Season's Greetings from the London Center

We wish you all a festive holidays and a very happy new year!

The center is winding down for it's own vacation after the departure of our Fall 2012 students who have now all returned safely back to their hometowns and are busy catching up with family and friends. We shall be back in the new year ready to welcome the next group! Until then, be good!!

Ciao for now... :)

Jess' adventure in London

So last weekend a scouse (from Liverpool) friend of mine came down to visit me. Being her first experience of the south and in fact, the capital city I relished in the opportunity to take her on a mini “Grand Tour”; first of my hometown – Essex – and then of some of the sights of London.

Now, I’ve only just moved back down myself after having spent four years living in the north, so it was a great chance to rediscover my roots and perhaps discover some forgotten gems from my childhood. As I discussed in the previous blog, I’ve been really lucky to have travelled quite extensively but I didn’t realise until this weekend how much I had neglected my hometown and the very close surrounding areas; London, in particular. Essentially I believe that I became a tourist in my own city.

We had one day to cram as much of London in as we possibly could. Not an easy task when London is huge and every area has its own quirky uniqueness. I decided that the historic and royal landmarks had to go on our list, as did the markets of Spitalfields and Covent Garden; my favourite part of London.  So off we went, looking like keen tourists with our cameras and giant maps…

I introduced my friend to the joys of the London Underground, which as a regular user I have taken advantage of but forget how confusing it can be to the unfamiliar. I have also taken for granted the efficiency of the London transport system, despite the weekend closures due to the seemingly never ending maintenance work. This of course can always be rectified by using the city buses, which are also fairly frequent and have the benefit of giving a view of the attractions outside (and phone signal).

Taking the number 11 bus from Liverpool street – after an hour well spent shopping at Spitalfields - we looked out to the bankers home of Bank, naturally, passed St Pauls Cathedral and watched tourists clamber on top of the lions at Trafalgar Square. We got off the bus at Westminster to see Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament along with Big Ben and the London Eye. It was fascinating to see flocks of people - regardless of the horrendous weather conditions - having their photos taken in front of the buildings. I think it makes you look at them differently. The buildings I mean. Well, at least I did anyway.

It was tea o’clock by this time so refuelling was in order. I had myself a lovely cup of tea and a well needed sit down after the stress of avoiding being in other people’s photos. It was then onto the most anticipated part of the day: Covent Garden!  Less overwhelming than Oxford Street with a lot more character plus the added bonus of street performers make this my number one in London. It’s even more magical at Christmas. Perhaps because of the Disney store. We raided the market stalls, saw a man juggle swords and flirted with a silver-painted man. It was wonderful.

After a hearty pub meal we got back onto the tube home at around 6pm. To be honest I was quite impressed with how much we had fitted into the day. In addition to entertaining my friend I had also managed to reignite my own love for London. I have even started a bucket list of things I want to do here, which mainly consists of places I want to eat at… There is definitely a clear reason as to why all of these “fancy-camera-tourists” come to our capital city; because its eclectic mix of attractions can brighten up even the greyest and wettest of days.

 

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Getting up close and personal with British history.

It's all so quiet...shhh...shhh...

Mid-term break seems to have hit us. It’s like the Apocalypse has fallen upon the London Center. I feel a bit like Will Smith having survived. I’ve always wondered what it’s like to be a legend...

Students are flitting in and out, collecting their passports and any forgotten items so that they can flee the country or at least get some respite away from exams and studies. Don’t forget us though! We shall still be here throughout the week. Working…

Since I hear the majority of you are flying to lands far far away (Italy, Spain, Holland etc…) I would like to share some pearls of travel wisdom of my own in an attempt to cheer myself up. I also hope that this serves as inspiration for the current ICLC students to write some pieces about their travels for this blog.


“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." 


