Back to reality...

(Originally posted 12 September 2013)

Every summer, I leave normal life behind for a few months and enter a parallel universe, or at least that’s how it feels working in the Social Programme Office at the English Language Centre at the University of Bath. Having always taken every opportunity to meet people from other countries and learn about their cultures, when a job first came up at the SPO, just as I was finishing my undergraduate degree in Bath, I jumped at the chance to spend all day every day looking after a large and diverse group of international students. I loved it so much that I kept going back every year, and this summer I wasn’t going to let a little thing like my PhD get in the way!

Life in the SPO is exciting, although sometimes exhausting, because it’s constantly changing. One day you’re making information packs for 250 new arrivals or dragging their suitcases through the rain to their new dorms, the next you’re leading a giant crowd around Stonehenge. As well as a different social activity every day and a coach trip every Saturday, we were the people for students to turn to when they were worried, lonely, homesick, confused by English customs, or just anxious to practice their English. All of this means we really get to know so many wonderful people from all across the world and learn a lot about how what we take for granted varies so greatly from other people’s experiences.

Leaving Bath at the end of the summer always makes me sad, because I miss all these new friends and the constant challenges that the work throws up, but I’m excited to be back in London now entering the second year of my PhD. Although I managed to grab a few hours in the library here and there over the summer to keep my PhD ticking over, I’m really looking forward to intense studying again and making headway with my first few chapters. There’s also a lot to keep me occupied over the next few months, including the upcoming Arts and Humanities Festival and running our departmental seminars. I also found out this morning that I’ll be teaching in Spring semester, which has been my dream for years now. I can’t wait to get on with it all, and of course blog about it all here!

Theatre Royal Bath Summer Season - Candida and King Lear

It was another exciting summer in the Social Programme Office at the University of Bath's English Language Centre - so much so that I feel like I'm only just recovering from it now! Like last year, I was lucky enough to meet some wonderful people from all over the world and enjoy sharing British culture and landmarks with them. One particular highlight for me was being able to take my students to the beautiful Theatre Royal twice this summer, even if I was underwhelmed by the two very different plays themselves: George Bernard Shaw's Candida and Shakespeare's King Lear.

Candida

Although in recent years it has been eclipsed by Shaw's triumph Pygmalion, Candida (1898) was quite the hit in its day, questioning Victorian ideas about love and marriage with a side order of socialism. The play centres around a love triangle: popular priest and orator, Reverend James Mavor Morell (Jamie Parker), whose seemingly perfect live unravels when a young poet who he had taken pity on (Eugene Marchbanks, played by Frank Dillane) arrives and announces that he is in love with James' beautiful young wife Candida (Charity Wakefield). While considerations of the practicalities of socialism rumble in the background, most of the action is the conflict between the two males, making it clear that neither affords Candida any agency in her own love life. The most interesting part of the play for me, therefore, was how Candida deals with this situation, eventually resisting the Victorian ideal of female passivity that both men unwittingly force upon her.

I expressed concerns about Jamie Parker in my review of Henry V and his performance in Candida left me with similar doubts. I can't work out if he's just a boring actor, or whether he is intentionally accentuating the staid nature of the character, making it clear why Candida might seek entertainment elsewhere. By contrast, Dillane (famous for playing Tom Riddle in Harry Potter), was very full on, to the point of being highly irritating at times, but it worked for the nervous, conflicted young poet. Of the main cast, I was most impressed with Charity Wakefield's (Land Fothergill from Any Human Heart) sensitive portrayal of the title character. Overall, Candida was at turns funny and thought provoking, but lacking the spark that makes Pygmalion such an enduring hit.

