It has been a little under two weeks since I left London, and it hurt a lot to say goodbye. Not only was it hard to leave a place I had called home as a kid, but the weeks I spent in London were some of the best weeks of my life. Getting to explore and see my favorite city as an adult with my new friends was exhilarating.
Because we did most of the academic portion of the program in Pittsburgh, the London portion was much more about seeing and being in London. We went to many of the tourist sites, like the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Kensington Palace, and the Tate Modern, which were great for learning about the history and culture of such an old and famous city. We also explored a few of London’s many markets, notably Spitalfields and Borough Market, full of delicious food and stands selling clothes, accessories, and other knick-knacks.
It wasn’t only sightseeing that we did in London. We had a plethora of experiences related to the program topic of war trauma and children as well. Some were more traditionally academic, such as listening to a lecture by a trauma specialist in Cambridge. Many of these experiences were experiential, however, such as a tour of the Anna Freud Centre and a visit to the Foundling Museum, which used to be the first home for abandoned children.
Outside of our scheduled activities, my friends and I explored a lot by ourselves. Notably, we visited the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, went shopping in Soho, and ate at all different types of restaurants. One restaurant in particular, an Indian restaurant called Dishoom, was particularly good and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting London.
One of my dreams after I finish school is to move back to London. After this program, that dream feels more possible than ever for me to achieve. I feel more confident navigating the city by public transport, and in general, I got a much better feel for London in a cultural sense by just being there. I now feel like I could feel at home there if I did move there.
A surprising revelation I had while on the program was that I do not think I would be able to do the type of clinical work we were learning about. In other words, I do not think I would be able to work with children with severe trauma in a clinical setting. I am quite a sensitive person, and I just would not be able to stomach it. This was interesting because going into this program, I was really looking at putting the knowledge I gained from this program toward my future career. While I will still use some of that knowledge in future classes at Pitt and in my future career, I do not see myself going into this field of work.
Despite this, I found the neuroscience portion of this program to be remarkably interesting, especially the work being done to understand how the body handles stress. Previously, I had little interest in taking any neuroscience classes at Pitt, but now I will be looking into taking a few neuroscience classes before I graduate.
Overall, I enjoyed this program thoroughly and I hope I will be back in London sooner rather than later. I properly fell in love with the city during my time there. The knowledge I gained in this program, both in an academic and a personal sense, I see myself using in the future. In some ways, I feel like a different person because of the experiences I have had.