Civ in London - Dr. Stephanie Boeninger & Dr. Margaret Manchester '83G

Show Notes

Civ’s gone to London! Dr. Stephanie Boeninger, associate professor of English, and Dr. Margaret Manchester, associate professor of history, are faculty-in-residence for Providence College’s new Civ in London study abroad program. Civ in London brings lessons from the Development of Western Civilization to life, exposing students to the rich history and cultural heritage of the United Kingdom as well as perspectives of those marginalized in Britain’s industrial and imperial history. Learn what students can expect in the program’s inaugural semester and the professors’ favorite spots around London.

Follow Civ in London on Instagram @civ_london.

Follow the program’s blog at prov.ly/civ-london-blog.

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Creators & Guests

Host

Michael Hagan

Assistant Director of Marketing & Communications

Producer

Chris Judge

Multimedia and Live Event Producer

What is Providence College Podcast?

The Providence College Podcast features interviews with interesting members of the Friar Family. These in-depth conversations with PC students, Dominicans, faculty, staff, and alumni provide a rich look into the lives of noteworthy Friars. Occasionally we will also bring you on-campus lectures and presentations. Go Friars!

00;00;00;16 - 00;00;13;06
Michael Hagan
Hello and welcome to the Providence College podcast. I'm Michael Hagan from the Class of 2015, and I'm joined by producer Chris Judge of the Class of 2005. Today, we're excited to welcome Dr. Margaret Manchester, associate professor of history.

00;00;13;15 - 00;00;27;08
Michael Hagan
And Dr. Stephanie Berninger, associate professor of English, who are currently the faculty in residence in the inaugural year of Providence College, is Live in London Study Abroad program. The two have been in London since early January and recently welcomed students to the program.

00;00;27;15 - 00;00;29;09
Michael Hagan
Margaret and Stephanie, thanks for joining us.

00;00;29;11 - 00;00;30;11
Margaret Manchester
It's nice to be here.

00;00;30;15 - 00;00;31;08
Stephanie Boeninger
Thank you, Michael.

00;00;31;16 - 00;00;41;29
Michael Hagan
So my first question is after multiple years of travel restrictions, how excited are students to be able to travel abroad again and how excited are you? Margaret, you can start this one.

00;00;42;15 - 00;01;04;15
Margaret Manchester
I think it's indescribable. We're even just beyond excited, especially as some of the restrictions on travel began to ease. It was pretty complicated for a Stephanie and I to to get here because we had to do all of these pre-testing, some those testings, but things are seem to be easing up.

00;01;04;15 - 00;01;28;26
Margaret Manchester
And you know, finally, it's wonderful to be able to to be here. And I think with the pandemic still, you know, having pretty serious consequences on the continent, it's the kind of thing where it's going to really encourage our students to explore London fully and also to explore the UK more fully as well, rather than always jetting

00;01;28;26 - 00;01;31;10
Margaret Manchester
off to some exotic place.

00;01;32;21 - 00;01;33;20
Michael Hagan
Anything to add, Stephanie?

00;01;34;19 - 00;01;51;16
Stephanie Boeninger
Yeah, I just I think that the prolonged experience of the pandemic has really given our students a renewed appreciation for just the simple things. So the ability to travel to an amazing location like London is just blowing their minds.

00;01;51;28 - 00;02;06;01
Stephanie Boeninger
A lot of these students are sophomores, and so they spent their entire first year of college virtual. They didn't really have the college experience. And so they're just really delighted. They're just like sponges on our field trip, just soaking it all in.

00;02;06;27 - 00;02;20;22
Michael Hagan
So it, of course, wasn't a given that this program could even happen this semester, given the volatility of the pandemic situation. What is it like to be abroad during a pandemic and are there any differences between this and, say, pre-pandemic study abroad programs?

00;02;21;06 - 00;02;21;19
Michael Hagan
Stephanie?

00;02;22;19 - 00;02;42;06
Stephanie Boeninger
It's certainly different from what it was pre-pandemic, but it's a lot of the same things that we have become used to in the United States, you know, mask wearing on public transit and in crowded locations. I'd say the UK is doing a nice job of making sure that everybody wears their masks in theaters and in public spaces

00;02;42;20 - 00;02;54;02
Stephanie Boeninger
. So now that we've all adjusted to that, it isn't really that much of a of a burden. It doesn't occur to me on a daily basis that we're living in the midst of a global pandemic.

