Tuesday, May 7, 2019
I was so dead when Wednesday morning. The class got up super early because we had our first lecture! We went to Regents University to hear Jason Mackenzie talking about media in the UK. The University was GORGEOUS. The gardens were filled with different colored flowers and the building were tall and gothic.
It was really interesting to hear Jason Mackenzie talk. He brought us several different local news papers and it’s wild how many have stories about Trump. All of the newspapers here have a more global focus than newspapers in the states. Just the one paper I read covered about 8 different countries.
We discussed the idea of media creating a world where everybody is a journalist. The best quote I have from him in “There is no such thing as citizen journalism. There are citizen witnesses.” I mean it makes so much sense. Journalist back up their information with several sources and try to take out as much bias as they can. People who post “news” online do it in a split second without verifying credibility.
Anna and I took a 20 minute power nap and back out we went. We decided it would be best to go to the London Eye. Surprisingly, we were able to navigate the Tube by ourselves. Once you get the hang of out, it really is the easiest rail system I have even used.
After the London Eye, Anna and I just kind of wondered around and explored until we were ready for food. We found this super cool Sherlock Holmes restaurant. It was decorated just like his house and had tons of Sherlock memorabilia, plus amazing food.
The best part of the day way going to The Cauldron. It’s a Harry Potter themed bar where you make “potions” at your table. Anna and I made the Blood Boiling Curse and Spaniard’s Revenge. The truly magical experience was made even better by our Potion Masters. They hung out at our table and put up with all of our antics. The one guy let us call him Jeremy the Customer Service Wizard for the entire night even though he had no context as to why. Someone from my group had been emailing the bar to ask questions and Jeremy was who they were emailing, so we asked everyone working there is they were Jeremy from customer service.
My first full day was an AMAZING first start. If the rest of the trip is even a little similar to this one, I’m in for the time of my life!