My summer Erasmus placement in Bristol
Posted on by Fay Curtis.
by Giulia Porceddu, summer Erasmus student
Hi! I’m Giulia. I’m from Sardinia, Italy and I study archaeology. I spent my last summer in Bristol volunteering for Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.
I arrived in Bristol on 30 May and I fell in love with the city immediately.
On 1 June I started my volunteering. In the same day I also visited M Shed which was very exciting.
Some day after I had a tour in the building, in the basement and in other parts that the public can’t normally visit, it was very interesting.
In the first weekend I volunteered at the Festival of Nature, where I met some staff from the museum and some volunteers.
On 17 June I started to volunteer in the Pliosaurus! exhibition, where I met a lot of volunteers from England and from other countries. Everyone was always kind with me and it was very fun to stay in the exhibition and talk with the public and with the children.
Doris is amazing and I suggest to everyone to visit her!
For the Harbour Festival I did some surveys for the museum and I visited the festival too. I saw a lot of boats and tried a lot of different kinds of food.
During my three months in Bristol I volunteered at M Shed and Blaise Castle House Museum too.
I did different activities in these places, and my favourite one was the Archaeology Festival at the end of July. It was so lovely to see so many people interested in the history of their country, especially the kids!
In July and August I catalogued some objects from the museum, this was very useful for my professional formation and for my future job.
During the summer I visited Bristol, Bath, London and Stonehenge and I met a lot of people from different countries, and of course I visited the famous Balloon Fiesta, it was amazing!!
These three months were one of the most important and beautiful experiences of my life. I feel very lucky because everyone was very friendly with me and I really enjoyed every activity I did for the museum and with my new friends.
Bristol is a lovely city and the people are lovely too. I hope to come back one day.
Thank you!
Giulia