00;02;54;11 - 00;03;19;20
Margaret Manchester
I mean, we still have in our facility here at ISIS, which is our organization that we're working with. You know, we still have a mask mandate, for example, in the classroom building to keep everyone safe. And we're still getting alerts periodically about new cases of COVID among not just our students, but the other students that are participating

00;03;19;20 - 00;03;21;06
Margaret Manchester
in the ISIS program.

00;03;22;10 - 00;03;26;10
Michael Hagan
So how would you describe London to someone who's never been Margaret?

00;03;26;25 - 00;03;49;07
Margaret Manchester
Bustling and metropolitan and cosmopolitan and so international? You hear every language spoken. For example, I went for to get my first haircut in London this week, and my colleague is from Poland, and she recommended her hairdresser, who's from Greece.

00;03;49;28 - 00;04;02;16
Margaret Manchester
And I'm an American, so there were no English people in the salon while I was there. And that's really, really typical when you go into shops and different establishments.

00;04;03;04 - 00;04;06;07
Michael Hagan
Stephanie, what about you? How would you describe London to someone who's never been?

00;04;06;12 - 00;04;20;04
Stephanie Boeninger
It's just so alive. one of the books that we're going to be reading while we're here is Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. And basically, that entire book is just people walking around London streets, and it's June, the month of June when they're walking around.

00;04;20;04 - 00;04;37;07
Stephanie Boeninger
But just one of the characters thinks to herself, this is what she loved London in June, walking on the streets, you know, and just hearing she hears all the sounds, and it sounds like singing because there's just so much going on and so much life.

00;04;38;09 - 00;04;55;17
Stephanie Boeninger
My kids have been really enjoying all of the different methods of public transportation. The other day, my youngest, my five year old, said to me, Mommy, I love the subway and I love the overground train, and I love the double decker bus that I love.

00;04;56;05 - 00;05;05;09
Stephanie Boeninger
Like, he just goes on listing all of the different ways to get around to get around the city. So it's it's a wonderful experience for us and for our students.

00;05;05;26 - 00;05;21;17
Michael Hagan
I'm glad that you mentioned June in London because one of my fondest memories of my time abroad in the UK was really it was the end of the academic year when towards May and June, the days were just get so long is because England is closer to the North Pole than we are.

00;05;22;09 - 00;05;37;29
Michael Hagan
So it's just the days would just go on forever. It felt like which was just the best because there was so much to do, so really appreciated that extra daylight. What experiences did you have of London before this program, Stephanie?

00;05;38;16 - 00;05;55;08
Stephanie Boeninger
So I think this will make after the semester. This will make almost a full year of my life in London. All through study abroad opportunities, I studied abroad as a freshman in London, and that just really opened my mind to the world.

00;05;55;23 - 00;06;13;23
Stephanie Boeninger
I remember just the the jaw dropping surprise of being able to walk into a museum and see a Van Gogh or just walk into a church and see Roman ruins. I went back, I loved it so much that I went back as a junior, as kind of a resident assistant for the same program, and then I went

00;06;13;23 - 00;06;23;03
Stephanie Boeninger
back for a semester in grad school as well. So I love London. It's, I think, my favorite city in the whole world and I'm delighted to be here again.

00;06;23;13 - 00;06;26;09
Michael Hagan
What about you, Margaret? What experiences have you had with London before?

00;06;27;00 - 00;06;47;16
Margaret Manchester
I've been here several times, but more in terms of particularly from my first book, I was doing research so I would come for short periods of time a week, ten days to do work at the National Archives, which is in this really lovely section of London called Kew, not far from Kew Gardens.

00;06;47;29 - 00;06;57;16
Margaret Manchester
And so I've been back a few times for think Prince, but the patient, but I've never lived here, so this is a new one for me as well.

00;06;57;19 - 00;07;03;08
Michael Hagan
And why is London an ideal place for students to spend their fourth semester of Civ? Margaret.

00;07;03;18 - 00;07;29;16
Margaret Manchester
You know, it's it's unbelievable. For example, yesterday we took our students on a guided tour of Westminster Abbey and Westminster Abbey has either buried or commemorated important people from British history. And so many of them were topics or related to themes that we've studied with our students in and serve.

00;07;29;24 - 00;07;55;00
Margaret Manchester
Sir Isaac Newton, these literary figures Henry, James Elliott, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, important scientists for our bio majors. For example, there were commemorative plaques for Joseph Lister and other important scientists who have contributed to our understanding of the natural world.

