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A message for new study abroad students from the Centre in London 16/12/2009
Dear students: I wanted to get one substantive email out to you all while
you are on campus. Please note that this, and all future emails, will
be sent to your US university email addresses so make sure you can get
at them when you are in the UK or you’ll miss a lot from us, and
from your home campuses …
Welcome from the Cornell/Brown/Penn Centre: First of all, we’re
looking forward to welcoming you as you arrive over various dates in January
and early February. I want to be very sure that you have put the dates
of our ‘welcome meetings’ for new students in your diaries
as it is extremely important that you keep the dates free and attend.
You have already got them in the welcome letters’ your study abroad
offices gave you from us and, for reference, they are on our website under
‘Information for new students’ and ‘Events’. I
will be coming up to Scotland and will be in Edinburgh on 20 and 21 January
to meet new arrivals there. I have booked the meeting room in 55 George
Square from 4pm to 5pm on 20 January for starters – if you don’t
make that meeting I’ll catch up with you the following morning.
And we’re aware that St Andrews students may not have arrived by
that date so we’ll make sure you get printed information by post.
Then our main meeting is in London on Saturday 23 January when we’ll
be at Birkbeck College, on Torrington Square, starting at 1pm and this
is for everyone else, including the new arrivals to Cambridge and Oxford.
When you are looking at the website, look under ‘Events’ and
you’ll see that the first event of our programme of theatre visits
is to the London Coliseum to see the ballet ‘Giselle’ on 21
January 2010. I shall do a short note explaining how to book for this
in the New Year – so look out for it!
University meetings: By now you should have heard from your universities
with details of your orientation and registration programmes, the most
recent email to go out was from Kings College London. I’m not sure
that UCL, where loads of you are going to be studying, has sent out a
welcoming email but if you go to www.ucl.ac.uk/isop you’ll find
the schedule of the orientation programme and a link you can use to notify
them you plan on attending. You should *all* plan to attend your universities’
meetings – even if you think you’ve heard it all before! It
really will be useful in the long run …
Housing: Again, your universities should have let you know where
you will be living (or explained why notification is sometimes later than
expected!). As I write this Pembroke College Cambridge is sending emails
to all students starting there in January and KCL must be making its final
allocations! If you have to sign and return a contract, or pay a deposit,
bear in mind that we are 5 hours ahead of US east coast time, offices
aren’t open on Saturdays and Sundays and will also close for the
holidays on 23 December so be sure to have everything sorted by then …
Immigration: I know this is confusing but I also know that Cornell,
Brown and UPenn and your hosting universities have provided plenty of
information about applying for visas, with hints on how to apply and all
the relevant websites. Luckily, most of you are travelling on US or Canadian
passports, will be here for 6 months or less and do not intend to work
– you can enter the UK as ‘student visitors’ and get
entry clearance in advance or at the airport when you land as long as
you are aware of the restrictions. Students who are not ‘non-visa
nationals’ or are doing programmes that include internships must
have visas and I hope you are well into the process of applying for them.
By the way, please do not book a flight through Ireland as there is no
immigration control between us and Ireland and you won’t get the
right stamp in your passport to enable you to study here.
Onward travel: Your hosting universities are usually great sources
of information about how to reach their campuses, and I’d also encourage
you to go to our website and look under ‘Information for new students’
where we’ve given some travel information that will help you. Some
universities offer ‘meet and greet’ services on certain days
and they’ll make that clear in their information.
When you arrive: Hopefully you’ll have smooth journeys
and will arrive all ready to go. Don’t forget to contact home as
soon as you can and/or warn them that you may not be able to get in touch
regularly straight away. Normally you can’t access email in your
universities until you’re registered, so you might need to find
an internet café or make an international call. And check in with
us as soon as you can – sometimes parents or friends call us and
of course we can’t reassure them as we don’t know your contact
addresses or phone numbers either! If you’re in London you can always
use our phone, or the office computers to link home.
Finally – our office, and the majority of offices of UK universities,
will close on Wednesday afternoon, 23 December 2009 and will not reopen
until Monday 4 January 2010. You can email me over the holidays as I’ll
be checking email several times, but to be honest as the universities
will be closed I won’t be able to do much to resolve academic, financial
or housing problems until the Monday at the earliest! You should always
let me know if your arrival is going to be delayed so I can inform the
universities for you …
So I’ll close by wishing you all the very best for the holiday season
on behalf of my colleague Sue Welsford and myself. We’re looking
forward to meeting you soon, Cheers, Liz Simpson
A first message from the Cornell/Brown/Penn UK Centre in London for students coming to the UK in Fall '09! (28/05/09)
Dear new ‘study abroad students’:
This is the first proper message to be sent from our office in London
to all of you as a group, as I have just set up my distribution lists.
My colleague Sue Welsford and I are looking forward to your arrival in
the autumn, and will be emailing you a couple more times before you get
here …. By the way, the first thing to say is that if you are getting
this email and you have decided not to study in the UK, please let me
know immediately – sometimes out lists are not completely up-to-date!
First of all, I want to draw your attention to our ‘welcome
meetings’ at the start of the semester, and ask you to be sure
to keep the dates clear in your diary. These dates were noted in the welcome
letter we provided for you all in the US, and they are also on our website
www.cornell-brown-penn.ac.uk under both ‘Information for New Students’
and ‘Events’. In September I will come up to Edinburgh to
meet students who have started in Scotland. I haven’t fixed a date
yet, but when that is sorted, I will email you all. It’s likely
to be in the week beginning 14 September. On Saturday 3 October, we will
hold our main meeting in London at Birkbeck College in Bloomsbury, starting
at 1.30pm. This is the meeting we want all London students, and those
of you within easy travelling distance of London, to attend. It might
seem a bit late for some of you, but that’s because of the different
start-dates at UK universities! Then, for our last meeting, we will visit
Oxford on Saturday 17 October to meet all of you who have just started
there, at St Peter’s College at 2.30pm.
Please do keep these dates clear of travel and other commitments: I cannot
over-emphasise how important we think it is to meet you all at the start
of the semester. We do realise that a few of you may not be able to attend
a Saturday meeting for religious reasons, or for other pressing family
commitments. In these cases we will be happy to supply you with the printed
information we distribute, and we hope you’ll visit us at the Centre.
It has become a bit of a tradition for some UPenn students to visit the
Munich bierfest in the fall but this is a three-week-long event (Sep 19
to Oct 4) and it is perfectly possible to go to Munich AND attend our
meeting as well.
The other priority for us at the moment is to appoint our ‘student
helpers’ for the fall semester. Again, we provided information about
this to your pre-departure meetings in the US and we have already had
several students contact us about the position we describe as ‘general
assistant’. But we do still need to identify someone who will help
us keep our website up-to-date, by posting the regular emails, amending
the ‘Events’ listings and other sections, and developing the
site where necessary. Currently we use ‘Dreamweaver’ software
and our previous helpers have written simple instructions to help you,
so it’s not too difficult to master. If anyone based in London is
interested in helping in this way, please email me, and send us your resume.
For both student helpers, we ask for a regular commitment of a couple
of hours a week, each week of the semester. We cannot offer payment in
the UK for a variety of reasons, but you will get a credit of $500 back
on your university accounts in return for your help. So if we have anyone
else out there who would be willing and able to assist, please get in
contact with us straight away.
I suppose the next most important item at this stage for some of you should
be UK immigration requirements and again I’m sure that your have
been given lots of information already. We have also posted information
on our website under ‘Information for New Students’ so have
a look at it. The majority of you will be travelling on US or Canadian
passports and you are what are known as ‘non-visa nationals’
but you still have to apply for a ‘visa’ if you are coming
to the UK for a course of more than 6 months – that’s primarily
those of you coming to Oxford, Cambridge, the LSE and one or two others.
Even if you plan to go back home during the vacations, your courses are
still more than six month long so you must apply for pre-entry clearance.
The system for dealing with visas has changed recently and you will be
the first of our students to enter under the Points Based System (PBS).
Your hosting university will issue you with a letter with a unique sponsor
number on it and you *must wait for this letter before applying
for a visa*. If you plan to study in the UK for just the fall
semester, you can apply for pre-entry clearance or enter the UK as a ‘student-visitor’
but please note that student visitors may not do paid or unpaid work.
If you are travelling on other passports you need to check what the visa
requirements are for entry to the UK. (If you have a passport from an
EU country you’re fine).
That’s all I’m going to put in this email but do get in touch
if you have any questions at this stage, as the Centre remains open all
over the summer. You can expect at least two more emails with more information
so please keep a look out for them. With very best wishes from Liz Simpson
and Sue Welsford.
From the Cornell/Brown/Penn Centre in London - another message for summer (29/06/09)
Dear new study abroad students: Another message
from London as June draws to a close – again I shall be concentrating
on immigration matters but hopefully in July and August I can share some
more exciting stuff with you! To start off, can I please urge you to read
these emails carefully and try to save them – they may look boring
(especially if you’re used to Facebook or tweeting or blogging!)
but they have useful and important stuff in them and we will use them
as the primary way of keeping in touch with you during the summer and
over the months to come.
OK – let’s go ….
First of all, just to remind you that if you are travelling on US, Canadian,
UK or most other EU states’ passports, and are coming to study here
for just the first semester, you may enter the UK without prior entry
clearance, as a ‘student visitor’. This is a special immigration
category – with restrictions eg you may not work or volunteer while
you are here and you cannot apply to extend your stay in the UK –
but it is easier, given the new immigration regulations for this intake
of students and I know that lots of you have opted to do this.
However, if you are coming to study for a full year (this is mainly our
students coming to Oxford, Cambridge, the LSE and one or two other destinations)
or are coming on an internship programme like Edinburgh’s political
internship programme, or are a ‘visa national’ then you do
have to apply for a ‘visa’ as a general/adult student. *Please
do not attempt to apply for a ‘visa’ until you receive your
‘visa letter’ from your admitting UK university or internship
programme*. It is not your ‘offer letter’ – it looks
much more official, quotes the sponsor’s unique reference number
and gives information about the level of study, length of course and fees.
All UK universities are drafting them independently, with guidance from
the UKBA, but they do not all look the same so don’t necessarily
expect yours to look like your friend’s! If your hosting university
has asked you to check a draft letter, please do so and reply quickly
so they can confirm everything. When you get your letter, check it carefully
to be sure that every detail is correct. (LSE students – be careful
as they have already corrected and re-issued their first letters).
Armed with that letter, you can go ahead and apply for your visa and I
know that all three US universities have given you instructions how to
do this – and some UK universities have done so too. Please note
that I am not legally able to give you detailed immigration advice –
likely the only persons who can do that will be designated advisors at
your hosting university. And these are not detailed notes below –
as I said, your universities have given you that, and referred you to
the relevant websites too so I’m not duplicating that information.
But I want to highlight a few things to look out for: (a) All three of
our US universities will be paying your tuition fees, on your
behalf, to your UK universities when they are billed and they will have
already given you, or will be providing new letters to state this clearly
to the immigration authorities. You will have paid your US universities
but the fees will not necessarily be the same so when you fill in your
visa application forms, the figure you quote for tuition fees must be
the figure given by your UK University. (b) You have to provide documentation
to prove that you can cover your living expenses for the whole
time you are in the UK – for this autumn only, you do not have to
show that you have had the money available for 28 days before applying.
