Global Experiences Blog

London Town

Alex Paisner | November.01.2012

Current Intern Kayla Hauge shares her experiences as a photography intern in London this fall.

Ideally this post would be over flowing with all the fabulous photographs I have been taking on all of my amazing adventures in London. Realistically, I haven't taken my camera on one outing. Judge away, a photographer without her camera. I am fully aware of how little sense this makes. I am going to use my bag as a lame lame excuse, but really I brought 3 bags that won't fit my camera and one bag that's strap upsets me so I rarely use it. You understand my predicament right? And my camera bag is just unnecessarily large and I'm not about to lug that around with me. I can continue with the excuses or I can actually talk about my new home and new life.
Lucky for you I've got these awesome pictures I took with my phone's badass picture taking capabilities.
Yeah not so much...

I arrived in London two weeks ago exhausted, jet lagged and emotionally unstable to say the least. But with the help of a friend we made our way from Heathrow airport to my less than large accommodations. I haven't slept in a twin bed for as long as I can remember. But I think the funniest thing about our living place is that we are allowed 8 overnight guest passes a month. Where is my guest going to sleep because I have a hard enough time sharing a king size bed I'm not about to share a twin bed... off topic, I digress. So I can probably say my first week in London was a bit of a confused blur. I was jet lagged for most of it and then work felt like it took up all of my time so I didn't do much else.

However, the studio I work at is pretty incredible. Studios are basically just like the movies by the way. Music you've never heard, models with legs for ages and various other people holding make up brushes and hangers. And my favorite part of course the photography. To flip through a magazine to see a spread and knowing that it was shot at the studio you work at is a pretty cool feeling. I've never been exposed to this side of photography before so it's really interesting. And the exact opposite of photojournalism. I mean I'm not sure what I want to do with photography in the end, but I do know that it will help me being exposed to every side.

Ok so outside of work. I've been to the largest mall ever, Westfields, to buy a UK phone. It's an awesome flip phone. Takes me about a half hour to text on it, but it was next to free so I'm not about to complain. I've been to Brick Lane and stuffed my face with Chinese food, but I was feeling homesick that day so it wasn't my best day. Did a Jack the Ripper tour during which I closed my eyes and turned the other way during photos because almost anything scares me. We've had some good drinks and good times at pubs. Went to Borough Market, my favorite place in London, and ate the exact same burger I had a year ago... I couldn't help myself! Aimlessly walked around London all day only to continuously think- I live in London. Did I mention that's been my dream for quite some time now? And yesterday I can say I had a proper, yes I said proper, UK day. I had tea at Spitialfields Market and got caught in the cold wet rain, but luckily that motivated me to buy an adorable and warm sweater or would it be jumper here? I'm stilling working on that part.

I'm living and working in London. And I am loving it.

Settling In

Meghan Tankersley | September.05.2012

Hello! I'm posting this entry a little late, from my first day in Florence which was, at this point, five days ago (It feels like longer than that five days....so much happens every day that the days are melding together into a mass of wonderful.). But regardless, here goes my thoughts from last Sunday night!

I’m keeping this blog to document my time here both for myself and for anyone considering participating in a Global Experiences program. I'm planning on documenting my successes and failures, and of course all of the things I do in Florence and the surrounding area. I don’t know what form this blog will take yet - in a perfect world I’d love to post long detailed entries with photos every few days, but alas it’s not a perfect world. Perhaps I’ll shoot for once a week, with some little asides here and there…something to ponder.

I’m writing from my apartment on Via Maggio, less than a minute walk to the Pitti Palace; I’m not all the way moved in, but it’ll happen tonight (I’ve got to clear the bed…), and I’m very much looking forward to going to sleep. After a missing passport scare (no, it was fine, it was in my purse the whole time), a delayed flight, and the logistics of getting myself from Rome to Florence by train, I’m just about tuckered out.

The apartment is very neat - not glamorous, but the floors are a red brick, the ceiling is exposed wood beams, and there are exposed bricks and stone in parts of the walls. My petite room is on the front of the building, and I’m enjoying listening to people as they walk by, trying to catch as much of the Italian as possible.

The room is one floor above ground level; high enough to give me the security of being above the street, but also low enough for me to be eye to eye with tourists on the top level of tour buses as the go by (It’s a really narrow street - I’m surprised the buses can even maneuver down them…and yet again, traffic is just a whole other thing over here…never mind.).

As for now, there are a million and one things I could write about, but I’m too busy thinking about food. I went and got myself a gelato once I’d mostly unpacked (I’m telling myself that nothing else was open at 4 in the afternoon therefore justifying a midday dessert, and when that doesn’t work I justified the decision instead with: I’m in Italy and it was tasty!) and now I don’t have too much more time to kill before places open up for dinner.

I’m also going to try and prep a little more for my placement exam tomorrow morning for the language school; my Italian is woefully rusty.

Pictures to come soon!

A Weekend Through Ireland

Meghan Tankersley | July.17.2011

Going abroad gives you the chance to have many unforgettable experiences. From the things, you’ll learn at your international internship to the people you’ll meet, going to Dublin is a truly life-changing event. We provide a few social events and cultural excursions for you throughout your program but encourage you to use your free time to travel and experience everything around you. We had one of our past interns put together a blog about one of her exciting weekends in the city and day trips from Dublin.

The First Few Days in Dublin

Meghan Tankersley | July.10.2011

I’m in Dublin. I feel like that sentence alone is enough to express the sheer amazing, incredible, outstanding time I am having. Dubliners all have the dispositions to match the beautiful sunny weather I arrived to on Saturday. Once I was out of the airport, I met a cheery bus ticket salesman, then a cheery bus driver, and then a cheery cab driver. By the time, I made it to my flat I was downright chipper. I was greeted by a cheery, though hard to understand with his accent, front desk attendant. By the time I arrived at my accommodations I knew I had made the right choice to intern in Dublin!