A quote I recently found and ‘favourited’ on Twitter. Quite frankly I don’t usually like deep and sentimental phrases but something about this one really hit home and made me smile. I’ve been fortunate over the last four years to have travelled quite extensively, telling friends and family it was imperative if I wanted to succeed with my language learning. I have volunteered in Costa Rica, run around a maze dressed as a clown – ‘working’ - on the island of Menorca, studied in Mexico (climbed some volcanoes too…) and I have worked in a rather up market hotel on the Amalfi coast in Italy. Diversity certainly appeals to me. As does a challenge. I liked arriving on foreign lands with a guidebook in hand and a rough idea of what to expect from the next few months. However it’s not until you land safely back in the comfort of your own home and look back on what you have learnt, achieved and more often than not struggled with that you really appreciate the distance you have travelled. Before I left for Costa Rica, a 17 year old angel (…) never would I have imagined that on my 18th birthday I would be teaching kindergarteners the “Happy Birthday” song, slaughtering chickens (for meat purposes) and dancing to Latin beats until the sun came up. What I’ve really learnt from these past few years is that anything really is possible. And probable. So why am I continuing to ramble about this to you? Well. Having been an international student on two different continents and having safely come out the other side of Higher Education, I would say that your University years are a truly educating experience and your time abroad will teach you as much about yourself as it will about others. Grab each and every opportunity, make the most of new experiences, try something new, because before you know it you will be resting your head on that familiar pillow wondering where all of that time went.


Have a fantastic mid-term break. Stay safe. Give your brain a well deserved rest. I've included some favourite photos of mine below...

 

Yep. That's me beneath the Gandalf costume...

the start of something new

I've never written a blog before. I tried once. I was in Italy and thought that instead of continuously repeating myself I would record the ins and outs of my daily life online for my friends and family to read themselves. I wrote one entry. My "friend" kindly pointed out that I had used semi-colons in the wrong places and I must admit that whilst I have been crowned the "grammar queen" of international languages - Spanish and Italian, let's not get too carried away here - I was ashamed to admit that my English perhaps needed a little work. As the Fall 2012 students are all too aware, email is my preferred method of communication as I feel like I can be as formal - "to whom this may concern..." or informal as I deem necessary but a blog proposes the challenge of talking to a very wide audience, some of whom I have never met (hello stranger) and as I think I have demonstrated rather well already, I have a slight, OK, quite a large tendency to ramble...

I've not even properly introduced myself. I am Jessica - or Jess (not Jessie or else I feel like the cowgirl from Toy Story 2) - the new Programme Coordinator at Ithaca College London Center. I recently graduated from University where I studied Spanish and Italian and so I have first-hand experience of what it feels like to study here in the UK and abroad. [Note to current students: (<--correct use of colon?!) come and find me in the Front Office. I'll swap stories about Italy if you tell me about your travels in Europe. I'm already quite envious of your adventures overseas.] It's also worth noting that surprisingly I am the only English member of the admin staff, but contrary to what you may believe after watching all those Hollywood movies, being the token English girl by in no way means that I; 1. talk like Keira Knightly, 2. look like Keira Knightly, 3. live in a palace/castle/stately home and nor am I 4. an evil butler.

I have been told that I have free reign over this blog. Kindly passed on by Claire, ISee Elsie is like my adopted child and I am expected to take care of her in the same way as my predecessor did. I like her so far but then again, so far all I have done is talk about me and I like me so, so far so good right? I should probably talk a bit more about the London Center. I suppose that this space is for people other than me. I did warn you about my ramblings. However if you do want to find out more about the life of Jess then pop into my office, bring a brew (northern slang for a cup of tea. I'm not actually northern.) and pull up a chair. I do love a good gossip. And tea. And perhaps some digestives? Sorry, I'm talking about myself again...






So last weekend I was taken on my first trip away from London. Having prepared the packs, organised the rooming list and got everyone on the coach - after apologising to Colin for spelling his name wrong (it was an accident, I promise!) - we were all set to go. First stop --> Warwick Castle! Now you would think that after flying all that way across the Atlantic the students would be impressed by such a grand and prestigious building, but no, these students were quite entertained by the local wildlife...

 

After Bill and I enjoyed our champagne lunch (I'm joking.) we got back onto the coach and headed toward Stratford-upon-Avon. Here the students were able to visit the place in which Shakespeare was born and buried and in the evening we watched a "Comedy of Errors" at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Now, I must admit that not having read the play - nor knowing anything about it - I was probably at a slight disadvantage. However everyone else seemed to enjoy it, laughing along at the right times and generally getting the gist of what was going on. It was then onto the infamous Dirty Duck pub for a pint. Bill had bought a number of badges with various Shakespearean quotes on, which he handed to each of the students. I received one with the line, "Though she be but little she be fierce", which I think says more about my height than anything else. I'm not entirely sure what did happen at the pub that evening...I retired to bed early. My student days, though I hate to say it, are far behind me now...