00;07;55;09 - 00;08;14;03
Margaret Manchester
So it was just amazing musicians that we've studied and composers. So being just in that one place in that one example, it related directly not just to our colloquium, but to studies that I'm sure our students have had in the previous semesters of seven as well.

00;08;14;04 - 00;08;15;19
Margaret Manchester
So that was really great.

00;08;16;03 - 00;08;36;21
Michael Hagan
I remember when I was, I forget if it was at Westminster, at St Paul's Cathedral, but I have a very distinct memory of walking around one of those spaces and looking down at my feet and realizing that I was standing on top of J.M.W Turner, which I just, you know, I was just struck with all in that

00;08;36;21 - 00;08;38;19
Michael Hagan
moment and to be right there.

00;08;40;01 - 00;08;45;14
Margaret Manchester
I mean, we walked on Charles Darwin's great. So amazing.

00;08;45;16 - 00;08;50;17
Michael Hagan
So Stephanie, how would you why would you describe London as an ideal place to study?

00;08;51;12 - 00;09;09;09
Stephanie Boeninger
You know, from the moment I was hired at Providence College, I've said needs to take place in London. I've been asking for this since day one. It just is the best place to study the history of Western civilization and all of its good, bad and ugly forms.

00;09;09;09 - 00;09;23;18
Stephanie Boeninger
And that's one of the things we're trying to do is to introduce not just, you know, the amazing sights of London and Westminster Abbey, but to also think about London as the heart of a global empire that did some pretty awful things.

00;09;24;11 - 00;09;40;12
Stephanie Boeninger
And we're going to be asking our students to think not just about what is remembered here, but what isn't remembered here and what isn't memorialized here. But it's just a wealth of opportunities. Artistic, literary, historical.

00;09;41;06 - 00;09;56;15
Michael Hagan
Yeah. So what are some specific ways that you mentioned? You mentioned the great example of seeing the graves of these luminary figures from British history. But what are some other sort of tangible examples of how civ lessons come to life in London?

00;09;57;05 - 00;10;14;19
Stephanie Boeninger
Stephanie, I'm teaching a contemporary drama class here, which is an amazing place to be doing that. We're going to go see theater in the West End, which is the heart of the theatrical world, and we're going to be able to.

00;10;15;10 - 00;10;33;24
Stephanie Boeninger
Students are going to be able to write their own theater reviews to respond to plays, the plays that we're going to be seeing. For the most part, our plays that aren't even written down yet, you know, they're brand new hot off the presses, exciting things for students to be reacting to things that give them insights into, you

00;10;33;24 - 00;10;43;13
Stephanie Boeninger
know, immigrant culture and youth culture in the UK, things that they may not be exposed to otherwise. And so we're going to try to make the best of every opportunity here.

00;10;43;26 - 00;10;46;15
Michael Hagan
Margaret, what are some other ways that Civ comes to life in London?

00;10;47;01 - 00;11;05;25
Margaret Manchester
Well, for example, I'm teaching a class in World War two, and not only are we going to go to the Imperial War Museum films that have these amazing exhibits on British participation in World War two and the Holocaust, but also we're going to go Churchill's war of words.

00;11;05;25 - 00;11;27;29
Margaret Manchester
We're going to Bletchley, where the Enigma codes were broken and say, we're going to see the battle of the the the Blitz bunker. So there's all of these amazing sites that we're going to visit related to our class materials.

00;11;27;29 - 00;11;46;06
Margaret Manchester
And I think, you know, just that tangible presence there. Students learn in a different way rather than just through seeing slides on a PowerPoint or reading about it. I think it really makes a difference when they're actually in these places that they're studying about.

00;11;47;02 - 00;11;48;16
Margaret Manchester
It's transformative, really.

00;11;49;16 - 00;12;10;18
Stephanie Boeninger
Just a note to add to that. When we were in Westminster Abbey yesterday, there was a hole all the way through the wall from shrapnel from the Blitz. And thankfully, Westminster Abbey wasn't terribly damaged during the Blitz. But I also ran into the same thing when I was visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum for my contemporary drama

00;12;10;18 - 00;12;22;02
Stephanie Boeninger
class. I was looking at their theater and performance studies. But you walk in through the gates and there's a big chunk out of one of the big, beautiful, ornate gates. And there's a sign there that says this was damaged during the blitz and we left it here.

00;12;22;05 - 00;12;35;17
Stephanie Boeninger
So the people could remember what happened to London, and I think students would be running into those things all the time when they're just walking around London grocery shopping, you find these reminders of history that are surprising.

