Week 5-On air

Hi Everyone! This past week has been mostly just school work. I didn't get much traveling done over the weekend, though I did go to my very first London pub quiz! The quiz was at the Francis Crick Institute over by the British Library. I didn't get most of the answers correct, but I am proud to say that I did know who the first female American astronaut in space was: Sally Ride. Ride was a physicist and astronaut, being the first woman in space in 1983. She is still currently the youngest astronaut to have ever been in space at age 32. I did feel like I did my country proud with my one contribution to our team's points. Granted our team came in last. Maybe next time?

Saturday I mainly ran errands. Because the food here in London is quite fresh, most people go to the market twice or three times a week. I'm slowly following that trend, finding my supply of food in the fridge either goes bad before I eat it or I visit Sainsbury's more often than I thought. So errands, cleaning the flat (vacuuming, or hoovering) but that's merely it. I did do some reading as well, as I've been behind on my fun reading. I'm currently digesting Don't be such a Scientist by Randy Olson. Olson describes his experience as a scientist who goes to acting school. He takes the lessons he learns in acting school and applies them to science communication, making a fun and relevant read for me being a science communication student. Olson is funny, quick and quirky. I would recommend him to any writer or science writer.

Saturday bled into Sunday. I met up with Lucy and Billy, both American students in my program to visit the Tate Museum. We wandered around the exhibit of "In the Studio," showing pieces that exhibit different methods used by different artists. I saw Salvador Dali's "Lobster Telephone" in the section discussing cubism and the absurd. Picasso, Matisse, even Jackson Pollock also were featured. My brain spun with colors and images, trying to make sense of what I was seeing around me. My favorite artist, however, was Gerhard Richter, who used a squeegee to spread paint along a ten-foot-tall canvas. His paintings were based on the works of musical composer John Cage. Cage himself was very radical in his compositions, even having a song that was merely the orchestra sitting in silence for five minutes! I tried to see Cage come through in Richter's work, but I got distracted by his squeegee lines.

Monday classes started up again as we discussed the roles of a method in science. The core practical class was after lunch, as my team took a small video camera into the Victora & Albert museum to film outside the Food exhibit and discuss the ethics of lab-grown meat. The core practical is not a graded class, but instead focuses on getting the students as much exposure to media tech as possible, hence the video cameras. All of us fiddled with the cameras, boom mikes, and directing short clips discussing a topic. In a month we will present our different media segments to our fellow classmates.

Chamomile 

After the class ended, I went with my classmates Jacqui Wakefield, Ryna Lau, and Harry Jenkins to perform the weekly radio show for I, Science magazine. The show is weekly, but Jacqui and Ryna asked me to be on the show as this week's segment was on how humans draw inspiration from nature. Being a botanist, and having a background in medicinal plants, I was more than happy to help. I was so nervous being on air, but once the show started, I calmed down. It was merely a conversation I was having with my friends, except there were microphones in the room. To listen in to the show click the link here.

After my brush with fame, today seemed mundane. Classes mostly and then discussion with a journalist brought in for our weekly seminar. I finished the evening at the H-bar, one of our school bars, having fun with my friends.

In other news, my friend Franny is staying with me for a week. We know each other from high school. She's currently teaching at a school in Germany, after receiving a Fulbright Scholarship. She randomly booked her trip here. I'm looking forward to the company, and I hope she fits on my couch okay.
Until next time,
Kenna