The following morning I enjoyed breakfast with Katy and Molly before we headed to meet the others for a talk and tour on Shakespeare's life. The weather held out beautifully during the day (I now write this beneath a gloomy sky - not literally, I'm still sat in my office). There were blue skies and spots of sunshine and - can you believe it - it did not rain! After some free time filled with retail therapy, it was onto our final stop, Oxford. The London Center students were given a couple of hours to explore the town, take a nosey around the prestigious colleges and buy some merchandise from the shops - Kelly made the mistake of purchasing a college jumper and was told by our coach driver, David to take it off or face walking back to London...which she did. Take it off I mean - she certainly did not walk home.


Overall my first trip was pretty fun. I enjoyed getting to know the students a bit better and I hope that they feel the same way about me. I must admit that I have rather enjoyed my first three weeks at Ithaca College London Center. It has a somewhat family feel to the place that is easy to get swept up in and I feel like I have been taken under its wing. This blog seems to have turned into some sort of sentimental piece. I must quickly rectify this; I am British after all a do not, under any circumstance display my emotions. On that note, I think I shall bring this entry to a close before I get too carried away; however it is practically an essay now. I hope that you have enjoyed reading my second attempt at blogging and that this time I can get past writing just the one entry. Maybe I can get to grips with those semi-colons too...?!

The Final Word

Having recently read one of the most well articulated valedictions I've ever come across, I hesitate to say goodbye in Jack's shadow. But needs must, and I am shortly to leave the London Center for a new job!  As semesters go by and students return to Ithaca (or go on to so many other parts of the world), I've taken to saying "Travel safely!" and "Come back soon!".  "Goodbye" is difficult to say and I admit that I avoid it.  Now it's my turn to go.  Though I'm not literally packing my bags and catching a plane, I'll be making a new tube journey each morning where I won't be greeting Bill upon arrival with "Guten Morgen!".  He won't ask me what kind of yogurt I'm eating, and I won't offer to make him tea that he will turn down because it's too early for tea (three years at the ICLC and I'm still not sure I understand what constitutes "too early for tea"). 

I think the laughter had something to do with fostering newborn kittens?

My initial feeling when I knew I would be leaving the ICLC (after the excitement of accepting a new job) was one of reflection.  I'll miss explaining colloquialisms which turn out not to be transatlantic.  While trying to explain what it means "to have kittens" I laughed that hardcore belly laugh which leaves you still aching a day later.  The same goes for the pants v. trousers issue.  Most of us remember the first time it was pointed out that Brits and Americans use the word pants differently.  I'll also miss the day Paul McCartney rocks up to 35 Harrington Gardens.  I've probably been too subtle in trying to engineer this, but I have no doubt I will be the first person Bill phones when Sir Paul does arrive.  And when he does, I can't wait to shake his hand!  

And then there's the overly sentimental issue- I'll miss Steve TenEyck's sabbatical in London in spring 2013.  I was one of Steve's first lighting design students in Ithaca.  We go so far back that I remember the master class he taught when he was invited from the job search to teach lighting design at IC.  Steve helped mentor me through my undergraduate education.  I would so love to audit his class next spring!  What do you think, Steve?  He won't be the first of my own IC professors doing a stint at the ICLC during my front office tenure.  I say in all seriousness that my social life had a hole in it until Greg Robbins took me mudlarking on the banks of the Thames.  Jack Hrkach got to spend a year here living in the roof garret of the ICLC, and I really miss the warmth of hearing his jazz music in the evening come subtly down the stairs of the flat and into the third floor hallway.

Kenneth is no less disapproving in a handmade blanket.

The fact that I keep coming up with more items for this list makes me realize how much I will miss about working at the London Center.  I have deep roots here, even though I'm the shortest serving of the current staff.  I look around the front office at all the knitting needles I need to take home, the post that Murray Woodfield has to collect, the stacks of photos from the 40th anniversary that I still haven't put away and the cardboard cutout of Kenneth Brannagh looking disapprovingly at me from the side of the fireplace.  I was welcomed 3 years ago into Elsie's family and I have made myself at home here.  The last staff member who left the ICLC was Fred, and he stayed for 38 years.  Months in advance of his last day he handed in to Bill his keys to the building, which Bill kindly gave back.  But on Fred's last day Bill reminded him that this was the actual day when he would need to turn in the keys.  Fred refused, and there was little conversation to be had about it.  I understand that Fred was expressing how he felt rather than interested in keeping the keys, and I wonder how I will feel in the same position as my day quickly approaches. 