00;12;35;22 - 00;12;50;21
Margaret Manchester
We had them do a pre assignment for our battlefields and one France class, and the assignment was for them to walk around London and find a war memorial, and it could be a memorial dedicated to any of the wars.

00;12;51;02 - 00;13;11;16
Margaret Manchester
It could be, you know, a general memorial or it could be dedicated to a specific group, and they had to take some photos and do a posting. We also gave them some introductory reading materials that asked some important questions about who's remembered and how were they remembered and so on.

00;13;11;28 - 00;13;30;05
Margaret Manchester
And they did amazing work already in this first week and such a diversity. They didn't all end up at the same memorial, but there was this wide diversity of places that they visited, that they somehow connected to the readings and the course theme.

00;13;30;05 - 00;13;33;15
Margaret Manchester
So it was really a great beginning for a class.

00;13;33;28 - 00;13;49;12
Michael Hagan
That's that's awesome that they that they spread out and saw different memorials because I mean, London is just such an inexhaustible trove of that kind of history. It's it's really amazing. And I remember when I was, I was studying in Oxford, but I spent a lot of time in London.

00;13;50;09 - 00;14;05;25
Michael Hagan
But just, you know, on the topic of history being all around you, I mean, on my walk to the grocery store in Oxford, there was this really interesting looking old church. You know, you could tell it was particularly old, not just a couple hundred years old, but but really, really old.

00;14;05;26 - 00;14;20;21
Michael Hagan
And but I didn't realize just how old until, you know, months into being there, I finally walked up and read the plaque. This church predated the Norman invasion. I mean, it's it's amazing. What is there? Yeah. So that's really exciting to hear.

00;14;21;18 - 00;14;26;24
Michael Hagan
So where in town is the program located and what is the surrounding neighborhood like Margaret?

00;14;27;15 - 00;14;46;07
Margaret Manchester
It's located in Blum's, which is just this really beautiful part of London Minutes. It's really what six minutes stuff from the the British Museum really easily accessible from a variety, you know, from the bus or from the tube.

00;14;46;20 - 00;15;10;05
Margaret Manchester
And it's in this. What is it? The building is dates to the early 19th century, maybe late 18th century. So it's this historic building in a historic neighborhood, in a in an area where many writers and artists lived or worked in the 19th century, people like Virginia Woolf and others.

00;15;10;16 - 00;15;14;08
Margaret Manchester
So it's got all of these connections.

00;15;14;19 - 00;15;34;02
Stephanie Boeninger
Yeah, I was the home of the Bloomsbury Group. Virginia Woolf, her husband, Leonard Woolf, people like Forrester were involved. John Maynard Keynes, I think, was part of that group. And so it just has a history of intellectuals and literary people being there for centuries that I think would be really meaningful to our students.

00;15;34;14 - 00;15;51;14
Stephanie Boeninger
I was just thinking about how and when we teach Mrs Dalloway, I kind of just want to stop in the middle of our three hour class and say, Let's walk over and visit Virginia Woolf because she's literally her statue is literally probably a five to eight minute walk from our our building.

00;15;51;23 - 00;15;56;02
Stephanie Boeninger
So we may just do that just to let the student stretch and then we can walk back and return to our discussion.

00;15;56;12 - 00;16;06;22
Michael Hagan
In all the buzz that I've heard about civil servant London, one of the terms that I've heard tossed around a lot is excursions. So tell me about these excursions where you all headed.

00;16;07;03 - 00;16;08;15
Margaret Manchester
You want to talk about Belfast?

00;16;08;25 - 00;16;27;17
Stephanie Boeninger
Yeah. So the one that I'm, I think most excited about, given my area of specialty, which is Irish drama, is we're going to take them to Belfast. We're going to be studying the Irish War for Independence and then the subsequent troubles that rocked Northern Ireland during the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties.

00;16;29;03 - 00;16;51;18
Stephanie Boeninger
And so we're going to take them to on a tour of Belfast, where they can witness the murals that have been painted all over Belfast to by both sides. We're going to try to do a tour of the loyalist area and a tour of the Republican areas of Belfast so that they can get it from both sides

00;16;51;18 - 00;17;06;11
Stephanie Boeninger
and really see what a sectarian conflict looks like. And we're also going to be doing some amazing sightseeing on the way we're going to go to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, which is one of the most beautiful natural sights I've ever seen.