Remember the funds have to be in your name, or in a shared account that
gives your name too. You are expected to convert dollar figures to pounds
sterling, at the officially quoted rate on the date you apply. Any online
bank statements must be stamped on each page by the issuing bank to prove
they are ‘official’. (c) As well as the financial stuff, additional
documentation to accompany your visa application includes an original
transcript, two photographs and … your passport, as the visa is
stamped in it!
Good luck with your applications – if you’re making them – and I’ll write to you again in July.
From the Cornell/Brown/Penn UK Centre in July - another message for new students (20/07/09)
Dear students: I was hoping to get a message
out without immigration stuff taking precedence over everything else –
let’s see if we can manage it! At this stage I usually write to
remind you all what is happening at your hosting UK universities so you
know what to look out for from them, and what we are doing, so here goes
…
Accommodation:
As far as I have been able to check, further information or accommodation
offers have been sent via email to students coming to Edinburgh, Kings
College London, St Andrews, Oxford Brookes and the LSE … and by
post from University College London. Goldsmiths College is usually a bit
later than the rest but you should be getting your offers shortly. These
are the universities hosting the biggest groups of our students, so forgive
me if I’ve missed you off the list. If you are coming to Oxford
or Cambridge, individual rooms are allocated just before the start of
term but you are guaranteed college accommodation anyway and your mailing
address will be the college address. If you have any concerns about accommodation
offers, do please let me know …
When you get your offer, read it carefully to see what you need to do
to accept it – for example, see if you have to pay a deposit and
how to pay it. We have pretty good relations with most accommodation offices
so they usually check with us if they don’t hear from our students
accepting their offers but we don’t want to risk this happening.
Also, read any accompanying information about stuff to bring with you
or purchase on arrival … most likely you’ll be offered a bedding
pack to rent or buy. You might also need to specify exactly when you plan
to arrive – our advice is not to arrive too early before the start
of the orientation programmes – it’s rather lonely being one
of a very few students in a university residence. A day before the start
of orientation is fine – it’s long enough to get settled in.
* And when you know where you are living – please email us. The
universities usually do not give us your accommodation details and we
MUST know where you are living in the UK and where we can contact you
in an emergency.*
Other information/welcome and orientation programmes:
Universities send out extra information about what to expect on arrival
etc by different methods – these days more and more reply on posting
the information on their websites so it’s up to you to check them
out. Others – and Oxbridge is a good example – send information
out to study abroad students in August, when they mail information to
all new freshers. This will typically include the dates and programming
of the special welcome or orientation meetings for you. These university
meetings are very important as in many cases, this is where you meet your
advisers and finally register for courses. Please don’t think you
can ignore them because you’ve already been through university orientations
before and it can’t be that different here! Then you should have
already made a note of the dates when we are holding the Centre meetings
– these are for all students from Cornell, from Brown and from UPenn
so that we can meet together with guest contributors to discuss academic
matters, safety and security, travel and working and I can brief you on
what to expect from us and what we plan to do to enhance your semester
or year. I’m afraid I do not have the resources to hold make-up
meetings if you miss the meetings, though you will of course get the information
booklets we supply for each student.
* These are the dates of the meetings: Edinburgh, Scotland (for Edinburgh,
Glasgow and St Andrews students) Wednesday16 September – Thursday
17 September; London (for all other students except Oxford and Cambridge)
Saturday 3 October; Oxford (for Oxford and Cambridge students) Saturday
17 October. *
Booking travel/onward travel:
I’m sure you’ve been warned about this already but …
if you haven’t already booked your flights, these are things to
look out for. The cheapest flights are not always the best deal in the
long run – you should look for a flight which will allow you to
change dates with the minimum of extra charges. Do not book a flight via
Dublin or any other airport in the Republic of Ireland – this will
just lead to problems with immigration. If you’re coming to Scotland
– check out direct flights to Edinburgh or Glasgow and avoid the
extra hassle of coming into London and transferring flights or continuing
your journey by train. And it’s preferable to book a return flight
– immigration authorities do like to see that you are scheduled
to leave us some time! For onward travel we have some information on our
website www.cornell-brown-penn.ac.uk and UK universities often provide
information on their websites too. Look out for details of any university
‘meet and greet’ schemes that might operate when you plan
to arrive – we are not able to meet students at airports on arrival
I’m afraid.
Luggage in advance – or carrying it all with you … :
I know that some of you are planning to travel a bit before arriving to
study here. A few points to note as you make your plans. It is extremely
unlikely that universities can store luggage for you if you were thinking
you’d drop off a bag or two. And I’m sorry, but we have no
room to store bags in our office either. There are luggage storage facilities
at both Heathrow and Gatwick airports and at major railway and coach stations
but they can be expensive. If you plan to ship a bag or box to the UK,
schedule it to arrive after you have checked into your dorm – that
way your name will be familiar and you’re less likely to have reception
turn your bags away! Do brief who-ever is shipping stuff for you that
it needs to be marked clearly that they are used personal items, so that
you don’t get charged VAT or any other import taxes. I’ll
put some hints about what to pack and what to leave behind in next month’s
email …
I think I’ll stop now, especially as I’ve managed a whole
email with no mention of immigration. I just want to warn you that after
3 August, I’m going to be doing jury service for an unspecified
time (probably about two weeks) so, although I’ll check on messages
from time to time, I won’t be so quick to reply to questions as
I usually am … be warned!
Enjoy the rest of your summer!
A message from the Centre right at the end of July! (31/07/09)
Dear ‘new students’: In today’s
message I want to give you a few hints about your forward planning for
travelling over to the UK and a reminder about our meetings and my availability
to answer your questions for the next couple of weeks. I’ll keep
it quite brief I think, and then aim to do another, longer, last message
towards the end of August.
Liz’s availability!
The first thing is to note is that on Monday next, that’s 3 August,
I start jury service. I expect I shall be out of the office for at least
two weeks and for all practical purposes I shall be unable to answer any
questions you have about your up-coming period in the UK (academics, accommodation,
travel or immigration). So please – until I email you all again
to tell you the office is open again – email your US study abroad
offices or your hosting UK universities or programmes with your questions.
They have all been notified that I’m not going to be in the office
during the regular working day for this period.
Meetings!
Then, I want you all to be sure to make a note of the dates of our meetings
at the start of term. With so many of you coming to the UK, and studying
at so many different universities, it’s almost impossible to arrive
at dates that suit everybody (in some cases you may have been in the UK
for a couple of weeks before we ‘welcome’ you!) but we do
hope that you have already noted the dates in your diaries and made your
arrangements around them … These meetings are always important as
we have a lot of information to get over to you at the start of term and
this year, because I’m not going to have as much help in the office
as in past years, I’m not going to have as much opportunity for
‘make-up’ sessions … so please make life easier all
round and come along!
First of all, I’m coming to Edinburgh to meet students newly arrived
in Scotland. I’ll travel up on Wednesday 16 September and return
to London on Thursday 17 September – this is during Edinburgh’s
‘freshers week’. I now have meeting times and places confirmed.
On Wednesday we have a room booked at 55 George Square, Edinburgh (next-door
to the international office at number 57) and I will be there from 3pm
to 4.30pm. If you cannot meet me then, I will be available to meet you
at my hotel, the Carlton Hotel on North Bridge between 5.30pm and 6.30pm,
and finally I can meet anyone who misses me, next day on Thursday 17/9
at 9am at the hotel. At the hotel, go upstairs to the first floor where
there is a comfortable lounge area – if we haven’t met before,
you’ll recognise me by the pile of information booklets I’ll
have with me! If you are travelling in from Glasgow or St Andrews and
need more guidance on where to find these places, let me know.
Then our big London ‘welcome meeting’ is on Saturday afternoon,
on 3 October. This is for all London students and those who can travel
into town easily. Although I have a later meeting in Oxford (see below),
I’d recommend that the UPenn Oxford-base nurses come to this meeting
rather than the Oxford meeting as your fellow London-based nurses will
be coming to this one! We will meet in lecture theatre B35 downstairs
in Birkbeck College’s main building – the entrance is on Torrington
Square, behind SOAS and near Russell Square www.bbk.ac.uk/maps to find
your way. We will start promptly at 1.30pm – we’ll be there
from 1pm to check you in and give you your information booklets before
the meeting. We’ll finish at about 3.30pm/4pm and the building has
a small café so you can hang out with your friends afterwards.
Finally, we’ll have a ‘welcome meeting’ in Oxford for
the new arrivals there on Saturday 17 October. This will be at St Peter’s
College, New Inn Hall Street, starting at 2.30pm and lasting for about
an hour and a half. You might find that some of you have college photos
on that day but we expect you’ll be clear to join us as soon as
you can - as visiting students you do not ‘matriculate’ so
you aren’t involved in official ceremonies.
Travel plans and packing!
If there is anyone out there who hasn’t booked their flights yet
– this is a final plea not to book your flight to the UK via Ireland.
You don’t need to know why (I can explain later when we’ve
more time), just don’t do it, even if you are offered a good price!
If you have applied for a visa, you’ll have the dates when you can
enter and leave the UK. If you are coming as a student visitor, you may
not enter the UK as a student visitor more than 7 days before the start
of your course.
As you begin to think about what to bring with you, can I just share Simpson’s
rule of packing with you? Put out all the clothes and stuff you think
you need to bring to the UK … and then halve it. Work out what you
think you budget is going to be … then double it. That should see
you OK. Seriously, the former point is good advice. Remember, you are
going to be responsible for getting your bag/s to and from the airports,
maybe using public transport. Please don’t lumber yourself with
huge, heavy suitcases. Much of what you don’t bring can be bought
here in the UK – you don’t need to bring bedding, a semester’s
supply of shampoo, your electrical equipment (it probably won’t
work anyway without a transformer), really bulky cold-weather clothing
… As I said in an earlier email, if you find you have forgotten
some favourite items you really need, then you can always have them shipped
over. One thing I would recommend you pay particular attention to is if
you are taking regular, specific medication. You should discuss this with
your physician so you are adequately supplied for the time you are here,
and also ask for a prescription with generic drug names on it, rather
than ‘brand names’ that might not be the same in the UK.
Finally … US nationals might already like to note these contacts
… use http://london.usembassy.gov/americanservices to find out all
about Citizen Services while you’re here. And we always recommend
registering on https://travelregistration.state.gov/ so you get all the
official notices about travel and security.
I’m looking forward to emailing you again when I’m back in
the office and done with jury service. Until then, all the best from London.
From the Cornell/Brown/Penn UK Centre at the beginning of September! (02/09/09)
Dear students: Last week, I promised you a longer
email so here it is. This is probably the last general one you’ll
get from me before we start getting into real arrivals and orientation
meetings so I’ll concentrate on essential information prior to arrival.
I will send out a couple of special emails designed for students coming
to Scotland, and to Oxford/Cambridge too, so if you fall into either of
those categories – please look out for them.
First of all, a bit about the Centre this year, just so you know
what to expect. I’m in the office each day unless I alert you by
email otherwise. My colleague Sue will be coming in for a few hours each
month, considerably less than in the past, so we will not have time to
chase you for information that you haven’t sent back to us or send
you lots of reminders about events – do bear this in mind when you
get emails during the semester. We should also have two student helpers
to assist us; thanks to them for volunteering. And the office does only
open during the working week, Monday to Friday inclusive!
