Health is Wealth

 Wellness while studying abroad.

The other day, a friend said to me on the train: “I can’t remember the last time I tasted a fruit.” With some consideration I concluded that I also hadn’t gone out of my way to eat fruits or vegetables for quite some time, maybe a month? 

When we got off the train we headed straight for the nearest Tesco to load up on apples, broccoli, avocado, and whole grains. Tesco in London is comparable to Walmart, with fair prices and a large range of products.

We’ve been going out so often, it’s been easy to forget a balanced diet.

This put me on quite the health kick. Getting your physical, emotional, and intellectual health in check is important when you’re in a new place. If you’re like me however, this won’t be on the forefront of your mind until it’s urgent. I went through a series of colds, strep throat, and even hay fever, before getting my health situated.

Being from Hawai’i, I was not used to the cold and everything that came with it. If I didn’t close the window when I slept, I got sick. If I didn’t wear a warm jacket, I got sick. I had jackets, but I didn’t have a sweater with Scottish wool. I found one in a vintage thrift store in Scotland, and it allowed me to feel warm and healthy for the first time while out and about.

Also, transportation. Traveling on the train often close to so many people prompted me to start carrying around hand sanitizer as well. 

When you travel overseas, you’re required to get international health insurance. I am on something called CISI, cultural insurance services international, which is expensive, costing me about $55 per month. Since I pay this much, I am not hesitant to use it!

The doctor gave me loads of good advice, and one piece was that when you’re in a new place, it’s important to make sure you are taking care of your immunity with plenty of Zinc and vitamin C. 

Back at home, I’m used to my partner taking care of me. So in a funny way, being sick reminds me of him. But now I don’t have that. Oh, and we separated right before I left, oops. This presents my next problem: heartbreak. Therapy abroad anyone?

All it took from me was the smallest inquiry to my program, AIFS, about needing mental health support, and my emails were flooded with resources. I didn’t even get around to reading them before a counselor found me after class and took me out to lunch to talk it all out. Then, someone else offered mentoring, and another, therapy sessions.

I’ve found heartbreak to be a great unifier. It’s important to me, as a psychiatry intern, to experience what clients describe to me as a stressor that turns their worlds upside down. It’s nice to mean it when I say, “I understand”. If you’re worried about your mental health abroad, ask for help. This is common and your program will be well equipped and prepared to support you in every way they can.

With my medical and mental health in check, I proceeded to focus on the intellectual and physical components. This involved study groups and trips to the gym. I really like the gyms here, they just make sense.

While you’re studying abroad, going with the flow, and having fun, it’s easy to forget about health preservation until you get sick. Before it is too late, you can establish who you’ll call when you need help. But even if you don’t, you’ll be okay.

The way the insurance works is, you pay the clinician upfront, and then file a claim for CISI to reimburse you. The clinics I’ve seen in London have been pleasant and accommodating.

To recap: remember fruits and vegetables, and vitamin C and Zinc for immunity and gut health. If you need help, ask. My additional advice is to check in with your friends and loved ones back home, but be present with your new friends and experiences as well. 

Another thing I’ve found beneficial is allowing myself resting days. There is so much you’ll want to do, but don’t forget to take breaks and check in with yourself!

P.S. Did I mention I ran into Brandon from HPU debate club at the natural history museum? Smalll world.

Recap

 Adventure is out there...

Each time something cool happens, I try to take note of it on my way to or from my experience. I find my solace on a bus, train, flight, river, or underground. This recap blog is a lazy composition of a few of my excerpts. Though it's hard to keep track of all this in a consistent and careful way, at least something is better than nothing.

5.27.2022

Trip to Cambridge, England. Saw the school.

5.28.2022

Trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. Had a cup of coffee, found a hostel, made friends in a pub, climbed many hills, cheered on marathon runners, got free drinks from Marta.

6.03.2022

Sooooo...I was on my way to afternoon tea, when I decided tea is not quite enough for lunch so I’ll get myself a pizza beforehand. When I got my pizza, I opened it up to find it was shaped as a heart. How sweet, I thought! They make heart shaped pizzas in England. Then, when I looked at the top part of the box I saw that THE ITALIAN BOY WHO MADE MY PIZZA HAD WRITTEN HIS NUMBER, NAME AND A HEART ON THE BOX. He made the heart-shaped pizza for me. Ohhh. The phone number he left was from Italy and I’m still hesitant to message.

