the world was actually living in London as Londoners do. I used public transportation to get around the city and back home as well as to class and excursions. I shopped for food at small markets around where I lived and prepared it in my room that was about the size of a basic flat. I stayed a month, and while it does not seem like a long time, I had a routine to my week, and there was a familiarity with the underground and my day to day travels though they differed by the day. I became at home in the city and discovered new things every day. By living in the city, I was exposed to things I would never have been able to experience if I had not gone off on my own and immersed myself into a different culture from the one I have always known. Learning about how other people live made me realize that there is so much more to the world than meets the eye, and there are more ways of living than I had ever imagined there were.
I also gained confidence in myself through the independence of having to navigate a large city by myself. Before partaking in this study abroad I often had issues navigating around Columbus and Ohio, however, after living in London for a month, I became much more comfortable navigating around. Learning the tube system in London and switching between lines became second nature and made me believe in myself much more, allowing me to travel without the nervousness that usually filled my body when going somewhere unfamiliar. This greatly improved my self-confidence, as I now feel much more comfortable returning to navigating smaller cities, such as Columbus.
Additionally, by navigating around London, mainly on the tube, I will now feel more comfortable utilizing public transportation. I saw first-hand how important public transportation can positively impact my life personally and the collective well-being of the city. It was very apparent that London is doing its best to reduce their environmental impact by promoting the use of public transportation while getting people to their destination safely and effectively. While I am now here in the United States, I will make a concentrated effort to utilize public transportation whenever possible, especially on campus where services like CABS and COTA are provided to me.
This transformation is significant in my life because it impacts my future career in healthcare by allowing me to get a deeper understanding into different cultures. I am planning to work in the medical field which serves everybody, and cultural factors come into play in many cases. I plan to go into nutrition and become a registered dietitian. Understanding a culture such as the culture of Great Britain is vital to serving patients successfully. An example of this is understanding cultural implications of different things, which I took a class on last semester called community nutrition. Food is often a central part of cultures and Great Britain is no exception to this. As a dietitian, if a patient came in wanting to lead a healthier lifestyle and gave a log of the food they ate for the week and I noticed that this person had tea three times a day and used heavy cream and loaded it with sugar and at biscuits with it every time, my first instinct would be to cut out the tea and biscuits completely therefore cutting out a large amount of fat in the diet as well as added sugar. This, however, is not a doable solution culturally speaking. Since being in London I have noticed how important tea is to the culture. It is advertised in shops and restaurants more than any other beverage and workers even have set tea breaks in their schedules. This is very different from the United States culture where cutting out a beverage like coffee would be hard to some people, but doable and most likely not go against the cultural background they have. Having the background knowledge I have gained while living in London, I would know how important tea is and I could make more appropriate suggestions, such as switching out cream for skim milk and slowly decreasing the amount of sugar in the drink and switching biscuits for a fruit plate rather than eliminating the patients tea tradition as a whole. Another thing I learned about over this trip that related to my coursework is the prevalence of fried foods in the United Kingdom. I noticed in Glasgow as well as London the high concentrations of fast foods and fried foods. In my community nutrition class, we discussed this exact scenario in great detail throughout the semester. While London has a slightly different scenario than many of the United States cities we talked about due to the higher earning average of many citizens, it does seem to have a higher concentration of unhealthy foods that are easy to access, especially in areas like Brixton. This was very interesting to see in another country and notice it in places that seem so different from the United States exhibit similar characteristics. Another cultural impact I would have to be aware of is the pub culture. The culture of leaving work and going to grab a drink with friends or your family and getting a bite to eat which may be something like fish and chips or a meat pie. These traditions would be difficult to change or break, but could be dealt with by moderation rather than restriction. Because of the background cultural knowledge, helping patients is more doable, without it, they are more likely to give up or quit coming to me as a dietitian because they see the changes as unreasonable or they give up on themselves because it is too difficult and goes against their lifestyle to an extreme level. Overall, I believe this class have given me tons of background in the rich culture of Great Britain and has only made my yearn to travel even stronger. I feel as though London has become a second home this past month, and I hope to come back some day to visit again.