And now a few things to remember as you make your final preparations for
departure …
Do read all the information emails and documents you’ve been sent
and check out your hosting universities’ websites. The latter are
not all easy to navigate, as we know to our costs in this office, but
if you hang on in there you should find out all you need to know about
where to go on arrival, ‘meet and greet’ arrangements (if
your university offers them), orientation programmes, registering for
courses. It is *essential* that you go to university orientation meetings
…
Don’t forget that some of our universities are working on very different
schedules from the ones you are used to – for example Oxford and
Cambridge colleges are not starting until early October and so do not
send out information for new students until much later than the rest of
the universities …
As far as I can check, all universities have now made their housing offers.
They have all gone direct to you, not through this office, so I don’t
know all the details you have been sent: many of them require deposits
to secure places, but even if they don’t you must reply and accept
your offers. If you have changed your mind about going into university
housing, please let the accommodation offices and our office in London
know …
Arrival in the UK …
You will go through two ‘checks’ when you arrive (just like
when you re-enter the US). The first is immigration and the second is
customs. Immigration is the most important and this is where you will
need your passport and all those official letters accessible in your hand-luggage.
Some of you will already have your visas stamped in your passports but
the great majority of you will be entering as ‘student visitors’
and your passports will be endorsed on arrival to show this. You will
need your offer or admission letter from your UK university or programme
to show you are going to be a student here – this is very important
as the UK universities are recognised as ‘education providers’
in the UK - Cornell, Brown and UPenn are not! Your US university letter
will be useful to show that your fees are going to be paid, and you will
also need proof (e.g. a parents’ letter or bank statements) that
you have enough money to keep yourself while you are in the UK. Remember,
as a ‘student visitor’ you may not work so if you are asked
if you plan to or would like to, the answer is ‘no’. (If you
have a visa, you may work, quite legally).
Most of the time I go through customs there is never anyone there but
you can’t be sure. The only thing I ought to warn you about is carrying
any kind of ‘mace’ or pepper spray for self-defence –
they’re not legal here and liable to be confiscated. And make sure
you’re up-to-date about restrictions on carrying liquids in your
hand luggage.
This is obvious really, but do keep a careful watch on all your personal
possessions in the airports, stations, tube stations etc when you arrive.
You’re likely to be tired and a bit disoriented – and you
don’t want your first experience in the UK to be explaining to the
police that your passport or wallet has been stolen. Those university
websites are pretty good about onward travel, but if you’re really
confused, ask us. Try to have a bit of cash in sterling with you, so that
you can pay for a tube or taxi on arrival and get that first reviving
cup of coffee.
Finally, as soon as you are safely in your flat or residence – check
in back home so family and friends know you’re OK. Parents sometimes
call us, but at the start of the term we often don’t know whether
you have arrived either! If you’re near the office and want to use
our phone, feel free to come in. It’s a good idea to tell them back
home that in the first few days you can’t guarantee to call regularly
or email as you’re likely to be rushing round visiting your departments,
shopping, sorting out mobile phones, getting set up with university email
accounts etc And do drop by, email or phone us when you arrive: we like
to know you are here – and it’s especially important if you
have decided to live in a private rented flat.
Last but certainly not least … our ‘Welcome Meetings’
…
Once again – the ‘welcome meeting’ we are holding in
London is on *Saturday 3 October,* in Birkbeck College, Torrington Place,
close to UCL and SOAS. This is when I hope to meet most of you, hand out
our information booklets and, with our guests, talk to you about your
time here. I have already written a couple of times to you about this.
*Now I need you to let me know whether you are coming to the meeting or
not, so I want a reply from everybody concerned by 28 September*. If you
go onto our website www.cornell-brown-penn.ac.uk and look under ‘Events’
you will also see that our *first play for the semester is on Sunday 4
October* - the very last performance of the season at Shakespeare’s
Globe Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames in London. We have booked
some tickets at 5 pounds each for the comedy ‘Loves Labours Lost’
– which I saw last year and enjoyed tremendously. You can reserve
your ticket now and collect it at the meeting. We allocate the tickets
we have pre-booked to the first people who reply. If you get the cultural
bonus the cost will be deducted from your bonus – otherwise you
need to bring 5 pounds to the meeting. By the way, information about the
cultural bonus is also on the website, under ‘Living in the UK’.
I have also confirmed the dates for my meetings in Scotland (16/17 September)
and Oxford (17 October) in previous messages and will write separate emails
to all concerned about them. If you don’t get them, I expect to
see you in London!
You’ve come to the end now (well done!). Sue and I are looking forward
to seeing you all soon. Safe journeys and enjoy your pre-sessional travel
if any of you are away already.
From the Centre in London (22/09/09)
Dear students: I’ll keep this email short
and sweet as there’s one thing I need you to take action on now,
as you are arriving, attending your universities’ meetings and generally
settling in …
The great majority of you have not replied to my email about our ‘welcome
meeting’ in London on Saturday 3 October and our theatre visit the
next day, Sunday 4 October. (This does not apply to students in Scotland
or students who will be attending Oxford and Cambridge universities. And
thanks to the students who *have* replied … you can safely ignore
the bit about replying and concentrate of the travel details!) .
This is a final reminder as I must hear from the rest of you whether you
will be coming to the meeting on 3 October or not, and equally importantly,
whether you would like a ticket for ‘Loves Labours Lost’ at
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on 4 October. Just reply on this email,
it’s very easy. Unclaimed tickets will be offered to other programmes
after 28 September; I don’t want to disappoint you so reply now!
Meeting Details: The meeting will start promptly at 1.30pm in
one of the downstairs lecture rooms at Birkbeck College, Torrington Square,
London WC1. Go to www.bbk.ac.uk and click on ‘Find us’ towards
the top of the screen; you’ll get a map you can print out (we’re
in the main building, marked 1 on the key) and travel details to the Bloomsbury
site (not Stratford). The nearest tube stations are Russell Square and
Euston Square but before travelling, please check on www.tfl.gov.uk for
travel details as sometimes underground lines and stations are closed
at weekends, and if you’re not used to the area yet, you can find
yourself delayed.
We will talk for a couple of hours at most – about the Centre, our
events, the cultural bonus, safety and security, travel and cultural adjustments,
and – of course – the academic side of your time here. We
hope that two experienced ‘ex-study-abroad-students’ will
join us as well … and as this is a meeting for students from all
three universities together, it’ll give you a chance to meet-up.
Theatre visit details: This is one of the last performances this season
at the Globe, the open-air theatre on the south side of the Thames built
as an authentic replica of Shakespeare’s own Globe Theatre.
We have tickets for standing places on Sunday 4 October at 1pm and
they only cost 5 pounds. Shakespeare’s play, ‘Loves Labours
Lost’, is a witty comedy and a great introduction to theatre in
London. We will give out the tickets at Saturday’s meeting, so reserve
one now and you can collect it on the 3rd.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
Tuesday's message from the Centre (29/09/09)
Good morning to everybody: Again, a quick message
as we deal with applications for next semester (already!) and get things
ready for Saturday’s meeting. I’m including – below
– the information about Saturday’s meeting so you know where
and when to find us. If you haven’t replied about coming, you can
still do so or just turn up on the day, but all the theatre tickets have
now been taken and we will give them out on Saturday. If you don’t
turn up to get your ticket we will still deduct the money from your bonus
I’m afraid as we have to keep our accounts straight!
If there are any film buffs out there – the public booking for London’s
major film event has just opened up – the London Film Festival runs
from 14 to 29 October and showcases films from all over the world –
premieres and art films, documentaries and discussions … something
for all film fans in fact. You can get all the info you need from www.bfi.org.uk/lff
and you can book online or by phone (and don’t forget that if you
get a cultural bonus from us, you can use that to pay for your tickets!)
Up in Scotland, look out for a new version of Lorca’s ‘The
House of Bernarda Alba’ transposed to Glasgow’s tough East
Side: it’s on at Glasgow Citizen’s Theatre until Saturday
www.citz.co.uk, Dundee Rep Theatre 6-10 October www.dundeerep.co.uk and
the King’s Theatre Edinburgh 3-7 November www.kingstheatre.org.uk
Monday's email from the Cornell/Brown/Penn Centre -book now for the opera (05/10/09)
Dear students: A general message to you after
our London meeting; many thanks to all of you who turned up on Saturday
and I hope that those of you who went to the Globe enjoyed the play. We
have had a couple of students tell us how much they enjoyed it and the
weather was certainly on your side!
Collecting information booklets … I would like all students taking
courses at SOAS, UCL and KCL who were not able to come on Saturday to
come to the Centre this week and collect your information booklets. The
post is so unreliable at the moment that I don’t want to trust it
more than I have to. If you are registered at QMUL or Goldsmiths, I realise
it is farther to come so I’ll risk the post and send you your booklets
as soon as you give us your full mailing addresses. Of course, if you’d
like to come and visit us, we’d be delighted! Our normal core drop-in
office hours are 8.30am to 4.30pm, with a lunchtime closure around 12.30pm
– 1pm. The office will be shut tomorrow (Tuesday) until 2pm.
Next event … opera on Tuesday 20 October. You can all now apply
for one of our tickets for the performance of Verdi’s opera ‘Rigoletto’
at the Coliseum, St Martin’s Lane (just off Trafalgar Square) starting
at 7.30pm. We have got a group reduction on tickets in the balcony so
they are only 10 pounds 40p each. The opera is full of well-known tunes
and arias and the production is a popular and dramatic one. Although you’re
at the top, you’ll have a great view and the acoustics are fine
anyway. English National Opera sing all their operas in English, and provide
surtitles as well so you can follow the action. Email now to let me know
if you’d like a ticket and we’ll confirm your reservation
by email if you are one of the lucky applicants. The cost will be deducted
from your cultural bonus or if you don’t qualify for the bonus you
can pay in cash when you collect the ticket. We want everybody to collect
their tickets from us before the event if possible: if you are applying
from Oxford, Cambridge or elsewhere, be sure to tell me when you apply
and we’ll work something out so that you get your ticket safely.
Have a good start to the week
This week's message from the Centre in London with info regarding bookings and events (12/10/09)
Dear all: First of all – please note that
the *Centre office will be closed on Thursday afternoon from 2.30pm and
all day on Friday this week* as we are attending meetings on both days.
This is important if you are planning on collecting your ticket for the
opera or your information booklet – we don’t want you to waste
a journey. Our drop-in hours are 8.30am to 12.15pm, then 1pm to 4.30 pm
normally.
Our events:
‘Rigoletto’ at the Coliseum on 20 October: London students
- you can collect your tickets from the office this week (see above),
or on Monday next. We will include a map showing where the theatre is
and a synopsis of the opera so you can follow what’s going on. All
ENO operas are sung in English and there are sur-titles anyway. If you
can’t make it to the Centre to collect your ticket, let us know
and we’ll arrange for it to be left at the Coliseum box-office.
Oxford students – we will bring your tickets to Oxford on Saturday
17/10. The cost of the ticket will be deducted from your bonus whether
you turn up on the 20th or not! – we don’t have a waiting
list for tickets for this event so it’s very unlikely we could re-allocate
tickets you have reserved already.
‘Inherit the Wind’ on 27 October: You can now apply for one
of our block booking of student-price tickets from this performance. The
play starts at 7.30pm and stars Kevin Spacey. All tickets cost 12 pounds.
Special arrangements are being made for you to collect the tickets from
the Old Vic box office on the day – we will not have them in advance
– and you must have student ID with you when you get your ticket.
** Information booklets – we still have booklets here for SOAS,
KCL, LSE and UCL students to collect – please deal with this IMMEDIATELY.
