A Look Inside My Pantry

Posted on by briawoods

Once again I present to you another display of me not taking myself seriously.  This time I share my favorite snacks only found on this side of the Atlantic!  Grab your appetite and a friend and check out this load of shenanigans:

Talk of the Town : “The Four-Dimensional Human”

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I love my program.  Throughout the term Arcadia has hosted various Talk of the Town events where they bring in a member of the London community to speak on a particular topic.  This past Wednesday I joined a group of Arcadia students in the cozy, dimly lit upper lounge of a West End pub called the Perseverance.  Dr. Laurence Scott, an Arcadia professor, read excerpts from his new book “The Four-Dimensional Human”  and facilitated a discussion alongside his editor Tom Avery.  In his soon to be published book, Scott argues that humans are being coaxed from their three-dimensional containment of our pre-digital selves into a wonderful and eerie fourth-dimension, a world of ceaseless communication, instant information and global connection.

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Needless to say, a room full of Communication and journalism majors stoked a flavorful and thought-provoking conversation about the implications of technology’s ever encroaching presence in conjunction with  our inevitable reliance and how the sum of these is literally changing our physiology and understanding of the human condition.  We wake and and fall asleep  under the influence of technology.  We work, educate, research, learn, dictate, orchestrate, and in a larger sense operate with the heavy aid of machinery and other hosts of zeros and ones.

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Tom Avery, Dr. Scott’s editor explained the cover art for the book: a cabin in a wooded area with a goole-like GPS pin hovering over the roof with a computer-screen blue glow emanating from the house.  This imagery conveys the meaning in sobering simplicity.  A place where authors like George Bernard Shaw,  Henry David Thoreau and Virginia Woolf could go to be off the grid and get lost in a realm of disconnection and solitude is now a place you can still check your twitter feed.  Why stop there when you can now check your twitter feed in Mars…just let that sink in for a while.

Hinging on the the topic of breaching the boundary of time and space, I brought up a phenomenon study abroad students are all too familiar with.  Skype calls back home.  I am constantly aware of the time difference between London and Texas and what my friends and family are doing at what time so we can find a small point in time to converge.  It’s the strangest thing to see beyond the screen into the 3D world that is my house, and it would appear that it’s right here in my flat in London.  But in reality, it’s six hours behind, and 4,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

Skype and FaceTime also change our perception of human connection.  The only senses I can use to connect with my best friend back home is sight and hearing.  Yet, we blow kisses, and wiggle our pinkies in front to the camera to make pinkly promises and I always hug my mommy good night.  But all I really did was smother my cold, metal laptop in my chest.  Does our brain know the difference.  It looks like mommy, it sounds like mommy, so it must be mommy, right?

While Dr. Scott doesn’t map out the answers to all of these technological queries, he most certainly makes an essential contribution to a conversation that evolves almost as quickly as it’s subject does.

Who knew that a colony of zeroes and ones would one day rule the world.

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Talk of The Town: The Four-Dimensional Human by Bria Woods is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I never knew what it was like being me…until I saw someone else being me. 

Posted on by briawoods

In America I’m that kid that:

-Goes home every weekend ’cause I live 15 minutes 281 North

-Sees her mom (or mum rather) 3-5 times a week

-Gets her laundry done for her (by mum!)

-Eats home cooked meals whenever she wants

-Hangs out with her best mates day in and day out

In the UK this looks different:

-My queen sized bed and I are experiencing the biggest challenge in our relationship: long distance love

-Unless she comes here I won’t get to hang out with my mom…ughh I mean ‘mum’… until I go back home in May

-I still have to FaceTime mommy before I do laundry each time to make sure I’m doing it right

-I know I’m no Rachel Ray, but I also didn’t know there was so much that goes into maintaining and stocking a kitchen

-As far as friends, let’s put it this way…I’m so quiet here, because I don’t know people, that the other day someone mistook me for an introvert. [Cue the unanimous scoff and chuckle from all of my friends back home who know that I am the furthest thing from an introvert at my core.]

Now before you start thinking that I’m one of those Americans that expects the rest of the world to be like America, let me make something clear.  I am not throwing a pity party right now or seeking sympathy.  I knew full well before I left home that I might have to cultivate a lifestyle that’s foreign to me.  And I’m fine with that, I’m happy that the UK is not like the US.  I’m thrilled to experience something other than the only thing I’ve known all my life.  That’s why I’m here.  I fully accept all the terms and conditions of playing on someone else’s turf.

On the same token: am I slightly jealous of my flatmate who is cuddling and watching a film with her mum and sister right now?  Slightly.  Do I want to catch the next plane home right now and run into mum’s arms?  You betcha.  Are some days just simply difficult to navigate my way in this busy and complex city? Unfortunately?  Do I wish I could enjoy the comforts of home like all of the other British kids can? You can bet your bottom dollar. Do I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing, where I’m going (physically and metaphorically) and how I’m going to get there?  Everyday that ends in ‘y’.

But will I give up?

Heavens no.

I am not one to toot my own horn, but I need to stop shortchanging myself.  I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve never bursted the American bubble before and traveled to a new country.  There’s something to be said for that.  I am doing okay for someone who is completely new to this. I am eating well, I am in good health (thank God), I am wearing well laundered clothing (thank you very much), I am meeting new people everyday and seeing promising relationships forming, and for the first time I can say “I know where that is,” when someone mentions an area of London I’ve been to. Most importantly,  I FaceTime mum everyday and my friends very often. I am surviving and then some.

I get it wrong sometimes.  But I think it’s no coincidence that just moments before sitting down to make this post I read this quote on Instagram, “If you don’t fail now and again, it’s a sign that you’re playing it safe.”  It’s safe (no pun intended) to say that going 4,000 miles away for half a year is well outside of my comfort zone.  I am stronger now than I’ve ever been and it all began on January 1st. The moment I stepped on that jetway, tears streaming down my face, and kept going without looking back I already became a stronger woman.  So what if things aren’t “perfect” (whatever that is) and so what I don’t know what I’m doing.   I am reinventing myself in the context of a new country, a new time, a new society, a new set of customs…a new reality.

Bria: London point ‘O’ will emerge in due time…in due time.

Video Diary No. 2 | One Month Anniversary

Posted on by briawoods

Yes.  Let that sink in.  I have been here for one out of the five months I’ll be in London!  This weekend was the perfect celebration!  I had an unforgettable time exploring more of this vibrant city!  This video has a bit of everything so I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it!