Out of all of the amazing classes that there are to take abroad, one that is an absolute must is a class that allows you to get off of campus and explore the city. Although a few of my classes allowed for field trips every so often, the class that was most adept at this was History of London. Every Monday, we learned about a specific theme, aspect, or part of London in both a historical and contemporary sense. Then, two days later on Wednesday, we would trek out into a part of the city that related to what we had just learned on Monday. For example, one Monday we learned about Shakespeare and the theatre scene in Elizabethan London. On Wednesday, we went to the Shakespeare Globe and toured the surrounding area. It was not always tourist destinations that we would go to, however. In fact, the large part of the idea around the class was that we would find ourselves in parts of London that were off the radar but still held significant historical significance. By taking History of London, I was able to visit parts of London that I know I would not have known to go to before. Not only that, but it also forced me to get out and go to other parts of the city than where my dorm was. This made me better at traveling and also at navigating. Soon, I found that when I would take trips with my friends outside of class, I would recognize some landmark or another that we had passed or stopped at during class and I would be hit with a sudden pang of recognition. There is nothing quite as satisfying as realizing you know where you are in a completely new and foreign city—it makes you feel like you are truly starting to belong.
Since the class went on so many trips into London, I asked a few friends which trips they found the most impactful. One friend cited the class trip to Soho. Although Soho rests in the Westminster borough, its borders are not exact. Near Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, and Leicester Square, the area is bustling and known for its nightlife, particularly with gay and lesbian bars and clubs. As we toured through Soho's streets in the day, though, the area is sleepy and does not reflect the energy of the night. Still, there are clues that suggest what the area will turn into during the night. Once known for its prostitution, there are still signs of that history in the form of "model" advertisements pasted on dirty second floor windows.
Another friend responded to my question enthusiastically with the London Museum. Off the beaten path, the London Museum is a hidden gem in London. Most people are drawn to museums such as the British Museum, the British Galleries, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and I never would have known to go to the London Museum had it not been for my History of London class. The highlight of the museum for me was the section that they had on the Victorian era that featured a replica they had made of a Victorian London street. It was truly fabulous and helped the museum's visitors better understand and connect to the people that lived over 100 years ago.
The classes in London that have a field trip element to them not only help you to explore places that you may have already gone to, giving new information and new outlooks such as with Soho, but they also, as with the London Museum, bring you amazing places in the city that you may not have gone to otherwise. Perhaps the most important field trip that we did in my History of London class was a combination of both of those things. As our last assignment, we were all to go to an area and look at it as though we had never been there before, examining and noticing the smallest things like sound and color. We were to have a loose plan but let our feet take us in another direction if they so planned. Choosing to go to start at Covent Garden and end at Soho, this area resinated with me for it is the location of one of my favorite TV shows, Harlots, only about three hundred years previous to today. On my walk, I tried to look for aspects that still remained of the 18th century and the people that lived there. The results were spectacular and I found myself in a dark nook somewhere between Greek Street and Golden Square that looked as though it hadn't been touched in three hundred years. By going on this trip into the city, I was able to notice so many more things that I would have had I just been walking though on the way to some destination or another. I would suggest that, no matter what city you visit, you try this exercise yourself. You will be surprised at all of the seemingly minute things that you will find that add beauty to even the grungiest of places.