I am posting QMUL & Goldsmiths ones (where I have full addresses)
today and keeping my fingers crossed that we beat the postal delays. Your
booklet includes full information about academic matters, billing, safety
and security, the ‘cultural bonus’ and our fall semester’s
events programme. If anyone wants a copy of the ‘Theatre websites’
information sheet we gave out at the meeting, or the one on ‘London
markets’, or the ‘London football clubs’ one –
just ask and I’ll send it to you as an attachment
We don’t have any dance performances booked for this fall (if you’re
here for the year – look out for ‘Giselle’ in January
though) but if you do enjoy dance you really should check out the season
at Sadlers Wells Theatre in Islington, north London. All the major dance
companies perform there and you can see what’s on by going to www.sadlerswells.com
For example, in November, the Royal Ballet’s Birmingham-based company
is presenting two programmes: ‘Cyrano’ based on the story
of Cyrano de Bergerac and a mixed bill of modern works. Of course, the
main company dance through the year at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden,
listed on the ‘Theatre’ information sheet we gave out at our
welcome meeting.
It’s early warning but jazz fans should note that it’s the
London Jazz Festival next month too. It runs from 13 to 22 November and
you can see to full programme on www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk as booking
is already open – we also have copies of the printed programme booklet
here in the office – together with the National Theatre’s
advance programme, The South Bank Centre, and the Barbican by the way!
If you’re interested in fringe theatre – there’s a theatre
in Hackney called the Arcola Theatre www.arcolatheatre.com which offers
some pretty amazing programming in its spaces. Starting on 14/10 they
are playing Thomas Kyd’s ‘The Spanish Tragedy’ and from
18/11 a new play by Timberlake Wertenbaker about artists Edgar Degas and
Suzanne Valadon called ‘The Line’. Tickets are pretty cheap
at 10 or 16 pounds and they have ‘as much as you can afford’
nights too!
Coming up on 26 and 27 October, Cape Town Opera from South Africa are
doing two performances only of Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess’
at the Royal Festival Hall www.southbankcentre.co.uk or 0871 663 2509.
You can pick your seats online and when I booked last week there were
still some pretty cheap ones on offer. The same production is going to
the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh on 30 and 31 October so you won’t
miss out in Scotland www.fctt.org.uk
Health information – we’ve had a couple of questions about
flu jabs, prompted by parental concern I guess. For the record ‘swine
flu’ jabs are not available in the UK at the moment and if or when
they do it will be a major news item. Certain groups will be prioritized.
‘Seasonal flu’ jabs will be available soon, if they aren’t
already. Again priority groups such as the elderly or vulnerable are prioritised
at NHS surgeries: I would suggest you check out a couple of the retail
pharmacy chains that offer the service if you re concerned about this.
Go to www.superdrug.com/page/flu or www.boots.com/en/Flu-Vaccination-Service_843898/
Enjoy your week, watch out for our opening times please.
A quick message on Monday (19/10/09)
First of all, I’m going through some stuff re the two upcoming
visits to the opera tomorrow, and the theatre next week …
* ‘Rigoletto’ – sadly I won’t be at the opera
with you tomorrow as I’ve just sold my last ticket, I hope you enjoy
it. Things to look out for: the opera starts at 7.30pm prompt so if you
are late you will not be seated until a reasonable break in the performance.
Our allocation of seats is in the balcony – we have a good, central
view even though you are at the top of the ‘house’. You can
assume that anyone who looks like a student near you is either from Cornell,
Brown, UPenn or Tufts as we have seats E21-28, F21-28 and G22-28! All
seats in the balcony have been sold out as it’s a very popular production.
There is no dress code so you can come as you are, but don’t bring
big bags as there really is no room for them in the balcony. One last
thing – turn off your mobile phone and do not take photos, even
before the start of the performance. The Coliseum is very hot on that!
* ‘Inherit the Wind’ – I have just three tickets left
for this play – let me know straight away if you want one. This
is what the procedure will be for getting your tickets. By the end of
this week we will give each of you a letter or an email confirming the
booking reference number for the allocation of seats and your individual
seat number. You must take that and some identification that shows your
age and student status to the theatre on 27 October and the box office
will then give you your ticket. We cannot give out tickets in advance.
The play starts at 7.30pm and the theatre foyer is tiny and very, very
busy so I do recommend that you get there between 6.30pm and 7pm to get
your ticket.
Then this is for UPenn students – just a quick message as I understand
you have been sent an invitation to attend a special event at the Arts
Club on 4 November. I’m going to go as I really want to see the
inside of the Arts Club! Anyway, if you were considering attending but
were put off by the cost, you can always claim the fee from your ‘cultural
bonus’!
And finally, thanks to all the Oxford students who came to meet us on
Saturday – virtually a full turn-out! I hope the two of you who
were not feeling well will soon be better; do let me know if there’s
anything you are unclear about from the information booklet your friends
collected for you. And Cambridge students – it’s going to
be 2.30pm at the Fitzwilliam Museum café on Saturday 24 October,
by the looks of it … see you there!
Another Important note:
Dear students: This is for all or you, even if you have already given
us your contact details in some other format. Go onto our website www.cornell-brown-penn.ac.uk
and you will see a link on the home page to the ‘Personal Data Form’;
please complete this form and send it back to us. It goes straight to
Sue and she will also forward it to Cornell, Brown and UPenn so they can
add to or update their records. The most important thing is that we now
want confirmation of the courses or tutorials you are signed up for –
by now the great majority of you should all know what you are going to
be doing for this semester at least. We do not share this information
with anybody else. Incidentally, if you haven’t used the website
before you will find our events programme there, and all the emails we
send you are also posted there for reference. There is also information
about travel, our cultural bonus and other aspects of living in the UK.
Please note that European Summer Time ends this weekend so clocks should
go back an hour on Saturday night/Sunday morning. This is a week before
the clocks change in the US and Canada so don’t get confused!
From the Centre on 27/10 ... coming up to Hallowe'en ...
Dear all … with my visit to Cambridge last Saturday, I think we
have now offered all of you the chance to meet us at the start of the
semester – amazingly, we still have information booklets here in
the office for UCL, KCL, LSE and Goldsmiths students though … so
some of you are going to be a bit puzzled when we refer to the cultural
bonus, to our events programme and the Cornell Club Thanksgiving Dinner!
Our events:
As I’m writing this on Tuesday, a group of you will be off to the
Old Vic tonight to see Kevin Spacey in ‘Inherit the Wind’,
armed with your letters of identification to pick up your tickets at the
box office; Sue and I hope you have a good evening - we’re not going
to see it until later in the autumn. As some of the London colleges have
a mid-term break called ‘reading week’ in their departments,
we haven’t arranged another group event until 17 November but I’m
opening booking for that now so that if you are going to be travelling
rather than reading, you can apply for your ticket now!
On 17 November we have tickets for a lovely concert at the Cadogan Hall,
near Sloane Square, London SW1. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play
a programme with an Italian theme … Tchaikovsky’s ‘Capriccio
Italien’, Paganini’s Violin Concerto No 2, Rossini’s
Overture to ‘The Italian Girl in Algiers’ and Mendelssohn’s
‘Symphony No 4, ‘Italian’! The RPO give such great discounts
for education groups that we have got 20 tickets at only 5 pounds each
so you can let me know now if you want one and we can organize details
about picking them up or posting them to you nearer that date.
And now I can give you more details of the annual Thanksgiving Dinner
that the Cornell Club hosts each year for alumni, students and their friends
from all three universities. The Club has been doing this for 25 years
… and this year will be no different. Dinner will be on the Saturday
after Thanksgiving, 28 November, so that out-of-town students and alumni
can attend more easily – Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday here
so you don’t get time off! The venue is the East India Club on St
James’s Square, an elegant building in Mayfair and the Club and
Brown and UPenn subsidise the dinner costs so that you pay only 15 pounds
for your dinner, while you can bring a student guest, if you wish, at
20 pounds. The menu is traditional, with pumpkin soup, roast turkey with
all the trimmings and pecan pie … wine or soft drinks are served
with the meal and included in the price and if anyone wants a vegetarian
meal that can be pre-ordered. The evening starts at 7pm with a cash bar,
and you’ll sit down to dinner at 7.30pm. There is a dress code for
this event as we’re in a private ‘gentlemens’ club’
– no jeans please and men must wear a jacket and tie.
To make your booking you can contact me, specifying whether you want a
vegetarian meal, and if you are bringing a guest, his or her name –
the Club arranges a formal seating plan, ensuring that students share
tables with alumni so it’s important to let me know if you want
to be seated with friends. You must make payment in advance to confirm
your booking – you can bring cash to the office, or send me a sterling
cheque or postal order made payable to the Cornell Club of London (not
the Centre) … you can always claim this back from your ‘cultural
bonus’ but I must have payment from you to confirm your places with
the Club. The preferred deadline for booking with me is 20 November so
I’ll do reminders later on in November.
Admin matters:
Fall semester students will get emails very soon – if you haven’t
already – direct from Cornell, Brown and UPenn about registering
for courses back in the US for the spring semester. On our website we
have updated the Brown and UPenn entries and will do the same for Cornell
this week. I anticipate that these emails will go to your US university
email addresses (the ones that we use for our weekly emails) so be sure
to check them. If you need any help contacting your home campuses, sending
faxes through or anything like that – let us know. The same goes
for housing for next semester – several students have already discovered
that we are happy to fax through housing applications!
Reminder about travelling:
We expect that some more of you will be thinking of travelling outside
the UK in your mid-term ‘reading week’ break so this is a
quick reminder to be on your guard and look after your passports, credit
cards, airline tickets and other important stuff while you’re way.
All too often we hear about students who have had their pockets picked
or their backpacks rifled through. It’s a good idea to know where
your consulates or embassies are – just in case – and have
a couple of photocopies of your passport saved somewhere safe. You must
take your UK university admission letters with you if you came into the
UK as a ‘student visitor’ initially. You might be asked again
about your student status as you re-enter.
More events:
So it’s Hallowe’en this weekend and while it’s unlikely
you will see people dressed up on campus (it always amazed me when I visited
the US home campuses to see my colleagues in full Dracula gear!) there
will be stuff happening this weekend. Unfortunately our regular deliveries
of Time Out and The List have been affected by the postal dispute but
you can go online www.timeout.co.uk and www.list.co.uk to check stuff
out for yourselves. I did spot a couple of events though …
On Saturday, Sutton House in Hackney is opening in the evening for special
‘ghost tours’ and I’m highlighting this as it’s
an interesting house to visit in its own right. Owen and run by the National
Trust, it’s the oldest house in Hackney, dating from the 16th century.
Go to www.nationaltrust.org.uk and type in ‘sutton house’
and click on ‘events’ for all the details of entry prices
and how to book.
Up in Edinburgh, you can join in ‘Samhuinn’ (or ‘Samhain’)
the Celtic festival to mark the end of the year. There will be a torch-lit
parade from the Castle Esplanade starting at 9pm – www.beltane.org
to find out more!
And for this weekend, London foodies don’t have to go down to Borough
Market – there’s a Harvest Halloween Market in the Southbank
Centre Square on Belvedere Road (that’s behind the Royal Festival
hall) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, opening up at 11am and finishing
at 8pm on Friday and Saturday, 6pm on Sunday.
On Sunday, you can go along to the British Museum where there are going
to be special events to mark the Mexican celebration of the ‘Day
of the Dead’ from 11am until 5pm. There will be music and dance
performances, Mexican street food, special displays and events for children.
