We have finally arrived in the great city of Birmingham, UK. The past two days of adventure, it has given us a ton of learning opportunities. After landing in London yesterday morning (05/08/2022) at 8:00 pm, it has been a non-stop journey! There have been so many learning experiences already in the past 2 days to already acknowledge. Already jumping into action after our long flight we immediately started our journey to Birmingham. After arriving in Birmingham at our hotel, we began dropping off our belongings and then heading out to the city. We started our journey walking and we quickly arrived at the waterfront, which was absolutely beautiful. Shortly after we discovered a close restaurant that had not only amazing food but also amazing history. After having our group meal we then headed to Digbeth, which was a part of the city full of life and shopping. After searching around there for different items we decided to start our walk back to the hotel to get rested up for the following day!
On the following day (today: 05/09/2022) our day started at a bright 8:00 am to grab breakfast and head to Birmingham City University. The arrival at BCU was an amazing experience as we not only had time to grab a few group photos together but also meet up with our professors from the university. During our day spent there, we got to meet up with Claire, David C, Vena, and another David who were the main speakers. These were the lovely people who led us into our adventure for the day by learning simple facts about the university and also introducing ourselves. It was extremely intriguing to learn about their own experiences in Birmingham and also the background of their BCU experience. For myself, I know hearing their introductions and the fields they have specialized in, or worked in were fascinating. Many of them have had less than 11 years of experience with BCU, but an extensive background in other locations such as Oxford and Whales with their work experience.
Leading into more extensive backgrounds of BCU itself after the introductions had also raised plenty of questions for myself and our class. Learning many facts about the differences between the United Kingdom’s education and nursing system in comparison to the United States already so early in our trip has been amazing. Learning about BCU and the common differences we face has already allowed us to explore more research topics. One of the most fascinating facts I had taken away from our discussion had been that the UK does not have to pass any board exam to practice nursing or education. In the United States, we must pass national board exams to be able to practice medicine or education. After discussing these topics with the professors and the class we then were able to discuss some topics that had been more specialized with other colleagues who had arrived later in the lecture.
After spending time during lunch at BCU with the wonderful professors we had met, we were then led to a local art museum. Although the art museum had been mostly blocked off in certain areas, we were still able to discover the beautiful art and history of the building and works. One of my favorite areas to visit in the museum was the “unpredicted time”, these were local stories of the hard times such as Covid for the healthcare workers. This section revealed many oil paintings and stories of people going through medical hardships during the pandemic. This area also properly portrayed the events that took place during these times and allowed me to also see them from a different perspective.
After the museum, the group met up with our wonderful tour guide, Mary. Our tour lasted close to two hours, and we spent most of our time exploring the Victorian Square. On this tour, I learned an absolute ton of information about the city. We also explored a few areas close by to us on our walk each had a little bit of information to go along with it. One of my favorite stops along this trip was the library. The library had beautiful scenery and was very bright and cheery to be in.
Once our walking tour came to an end we then were sent on our way to dinner. Lindsey and I decided on a local place called “Slugs and Lettuce”. The food was absolutely amazing and also outside my comfort zone of what I would normally eat. All in all, our day has been absolutely amazing and extremely busy!