King Lear

Regular readers will know that I'm quite familiar with King Lear after following Cardiff University's Act One as they took their adaptation to Edinburgh. However, my students were happy to learn that even I struggled to follow every word of this incredibly dense tragedy. The main attraction for this particular adaptation was David Haig (Four Weddings and a Funeral) in the title role. The dramatic weight of the role was quite a departure from Haig's usual comedic roles, and at times he seemed to struggle with it - just one of the many let-downs of this production. A particular strength of King Lear is how the universal themes of greed and ambition can be adapted to an enormous range of settings, but for me the 1960s East End gangsters premise which had seemed so promising just didn't pay off. There were some strong performances and the notoriously difficult eye-gouging scene was impressively depraved and gory, but at a certain point the production just seemed to lose its way. Rather than the emotional punch the end is supposed to provide, this Lear's eventual denouement left us feeling only relief.

Find out more about the Theatre Royal and their upcoming attractions here.

A Taste of Wales - Caerleon, Monmouth and Chepstow

Croeso y cymru! Despite what I thought when I first heard the name, A Taste of Wales is not a gastronomic festival, but rather a day trip around South East Wales: Caerleon, Monmouth and Chepstow. I was extremely excited about this trip as I love the countryside, castles and Roman ruins, but sadly we could only persuade thirty students to come with us (apparently the experience of Cardiff on the same day as football, cricket and Speedway had put them all off Wales for life!).

The day started with the coach breaking down just outside of Bath, but undeterred, we turned it into an opportunity for more induction into British culture and took advantage of the tea rooms handily located at the side of the motorway. 

Finally, we made it to Caerleon, site of the Isca Augusta fortress, which was used between about 75 and 300AD. Our first stop was the recreated Roman barracks at the National Roman Legion Museum, where we experienced life as centurions.

Our photographer Louis captured this very realistic example of Roman weaponry

Next was the Caerleon Spa, where the centurions would get clean after a hard day's beating each other up with hams. Unlike at Bath Spa, the water would not having been heated from the ground so they just had to get a little chilly.

Wanting our ruins a little more ruined, we then headed to the old barracks and amphitheatre, where all that remains are the foundations revealed by archaeological digs.

Roman barracks

Football seems to have replaced gladiatoring in the centre of the amphitheatre

Next up, we were off to the incredibly quaint town of Monmouth, where the streets were lined with bunting and flowers. 

We took advantage of the Heritage Day, which allowed access to many usually closed buildings, to satisfy my film geekery and visit the beautiful old Savoy cinema.

 This is how a cinema should be, a real theatre with plush seats, velvet curtains and a stage for cavorting on.

Talking the projectionist into letting me visit the projection room made me unspeakably happy. I'd never seen a film reel before and I loved to see how tradition is still preserved. Celluloid feels so much more like a film should be than a disk or computer file.

Last but not least, we went to Chepstow Castle, Britain's oldest surviving post-Roman fort, which began construction in 1067. The signs were a little scary, but we all amused ourselves pretending we were Kings and Queens of the Castle.

In short, South East Wales is clearly the place to go for a fun day out!

English Language Centre - Social Programme Comes To An End

Time has flown by and the Summer Social Programme has come to an end. My attempt to write weekly updates failed, mainly due to having to complete and hand in my dissertation, and then being so busy with the students that there was no time for anything else. Here's a potted version of our last few weeks.

Relief!

Live Jazz @ Green Park Brasserie
We like to take the students to a range of music through the summer. We had folk earlier in the summer, so it was time for some jazz, courtesy of local singer James Lambeth. I loved his jazz version of The Smiths' Bigmouth Strikes Again. As the rest of the Green Park Brasserie was taken over by a Swedish birthday party, we also learnt their birthday song. It's a lot longer than ours (this video is a shortened version).

Ja má hon leva! means 'Yes, long may she live' - change the hon to han for a man. It was nice to see that unlike the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and apparently even Chinese (according to the students with us), they haven't taken the same tune.

Dinner @ Brasserie Blanc
The next day, I was paid to go for a three course meal at Raymond Blanc's new chain restaurant. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it! Although one student expressed her disappointment that Raymond himself wasn't cooking for us (I tried to explain that one would have to pay hundreds for that privilege), the food was very tasty, and I maintain that eating is an important part of British social life that they need to get involved with.