And the new exhibitions ‘Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler’ and ‘Revolution
on paper: Mexican prints 1910-1960’ will also be open. There’s
an entry fee for the Moctezuma exhibition but as students you’ll
get a discounted price. Visit www.britishmuseum.org for full details of
this and other displays and events at the museum.
Have a good week – and please note that I am shutting the office
at 4pm today and on Friday as I have errands to do on both days before
I go home! Cheers, Liz
Dear all: I’m going to begin by lifting a huge bit out of last
week’s email so that you have all the details again for the concert
visit on 17 November (we still have tickets available so get in touch
straight away to reserve yours) and the Cornell Club of London’s
annual Thanksgiving Dinner. We’ll soon be posting full details for
this in the Events section of the website so you’ll find it all
there too. You can get in touch and book places up to the deadline ….
On 17 November we have tickets for a lovely concert at the Cadogan Hall,
near Sloane Square, London SW1. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play
a programme with an Italian theme … Tchaikovsky’s ‘Capriccio
Italien’, Paganini’s Violin Concerto No 2, Rossini’s
Overture to ‘The Italian Girl in Algiers’ and Mendelssohn’s
‘Symphony No 4, ‘Italian’! The RPO give such great discounts
for education groups that we have got 20 tickets at only 5 pounds each
so you can let me know now if you want one and we can organize details
about picking them up or posting them to you nearer that date.
And now I can give you more details of the annual Thanksgiving Dinner
that the Cornell Club hosts each year for alumni, students and their friends
from all three universities. The Club has been doing this for 25 years
… and this year will be no different. Dinner will be on the Saturday
after Thanksgiving, 28 November, so that out-of-town students and alumni
can attend more easily – Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday here
so you don’t get time off! The venue is the East India Club on St
James’s Square, an elegant building in Mayfair and the Club and
Brown and UPenn subsidise the dinner costs so that you pay only 15 pounds
for your dinner, while you can bring a student guest, if you wish, at
20 pounds. The menu is traditional, with pumpkin soup, roast turkey with
all the trimmings and pecan pie … wine or soft drinks are served
with the meal and included in the price and if anyone wants a vegetarian
meal that can be pre-ordered. The evening starts at 7pm with a cash bar,
and you’ll sit down to dinner at 7.30pm. There is a dress code for
this event as we’re in a private ‘gentlemens’ club’
– no jeans please and men must wear a jacket and tie.
To make your booking you can contact me, specifying whether you want a
vegetarian meal, and if you are bringing a guest, his or her name –
the Club arranges a formal seating plan, ensuring that students share
tables with alumni so it’s important to let me know if you want
to be seated with friends. You must make payment in advance to confirm
your booking – you can bring cash to the office, or send me a sterling
cheque or postal order made payable to the Cornell Club of London (not
the Centre) … you can always claim this back from your ‘cultural
bonus’ but I must have payment from you to confirm your places with
the Club. The preferred deadline for booking with me is 20 November so
I’ll do reminders later on in November.
What’s new this week?
Hallowe’en is over but now you have a British event to enjoy …
Guy Fawke’s or Bonfire Night on 5 November. Traditionally November
5 marks the discovery of an attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament
by a group of conspirators lead by one Guido (or Guy) Fawkes on 5 November
1605. To celebrate the plot’s failure, we have bonfire parties and
firework displays. Most of these are public displays now (when I was a
kid, everyone had a party in their own garden!) and the big ones tend
to be held at the weekend so on Saturday 7/11 I expect you’ll find
displays where-ever you are studying. I’m a bit stuck giving you
details at the moment as the delivery of ‘Time Out’ and ‘The
List’ is being delayed by the postal strikes but if you’re
in London, go to www.timeout.com/london and there’s a feature on
the displays. A couple of big ones to look out for are at Alexandra Palace
in north London, with fireworks at 7.30pm (there’s an entry fee
for the event) and at Victoria Park in east London, also starting at 7.30pm
but the ‘Time Out’ feature lists many, many more.
Sunday 8 November is ‘Remembrance Sunday’ when there will
be a march-past and wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall
from mid-morning. I’m alerting you to this in case you will be in
the area: you should expect big crowds, and delays or diversions to traffic.
Again, as this is marked nationally, you may find similar events where-ever
you are studying.
Talking about delays and diversions – tonight the Christmas Lights
in Regent’s Street, Oxford Street and the City of London are all
going to be switched on – again, go to www.timeout.com/london for
full info. It’s all going to happen between 5pm and 6.30pm (just
in time for the evening rush-hour – great planning!)
If you make advance plans for your weekend, next Saturday (14/11) is the
Lord Mayor’s Show in the City of London, when the new Lord Mayor
of the City of London is installed. This is an annual event – not
to be confused with the election of the Mayor of London, currently Boris
Johnson. I love it, and try to go when I’m in town. There’s
a parade during the day – and then more fireworks over the Thames
in the evening. I’ll tell you more next week.
Just a word about office closures this week: I am out tomorrow morning
between 9.30am and lunchtime, and have to finish at 4pm today. For the
rest of the week you should find me in the Centre as normal, between 8.30am
and 12.30pm, and then between 1pm and 4.30pm (or a bit later!). More students
are coming in to claim bonuses so can I please ask you to give me at least
24 hours’ advance warning so I can be sure to have cash available
for you. I’m sure you can appreciate that we don’t like to
have too much money in the office safe. And another quick reminder to
finish on … unfortunately, this is just the time of the year when
you and your fellow students are succumbing to coughs, colds and flu.
Do be sure you know about your universities’ student health services,
NHS Direct and drop-in health centres. If you or your friends are feeling
lousy, that’s too late to find out where the health centre is! Unless
you are here for a full academic year, (or are in Scotland) you have to
be prepared to pay a consultation fee for a doctor’s appointment
but you should be able to claim that back from your health insurance anyway.
If anyone has real problems meeting the costs of a doctor’s appointment,
let me know straight away.
Early email this week from the Centre ... 8/11/2009
Dear students: I’m writing this message a day or so earlier than
usual this week as I wanted to be sure that you knew when the office would
be closed. We’re open as usual today, Tuesday and Thursday but on
Wednesday we’ll only be open to visitors between 2pm and 4pm and
we will be closed all day on Friday. Several students have been popping
by on the off-chance in the collect ‘cultural bonuses’ so
I didn’t want anyone to be disappointed, and waste a visit. By the
way, it always is best to email or call ahead if you want to make a bonus
claim, so that we can be sure to have money for you …
I guess that quite a few of you will be out of town this week, taking
advantage of some colleges’ reading week. I noted that all our Berlin
travel guides have gone, so I hope that some of you are enjoying being
there for this very special week, marking the fall of the Berlin Wall.
For stay-at-homes, I want to highlight a London event that a referred
to in passing last week. This coming Saturday – 14 November –
is the Lord Mayor’s Show in the City of London. If it’s a
fine day, it can be an enjoyable way to spend a morning, alongside lots
of Londoners viewing the pageant and parade that marks the installation
of the new Lord Mayor of London. If you go onto the website www.lordmayorsshow.org
you will find all the details, with a programme timetable and map to show
the route the parade takes in the morning from the Mansion House in the
City, down to the Law Courts on the Strand and back again in the afternoon.
A new feature this year is that in the afternoon you can join City of
London guides for free walking tours of the City. And then at 5pm there’s
a great firework show, set off from a barge in the river by Blackfriars
Bridge. Again, even if you are not planning to join in, it’s worth
checking out the route as buses will be diverted away from it, and some
tube stations in the area will be extra busy.
Next Tuesday’s concert at the Cadogan Hall has not sold out, so
I still have a few tickets at 5 pounds only to offer you. As the postal
strike is over, I am going to risk posting out allocated tickets *unless
you are at UCL* when you should plan to collect your tickets from me in
the office, or *unless you email me today* to tell me it’s convenient
for you to collect yours, even though you’re studying elsewhere
in London.
You have a couple of weeks left to let me know if you want to join alumni,
other students and friends at the Thanksgiving Dinner arranged for your
all by the Cornell Club of London. Remember, this is on the Saturday following
Thanksgiving Day itself (28 November), so that students can travel in
from outside London and there are no clashes with peoples’ work
commitments. (Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday here, remember, and classes
will continue as usual). The dinner for you will cost 15 pounds a head,
and you may bring a student guest for 20 pounds a head.
If anyone is interested in Indian culture, I’ll draw your attention
to a festival of music and dance taking place between 16 and 28 November
at Sadlers Wells Theatre is Islington www.sadlerswells.com - actually,
anyone interested in dance should know about Sadlers Wells as it’s
the main receiving house for dance companies in London – the Birmingham
Royal Ballet is performing this week, in two programmes. Anyway, the Svapnagata
Festival is curated by choreographer Akram Khan and composer Nitin Sawhney
and promises some excellent shows in both the main house and the studio.
We’ll get this posted on the website early this week (don’t
forget, all our past emails go there so you can always check back on them).
Have a great week!
Dear students: I hope this morning finds you a bit drier and calmer,
weather-wise, than the weekend. I’m sure that common-sense prevailed
and no-one stood in the crowds for the Lord Mayor’s Show after all!
(By the way, the coach should go back on view in the museum of London
shortly, so at least you can see that in the dry!).
A few notes about events and other stuff this week … first of all,
our concert visit to hear the RPO at the Cadogan Hall is tonight.
I’m at the Barbican Hall at a different concert myself but I’m
sure you’ll have a great evening. There are just 12 of you and 4
students from Grinnell and Oberlin colleges … 4 of our tickets were
left unsold, amazingly. You are very close to the orchestra so you should
hear and see everything very well – but please be on time for the
7.30pm start because you will not be let into your seats if you are late.
The Cornell Club of London-hosted Thanksgiving Dinner on Saturday
28 November at the East India Club is the next event on our programme
and I can still take bookings for that until the end of this week. Dinner
(which costs over 40 pounds a head) is heavily subsidized for you by the
Club and your universities. You pay 15 pounds a head and if you wish to
bring a guest from another university, the charge will be 20 pounds. To
book, you need to email or phone or visit the office. I need name/s and
whether you want the regular turkey menu or the vegetarian option. There
will be a formal seating plan, so if you particularly want to sit with
certain students, then I need to know in advance. And I must have your
payment to pass on to the Cornell Club – you can bring cash or send
a sterling cheque or a postal order –they should be made out to
the ‘Cornell Club of London’.
The last pre-booked event on our programme this semester is a theatre
visit on Wednesday 2 December … we have tickets to a new production
of Tennessee Williams’ ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’
at the Novello Theatre on the Aldwych. This new production opens on 21
November and stars James Earl Jones and British actor Adrian Lester. It’s
directed by Debbie Allan. We have seats in the stalls and got a group
discount rate of 17 pounds 50p. Please get back to me as soon as you can
to reserve your tickets as Sue and I will be in Scotland 2-4 December
so we need to get them allocated and sent out to you before then.
As Thanksgiving approaches, we thought you’d like to make a note
in your diaries that there will be a special service in St Paul’s
Cathedral in the City of London on Thanksgiving Day itself, 26 November.
As you know, this is not a public holiday in the UK but there are so many
resident Americans in London that the service has become an annual event.
It starts at 11am but you must be seated by 10.30am – the Cathedral
doors will open at 9.45am. Bags will be scanned on entry so keep your
belongings to a minimum. There’s no photography, and mobile phones
must be switched off please.
