This past week would have been my last week in London. Although I am now spending that week at home, I have still needed to complete all the work that was originally assigned during this finals period. Overall the work has been very time consuming. Working on writing papers, recording mock interviews, and maintaining communication with peers for group assignments have all been difficult tasks to complete. In addition to that, as mentioned before, a lot of my classes discussed the different themes and aspects of London as a city. With being home, it has been a different experience learning about these themes from home in front of the computer compared to being in the city gaining that first hand experience. This has given me more of an appreciation, not only for the areas I was able to explore on my own but also through the courses I was able to take. Another aspect that I have gained more of an appreciation for is working with group members while being in different time zones. Despite everyone having to go home early, many if not all, of the group assignments that had been assigned or were in the process of being assigned were still expected to be done by the due date. Once everyone went back to their respective homes, we began living in all different time zones. I worked with a classmate who is from Arizona, from Minnesota, and even a classmate who lives in Korea, that has a 12 hour difference in time from me. This made certain goals a lot harder to achieve than they needed to be, but in the end we were able to get things done. With the challenges that have come with completing my school work remotely, there has been a gained appreciation for certain circumstances from before.
Another complex job that I have been keeping up with lately has been initiating and maintaining contact with my advisor from school, trying to map out my future, as well as deal with issues going on now. As I go into the summer and prepare for my senior year, a major part of the preparation is determining which classes I have left to take in order to complete my graduation requirements. Although I am able to figure this out on my own there are forms and permission forms required to take some of the courses I would like to take. In addition to that, I planned to apply for the 5th year Masters program for Community Development at my school and in order to do so you must gain contact with an advisor from that department. After some time I was able to get in contact but I then began to realize there is a big difference talking about things over email than face to face. Expressing yourself is different as well as interpreting what the other person is trying to say over emails. Overall, remote working is a difficult task, but thankfully not just for myself but for many people around the world, it has been a safe way to be able to get things done which is a great thing.
Isaiah's Travels 