00;17;06;17 - 00;17;18;26
Stephanie Boeninger
Just these insane hexagonal rock formations that are natural but look entirely like somebody sculpted them and put them there.

00;17;19;13 - 00;17;37;11
Margaret Manchester
So for our battlefields, we're. one of the topics that we're considering is women in warfare and the ways in which women contribute not just to combat, but also on the home front and the play that we're reading as Aristophanes Lysistrata.

00;17;37;20 - 00;17;56;27
Margaret Manchester
And we're going to Athens with our students. So that's another one of the big trips that we're going to do. And we've got some activities guided walks, a visit to a theater and some other things that correlate with with our our curriculum.

00;17;57;04 - 00;18;23;17
Margaret Manchester
The one big disappointment and this is a pandemic disappointment from my World War two class, we were going to take our students to Normandy to visit the beaches and the cemeteries. And because of the restrictions back in late November, early December, we had to at the time make a quick decision about whether we were going to chance

00;18;23;17 - 00;18;45;14
Margaret Manchester
it or not, and because of all of the requirements at the time, we had to cancel that trip. And that's that's the reality of teaching during a pandemic. You really have to be it's like a moving target. You have to be flexible in terms of your planning and have a Plan B, Plan C and indeed for Normandy

00;18;45;28 - 00;18;59;23
Margaret Manchester
. The other options that I had, there's a prisoner of war camp in New York, but we found out that it's under construction. Then we wanted to go to the cliffs of Dover and I wanted to show them the underground tunnels that were used during World War two.

00;18;59;23 - 00;19;13;06
Margaret Manchester
But the tunnels are closed, so we ended up with Plan D, which is also going to be great. But I think one of the hallmarks of teaching during a pandemic abroad is being flexible.

00;19;13;24 - 00;19;29;03
Michael Hagan
And that's, you know, I use the word inexhaustible to describe London and the surrounding region in terms of what's there earlier. It is truly a place where you can. It's a part of the world where you really can have a plan a b c d e f g.

00;19;29;03 - 00;19;45;06
Michael Hagan
It can have endless flags because there's there's just so much to do. So what are I'm curious, what are some little surprises or moments of culture shock that you or your students have experienced so far in your time in London?

00;19;45;21 - 00;19;47;21
Michael Hagan
Stephanie, do you want to start my?

00;19;47;29 - 00;19;58;04
Stephanie Boeninger
The first thing that's coming to mind is that one of our students said the sirens are so quiet here, but that's not really a major culture shock at all.

00;19;59;26 - 00;20;12;02
Michael Hagan
I remember walking around walking around in Oxford. I always thought the bike bells were such a pleasant sound. I didn't realize that that was the European equivalent of laying on your horn and telling somebody to get out of the way.

00;20;13;23 - 00;20;31;29
Stephanie Boeninger
I think the biggest way that I've I've noticed it in my family has noticed it has been with our children because they are really used to living in a rural area. We live in Gloucester, so 25 minutes north of of the college and and we have a big wooded yard and my kids are used to hiking in

00;20;31;29 - 00;20;43;07
Stephanie Boeninger
the woods, but they've never really spent any time in the city. And so the first time my five year old saw an escalator on this trip, we were all lining up saying, Step on to this escalator. He was right in front of me.

00;20;43;11 - 00;20;55;05
Stephanie Boeninger
You just turned around and bolted the opposite direction, and it wasn't a big crowd of people. And they will say that even that very same day, he kept asking to get back on the escalator and wanting to try it again.

00;20;55;11 - 00;21;05;01
Stephanie Boeninger
And he is now an expert at riding escalators. But there are a lot of shocks related to living in the big city that have faced our family.

00;21;05;15 - 00;21;21;14
Margaret Manchester
I think for the students time management. You know, because they're used to being on campus, and it's not uncommon sometimes to roll out of bed and bolt across campus in five minutes and make it to class, maybe with your pajama pants on.

00;21;21;26 - 00;21;43;13
Margaret Manchester
I know that I've seen that happen once or twice, but here they really have to plan ahead because they need to get to use public transportation to get to our campus. When we met them at Westminster Abbey, a couple of students had gotten on the the tube, going in the wrong direction and had to get off and

00;21;43;13 - 00;22;00;02
Margaret Manchester
then find their way back. Another student got turned around and was running late. So, you know, navigating public transportation and managing their time so that they get to places on time has been a challenge for some of them.

00;22;00;22 - 00;22;05;05
Margaret Manchester
Either they arrive too early or too late so far.

