“Travel is the only thing you buy, that makes you richer.” – Unknown
Hey guys and welcome back to my chan—I’m just kidding, welcome back to my adventures in London. The past couple days have been pretty stressful because I forgot that I had an assignment due today (Wednesday)💀for my History of Design class and the only reason I forgot was because I was trying to finish an assignment that is due on Friday😩 for my Food, Society, and Culture class on top of writing these blogs. The struggle has been real but you know it’s all part of the study abroad experience…at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself. Honestly though, I am so appreciative to have been able to travel to London because I have seen and learned so much about life outside of Philadelphia and that is something that is worth everything to me.
So, the objective of this History of Design assignment was to pick a designer from the Victorian Era and analyze how their work exemplified the significance of design in its time and place while considering the social, economic, political, technological and aesthetic context of the era. I chose to focus on Charles Frederick Worth who dominated Parisian fashion during the later years of the 19th century and essentially founded haute couture in Paris as he used the technology of the industrial era to transform the decoration of women. I am an overachiever, it’s both a blessing and a curse, so for this assignment, I kind of did the most. I gave some background about the Victorian era as well as the different contexts of the era, then I gave the history of Victorian Fashion further breaking that into the background of women’s fashion during the Victorian Era. Then I gave some background information about Mr. Charles Frederick Worth as well as the heritage of the House of Worth, which the fashion company that houses the luxury fashion label WORTH. Then I picked 6 different dresses designer by Charles and explained their significance of Victorian design and finally, I gave my personal opinions. I literally just finished the assignment before starting this blog and it was a lot, but my professor said that only outstanding work receives an A and tbh my GPA could use an A, so hopefully I did outstanding.
My assignment for my Food, Society and Culture class was to write an essay, no less than 1500 words😐, analyzing the impact that the process of globalization has had on food, cuisine and/or food culture. In theory, the essay isn’t that hard to write; what’s hard is finding 5 scholarly sources that support my thesis statement which is basically states that the globalization of food has increased food availability and diversity but has also lead to culture/food appropriation. I can only find sources talking about the globalization of food or culture appropriation but not both…the struggles *sighs*.
That’s all I have for now and I apologize for not having more interesting things to talk about. The most interesting I did this week was go to Hyde Park because I needed a change of scenery as I continued to do these assignments 😭. Hyde Park is really beautiful…it is the largest of the four Royal Parks that form the entrance of Kensington Gardens and passes the main entrance to Buckingham Palace. It is literally so big that if you don’t have a map, you might get lost lol. I went to sit by the water near the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain with my friend and it was so picturesque and relaxing.
Not to worry, the week is still young and adventure awaits, so until next time, xoxo Joella.
