Today we left Liverpool and headed to the University of Salford for a lecture from both Dr. Annabelle Waller and James Probert. At first, I thought the university had much less room than Point Park until Dr. Waller informed us this was just one branch and the main campus holds 24,000 students. Needless to say, I was fairly impressed by the size of this campus then, which has 1,600 students in attendance. Dr. Waller took us on a tour so we could see the studios and behind-the-scenes work that is required for producing film, animation, and broadcasting. She closed her discussion by bringing up the topic of virtual reality, which I thought was really interesting. She wonders if VR will be our future and showed some videos that really made us think about its possible impat on us.
James Probert followed Dr. Waller’s discussion and provided us with a small glance at what he does for a living. James works in children’s t.v. at BBC (specifically “Blue Peter”) and shared a video that he helped put together for a special episode. I was really impressed to hear how much he really does, such as writing scripts, filming, and writing articles for a children’s new show. His talk helped many of us realize that you might start out knowing what you want to pursue, but through hard work and experience you will find out. What I liked most about his discussion is that he told us “Blue Peter’s” motto is “Try Anything”, and I think it is fitting for this trip since many of us are trying a ton of new things for the first time.
Our tour of the BBC was led by Hannah and Lee, two of the most entertaining and enthusiastic people from this leg of the journey. Both seemed really interested about the sets and recording studios they were introducing us to, and they both seemed very excited that we were an engaging audience. As an American in a foreign country, I had my moments where I was embarrassed for not knowing something or for being misunderstood by locals, but these two really made us feel both comfortable and proud to be Americans because of their fascination with our “accents” and the fact that Jeff Goldblum (a recent visitor of the BBC) is from Pittsburgh. We got to see a lot of cool things while on the tour and experienced a small taste of what it would be like to work for BBC.
Following the tour of the BBC, we hopped on the bus (yet again) to make our way to our hotel in Manchester. Mya and I decided we would check out some British shows since we hadn’t at that point, but instead we spent the time before dinner watching the reality show “Rich Kids in Beverly Hills” and were very amused. (I definitely made a note to watch reruns when we’re back in the states.) After prying our eyes from the ridiculousness of the telly (when in the UK, ya know), we joined our group in the lobby before walking to our dinner destination, The Romper. Our appetizer was toast with mushrooms, which was similar to my entree – chicken and mushroom pie – and our dessert was a slice of hot fudge cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Needless to say, when I get back home, I need to put in some serious hours at the gym.
