The Travel

Travelling from sunny Scotland to sunny St John's (NL, Canada), across the big pond has to be one of the most challenging things I've completed in my life. If you didn't pick up on the joke, both places aren't very sunny!

I had never travelled alone before, let alone travelled this far from home by myself. As it turns out, all of the things you really hope don't happen when travelling decided to happen on the same day. It's funny to look back at now, but wow was I stressed.

Some of the highlights included my first flight being delayed by an hour, my layover in Toronto being delayed by another hour (despite already being a massive five-hour layover...), a baggage collection holdup that took another hour, and after almost a full day of travelling I arrived at my accommodation only to be greeted by a very locked flat door at what felt like 6AM home time. The total travel time was just shy of a day! (7AM - 6AM)

We made it though, and it has been a fun couple of weeks.

Aside from the long journey, I did have fun seeing Greenland from the plane. Just look at those beautiful mountains.

The Organisation / Outreach

Thankfully, once the journey was over, I was able to jump straight into my placement.

The charity I'm partnering with is named Let's Talk Science. They are an amazing organisation that does so much work to improve access to education through classroom outreach workshops (for all age groups and communities), as well as public engagement events such as "The Amazing Science Race" and public booths at the famous "Royal St. John's Regatta". There, they engage with the public while the races take place across the lovely Quidi Vidi Lake (see below).

I had the choice to start whenever I wanted (to account for jet lag and settling in), but I agreed to start on Wednesday. On that day I went along with the summer team (Evan, Emma, and Jacob) to watch them perform the "Chemistry Magic Show", which included activities such as The Greedy Candle, Cloud in a Bottle, Elephant's Toothpaste, and more.

It was such a surreal experience to see the kids so engaged and genuinely enjoying science. The summer team did such a great job of explaining concepts at the right level whilst still keeping the science intact.

Watching the show reminded me just how important outreach like this really is. Seeing young people excited about science asking questions, and wanting to get involved made it immediately obvious why organisations like Let's Talk Science have such a positive impact on their communities.

Follow along as I retrospectively post about my journey in Newfoundland & Labrador.