kendyl's blog

I hate saying goodbye – I always have, and probably always will. It’s not that I get all emotional and sob or anything, but I just think part of my personality just doesn’t like change. While an overwhelming majority of me is so ready to get back to New York, a city that I now call my home, with people, restaurants (can’t wait for the food), and places that I love so dearly – a portion of me is sad to be leaving London. For the last three months, I’ve worked to settle into a daily routine, and a new life that this amazing city has to offer. Now, it seems to have passed by so quickly, and it’s time to pick up and leave again.
 
Reflecting on my time here, the things of London that I will miss the most are: the friends from the city I’ve made, the hustle & bustle and merriment of the pubs, the expansive farmers markets on the weekends, the rich historical landmarks and museums, and the always vibing music scene. Granted, most of these things I can find back in New York as well, but there’s still something about experiencing it in London that makes it completely different.
 
However, if there is one thing that has been continually revealed to me over the last year, it is that when one adventure seems to be ending, another is just beginning (as cliché as that may sound). While I may be hesitant of change to begin with (as I was when first coming to London), I can never know for sure what the future holds, and what opportunities lie ahead. London has been an enriching experience, and has continued to help me come into my own, and learn so much about myself. It has been an adventure I won’t forget, and I know, even a month from now, I’ll be looking nostalgically back through Facebook albums. For me, the biggest thing about coming back home will be keeping up with the people I’ve met here. That has been the most rewarding part of these last few months, so hopefully, I won’t lose touch with the people I’m leaving here. I have no doubt that I will be returning to London whether it’s within the next 2 years or 10 because it now has a little piece of my heart, so I’ll definitely be back someday.
 
Good luck to everyone in the midst of finishing up finals, papers etc, and safe travels back to the states!

To anyone debating where they should study abroad, I have to say (with obvious bias), London is an amazing city, full of so much life and vibrance. I could not be happier that I chose to study here, (which I was definitely a little tentative about in the beginning). If I could come back to London for 3 months and just live in the city and intern – I would probably do it in a heart- beat. That being said, I realize that idea is fairly unrealistic. Since coming to NYU, I have always wanted to study abroad, and London was the primary choice for me because I wanted to be in a place where I could still be actively engaged in a vibrant music scene. Thankfully, London has lived up to expectations, and I’m pretty sure if I had wanted to go to a show every night I’ve been here, I probably could have. So, if music is your thing, London gets an A+ rating. 
 
At the same time, while the city itself is wonderful-- full of farmers markets, outdoor flower markets, pubs, and vintage shops, I have to be honest and say that academically I was slightly disappointed with this semester. Coming from Gallatin in NY I’m used to taking mostly interdisciplinary seminars (as I’m sure many of you are too), where daily I find I’m being challenged, and intellectually stimulated. Here, I found the opposite – and for the first time, I felt like I went to a real college. There were no Gallatin courses offered in London, so all of my classes were lectures, based on a single textbook. I don’t mean to sound like a spoiled Gallatino, but it’s just that my preferred learning style is more geared towards the harkness style that is so characteristic of Gallatin. I’ve even found from meeting other people in Gallatin in other study abroad programs that they share the same sentiments. There was a point over Thanksgiving when I went to Paris – I was with a group people where several of them were also in Gallatin, and one person in the group just said, “Guys, Gallatin…” and immediately everyone had a little shared moment of understanding with one another.
 
But again, I don’t mean to complain, and if anything it has made me grateful and even more excited to return to Gallatin in the spring. London I think is probably the most similar to NY in terms of study abroad sites, which for me was perfect, it was different enough, but was still comfortable. While I would definitely recommend London to any one looking to study abroad – I would first and foremost suggest make sure you pick a city that excites you, or draws you in for a specific reason.

Part of me feels that as I’ve grown up, I’ve lived in continuously, bursting bubbles. To elaborate… first as a little girl, I lived in a bubble in Austin – where I grew up thinking Texas was that greatest place in the entire country -- sweet tea, BBQ, football… what’s not to love? I’ve also always grown up in the bubble of thinking that America is THE GREATEST and THE BEST, and who doesn’t want to live the American Dream? All of that changed once I came to NYU, and it continues to change having been in London now for 3 months. I feel as though another life - encompassing bubble has burst, but in a different way than before. London itself is such a global city, and a good portion of the classes I’m taking here focus on globalization and its cultural implications and effects. Having been in classes back in New York where this subject of globalization was touched before, I now realize firsthand from living here just how tied the concepts of ‘westernization’ and more specifically ‘americanization’ are with globalization.
 