After the pizza, I had my nice afternoon tea date with the girlies, and proceeded to spill more tea than I drank. If you know what I mean.

6.04.2022

Experienced a Mama Mia musical. SO CUTE. I am saying farewell to the session one students as they fly home tonight.

6.07.2022

I went to the Tate Modern Museum to see the 2001 Babel Sculpture, which I loved, but I took an interest in the Monument for the Living. The sculpture “Monument for the Living '' was made by Marwan Rechmaoui in the year 2000. This piece represents diversity as the intersecting of different identities and characteristics. The sculpture is made of concrete and wood, replicating the Burj El Murr building in Beirut, Lebanon. Burj El Murr was built in 1974 with the intention of becoming a large office building. The ravages of war left the building unfinished and the office plans were not carried out. During the Lebanese Civil War, it was instead used as a sniper post. The entire evolution of this eerily resilient building greatly represents its environment and people. 

First built to hold office space by a wealthy family in a time of plenty, then filled with ammunition and dead bodies, and later deemed useless and obstructing in the post-war era. Now that the unfinished building can’t be knocked down, it serves as a memorial for the unresolved conflict of the civil war. To me, the building is a great representation of the “elephant in the room”. It's a looming reminder of change that the city is unable to be rid of. 

This historic structure represents many things for the country. Money, strength, neglect, abandonment, unresolved conflict, and death. The prominent building is a display of wealth because it had grandiose expectations. There were constant renovations and a lot of money put into it in order to become a strong office building. Then of course, the war left it neglected and abandoned. The war also left a lingering unresolved conflict and death. In “Monument for the Living”, we see that diversity may be a vast range of experiences all happening at once. 

This was interesting to me as a viewer because I’ve never considered the relevance or depth a sculpture of a building could hold. When I first saw the tower, I noticed that it was tall, sturdy, and jarring. I scoped it out all around and couldn’t think of the beauty or meaning in a tall concrete building. Before I read the description, I didn’t understand it at all. The artist, Marwan Rechmaoui, is from Beirut, and chooses to express Lebanese history through his work. The Lebanese civil war and its interconnected complexities is far out of my world knowledge, yet Beirut’s story traveled all the way to London, and I met in the middle from Hawai’i. That is a diverse interaction in itself.

6.09.2022

Heads up, I wrote this on a train in present-tense speech. Today I am traveling along the sea-to-sea rail service from West Ham station to south end central, to see the sea. I am taking a round trip train for about 1.5 hours total. The ticket was £17.50. We are passing tall green foliage that sometimes let up to reveal a town or forest. The lavender fields have opened up at last, and I want to be in the country as much as possible to explore the fruiting terrain. The closer I get to Essex, the wider the fields get, as the blue sky opens up to accommodate fluffy white clouds. I first catch sight of the ocean at Chalkwell. To my right are beautiful white beach homes surrounded by trees. To my left, flat and glittering cold water. Its good to see the area where I’ll attend school in the Autumn.

6.12.2022

Traveled far south to the lavender fields today. Got lost, had fun. Loved every moment. I hope to buy a film camera soon and capture all this on 35mm so I can keep my phone turned off.

Fish and Chips

SOCI 345 Global Cuisine and Food Culture in Britain: Fish ‘n Chips

Fish and chips have taken England by a storm, with restaurants once peaking at the amount of 100,000. Ever since they were introduced by a young Ashkenazi immigrant Joseph Malin, there has been no end in sight for the meal’s popularity. At Cittie of Yorke, I had to try for myself. I had it with a pale ale and mashed peas on the side. The crunchy fish goes so well with the hearty chips. I eat fish all the time in Hawai’i, so this was not a strange concept to me. 

I imagine that young Malin must have been frying up the fish and potatoes for his friends and it was so good that it got popular. I don’t think there was more of a business plan to it. It’s just one of those combinations that makes you say, yeah that makes sense. In England, people eat them with malt vinegar. They must love salt and vinegar chips. At the pub I was in, no one else ordered the fish and chips, so I shared a lot of my chips. Personally, the fish and chips are a huge favorite of mine, though I’m not a fan of having them with mashed peas as well. It was an amazing food to have with a drink.

Coffee House

 SOCI 345 Global Cuisine and Food Culture in Britain: Coffee House

Today’s modern cafés are common gathering places for student study sessions, interviews, meetings, or people who quite enjoy reading the newspaper with a nice cup of coffee.

