CASSIDY JACKSON: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Cassidy Jackson. Thanks for tuning in. Over spring break, the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications arranged student trips to four international locations. In this podcast, we want to take you to London, where students traveled to explore arts and entertainment.

MIA MAMONE: We focused a lot, before we went on the trip, on pitching stories for our teacher related to arts, culture and the media entertainment stuff in Chicago, the stories we did before we left.

CASSIDY JACKSON: This is Medill sophomore Mia Mamone, who went on the Medill Global trip to London. As soon as the group’s flight landed, they had a busy week ahead.

MIA MAMONE: And then we were in London, our schedule was pretty full. From the second we got out of the airport, we were on a bus tour, kind of seeing the big sites of the city. We went to an acting class. We went backstage at the National Theatre. We saw a performance of Follies at the National Theatre. We saw Harry Potter and the Cursed Child both parts at the Palace Theater. We went to the Tate Modern. We went to a media visit at Bloomberg and CNBC, where there were Medill alumni working. We had quite a bit of free time also to just kind of explore on our own, which was really nice.

CASSIDY JACKSON: Mamone said London was her first and only choice for a 301 Global class. She had never been outside of the U.S. before.

MIA MAMONE: I’m glad that the first time I went abroad, I was like 20 in college because it gave me the freedom to go out of my own and do stuff. Or like with my friends, we were able to kind of explore more. Obviously, you know, we’re older so we can kind of handle ourselves better than if you were just a kid, you know, in a different country with your family.

CASSIDY JACKSON: Although London might not be a destination perceived as largely different from America, Mamone noticed key cultural differences between the U.S and London that made her appreciate her experience.

MIA MAMONE: The stereotype of like, British politeness, I feel like that was true. Like, everyone was very nice to us and and very sweet. I guess just the whole city itself definitely felt really just much more whimsical than cities I’ve been to in America. There are just so many flowers everywhere, which like I loved. The buildings are really — like, there’s some buildings that are really, really old like, from like, what, the 1200s or whatever next to like, brand new, really pretty, skyscrapers and business buildings and stuff. So that was interesting, you can definitely get the sense that it’s a lot older than America, that there’s a lot more history there, which is really neat.

CASSIDY JACKSON: Though it was her first time in the city, Mamone discovered she was comfortable getting around London by the end of the trip.

MIA MAMONE: I had been pretty worried about kind of navigating the city by myself on the last day when I went to do my reported interview with the person I’d set it up with before the trip, but it ended up being by that time, it was end the week so I like mastered the Tube. I think I can use it better than I can use the L. Like, it’s so much easier.

CASSIDY JACKSON: Thanks for listening, and make sure to check out our other podcasts about Medill reporting trips to China, Cuba and Israel. I’m Cassidy Jackson. I’ll see you next time.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @CassidyKJackson