However, being exposed to a whole new country and set of cultural beliefs and people – I realize just how ignorant Americans can be. The best way to illustrate this point is with a story, which I guess you could say in a way, is my epiphany. This past weekend, I traveled to Paris for Thanksgiving to be with friends and cook a nice, American meal. The thing is, I literally do not speak a word of French. Yes, I know the basic, ‘merci’, but that’s about it. At one point during the weekend – we were stressing to find certain food items to cook with, and I became so irritated in the grocery store when I couldn’t find what I was looking for because 1) I couldn’t read the labels and 2) I didn’t know how to ask anyone for help. I have greatly taken for granted the fact that I’m in London, where I have hardly had any sort of communication problems at all. At the same time, I realized how terribly arrogant/ignorant it was of me to just expect that these little groceries, and people who work in them would be able to speak English, and cater to my wants and my needs. It was quite selfish thinking to be honest, and that is one of the main things I have taken away from this time. We often view our “American” way of life as the right way – wanting to ‘spread our values’, ‘our language’, and ‘our culture’, but realistically who are we to impose on any one else? 

Cherish the thought // Of always having you here by my side (oh baby I) // Cherishthe joy // You keep bringing into my life – Madonna
 
Interestingly enough, the person who I chose to blog about is named after this particular Madonna song, and I bet you could never guess, but her name is… Cherish. She is a lovely, hilarious and sassy, 20 year old London babe, who I can safely say is one of my favorite people I’ve ever met (and I’m not being hyperbolic). It just so happens that she works at the record label where I’m interning while I’m in London – I still vividly remember our first interactions, in particular, we went to lunch one of my first days here, and I immediately knew after that, she was someone I was going to love spending time with. I don’t know what it was, but (I thought) we just, clicked.
 
Now the thing about Cherish is that she’s, as I said before, only 20 years old (a few months younger than me), BUT she has alreadybeen in a couple bands, she has been working as an A&R scout at a major label for over a year, and on top of all that she already has started her own record label. Talk about impressive…
 
 Back in New York I’m used to people thinking that I am a somewhat ambitious individual for having done internships since freshmen year, but Cherish basically puts all that to shame. I don’t intend for this to sound harsh, but there are few people around my age involved in music, whose opinions I can say I truly value and respect – I can count them on one hand, and Cherish is definitely one of them.
 
But more importantly than being accomplished in music, she has a genuine spirit, and compassionate heart that, while it can be masked at times, is my favorite thing about her. From the first day we met, she has been nothing but kind and welcoming to me in an environment where I was pretty unfamiliar. She’s taken me to shows, introduced me to her friends, and most importantly she has beenfriend, to me. Not to mention she’s equally hilarious, and always makes me laugh so, so hard. I already know that when I leave here at the end of the semester, she will be the person I will miss the most. However, I can only hope that in the future whether it’s through doing label stuff or something else in the music industry – our relationship will continue to deepen. I’m so grateful to have gotten to know her over these past months… she’s my biff, and I’m not one to use that word lightly. 

Thinking about what I would consider the genius loci of London is tough – I probably would be tempted to write something about the pubs, but I’ve written about them in previous posts, so I feel I should go for something different. Personally, when it comes down to it, I think for me what has embodied my time here in London is the music scene and the subsequent music venues of which I’ve become a regular. I hate to sound cliché because of course that would be the typical answer from someone interning in music, but truly I feel that I have been able to experience London through its various venues.
 
From huge arenas like Shepherds Bush to tiny basements like Shacklewell Arms in Dalston, I have grown to love not only the venues, but also the music culture that thrives within London. For me, one of the best parts is going from venue to venue and figuring out what kinds of people they attract, which ones have the best acoustics, which ones have the friendliest bartenders/bouncers, and which ones are the hidden gems. The area of Dalston is basically Williamsburg, just across the ocean. As much as I may hate to admit it, the first night I ventured to the Dalston part of town I felt a little twinge of comfort walking into a place filled with scruffy hair and handle bar mustaches, un-kept outfits of plaid and skinny jeans, and the overbearing smell of cigarettes and beer... I remember laughing to myself because I could have been in Brooklyn and never known the difference.
 
More than anything else, the London music scene is vibrant, and on any given night of the week there is always a show, very much like New York. That is partly why I would (personally) consider music venues the genus loci because I feel these places I’ve become so accustomed to, embody the lively, multicultural, and ever- progressing spirit of London. There are very few cities in the world that have genuinely incredible music cultures, and after this semester I feel that I have been able to experience London as one of those cities. 