Next week also sees the Hidden Art Open Studios Event and the 2009 Christmas
Design Fair. During the past decade or more, there has been a remarkable
flourishing of creative life in London’s East End and Hidden Art
has devised an event to open up artists’ studios to the general
public over two weekends in the winter … this year it’s 28-29
November and 5-6 December. If you go to their website www.hiddenart.com
and check under ‘Events’ you can request a map and work out
your own trail to visit as many studios as you like. It’s a great
way of exploring a new part of London too. The Christmas Design Fair is
27-29 November and is at the Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, E1 …
go on Sunday and you can combine it with a visit to Spitalfields Market
or Petticoat Lane or walk up towards Old Street and go to Columbia Road
flower market.
Up in Scotland, Sue and I are going to miss our annual visit to Scottish
Opera which will be performing at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre the
week before we come up to see you. Their programme this autumn includes
Donizetti’s ‘Elixir of Love’ and Rossini’s ‘The
Italian Girl in Algiers’ and starts on 21 November; there’s
even a free event ‘Opera Unwrapped’ on 24 November at 6pm.
Go to www.scottishopera.org.uk for the full schedule of performances and
don’t forget, if you’re under 26 you can get tickets for only
10 pounds.
The office is open every day this week, so let me know if there’s
anything you want. Our guide books are being well-used this term, I’m
delighted to say and you can always check-out what to do in our weekly
‘Time Out’! Have a good week … Liz
From the Centre...wishing you a happy Thanksgiving
Dear students: Please read on for notices about Thanksgiving, our final
theatre event and a bit more … but first of all Sue wants me to
point out that she is still waiting for 39 data forms from UPenn students,
13 from Cornell students and 2 from Brown students! We ask for these for
a couple of reasons, primarily so we have all your contact details in
one place and also so we know exactly what courses you are doing. We are
aware that some of you may provide this information to your home campuses
but your transcripts come here first and it saves a deal of time if we
can pick up any errors here, rather than wait for them to be picked up
in the US. So … it takes a few minutes only to go onto www.cornell-brown-penn.ac.uk
, click on the data form link, and send your information direct to Sue.
Please deal with this now.
Thanksgiving: I have just given the Cornell Club the names of
students who have booked for the dinner on Saturday. If any of you have
a last minute booking, or have changed your minds about anything I need
to know by the end of the day. After that you must email Cornell’s
Club chair, Dr Natalie Teich on nmt4@cornell.edu I am waiting for advance
payment from several of you. This is *required* by Saturday. Even if you
do not turn up, you will be charged for your dinner as it will have been
ordered in advance and there’s a good chance you might get charged
for the full amount, which is over 40 pounds, so it’s worth it to
pay up now!
‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ : I have 2 or 3 tickets left
from our booking on 2 December so let me know now if there are any last
minute requests. The tickets cost 17 pounds 50p and can be collected now
from the Centre as I’ve done the allocations.
Film-fans – if anyone is interested in the lively film
scene in Germany, the annual German Film Festival runs from Friday 27/11
to Thursday 3/12. All films are shown at the Curzon Cinema on Shaftesbury
Avenue and the programme is available on www.germanfilmfestival.co.uk
On 26/11 join in the debate ‘The world I want’ at
the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, starting at 7pm. This
is a ticketed event and tix cost 6 pounds – you can find out more
on www.nhm.ac.uk . On Saturday 28/11 the Welcome Collection’s programme
of free events features philosopher A C Grayling in conversation with
Rajendra Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from
11.30 – 13.00. Again you need to book in advance so check out www.wellcomecollection.org
to see if there are still tix available.
Advance notice – the Centre will be closed for three days
from Wednesday 2 December to Friday 4 December as Sue and I are up in
Scotland visiting students there. You can always use our mobiles to contact
us 07813 205787 or 07813 205789 if you need anything urgently, or we’ll
deal with emails on our return. Bonus claims will have to wait until the
following week but remember, you need to let us know in advance that you
are going to come in and claim cash, so we have money ready in the safe
for you. Use your information booklet and the website to check whether
what you want to claim for in eligible for a refund, and bring in your
receipts with you when you visit. Students in Scotland – a goodly
number of you have not yet responded to my reminders – if you don’t
reply, I’m afraid we will not have brought cash up to Scotland for
you. Check on the website for emails I’ve sent you.
Next week, when your Thanksgiving is over, we can turn our minds to Christmassy
things. I have my notes on Christmas markets, skating, and other stuff
all ready to share. In the meantime, Sue joins me in wishing all of you
who are celebrating Thanksgiving with your families or with friends old
and new, a very happy day. Cheers, Liz
From the Centre on the First day of December
Dear students: This is going to be quite a lengthy email, leading up to the end of the semester … for some of you in Oxford and Cambridge, I believe this is actually the last week of the first term! I’ll concentrate on admin stuff, office hours, bonus claims etc … with a few seasonally appropriate hints at the end! Read on ….
Thanksgiving – I hope those of you who joined the Cornell Club for their dinner on Saturday had a pleasant evening. I think I managed to see everybody at the reception first, and the Club chair, Natalie, especially wanted me to thank you for coming and said how great you all looked - she appreciated it very much!
Moving on – a reminder that *the office will be closed Wednesday to Friday inclusive this week* as we are making our end-of-semester visits in Scotland. We’ll deal with emails on our return – if you need us in an emergency, use either of our mobile phone numbers 07813 205787 or 07813 205789. On Monday 7 December I have several meetings and I’m only likely to be in the office between 2pm and 4pm so that day’s a bit of a write-off for visiting too!
The reason we’re highlighting these dates is because many of you may be thinking of coming in to claim your cultural bonuses before you finish up here (if you are in the UK for a full academic year there’s no pressure as you can carry over un-used allowances to next semester). Please do give us advance notice of your visits so we can be sure to have cash available or warn you if the office is going to be shut. Make a list of what you want to claim for and bring in those receipts, tickets or other evidence of how you have spent your money.
And it’s probably not too early to think about preparations for leaving at the end of the semester, so I’ll review a few points here. Refer back to your information booklets for details too …
Paying your bills: Your tuition bills are the responsibility of your universities and will all have been paid or are in the process of being paid if we got invoices late! But you must settle up your housing bills, because we will not get transcripts for any students owing money to their universities. (If you owe us money for tickets I’m tempted to keep hold of transcripts too, so make sure you settle up with us before leaving – there are a couple of students who still owe for tickets from the first events in London). You need to be sure to cover any other small bills like library fines, lost keys etc – they are always classic reasons why we don’t get transcripts!
Transcripts: A quick reminder here. Transcripts are sent by your hosting universities to us, and we then check them against the information you’ve given us for courses and forward them to the study abroad offices. We will not get any transcripts before the end of January at the earliest, as marks have to be collected, checked and, collated before transcripts are issued – and some universities do not issue transcripts until they have been ratified by Examination Boards – very formal! You may be able to access your grades before we do, through your university accounts, but grades will not be posted in the US, and we won’t deal with any enquiries, until we get the formal paperwork. And if you have any questions at all about your grades, ask your study abroad office or us – do not approach your lecturers direct. It is not acceptable to do that here, even if you might be used to having that kind of ‘conversation’ with faculty in the US. When the grades have been received in the US, UPenn students’ grades will be factored into their GPAs – at Cornell and Brown your GPAs stay the same. Cornell puts the actual UK university marks on your transcript, at Brown it’ll be ‘S’ or ‘NS’ (it had better be ‘S’!) While the study abroad offices will make sure your grades are entered into the records, you will need to discuss credit with your advisers so you should be taking home all the materials that will be useful eg assessed assignments, syllabi, booklists, exam question papers – anything that will be helpful to show what you have covered this semester and your level of attainment.
To get you in the seasonal mood (though it’s not difficult today as it’s got so chilly!) I thought I’d highlight some of the winter skating rinks that are now opening up and will be open through til the New Year. In each case I’ll give you the websites that give more info and links to booking. If you want to skate, it might be worth-while getting a group of friends together and trying for a group rate – and don’t forget, you can claim it on your bonus! Even if you don’t fancy skating, just go and have a look, there are usually cafes and good places to watch the skaters. In London there seem to be more each year but the original one is in the courtyard of Somerset House on the Strand www.somersethouse.org . Then there’s a rink at the Tower of London www.toweroflondonicerink.com, at the Natural History Museum (with German-style market) www.nhmskating.com, at Hampton Court Palace – quite a way out of central London but a spectacular setting www.hamptoncourticerink.com, Canada Square at Canary Wharf www.canarywharficerink.com and Broadgate Circus by Liverpool Street Station – this one keeps open all winter when the others have closed for the season, www.broadgateice.co.uk
There are also rinks in Edinburgh (where the Christmas Market has now opened up) and in Glasgow …
Christmas also brings a rash of special markets – there’s one on the South Bank along the front of the Festival Hall and one on Oxford Street opposite Selfridges department store; in Covent Garden there is a seasonal food market each Thursday and Friday evening until you finish for Christmas. If you haven’t ventured in the financial district, known as the ‘City of London’ yet (it really was too wet on Lord Mayor’s show day!) why not go now? Leadenhall Market is putting up special stalls each weekday from 10am to 4pm as well as their regular shops and cafés, all under the Victorian covered market www.leadenhallmarket.co.uk And there are going to be special walks in the City too that might help you explore the area. Free themed guided walks – Victorian Christmas in the City - are offered this coming Thursday and next Thursday at 5.45pm - you need to register in advance as places are limited by emailing scottnixon@primera-corp.co.uk or going to www.incheapside.com . And there are daily walks starting at 11am called The City’s ‘Christmas Carol’ (discovering the City of Charles Dickens). These walks are led by accredited City of London guides, they cost 6 pounds or 4 pounds concessionary rate paid to the guide on the day – and start from the east entrance of the City of London Information Centre in St Paul’s Churchyard.
On the subject on shopping – watch out as Oxford Street between Oxford Circus and Marble Arch is going to be for pedestrians only on Saturday – no cars or buses allowed. This will make it fun for you walkers but dreadful for anyone wanting to get a bus as routes will be diverted and other roads will get clogged with traffic – you have been warned. And I’ll finish on another note of warning this week – as city centres get more crowded with shoppers on the run-up to Christmas, and restaurants and bars are busier too, be especially careful of your property. Look after your bags, wallets and credit cards – this is a peak-time for pick-pockets and other thieves I’m afraid so don’t lay yourself open to property theft. Budgets are stretched at the end of the semester, don’t risk what’s left!
Have a great week – we’re looking forward to meeting you all up in Scotland tomorrow, Thursday and Friday! Cheers, Liz
From the Centre on 8 December ... as the semester draws to an end
Dear students: After the massive email from last week – which Cornell’s server really didn’t like and meant we had lots of negotiations back in Ithaca before I was able to send it – this is much shorter. I bet you’ll be relieved! Last week’s email did have important stuff in it though and like all the rest from this semester, it will be posted up on our website for reference shortly. I saw some reviews of ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ when we got back from Scotland. The reviewers seemed to have loved it – Michael Billington in the Guardian called it an ‘exhilarating evening’ and praised all of the actors while highlighting the work of James Earl Jones and Adrian Lester – what did you think?