00;22;05;28 - 00;22;21;21
Michael Hagan
So I have a little game. I want to play with the two of you. It's a lightning round game of this or that UK versus US edition. So I'm going to give you to two things 11 from either side of the ocean and.

00;22;21;27 - 00;22;36;03
Michael Hagan
I would like you to choose this or that you can answer at the same time. The first one is easy, so there's this one. This one should be a no brainer. It's 3:00 in the afternoon. You're ready for your afternoon.

00;22;36;03 - 00;22;42;13
Michael Hagan
Pick me up. Are you steeping yourself a nice cup of PG tips? Black tea or Lipton PG tips?

00;22;43;11 - 00;22;44;04
Margaret Manchester
Could you tense.

00;22;44;04 - 00;22;55;08
Michael Hagan
Down? All right, yes. Easy answer. Yes. I sometimes I order boxes of PG tips from overseas. Break over here. I like sir.

00;22;55;24 - 00;22;57;21
Stephanie Boeninger
OK. Works Adobe here. Which is really good.

00;22;58;04 - 00;23;06;04
Michael Hagan
Another good choice. Yes. So next question Tomato baked beans with breakfast or barbecue. Baked beans with dinner.

00;23;08;27 - 00;23;12;28
Margaret Manchester
Neither making Typekit big things for dinner, I would think.

00;23;13;23 - 00;23;29;23
Michael Hagan
OK, so not fans of the breakfast seems OK. All right, next question, would you? It's the end of the it's the end of the school day. You're ready to relax a bit. You're headed to the pub. Are you having a cellar temperature, British ale or an ice cold American lager?

00;23;31;14 - 00;23;33;20
Margaret Manchester
Stephanie's going for the cider.

00;23;35;08 - 00;23;38;05
Stephanie Boeninger
That's right. I drink the ciders here.

00;23;38;06 - 00;23;43;06
Margaret Manchester
Another good option. None of the above. I see.

00;23;43;21 - 00;23;45;08
Stephanie Boeninger
All right, Margaret, you like your coke?

00;23;45;09 - 00;23;49;23
Margaret Manchester
Might be a cold? Yes. So OK. Yeah. And most of it is.

00;23;49;24 - 00;24;05;12
Michael Hagan
I have to say I. I was skeptical about cellar temperature when I went over there, but I it's funny I've had I was at a place that was serving British ales over here, and they served it ice cold and I was like, There's there's something just a little off about this.

00;24;06;19 - 00;24;16;11
Michael Hagan
But next question, you're going to a cafe in the morning. Are you going to have a European style espresso drink or an American, as they call it, Schultz filter coffee?

00;24;17;16 - 00;24;19;09
Margaret Manchester
I'm definitely for the European.

00;24;20;14 - 00;24;33;16
Stephanie Boeninger
I'm choosing the European two, although I think that you still have a difficult time finding filter coffee here, you can get an an Americano, which is, you know, espresso watered down to make it taste like.

00;24;36;21 - 00;24;45;25
Michael Hagan
Yeah, I in my if my memory, I, you know, I generally preferred the espresso, but occasionally I would feel nostalgic for a watered down cup of filter coffee.

00;24;46;20 - 00;25;07;23
Margaret Manchester
You know, I spent a year in Italy and I became completely addicted to Italian coffee. While I was there, I was directing the PC program. So when we came back to the states, I could not. American Coffee just didn't cut it for me, and so I've been a European coffee person ever since.

00;25;08;24 - 00;25;10;05
Michael Hagan
Are either of you vegetarians?

00;25;10;16 - 00;25;10;19
Stephanie Boeninger
No.

00;25;11;11 - 00;25;19;13
Michael Hagan
OK, because the next question concerns breakfast meat. Are you having a rasher of British bacon or crispy American bacon?

00;25;22;01 - 00;25;24;16
Stephanie Boeninger
I'll take either bacon in any form is good.

00;25;25;06 - 00;25;26;08
Margaret Manchester
I'll go with pancetta.

00;25;27;17 - 00;25;38;24
Michael Hagan
All right. OK. It's you're going to the big game. Is it a international football game or an American football game?

00;25;38;24 - 00;25;41;02
Stephanie Boeninger
International football? 100%.

00;25;41;03 - 00;25;50;24
Michael Hagan
All right. And my final question is, you're taking transit or would you prefer to take the London Underground or the Boston tea?

00;25;52;06 - 00;25;53;27
Stephanie Boeninger
The London Underground.