Last Night of the Proms
As the summer drew to a close, it was time for a final burst of excessive patriotism, with the Last Night of the Proms. We waved flags and taught the students to link arms to Auld Lang Syne. It's a good job none of our students are from former colonies though, as singing about the glorious expansion of Britain as other countries fall to our might probably wouldn't have gone down so well!

Day Trips
First there was Stonehenge and Salisbury. Once again I wished there weren't so many tourists at Stonehenge, so I could pretend to be Tess. Then there was A Taste of Wales, which was the best day trip of the summer and therefore deserves its own blog post. Finally, we rounded the summer off with a trip to Oxford, where the students' literary fantasies were all focused on Harry Potter, while fellow Student Helper Kerrianne was far more excited about Alice in Wonderland.

At Christchurch

Harry's dining room

Final party
It all ended with a huge party, combining just about everything from the summer: music, food, party games (Giant Jenga went down well ;-] ), and lots of Union Jacks. A wonderful way to end an amazing summer :D

Thanks to our brilliant photographer, Louis Lai!

Thanks to all the students and of course the other Student Helpers for making it such an unforgettable summer!

English Language Centre Social Programme: Week 4

This week was full of goodbyes and plenty of tears, as many of our students left us to go back home. Apparently university in China and Japan starts again this week - unlike us lazy British who are off for almost a month more still!

To end on a real British stereotype, we had a tea-party. There were no cucumber sandwiches or scones, and the setting was nowhere near formal enough, but it still felt like a fitting ending.

Talking of tea, this week I've been busy learning about the cultures and traditions of some of our students, starting with Turkish tea. One of the students sent us a video about the importance of tea in Turkish culture, which is also a nice introduction to many facets of Turkey.

He also taught us about a lovely Turkish custom as one of the students left. When someone goes on a journey, you pour water behind them, because water always knows how to find its way home.

Students leaving also means lots of gifts. Most of them are very nice things like fans, bookmarks, drawings and origami paper.

Some, however, are a little more unusual. One of them was a fan featuring Hannya, a grotesque demon representing a woman driven to rage by jealously. While freaking us out, this did at least give us an opportunity to learn more about Noh theatre. Apparently the mask can be either frightening or sorrowful depending on the angle. A white mask, like the one on the fan, represents an aristocratic woman while a red mask is a lower class woman. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the fan before someone snaffled it, but the image on it was a bit like this:

A wide array of edible goods have also appeared in the office, from chocolates and cookies to rice crackers, meaning we are constantly snacking at the moment. One of our favourite finds has been the self-proclaimed Strange Taste Horse Beans. We're not sure if they would taste any better if we didn't know what they're called, but they're a great example of the mis-use English in Chinese marketing.

If any students are reading this, please do bring us more artefacts or foods from your home countries, we love learning about them!

Stourhead House and Gardens

As a special Bank Holiday treat, I was released from the office to get some fresh air and exercise at the beautiful Stourhead House and Gardens. The house was built for the Hoare family in the 1720s and stayed with them until 1946 when it was turned over to the National Trust. While parts of the house remain occupied by a descendent of the family, large parts of it are open to the public and remain decorated in Regency style.

Continuing my quest to find interesting bookshops, I was happy to see that the old granary had been converted into a mini bookshop. I particularly liked the fact that there was an honesty box, it's always heartening to know that some people are still trusting!

We learnt all about the Hoare family history on our trip. It's no surprise they could afford such a lavish house, as they own the last remaining family bank in England. You need £500,000 in cash plus several million in assets to even open an account - there's inspiration for our MBA students!

One day I want a library just like this.

The Pope's Cabinet, made for Pope Sixtus V, is the jewel of the Hoares' collection, featuring semi-precious stones, gold-covered figures and 150 compartments to hide all of their treasures in.

There is a selection of letters sent between the family members and you can pretend to be one of them, writing with a quill on the bed of the Italian room.