Bonuses: This week I just want to remind you that if you do want to claim money from us this week or next, you need to give us at least 36 hours notice so that I can go to the bank and get your cash. We do not have unlimited sums in the office and I can’t keep on popping out. Ringing the office half an hour before visiting isn’t enough advance notice on most occasions so give me a break! I have emailed all students outside London who need to make claims this year, so you know what to do though full-year students are under no pressure, we can carry over your unused bonus to the next semester.
Office hours: This week the office will be open 8.30 to 12.15 then 1.30 to at least 4.30 each day except for Friday. On Friday I’ll only be here in the morning (until noon) as I have a meeting in the afternoon. Next week we should also be open each day and if you are still in London the following week, we will close the office for Christmas at the end of the day on Wednesday December 23, reopening on Monday 4 January.
Student helper needed: For full-year students, based in London: If anyone else feels that they would like to give a couple of hours each week to help in the Centre, do let me know and send me a resume. Your university will give you a credit of several hundred dollars on your bills back home, in return for your commitment to help in the office. Our student helper at UCL is only here for the fall semester so we have a vacancy and I’d like to hear from anyone who might be interested so that we can review several resumes before making a final decision in January.
Finally, one of the joys of the run up to Christmas is the number of concerts of seasonal music in halls, churches and cathedrals all over the country. I do encourage you to try to go to one as the tickets are usually pretty modestly priced or might even be free. For example, there’s a free concert of Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols at St Paul’s Cathedral, London on Saturday 12/12 starting at 5pm and a free ‘Celebration of Christmas’ with music and celebrity readers on Tuesday 15 December starting at 6.30pm; there is a downloadable programme covering the whole Advent and Christmas season on their website www.stpauls.co.uk. You can also see what’s on at Westminster Abbey or Southwark Cathedral, to give two more central London examples. Students who are lucky enough to still be in Cambridge or Oxford have college choir concerts to look forward to and there’s plenty on in Edinburgh and Glasgow too (and St Andrews, Manchester and Coventry!).
Just a quick email to remind you that you all have books out of loan from the Centre, from October and November. Please make every effort to return them this week before you get caught up in the last-week-of-term rush!
That’s all for this week … last email for the semester next week. Cheers, Liz
From the Centre on 14 December...the last email of the semester!
Dear all: I’m sending out this last email of the semester to the
full mailing list on Monday so you are all fully aware of when we’ll
be open this week and next, in case you want to visit the office or get
in touch in other ways. I’m going to be pretty busy, finishing up
for the semester, so do please note office hours, especially closing times
in the evening!
We will be open evening day this week, but today (Monday) I must shut
at 3.30pm as I have a late meeting, and on every other day I will close
promptly at 4.30pm. Next week we’ll only be open Monday to Wednesday
inclusive and will then shut until after the New Year holiday. We’ll
re-open on Monday 4 January 2010, at 8.30am as usual. Please note that
UK university offices are likely to be closed then as well – and
in Scotland you’ll find that 4 January is also a holiday. So if
you are planning on making your bonus claim this week or next, I need
at least 36 hours’ notice that you are coming in as that allows
me time to go to the bank for you. You’ll know I’m out by
the ‘post-it’ note on the front-door! And, to repeat, if you
are not in London and need time to make special arrangements to claim
your bonus – please get in touch NOW, there are still a couple of
students who have not replied to my previous message about this. As I
said before, full-year students can relax – you can claim this semester’s
allowance next semester!
This morning, I just want to mention a couple more practical things about
your return home. The academic stuff (also in your information booklet)
was covered in my 1 December email – on our website – so you
know what will happens with transcripts and credit etc. I also reminded
you about settling up your bills, taking library books back and all that
stuff. A sure way to delay your transcript is to have a debt on your account
at your hosting university! When you pack up your rooms to leave, you
might find items that you can donate to charity shops, or can recycle
through the regular collections or recycling stands. If you have books
in good condition you might be able to resell them, or donate them to
an Oxfam bookshop (there’s one at the bottom of Gower Street). I’m
afraid we don’t have room here to take in donations – sorry
– but if you want to leave travel guides for the next intake, we’ll
happily take them!
When you get back to your home campuses, don’t underestimate the
‘reverse culture shock’ that some students experience. You’ve
had a semester away, and unless you’re part of a group of friends
who have all studied abroad, you may well find that after the first couple
of weeks, your circle loses interest in hearing about your experiences
and all the different things you’ve done. You’ll have –
we hope – new insights into life back home and may wish to share
them, so we do encourage you to keep in contact with the study abroad
offices on campus. You’re bound to hear from them as they ask you
to evaluate your time abroad … I’d like to encourage you to
join in by sharing your time with new would-be study abroad students,
either by helping at pre-departure meetings if requested, or just by allowing
the offices to refer new students to you so you can talk about your time
in the UK to help them decide what to do. At UPenn, I think this will
be especially useful as there are new staff there in the office, and at
Cornell and Brown, most students come to the UK in the spring so there
are very few of you returning to the home campuses with fresh insights.
Finally, Sue and I want to say we’ve enjoyed having you in the UK
this semester and we hope you’ve had a good time as well. Don’t
forget that we are here in the Centre all next year, should you have any
questions or queries – maybe we’ll see you back for further
studies or work? We wish you all the very best for the holidays and a
splendid start to 2010. We’ll look forward to welcoming our full-year
students back to the UK in January and February too – maybe you’ll
be able to join us for the welcome meetings for new arrivals at the start
of the spring semester … and do look at the ‘Events’
schedule as posted on the website – our first event is a ballet
performance on 21 January, ‘Giselle’ at the London Coliseum.
I’ll open it for booking as soon as the office opens up again! With
very best wishes, Liz and Sue
Happy New Year ... and welcome back to the UK and the start of the new semester
Dear ‘continuing students’ (can’t think of any other
way the describe you, sorry!):
A quick note to say we hope you enjoyed your holidays and to wish you
all the very best for the New Year. We have opened up our office again
– as have most UK universities and colleges – so we’re
back in business for 2010. I have early morning appointments on 5, 6 and
7 January, so won’t be open til about 10.30am on those days but
otherwise we’re back to what passes for normal!
And to prove it, I’m sending you an attachment which is the Spring
2010 Events Programme and we can open booking for the first event now!
If you want to come to the ballet on Thursday 21 January, ‘Giselle’
at the Coliseum on St Martin’s Lane (where we went to the opera
last term) then let me know straight away. Sue got group rates for our
tickets so they are 15 pounds each. Most of you have another 75 pounds
to add to your cultural bonus fund so we hope you’ll find something
to enjoy on our programme – look out for details for our May ‘Shakespeare’s
Globe Theatre’ booking later in the spring.
Don’t forget to let us know what courses you are doing this term/semester
so we have a full record for when transcripts are issued at the end of
the year. And if you have moved addresses or changed telephone numbers
you *must* give us that information too. It’s very easy to do all
of this by using the ‘personal data’ link on the website www.cornell-brown-penn.ac.uk
– you don’t need to fill everything in, just put your name
and the additional info or changes.
Finally – if you haven’t packed yet for your return, do make
sure you have a thick sweater or two. We are experiencing some unusually
cold weather at the moment, with loads of snow in Scotland and the north
of England, and you know that we don’t heat our rooms to temperatures
you are used to!
All the best from Liz and Sue.
Happy New Year and welcome to new students
Dear ‘new Cornell study abroad students’: A quick note to
let you know that our Centre in London is open again after Christmas and
the New Year, and most university offices in England and Wales are open
again too (Scotland has another day’s holiday!). I have morning
appointments on 5, 6 and 7 January which means the office won’t
open until about 10 am on those days, but after that it’s the normal
drop-in office hours of 8.30am to 12.15pm, then 1pm to 4.30pm.
As you begin to arrive later this week, don’t forget to let us know
that you are safely here. Although your first priority will be settling
into your new universities and attending their orientation programmes,
we do want to know you are here! Our own meetings for students in Scotland
are on Wednesday 20/Thursday 21 January in Edinburgh, and for all other
students on Saturday 23 January in London. I’ve already sent you
details of these or you can find the information on www.cornell-brown-penn.ac.uk
and checking under ‘Information for New Students’ or ‘Events’.
Please do not start travelling or making other arrangements and miss these
meetings – they are very important and I hope you will be able to
join us in London from other cities in England as well, especially the
large group of students who will just have arrived in Oxford and Cambridge.
Hopefully, weather conditions will allow students from farther afield
like Bristol and York to join us too.
During the semester we will offer a small selection of pre-booked events,
details are on the website under ‘Events’. The first one is
actually before our welcome meeting, as it’s on Thursday 21 January
at 7.30pm. It’s a performance of the ballet ‘Giselle’
at the Coliseum theatre in London. We have 20 tickets reserved and paid
for (they cost 15 pounds each), and I’m opening booking now to you
and to the students who are returning to the UK for the second semester.
The first students to reply on this email will get the tickets, and the
cost will be deducted from their cultural bonuses.
A tip for last-minute packing … we are getting some unusually cold
weather here at the moment so don’t forget warm clothes and footwear
and a waterproof coat. Layering clothes is always more efficient than
one heavy sweater and you’ll find we do not heat our rooms to the
temperatures you’re used to! Scotland and the north of England have
had really heavy snow over the past couple of weeks so although it’s
a bright sunny day today in London, I’m not relying on it continuing!
Happy New Year and welcome to the UK. Cheers, Liz and Sue
From the Centre - Liz's 'severe weather warning' 6/1/10
Dear students: I’m writing a short note of information about the
weather in the UK and likely effects on travel etc at the start of the
semester (it may be redundant for some of you as you are already caught
up in it!).
The UK is experiencing an unusually long period of cold weather, with
very heavy snowfall all over the country. Although the centre of London
is pretty clear this morning, even after snow-fall last night, the outer
boroughs and suburbs will still be affected and this could mean restrictions
to buses, tubes and trains. Go to www.tfl.gov.uk for up-to-date information.
In other parts of the UK, including the west (for Bristol), the north
(for Manchester and York) and Scotland, there is a lot more snow and this
is having serious affects on all services. Hopefully your hosting universities
will be advising you of local conditions but everyone with access to a
computer should go to www.bbc.co.uk/weather for information. Everybody
should find this site useful to alert yourself to possible delays over
the next few days.
If your arrival in the UK or your onward travel is delayed, please don’t
worry. Just let us, or your hosting university, know when you get in and
we’ll make arrangements for you to catch up on all orientation and
registration activities. Hopefully things will be better for my visit
to Scotland on 20/21 January and our meeting in London on 23 January!
I hope to keep the office open as usual but we have no heating in the
building at the moment as the heating boiler has broken down - Cheers,
from a very chilly Liz!
From the Centre ... the first of our proper weekly emails for the semester
Dear students: I’m going to send this off this afternoon as for
many of you this is the real start of the semester … so this is
the first of the regular emails I send out once a week. They will all
be sent to the US university addresses we have, as returning students
know, so you need to be able to access those addresses and check them
regularly.
Our ‘Events’ for everyone: First of all, I’d like to
advertise – again – our first pre-arranged event for the semester.
This is a visit to see the English National Ballet dance ‘Giselle’
at the Coliseum theatre, on St Martin’s Lane, off Trafalgar Square,
London on Thursday 21 January, starting at 7.30pm. Our tickets cost 15
pounds each, at the group booking rate, and if you are eligible for the
cultural bonus – and most of you are - the cost just gets deducted
off the bonus. Can you please let me know as soon as possible and certainly
no later than Friday if you would like a ticket as I still have a dozen
left. Unused tickets will be offered to other programmes so it’s
important to book now!
