the observer

During the academic parts of my time in London, we spoke a lot about branding. I'd never been interested in advertising, public relations, or marketing in the traditional sense, and to be honest, I'd only chosen to go on the study trip so the meetings with professionals could confirm my assumption that I didn't want to work in the private, commercial sector anymore. My trip didn't go as planned though. The challenge of branding an international corporation thrilled me. Cultural values and local customs were not only considered but valued as the intention of their concepts is to appeal to "everyone" without offending anyone. How interesting, and fun.

It makes complete sense that I think so. I promise I don't speak in third person often but there's a reason I am known as "danielle abroad." When I first started blogging, my unique angle was that I would be studying abroad for a year, yet danielle abroad came to define so much more than my online presence... it completely transformed how I identified myself. Having less than stellar speaking Spanish and French skills in addition to nearly fluent comprehension throughout my study abroad experience, I became a cultural observer—e.g. noticing the extent to which particular words are representative of the places and people they were born from. 

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Recently, I learned that what I'd thought was just an insightful version of people-watching actually has a name: ethnography. So apparently I'm a huge fan of anthropologic research. As such, nerdy ol' me has opted to perform my first ethnographic study (and write the accompanying research paper) instead of taking the Global Communications final. The plan is to examine Verjus as an American wine bar in a city of bars à vins. Field work is necessary. Hey, I told you this is fun! ;)

P.S. I submitted one (of three) 8-page midterm papers yesterday and thereby also deserve wine. Wishing you a happy weekend wherever you may be.