We walked around the whole lake, following stunningly landscaped gardens. Not even the rain could spoil the afternoon.

You can find more information on Stourhead at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead/

St Fagans - Museum of Welsh Life

On Saturday, I headed back across the border to Cmyru and the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagans. Museum may sound a bit staid, but St Fagans is so much fun, we could have happily spent all day there. The site features buildings from different periods of Welsh history, from the Celtic tribes to farmers and miners.

Our first stop was the main farmhouse - we wanted to take a piglet back to the office with us. We then went back several centuries to explore the Celtic yurts.

Traditions are still very much alive at St Fagan's - not only can you observe historical Welsh customs, you can take part and sample the food.

I wish we could have stayed in St Fagans: there was so much to learn, and so little time! And best of all, it's free. It's definitely worth a visit while in Cardiff: you can find all the details at http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/stfagans/

English Language Centre Social Programme: Week 3

So, Week 3 has been and gone - we are whizzing through the summer. I can't believe that it's now less than a month until I leave Bath and begin my PhD adventure. Eee! I feel like I say this every week, but once again we were manic in the office, so there wasn't much time for getting out and about with the students.

Whoever says British immigration regulations are lax clearly hasn't tried to register 200 new international students. Not only do we need to check everyone's visas when they arrive and all of their academic documents to check they 'deserve' to be here; they also need to register with the police, a tortuously long process which includes writing down every school they have ever been to. We also had three Bank Holiday trips to prepare for as well as three at the weekend. 

However, I did have my best night of the Social Programme so far on Thursday. Our official activity was a salsa class, taught my a very creepy man with a terrifying voice. Needless to say, I was happy to get out of there, although I did enjoy watching the dance skills of some of the students. Afterwards, we went to The Salamander, one of Bath's friendliest little independent pubs before heading to Moles for Stereo Types, their indie disco. I had been pestering everyone to go to indie disco all week, as I'm fed up with the conventional club music and to share the music I love with the students. I'm so glad we went as I loved just about every song and so did the students :D

The last remaining revellers at end of the night, with a photobombing member of staff

Then on Friday night we got a real treat - tickets to Bath Rugby vs Cardiff Blues at the Rec. I've really gotten in to rugby later - it's much more fun to watch than football. It was great to show the students a sport that is so typical and popular in our region of England, which many of them had never seen before. The fact that Bath won was the cherry on top!

English Language Centre Social Programme: Week 2

Well we're now nearing the end of Week three and I still haven't written up Week 2 yet :s Week 2 was bittersweet as many of the students I had gotten close to left on Friday. A large amount of the week was also spent preparing for the new arrivals - about 200 of them - with endless reams of photocopying, but I still managed to partake in a few interesting activities.

Pubs
A lot of our time this week was spent in the pub - it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it ;-) On Wednesday night, we took the students out for a quiet drink in town before heading to Opa for Spanish Way (a Spanish pop themed club night). Then on Thursday, we were back again, but this time we had party games (see below). Finally on Sunday, we invited the new arrivals down to the pub with us as a way for everyone to get to know each other. We insist that meeting friends for a chat in the pub is a key part of British culture; it's not that we are all alcoholics, I can't even drink!

Party games
On Thursday night, we all regressed back to infancy with an evening full of the games we used to play at birthday parties when we were five, including Pass the Parcel (a very difficult phrase for non-native speakers to understand), balloon races and Pin the Tail on the Donkey (played with a trunk and an elephant in China, apparently). I nearly scorched my Eeyore by leaving him too close to the disco lights and learnt a valuable lesson in fire safety.

Windsor
Our Saturday trip this week was to Windsor. The spectacular castle is of course the main attraction, but as I got to visit it last year, this time I had to stay with the students who were not interested in going inside. Instead, we went to Eton, which is incredibly picturesque. I loved how the street is so fragrant because every building has flowers hanging outside. We didn't take a tour of the college, but snooped around whatever was open. I think we were most impressed with the cakes at The Foxy Cake Co.