The first thought that came into my mind as soon as I woke up in the morning was that it was our last day in the city of Birmingham today. It is absolutely crazy to think that our time in Birmingham is coming to a final end. The past week really did fly by with so many new experiences and fun moments. I am and will always be grateful for being able to experience this trip!
For the first half of the day, we were going to go to Birmingham City University to attend a few more lectures. First, we had to drop off our suitcases in a common room since we were to check out of our hotel rooms at 8:30 am. Then, we met down in the hotel lobby as a group at 8:30 am to walk to BCU. By this time, after a week of being in the city, we had the path to BCU all memorized! I also felt like I knew how to navigate around the city somewhat too! This had been a little worry at the beginning. However, I guess this proves how easy it is to learn something if one is being forced to do something so often.
Once we were in BCU, we went into a classroom and waited for a few minutes. Then, the lecturer came in and gave us her presentation. Her lecture was about cardiovascular disease and the increasing prevalence around the entire world. In addition, cardiovascular disease is one of the biggest reasons for death around the world too. We learned that simple lifestyle habits, such as the food we ingest on a day-to-day basis, can be a huge factor, in addition to stress, obesity, etc. Then, we ended the lecture by talking about what we could do to slow this trend. The major way for prevention is through education across the world, so that changes can be made in people’s everyday lives.
After the first lecture, we had a few minutes for a break. This break was very much necessary because I was not feeling great and needed a few minutes to take a breather. After the break, we went back into the classroom for another lecture. This time the lecture was about ECGs. To begin with, regardless of how tired I was, I really liked this lecture because the lecturer was very interactive and expected us to answer questions and hear from each and every one of us. This forced me to pay attention properly in a way because I didn’t know when I would be called on. Firstly, we talked about the heart and its functioning. However, all of this was familiar to me because I had taken anatomy and physiology as one of my nursing classes this past semester. It made me feel good about myself that I knew the basic stuff. After that, we talked about EKGs/ECGs and the main components like P waves, QRS complex, and T waves. We also briefly learned about electrodes and leads to monitor the heart. As we were nearing the end of the lecture, I was quite lost and did not know what we were learning. There were so many new terms and I could not make sense of them. However, it does make me feel excited knowing that there is so much for me to learn in the next upcoming years!
After the second lecture, we started saying a final goodbyes to Chinenye. It was so bittersweet because she slightly started to tear up. It was so amazing to meet her on this trip. She did so much for us from organizing the events we had to guiding us along the way! I am grateful and thankful for that always. After saying our goodbyes, we started walking to go outside and that’s when it hit me. It was insane to think that I would most likely never be able to come to BCU again, but regardless I learned so much in the short time we were here.
We decided to stop by Morrison’s, a very common grocery store, to get some food for lunch. We ended up getting pizza, mozzarella sticks, and chicken nuggets. We walked back to the hotel to eat the food and it was absolutely delicious. I don’t think I had been that full in so long! I enjoyed every bite of it! As we ate lunch, some of my peers and the teacher chatted.
After eating lunch, we started to pack everything up and clear out since we were supposed to get onto the coach bus to travel to London. The bus ride was expected to be 3 hours, in addition to some buffer time in case there is traffic. I knew this was going to be a long bus ride, so I told myself I was going to take a good nap. The nap on the bus was very well needed as well!
After arriving at our hotel in London, we got assigned our hotel rooms and went to our rooms. After getting refreshed very quicking, we went to explore Paddington Station. It was so cute and I love it so much! We went around walking and I ended up buying more souvenirs.
After that, we met everyone in the lobby of the hotel to head to dinner, which was at this fancy restaurant with another group of study abroad students. It was very nice to meet more teachers and engage with them over dinner. The food was also amazing and I loved it so much! By this point, I was very tired so I ended up coming back to the hotel to rest up for an amazing day to tour around the city of London tomorrow!