Virginia Woolf wrote numerous short stories and essays in her lifetime, and she is an author we get to know her pretty well in Gallatin. So, I only saw it fitting that I read The London Scene while abroad (who doesn’t love some good Virginia Woolf?) In one of her essays on London, she writes about an elderly, local woman Mrs. Crowe, who more so than anyone else has a vast understanding of the city. In one part Woolf writes that, “…as she spoke it seemed as if all the pages of London life for 50 years past were being lightly shuffled for one's amusement. There were many; and the pictures on them were bright and brilliant and of famous people; but Mrs. Crowe by no means dwelt on the past - she by no means exalted it above the present” (Woolf). Here was a woman who knew the ins and outs of the city like the back of her hand, but she was always looking to the present and always exciting spirit of the city to find enjoyment in life. Woolf goes on that “Indeed, it was always the last page, the present moment, that mattered most. The delightful thing about London was that it was always giving one something new to look at, something fresh to talk about” (Woolf).
 
That passage made me think, kind of stop, and ponder over the meaning of travel and my time spent in London. It is important to always look to the present and see it as an opportunity – and this past year, that has meant being able to travel and take advantage of the time I have left at NYU. What a better place to do that than in London as Woolf suggests. Part of the beauty of studying here, is that there are many historical landmarks and places that have withstood the test of time, and remain in place today as they did in the days of Virginia Woolf. At the same time however, London also presents itself as a major, metropolitan city that is continually developing and progressing, especially with the Olympics coming next summer-- every one is busy preparing and renovating the city. Perhaps that’s one of the things Virginia Woolf was getting at... that I can take in and absorb the past that is still very much alive in London, but I also can take advantage of the present moment and the vibrant spirit of the city because “that’s what matters the most”. 

About a week ago, my family flew across the Atlantic to visit me in London. While the idea of joining the mass of tourists in the midst of the great city seemed exhausting, I was excited to be able to spend a few days leading my family around London to see the popular tourist spots. One of the favorites of the trip was the British museum – I felt I should take them there as it was their first time in London, and it’s also only about a 1 minute walk from our NYU academic center (which of course my mom just had to see…typical.)
 
First we entered into the room where on display you can see the Rosetta stone, and then made our way back to where ruins of the Parthenon are on display. That is where I took the picture that is shown above. Something about the scene of this adorable, little boy attempting to sketch such a magnificent historical piece of work was moving in a way. In Botton’s Art of Travel, he comments on the way people inherently connect and experience art saying, “Because we find places to be beautiful as immediately and as apparently spontaneously as we find now to be cold or sugar sweet, it is hard to imagine that there is anything we might do to alter or expand our attractions.” (Botton) Not only are the ruins from the Parthenon such unique pieces of history, but thinking about the skill and intricacy which it took to create these great, stone sculptures is unbelievable. For me, the scene with the little boy sketching was moving because I just envisioned how thousands of years ago these ruins were apart of this renowned landmark, and then fast forward to today, and how remarkable it is that they have withstood the test of time.
 
One other part of the Botton reading specifically struck me, which was where he said, “And in so far as we travel in search of beauty, works of art may in small ways start to influence where we would like to travel to” (Botton) As a have walked around various museums, I realize now that I always leave with this heightened sense of wanting to travel the world. I think seeing and experiencing all that art has to offer inspires me to travel because I want to go back, and be able to explore the richness of history. There is so much to see, and do, and I want to be able to take it all in. 

It’s an interesting concept, coming to a different country for only 3 months. While it seems like a good chunk of time – it actually is fairly short. After the first month you begin to settle in, and then the next 2 go by so quickly. You start to establish a daily, weekly, monthly life routine, but then before you know it, the 3 months is up and you’ve got to go home.
 
While living in London, I’ve created a sort of routine, where I have inserted into my daily life here, little places that remind me of home. For instance, where I work is literally right next door to a huuuge Whole Foods. For me, this is a major perk because not only do I love Whole Foods in New York, but it’s also a nice reminder of Austin where I grew up, and where Whole Foods initially started. I find myself at lunch often walking across the street to get anything from soup on a chilly day, to maybe just some chips and guacamole to satisfy any cravings of Tex-Mex that might arise. I’ve started to notice that now, when I come home if I haven’t been to Whole Foods that day, I feel like I’m missing something. I’ve found a way to weave into my daily life in London a little piece of America, of New York, of Texas… for me, Whole Foods is the perfect solution for any sort of reminder of home I may need.
 
At the same time, I’ve also tried to establish a little bit of a weekly routine that will allow me to further explore and adventure London. On the weekends, I try to pick a different farmers market, vintage shop that I want to go to, and then I dedicate a couple hours to going and searching out the place and its surrounding area. I’ve been to London once before, but also plan on adding even some more ‘touristy’ adventures into the ‘weekend routine’ because the city is filled with such a rich history, which I definitely want to take advantage of seeing and experiencing. 