00;25;55;28 - 00;25;56;24
Michael Hagan
Writer as well.

00;25;59;06 - 00;26;01;18
Stephanie Boeninger
The transit systems here are amazing.

00;26;01;23 - 00;26;15;15
Margaret Manchester
Yeah, but you know, the other good thing too is just walking in the states you you get in a car to go grocery shopping, you get in a car to do all your errands. And here we walk everywhere or we use public transportation.

00;26;15;28 - 00;26;38;20
Margaret Manchester
And I just I just love the fact that we're walking everywhere and we're discovering some of the little shopkeepers and, you know, grocers and butchers and bakers in our neighborhood and they're starting to recognize us. And it's just it's just a great feeling.

00;26;38;20 - 00;26;42;26
Margaret Manchester
So I much prefer that to driving everywhere.

00;26;43;14 - 00;26;45;27
Stephanie Boeninger
I've walked eleven and a half miles already today.

00;26;46;19 - 00;27;00;19
Michael Hagan
That's amazing. Yeah, I I remember when I would go to London and when I would bring friends visiting who were studying in other countries who were in London for just a weekend. It was always I made it a point to take them out on foot.

00;27;00;20 - 00;27;17;14
Michael Hagan
I mean, as cool as transit was, there's something about I would just I would always do like a triangle from Westminster Bridge up to around, like the Millennium Bridge in St Paul's Cathedral and then over to like Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park.

00;27;18;10 - 00;27;35;10
Michael Hagan
I mean, we'd walk miles and miles and miles, but it was the best way to see the city. You got to see the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and in the Palace of Westminster. There's just there's no better way to do London than on foot.

00;27;35;10 - 00;27;36;01
Michael Hagan
I feel like.

00;27;36;06 - 00;27;56;00
Margaret Manchester
On a Sunday afternoon, if the sun is shining, you should see the people just strolling families, couples, single people strolling along the Thames. It's really great. Or in the Park St James Park or Regent's Park. I haven't been to Hampstead Heath yet, but that's on my list.

00;27;56;18 - 00;28;03;15
Michael Hagan
So for you both personally, what is your number one? Absolute can't miss London destination?

00;28;04;07 - 00;28;29;00
Stephanie Boeninger
Yeah. For me, it's the National Gallery. It's my happy place. I think in another life I was an art history major and I just love. I love just the fact that all the museums are free and that you can literally just walk off the tube, decide to go see, you know, an amazing like medieval era painting or

00;28;29;12 - 00;28;39;26
Stephanie Boeninger
something at the Tate Modern. And that's like brand new and exciting. I I adore the art museums here, and I intend to spend every spare when it's there.

00;28;40;19 - 00;28;57;28
Margaret Manchester
Yeah, the museums. I section Stephanie on the museums, but I have a particular fondness for the one for the Tower Bridge. I just love walking along that bridge and seeing what's on both sides of the Thames River, and I never get tired of it.

00;28;57;28 - 00;29;22;12
Margaret Manchester
So that part of London along the Thames, I just I love to bike, but I'm still very, very nervous about trying it in London because there's so much traffic and because from my American perspective, they're all driving in the wrong direction and I'm afraid I'll end up squashed so I haven't ventured onto a bike, but walking those

00;29;22;12 - 00;29;24;11
Margaret Manchester
areas is just really special.

00;29;24;27 - 00;29;31;08
Michael Hagan
And what are students saying that they're most looking forward to this semester in terms of sights and experiences?

00;29;32;11 - 00;29;57;01
Margaret Manchester
You know, I was just we asked our students when we had our orientation with them, what's one goal that you have? And so, for example, one student, Emily, said she wanted to just visit every museum possible. Another student wanted to learn to manage his time and several of them because there there's no food program with the the

00;29;57;06 - 00;30;21;20
Margaret Manchester
for the students. So several of them mentioned the challenge of learning to cook for themselves. But I think they just want to. They want to take advantage of all of the opportunities cultural, artistic, literary, whatever historic. You know, whether it's drinking coffee or grabbing a beer at a pub they want to experience at all.

00;30;22;02 - 00;30;30;12
Margaret Manchester
So I think this program is really geared to allow them to do that kind of discovery on their own.

00;30;30;26 - 00;30;44;08
Stephanie Boeninger
I know I talked to some students who were really eager to get on the London Eye that giant ferris wheel. It's along the Thames, and unfortunately it's closed for about two or three weeks in January. It's the only time of the year that it's closed.