In the 1800’s, men gathered in coffee houses around England to buy a cheap coffee and discuss business plans, philosophy, politics, commerce, and current states of affairs. The addicting caffeine in the many cups of coffee consumed was enough to stir up interesting debates and keep the men coming back for more. The women discussed their current affairs in tea houses because they were not allowed in these coffee houses. To this day, there are still many men’s clubs for elite and wealthy businessmen in which women are not allowed, solely due to their gender.

The coffee houses created just the right environment where productivity, conversation, and exchange was stimulated. At a certain point, a popular coffeehouse even became The London Stock Exchange. 

The history of café’s is interesting when their modern functions are considered. Our office culture of work and coffee has become intertwined and helped to get things done. I love to grab a coffee to meet with friends but also to get down to business. As of now, my favorite coffee shop to study in is called LocalHero, located in Fulham, London. It has all the newfound café essentials: wifi, outlets, natural lighting, almond croissants, and a delightful flat white. 

After visiting LocalHero a few times, I’ve noticed that it has a few regulars who pop in and out to get their usual takeaway coffee. The shop has steps in the front, but that doesn’t stop young parents from coming in with their strollers. If they aren’t busy, the baristas are kind enough to lift the strollers up the few stairs. The café is very welcoming and I have seen many cheerful people come in and out. In this picture you can see the flat white coffee and pastries we got. The slice of carrot cake loaf and banana bread made for a hearty breakfast.

Stamford Hill

SOCI 345 Global Cuisine and Food Culture in Britain: Stamford Hill

Stamford Hill is home to the most Orthodox Jewish people in London. While most places in Europe don’t see Jewish people walking the streets, that is all you will see here. Many Jews lived in East London during the industrial era until migrating to Stamford Hill. Though it is not a large area, Stamford hill is full of many kosher bakeries, supermarkets, butchers and Jewish clothing stores. The growing communities here originated from Holocost survivors and refugees. 

My first stop out of the station was a Polish Convenience shop called Smakosz. This store sold Polish meats and lollipops at the counter.

Then I followed a few Jewish people into Grodzinski Stamford Hill. This is a Kosher café that sells bagels, omelets, croissants, and even sushi. This was established in 1888 as a bakery under the Grodzinski family. They now own and operate twenty-four shops around London. 

After the Kosher shop, I passed a clothing shop, park, and library. In the library I took a break to assess what I’d seen from the community.

Many Jewish women, young or old, were accompanied by a stroller and several children.

Almost everyone I could observe was a practicing Orthodox Jew, and especially all of the school children, who walked home from their private Orthodox schools together. The men had long curls on either side of their heads, and hats with plastic coverings because of the rain. Everyone was dressed in black with clothing that covered their elbows and knees. 

Most stores said the word “kosher” on them. The word kosher is Hebrew for “appropriate” or “fit”.  One key rule to qualify a product as kosher, is keeping the meat and dairy completely separate from each other. People go so far as to use different pots and pans to compare dairy or meat, and eat the two things hours apart so that it doesn’t mix in their stomach.

Today there is no scientific basis of kosher being a more healthy diet, but Orthodox jews still eat this way because it makes them feel closer to God. It is believed that kosher is the right way to eat.

Palm Oil

SOCI 345 Global Cuisine and Food Culture in Britain: Palm Oil

On an old school London street called Ridley road, I visited Ridley market. It is very accessible as it’s located right off of the underground. My professor, Steve, instructed my classmates and I to find something there that doesn't look familiar, and to research it. 

There were many items that didn’t look like things I’m used to back home. Along the borders of the stands, there were fresh cuts of meat that flies flocked towards. The air was still and meat was cut at a slow and steady pace.

One of the items that I didn’t quite recognize was the red palm oil. I’d never seen it displayed in a simple bottle saying “MP Naija Pam Oil”. It is derived from oil palm fruit, and used to make Nigerian dishes such as Egusi soup. The merchant selling the item was not West African, but the market catered to West African cuisine, so naija palm oil is a reasonable thing to find there.

Ridley market provides a selection of well-priced goods to a multicultural group of the working class population. The area that surrounds it is rapidly changing. It was great to see the heart of an otherwise gentrified city. Ridley represents what London used to be for a long time.