Unlike most of the other study abroad sites, I did not have to be well- versed in a completely new language upon entering a different country. Even though many of the Brits here will scoff and argue that we speak “American” and they speak “English”, which I guess is true. However, there are certain phrases and local lingo that I’ve had to learn to pick up on while I’m here. I also have found that in a setting of all Londoners, it’s hard to follow along in conversation because they speak very quickly and I don’t necessarily pick up on all the little, British ‘wittisms’. For instance, I was at a concert with a co-worker from my internship, and she had invited some of her friends along to the show as well. It was entertaining to listen to them talk and get a sense for the local ‘hipster’ scene (yes, there definitely is one) – but, I had the hardest time following along with what they were saying. Given, the setting was quite loud, and I’m fairly tall, but some of the local speak just did not translate well. 
 
I also have found it hilarious to compare different food habits, and vernacular with the people I’ve befriended from London. I was at lunch the other day when a friend ordered ‘a jacket potato with beans and cheese’. I didn’t quite understand what she meant by ‘jacket potato’ AND I normally only eat beans and cheese together when I eat Mexican food...? It turns out it’s quite a normal lunch meal to have a baked potato with baked beans and cheese on top (pictured above), or tuna and mayo…which seemed so odd to me! But then again, who I am to judge one food culture compared to another. It was just a certain meal I wasn’t at all accustomed to.
 
Usually, when traveling to a different country I find myself not knowing anyone, so I’m timid when it comes to asking questions about the language and about different words etc. But I’ve been lucky enough to become good friends with some London people through my internship. One girl in particular, whom I’ve become pretty close with, we always try to imitate each other’s accents because we both wish we talked like the other. We’ll have one person say a phrase and the other try to repeat it… unfortunately it seems like when my friend always impersonates my “American” accent it comes off very valley girl-ish, which is pretty horrifying. It’s a process, but we’re working on it. 

Everyone has their ‘great good place’ and maybe even several of them – I have one in Austin where I grew up, and I have a couple in New York. The primary one in New York being Grey Dog Coffee, where I spend waaay too much time… and money. When I first came to New York, Grey Dogs was the place where I walked in and immediately felt a sense of warmth, comfort and friendliness – I felt at home there. They play the best music, have an incredible staff, and their food is killer (I’m greatly missing the pumpkin pie they always have for fall).
 
Anyways, since coming to London, I have been on the search for my ‘Grey Dogs’ in the city. I have been to several different cafes and coffee shops, but haven’t found one that in particular that has really captivated me. I found it quite interesting that Ray Oldenburg in his book The Great Good Place, talks about these types of places, calling them, ‘third places’, and says, “places such as these, which serve virtually everybody, soon create an environment in which everybody knows everybody. In most cases, it cannot be said that everyone will like everybody else. It is, however, important to know everyone, to know how they variously add and subtract from the general welfare” (Oldenburg). After reading about his description of these third places and their place in society, I can safely say that the ‘great good place’ here in London is the pub. As cliché as that may sound – I think it is definitely true. From the first day I have been here, I have been intrigued by the idea of ‘going to the pub’, because starting at 2 or 3pm on Friday’s (literally), and all the way through Sunday evenings people are pouring in and out of them. In actuality it is  nice to see people gather in these places to drink, chat, and have a good time with one another. While in New York there are bars and whatnot, there is something special about the pubs here because I think they really embody the type of ‘third place’ that Oldenburg is describing.
 
I can’t say that I’ve found a favorite pub that I would consider ‘my spot’ yet, but it is entertaining to go on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and sit outside (because it has been unusually sunny almost every weekend) and watch all the different people, young and old, going to and from the pubs. Everyone is always very merry (or just very intoxicated) and friendly with one another, and again, as cliché as it may be, it is enjoyable to see people engage in this kind of genuine community with one another. 

Not until I came to London did I realize how great and logical of a grid system New York has – I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve ever been lost in NY. London on the other hand, is a different story. Not only do they not have any sort of grid system, but the streets are not well marked… at all. You can’t just say ‘oh I want to walk from 2nd street to 14th street’ and start walking, knowing you’ll get there. All the streets have different names, they all wind and curve, and more often than not you’ll find yourself on a corner that is not marked with any sort of street name. Thankfully though, the subway or I guess tube, is extremely efficient and easy to navigate, but once you exit the underground there’s no telling where you’ll end up. An additional challenge is that I can no longer depend on my iPhone with built in Google maps. If I turn the data-roaming on (which unfortunately has happened a couple times) I can expect an inquiring phone call a few weeks later from my father as to the sizable charges that my data-roaming has incurred on the monthly phone bill.
 
