My fourth week in my internship was spent with the Organizational Development (OD) team. Organizational development is the practice of using psychological, sociological, and other scientific practices to intervene in people or systems based problems within an organization. My coworkers for the week were mostly focused on consulting with care teams to diagnose what the problem is, having group discussions about the issue, and then working with the manager and care team members to come to a solution. One tool that they use frequently are psychometric tests. These tests measure your personality and give you insights into underlying biases in the way you perceive communication, perform tasks, or understand group dynamics. I had the chance to take a few of these and had a fun time learning more about myself. Some of the results made a ton of sense!

This weekend was my big travel weekend. I had previously booked a train ticket from London to Lille, France and back in order to reset my visa. Because I visited with family before starting my internship, I wasn’t sure my work visa would start before I needed to enter the country. In order to switch from my tourist visa to the work visa I would have had to leave and re-enter the country. Thankfully, my work visa started early enough that I didn’t need a tourist visa, but I still had the ticket and needed to put it to use.

I left early Saturday morning from London on the Eurostar train to Lille. We sped through the English countryside and before I knew it we were in the Chunnel underneath the British Channel. Quickly, I was in Lille, a city in the north of France with a metropolitan population of 1.2 million. This makes it the fourth largest metro area in France. Being close to the border with Belgium, the city has been influenced by both French and Belgian culture in its long history. Once I left the train station, my first stop was the Grand Place, a large city square surrounded by historic Flemish architecture. One of the buildings in the plaza is the chamber of commerce with a large belfry (one of two belfries that I visited on my trip). The tower was decorated with an ornate clock and its golden accents glowed in the midday sun.

From the square I headed to grab a snack and then lunch immediately after. It was still setting in that I was suddenly in France, alone without a significant amount of preparation and any experience speaking French. Because of this, I probably looked quite nervous as I paced the streets checking off items on my itinerary. My first stop was Méert, a pastry shop from the mid-1800s, where I purchased a stroopwafel filled with vanilla cream. Thankfully, I had thought ahead and translated a sentence to order one of these waffles. This was derailed, though, when the cashier asked if I wanted six waffles. Speaking a prepared sentence in French with a terrible accent was easy, but attempting to understand what words the other person was saying much less guessing their meaning was more difficult. After resorting to holding up the number one with my finger, I was soon out the door with a waffle in hand. Next up was lunch. Holding up the number one again was successful, and I ended up with a small table for one at a creperie. For lunch I had a buckwheat crepe filled with ham, cheese, egg, leafy greens, and balsamic vinegar. It was amazing.

I spent my afternoon at the Palais des Beaux-Arts which is the largest museum in the city. The highlights of this stop were a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, a massive perspective mural in the main lobby, and a marble relief by Donatello. Once I had seen the whole museum, I walked outside and realized I had three hours until I was supposed to check in at the train station. Both London and Lille have a huge selection of parks, and this is where I spent the rest of my time, relaxing in the shade.

After getting back late Saturday night, Sunday morning offered no time to sleep in. My roommates and I reported to the internship study center bright and early for my second day trip of the weekend, this time to Stonehenge and Bath. For the second time in two days I was travelling across the countryside, but this time unknowingly as I was fast asleep in my seat. At Stonehenge, we first hopped on a shuttle bus and then walked towards the stones. The first thought I had once I saw them was that they are huge in real life. Each of the sarsen stones (the larger ones stacked in a circle around the outside) are 20-30 tons and come from a quarry about 20 miles away from the site. The interior stones, called blue stones, are 2-5 tons each and come from 150 miles away in southwestern Wales. Stacked high in the air, the stones are an impressive feat of late neolithic achievement. Last year I took a European prehistory class where I learned about the second most impactful feature of Stonehenge. Outside the stone circle is a circular ditch connected to a wide avenue that leads through a field of sheep down to the River Avon. These slight indentations in the ground are easily overlooked but, coupled with the multiple burial mounds visible in the nearby hills, give a sense of the people aspect of the site. You can imagine the neolithic Britons processing up to the stones, celebrating, and then burying their dead either in the barrows (raised burial mounds similar to a mausoleum) or cremation pits within the circle. This makes the site more personal and reminds you that in addition to the stones, there is human history contained there.

From Stonehenge we headed to the ancient city of Bath. The city gained its reputation when a hot spring (the only heated spring in the country) was discovered, leading to its place as a spa town for the Roman empire. The remains of the Roman settlement and bath houses now sit underground in a museum. Walking down and amongst the different rooms where Romans would swap between cold and boiling hot pools was super immersive. I couldn’t get in because of a high level of pollutants and presence of brain-eating amoeba, but the experience was still exciting.

Overall, my weekend was long but exciting. Allowing myself to be uncomfortable and find my place in a new environment is good practice for life. Also, the experience of trying to communicate with someone different than me reemphasized the importance of an open mind, a good attitude, and a genuine smile. Now halfway through with my program, I’m incredibly thankful for these experiences and excited to see what else my time in England holds.