While here I have loved meeting the visiting faculty who have come over.  I've loved climbing steep and wind-swept hills, doing my best not to speak my broken German in Paris and sneaking up on students to take awkward photos for the end of term slide show.  After all, documenting life around the London Center was part of my job.  And speaking of which, I'll miss this blog massively.  When Skint was turned into I See Elsie, I imagine Bill felt a small pang of loss.  Perhaps he was a little relieved, but he had been a driving force behind Skint for most of his time as Director.  Now I'm handing over the username and password of Elsie.  Aside from a creepy presence in the creaking basement floorboards and in the phone lines, this blog is Elsie's main incarnation.  She also discovered Facebook and Twitter, but this is where she was born.  Sarah and I created a test post one afternoon and we never looked back.  Now Elsie's a few years old and I'm already feeling the pangs of missing her.  Bill has been an unfalteringly good sport about being the subject of one facetious blog post after another.  This blog would be half the size it is without his patience.

The Fantastic Four?  I think so!

And finally, I'd like to thank Evie Blackburn for helping me get a foot in here in the first place.  Without her I might still be selling cake south of the river.  On to new adventures!

-Claire

Bad News

Bill Sheasgreen: Claire, I have bad news.  You won't be able to interview me anymore.
Claire Mokrauer-Madden: What?  Why not?
BS: It has an awful lot to do with Paul McCartney.
CMM: I guess I could see that coming.  In what capacity does it have to do with him this time?
BS: I understand that you have been writing these interviews as a cheap ploy to get him to come to the London Center and make amends with me.  Is that true?
CMM: Yes.  It's completely true.  It's probably the only thing about these interviews that is true.
BS: Well, it leaves me feeling somewhat used.  I don't like that, and I want it to stop.
CMM: And this is the reason that I can't do anymore interviews?
BS: Yes.
CMM: But I'm writing this as an interview right now.
BS: And I want you to stop before this becomes too existential.
CMM: Ok, I'll agree to stop interviewing you, but would you answer a few questions before I sign off?
BS: Only if it will make the interview stop.
CMM: Deal.  Let's start with something general.  What do you like about working at the ICLC?
BS: The archaeology.  Hands down.
CMM: I knew that one would elicit an interesting response!  What do you mean by the archaeology?  The ICLC is a listed building, you shouldn't be digging it up!
BS: No, no, I'm not digging up the building itself!  I mean "archaeology" more metaphorically than that.  I have created one of "England's mountain green" in my office, built out of paper and old sandwiches.
CMM: That sounds pretty unappealing.
BS: To tell you the truth, I took my inspiration from Danny Boyle.  The Olympics have really gone to my head, and it shows in my office.
CMM: I don't see a problem with that, as long as you don't light a massive torch.
BS: Anyway, I've been digging through this mountain in search of pukka pads and memory sticks.  It's beena real adventure!
CMM: Any joy yet?
BS: I came across a bin in the mountain and I did find some memory sticks in it!  It's been a true success.
CMM: Congratulations!  I'm sure when you're in Rio for 2016 fake-mountain-scavenging-for-your-own-things will be an event and you'll be one of Canada's top competitors. 
BS: The real trick is to remember where you put the things you're looking for in the first place.  It really gives you a leg up in the competition. 
CMM: Giving away your strategy is pretty risky!  Good luck in the competition!  My next questions is, what will you do with the time that you used to spend at these interviews?
BS: I'll do what I've always done.  And since I've never actually been present at one of your interviews, it really won't interrupt my normal routine.
CMM: I'm glad to hear it.  One reason I never actually consulted you for these interviews is that you are often busy doing work, and I'm pretty good at guessing what you would say to the questions I ask.
BS: I'd like to point out that that is wildly incorrect.  Many of the answers you claim I give sound nothing like me and much more like you.
CMM: Nonetheless, in spirit I think I've gotten it pretty close.
BS: Are you kidding?  I have no attachment to plaid at all.  If I had really designed ICLC uniforms, they would have been a combination of white suits, black suits and denim.  I did some mock ups once on some penguin figurines.

CMM: In Liverpool?
BS: Why, yes!  How did you know?
CMM: Because the penguin you're standing next to in the is photo looks distinctly like Paul McCartney on the Abbey Road album cover.
BS: Yes!  They based their outfits for that cover on my design!  It was one of my proudest moments with the band!
CMM: Umm, according to Wikipedia their clothes were designed by Tommy Nutter.
BS: Yes, I was his silent partner down on Saville Row.  But tailoring was a crazy business, I had to get out of it.
CMM: So with that, I think I'll wrap this up.  Thank you so much for not taking time to answer my last few questions.  This has been as illuminating as ever.
BS: The pleasure has been mine.