So, I’ve resorted to looking up my destination beforehand, and then taking pictures of the surrounding area that I can look at once I get off the tube. It’s not the most reliable form of finding my way, but it does usually work. Within the first two weeks of being here, I didn’t mind getting lost because I felt like it was my time to explore the city, so if I took a wrong turn, or went a completely wrong direction then it was a welcomed little detour. As a result of my aimless wandering, within the first couple weeks I actually found some rather interesting places that I now frequent, purposefully. In my opinion, it’s good to get a little lost sometimes because you never know what little boutique, coffee shop, or farmers market you will stumble upon. One of the added benefits of being in London is that if I really am very, very lost I can always pop in somewhere to ask for directions, and people are usually more than willing to help direct me to where I’m going. I am the type of person who always generally likes to have a working knowledge of where exactly I am at all times, which is why I realize now how much I take the completely logical lay out of New York for granted. But, a little detour or misadventure can never hurt, which is why I guess you just have to go with the flow sometimes. 

I vividly remember sitting down on my flight departing from JFK to Heathrow airport, buckling my seat belt, taking a looking around, and thinking to myself, “I’m about to leave for a country where I literally do not know anyone.” The thought while obviously very exciting, was also a bit unsettling, as being in New York is obviously still in the US where all friends and family are either in close proximity, or just a flight away. I remember fleetingly thinking, “did I really make the right decision here, errr?” In The Art of Travel De Botton references the character of Charles Baudelaire, and one particular part of a passage reminded me of this moment I had on the plane. Baudelaire makes a metaphor that really caused me to think about not only my own travel, but also the purpose and reason of travel. He says:
 
‘Life is a hospital in which every patient is obsessed with changing beds: this one wants to suffer in front of the radiator, and that one thinks he’d get better if he was by the window…It always seems to me that I’ll be well where I am not, and this question of moving is one that I’m forever entertaining with my soul’ (De Botton 32)
 
He gets at something that I think is innately human and within us all, and something that at times we all think and feel. He comments on the very nature and purpose of our own humanity. We always peruse magazines, watch TV, or look to others and often times think ‘oh if I were… then I’d be …(happy, satisfied, fulfilled)’ – as humans I think we are always on a search (and I suggest that travel can be an agent of that search) because we are in want of something more. This certain passage I found extremely relatable when first coming to London because I knew very few people going into the NYU program. At the beginning, while I was never sad by any means, I did find myself pondering ‘WHAT IF…’ I had gone to Paris, or stayed in New York, or done something different to change my current circumstances.
 
I think we all have moments when we question our decisions, but realistically that is something I’ve learned to get over. I cannot focus on anywhere but the present and where I am today, and make the most out of each day here. There is no sense in thinking about different circumstances and how things ‘could have been’ if I were in another city. Reminding myself of this has allowed me to really start taking advantage of all the opportunities here, and now I can’t imagine being anywhere else. Sometimes change can be a little unsettling, but in the end I feel like it builds character and helps us to grow up a little more each day. 

If you would have asked me as a first semester freshman why I came to NYU- I would have told you one of the main reasons was to study abroad. I have always loved to travel, and I had dreams of studying abroad every year -- going to Paris, Florence, Madrid, Berlin etc.

Now, as a junior,  it turns out that this is my first semester abroad and of all the places I could go, I chose London.
 
Aside from the fact that I can’t fluently speak any other languages, what really motivated me to come here was: music. I’ve been able to intern for the past couple years at a record label in New York, and have really begun to develop a passion for the music scene of the city. Before coming to college, music was always a hobby (as with most NYU students), but it wasn’t until I got here that I decided to try it out in a more serious way.
 
Over in London I’m pursuing a tentative concentration in Gallatin for music business and entrepreneurship. Having interned in New York, my boss offered to connect me with the UK side of the label. That is a major reason I’m here because I figured what a great opportunity to see the music business from a whole, new perspective. The music scene in London is pretty unparalleled, and I was excited by the idea of being immersed in another vibrant music culture. While I do enjoy school, and am interested in the classes that are being offered, I really am looking forward to the music and everything that comes along with it – a whole new set of bands, venues, and people.
 
 I can only say this because I’m joining the class late, but I’m already grateful for the people I’ve met, and the things I’ve been able to learn even only after being here for a month. I spend a majority of my week interning, so I’ve been able to, in some senses dive right into it all, and try to get my bearings in this new music environment. I can only hope that over the course of the semester I will continue to learn, and enjoy the three months I have left to explore this multicultural, cosmopolitan metropolis!