00;30;44;14 - 00;30;53;11
Stephanie Boeninger
So they had all gone down there, excited to get on the London eye and discover that it was the one time of the year that it was shut. But they will. They'll still get. On the one hand, I am sure it's.

00;30;53;11 - 00;31;04;05
Michael Hagan
Exciting, it is it's an amazing view it took me by being the Baruch College junior I was at the time. I resisted it for a while, but but eventually went up and it was it was totally worth it.

00;31;05;03 - 00;31;10;29
Michael Hagan
So what advice are you giving your students to help them make the most of their time in London? Stephanie.

00;31;11;17 - 00;31;24;26
Stephanie Boeninger
I'm really trying to push them to go into the museums. And if that? Takes mentioning that the museum has an amazing bar with a great view of the Thames. I'll do it, you know, because they're going to walk by some art when they go up to that bar.

00;31;26;21 - 00;31;44;02
Stephanie Boeninger
But yeah, I really want them to go to the museums. I really want them to get out and about every single day and take advantage. one of the things that I really pushed for when we were designing this trip and, you know, since we're the first faculty leaders who has been chosen for this trip, we had some

00;31;44;13 - 00;31;54;24
Stephanie Boeninger
we had some say in how things go. But one of the things that I pushed for was for them to have an unlimited oyster card so that they could go anywhere they wanted within zones one and two, which is central London.

00;31;55;20 - 00;32;12;09
Stephanie Boeninger
And they could go as many times ride the bus or the tube as many times as they want during the day. So that, I hope, puts the students who are from economically privileged backgrounds on equal footing with the students who may have less spending money in their pockets while they're here, they can all go anywhere they want

00;32;12;21 - 00;32;23;12
Stephanie Boeninger
and walk into a free museum or walk in the park or see the sights of London, and it's equal access and equal opportunity for all their students.

00;32;24;24 - 00;32;47;06
Margaret Manchester
The advice I've been giving students is, you know, some of them are already thinking about heading to the continent, and I've really been encouraging them not just to stay and explore London, but also to explore, you know, these day trips that are an hour, hour and a half train ride from London, there's lots of youth hostels where

00;32;47;06 - 00;33;11;03
Margaret Manchester
they can get inexpensive overnight. Stay, so go to Bath, go to Brighton, go to ride. You know, we're going to take them to Stratford with the program, but just explore different parts of England that are accessible and so beautiful, and it gets you out of the completely huge metropolitan kind of setting into smaller, more intimate spaces that

00;33;11;03 - 00;33;16;16
Margaret Manchester
are beautiful and historic and have everything that might be of interest to them.

00;33;16;28 - 00;33;26;13
Michael Hagan
And how can friars on the U.S. side of the ocean? How can we follow and learn about student experiences during the semester in London?

00;33;26;20 - 00;33;41;13
Stephanie Boeninger
We have an Instagram account which is sort of underscore London Zavvi underscore London. And we're also we also have a blog which they can get to by navigating to the seven London page on the Providence College website. And there's a button.

00;33;41;15 - 00;33;53;24
Stephanie Boeninger
And I think in the top right corner that says seven London blog. And there they can find not just my thoughts and Margaret's thoughts, but the thoughts of our students. We're going to have them blogging on a weekly basis.

00;33;54;07 - 00;34;10;01
Stephanie Boeninger
We should be updating the blog most days because we'll have a lot of student input in the blogs so they can hear about the places that students are seeing, the coffee shops that they're discovering, and also their insights from our more academic visits and classes.

00;34;10;18 - 00;34;18;22
Michael Hagan
Excellent. We'll be sure to put those links both to the Instagram account, the program page and the blog in the show notes, so listeners can find them there.

00;34;19;02 - 00;34;19;19
Margaret Manchester
Thank you.

00;34;20;16 - 00;34;34;11
Michael Hagan
Well, this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast. I really enjoyed this conversation, and it sounds like you guys are off to a fantastic start of the semester in London, so can't wait to hear more about your experiences.

00;34;34;21 - 00;34;35;12
Stephanie Boeninger
Thank you, Michael.

00;34;35;22 - 00;34;36;27
Margaret Manchester
Thanks for having us.

00;34;37;21 - 00;34;51;16
Michael Hagan
Subscribe to the Providence College podcast and all the usual places, including iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify, as well as your smart speaker if you like what you hear. Please review and share with others. Thanks for listening and go fryer's.