Meetings: Then the next thing is to remind all newly arrived students
of our own ‘welcome meetings’ (not your hosting universities’
meetings) which are as follows:
For students in Scotland who have arrived for the semester, I am coming
to Edinburgh to meet you on 20/21 January. Our main meeting is at 55 George
Square next door to Edinburgh’s International Office and I have
a room booked for 4pm on Wednesday 20 January. I’d like to have
replies from all of you please, because as if you cannot make that time,
I’ll arrange an alternative later on Wednesday evening or on Thursday
morning before I leave Edinburgh.
(St Andrews students, I know you’ll not be in Scotland then, but
I’ll send you the information booklet we issue as soon as you arrive
and deal with any questions you may have by email. I’ll meet you
personally later on in the semester)
For all other newly arrived students our meeting in on Saturday 23 January,
at Birkbeck College, Torrington Square London, starting at 1.30pm prompt
(we’ll be there at 1pm). We expect all students in London, Oxford
and Cambridge to come, and those of you in Bristol, Sussex, York, Manchester
too, if you can manage it.
These meetings are our chance to meet you all together, introduce you
– we hope – to students who have already been here for a term,
and hear about the Centre, academic matters, travel and living here, safety
and security – all the things we want to remind you about together.
It’s a good opportunity for you to ask us questions too, as you’ll
have been here for a couple of weeks and may well have come across stuff
which is puzzling or confusing you. It’s helpful if we know who
is coming to this meeting as well so please let me know. I’m afraid
we do not have the resources to offer make-up meetings if you don’t
come. Sometimes students can’t join in for religious reasons, but
I do not expect you to have made travel plans on that day which prevent
you from attending!
I like to add information about other events in London and elsewhere to
these emails but apologies for not including many this week as I want
to get the message sent early – and this week’s ‘Time
Out’ hasn’t arrived yet! As full-year students know, we subscribe
to this and the listings magazine for Scotland, ‘The List’,
so we can catch up on what’s happening and highlight things that
might interest you. You can always pop in to read our hard-copies whenever
you’re in the neighbourhood, or go to www.timeout.com and www.list.co.uk
In London, we’re coming to the end of the season for the winter
temporary ice-skating rinks in places like the Natural History Museum
www.nhmskating.com (closes 17 January) and Somerset House www.somersethouse.org.uk
(until 24 January) but there’s still time to book. The rink at the
Broadgate Centre next to Liverpool Street Station stays open all winter.
Then if you’re still in a chilly mood – head out to Canary
Wharf on Friday 9am to 8pm and Saturday 8am to 3pm for the London Ice-Sculpting
Festival in Canada Square Park www.mycanarywharf.com. Essentially part
of the huge expansion of offices into Docklands, Canada Wharf now features
shopping, eating and cultural activities as well. Part of the London that
visitors don’t always go to … check on the Museum of London’s
Docklands Museum too at West India Quay, just one stop away on the DLR,
www.museumindocklands.org.uk for all you need to know …
In Scotland you’re just in time for the start of Celtic Connections,
a huge music festival based in Glasgow … with more that 1500 musicians
from 35 counties playing in 12 venues over the city www.celticconnections.com
gives you the programme details and how to book from the start of the
festival on 14 January right to the end on 31 January.
Do continue getting in touch as you get settled (back), with your addresses
and phone numbers – or popping into the office if you can. I look
forward to seeing lots of you at our meetings as well (I shall miss the
ballet as I’ll still be on my train from Scotland!). Have a great
week, Cheers, Liz
A longer message from the Centre on Thursday 28/1/2010
Dear students: I said I’d write a longer message for you all this week; the first thing to write is that Sue says thanks for the data sheets that have started arriving, do please keep them coming. Full year students only need to do them if they are changing contact details or adding to, or amending course/tutorial choices; new arrivals must complete each section. This is so we can reach you in an emergency, keep your home universities up to date with your course choices and also have the correct information to check against your transcripts when we get them at the end of the year.
Events: All our tickets for ‘Twelfth Night’ on 2 February have been taken up, and we’re just waiting for some of you to come and collect them (I’ve done a separate email to you all!).
Now Booking: I’m opening booking for our second play of the semester on Thursday 11 February; English author Alan Bennett’s new play ‘A Habit of Art’, which premiered in the autumn. It’s about the relationship between composer Benjamin Britten and his friend and former collaborator, poet W H Auden, and it’s a sell-out. Email us now to try for one of our block booking of tickets, at the National Theatre’s group rate of 15 pounds.
After the mid-term break we have an opera and a concert on our programme (look on our website under ‘Events’, in your information booklets or on the word document I sent full-year students in January) and then after Easter we’ll have tickets for a performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on the South Bank.
Don’t forget, all our events are open to full-year and one-semester students …
Information booklets: If you were in the UK, but didn’t turn up at the meeting on 23 January, I have sent out quite a few information booklets now – to Cambridge, Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, York and Bath basically, as well as to a couple of internship students. They went in the post, 2nd class, yesterday afternoon. They are in large A4 envelopes so look out for them. I want all the rest of the London students – those at the AA School, UCL, KCL and SOAS – to come in and collect yours from the Centre this week. You’re very close so you can easily do this. If you’re at Goldsmiths, be sure to send me your mailing address there, including your flat or room number, and I’ll post yours too. The booklets include stuff I want to you have to hand now, including safety and security information, reminders about academics, bills, travel etc.
A very special event organised by Penn Alumni: If you’re interested in art history, you are all invited to a special event organised by Penn Alumni at the Courtauld Institute Gallery on 2 March. You’ll join the alumni for an exclusive viewing of the new exhibition there, ‘Michaelangelo’s Dream’, with an introduction from Courtauld Director, Dr Deborah Swallow, and wine and snacks. Current students are offered a reduced price of 15 pounds and if you go to www.alumni.upenn.edu/ukmichdream.html you will find more details, a contact email address at UPenn (where the bookings are handled) and details of how to make a bank transfer to pay. If you cannot do this, I have agreed that I will collect payment from you for the Club. You must bring the exact cash to me so I can give it to the organisers. The deadline for replies is 15 February. Remember, if you get a bonus, you could use this event as an item to claim a refund for!
What’s coming up in the next week or so in London? Make your way to Whitechapel in East London where a new exhibition has just opened at the newly-refurbished Whitechapel Gallery. ‘Where three dreams cross: 150 years of photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh’ will give you an insight into aspects of life in the sub-continent from the colonial period, through independence and partition, to the present day – it runs until 11 April so visit www.whitechapelgallery.org for opening hours, travel information etc … and there’s a good café too, my friends tell me! Go on Sundays between 11am and 1pm and you’ll get in free - otherwise the concessionary entrance price is 6 pounds 50p. On Sundays you can also explore nearby markets at Columbia Road, Petticoat Lane and Spitalfields and see what’s happening at the Old Truman Brewery. The markets all feature on my ‘Markets’ info sheet – remember that if you were too late on 23/1 to pick up a copy of the ‘Markets’ sheet, or the ‘Theatres’ one which includes ENO and the Royal Opera House with their student deals or the ‘London Football Clubs’ listing, just email me and I’ll send them as word documents and you can print them off.
Make a date for next week’s Late Opening at Tate Britain on Friday 5 February, where Chris Ofili’s next exhibition has just opened. ‘Afrodizza’ will have music and film, a fashion show and debate – all inspired by the new exhibition. It runs from 6pm to 10pm with half-price entry to the exhibition and free entry for everything else. These monthly late-night opening events are worth looking out for … www.tate.org.uk to explore the site for all the Tate galleries, go to Tate Britain and there’s a link to the ‘Late at Tate Britain’.
This week’s Time Out website has a couple of links that are well-worth exploring … ‘London on the Cheap’ for your budgeting ideas www.timeout.com/cheap and www.timeout.com/museums to give you some ideas for more places to visit. Our copy of the paper magazine also has a great feature on museum and gallery cafes – I’m afraid I can’t visit a show without something to keep me going, maybe you’re more disciplined than me!
Up in Scotland they want to save us money too – the current issue of The List www.list.co.uk has an 8-page feature on ‘Life on the Cheap’ which has some pretty good ideas too, ranging from deals-on-meals, swap shops, and economical shopping. If you haven’t found Edinburgh’s weekly farmers’ market yet, go to Castle Terrace every Saturday, where you’ll find the market from running from 9am to 2pm www.edinburghfarmersmarket.co.uk You really ought to visit the Scottish Parlaiment while you’re there, even those of you not on the internship programme! Free tours will help you understand the amazing architecture, and the Parliament’s role and function; booking ahead is recommended www.scottish.parliament.uk
I’d love to include other stuff from places where we have students studying or elsewhere in the UK, so do get in touch if you have some ideas to share! Have a great weekend, Liz
From the Centre - it's February already (4/2/10)
Good morning – if it can be said to be a good morning as it’s grey and drizzling in London – again! A few notices and updates this week so please read on …
* First of all, Sue says that she has 40-odd data forms sent in, which means that more than 70 of you have not responded to my request. Go to www.cornell-brown-penn.ac.uk , click on ‘personal data form’ and complete it as send it in as we have requested. This will give us up-to-date details of the courses you have registered for – so we can check your transcripts when they arrive at the end of the year - and will also give us all we need to contact you and/or your families should there be an emergency. Deal with this now please, I’m bored with sending out reminders!
* Next – this is your last opportunity to reserve one of our tickets for the new Alan Bennett play, ‘The Habit of Art’ at the National Theatre next Thursday (11/2) as tickets will be allocated tomorrow and returned to the Box Office if we don’t need them. We can offer tix to non-Cornell, Brown and UPenn students for this event as we booked lots! We are sitting in the front of the circle and tix cost 15 pounds each.
* Centre hours tomorrow (Friday): If you were planning to drop by tomorrow, please don’t come in the late morning as I’m at the LSE. I’ll be leaving about 10am and won’t be back until about 12.30pm. The Centre will then open again until 4.30pm. Regular hours apply next week as far as I can see.
What’s on?
A couple of events and activities have caught my eye this week and first of all, for students lucky enough to be in Manchester or within travelling distance, a new production at the Royal Exchange Theatre has just garnered a 5-star review in the ‘Guardian’. Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ has been revived for a run until 20 February at the Royal Exchange. A visit there is well worth it, anyway, as the theatre has been built in the centre of the Victorian Royal Exchange building, offering a full theatre-in-the–round experience. Cheap tickets are offered for students, and the season’s programme includes Shakespeare’s ‘Comedy of Errors’ later in the spring. Go to www.royalexchangetheatre.org.uk for more information and booking details.
If you like classical music but are feeling hard-up – there are free concerts at lunch-time on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays every week starting at 1pm, at St Martin’s-in-the-Fields church. That’s the church just off Trafalgar Square that you’ve passed if you went to the Coliseum. They have a regular programme of evening concerts too, often by candle-light, and the tickets aren’t very expensive. The café in the crypt is good for snacks during the day, or supper before a concert.
On Sunday 7 February in London you can join in ‘Maslenitsa’, the Russian ‘butter week’ celebration, which is rather like our Shrove Tuesday, but longer! Go to Potters Field Park between 1pm and 6pm – that’s on the South Bank of the Thames between Tower Bridge and City Hall. Visit the promoter’s website and scroll down to this event www.ensembleproductions.co.uk/events2010.html and you’ll see we are promised dancing, music and traditional food too!
Still by the Thames … an idea if you don’t mind getting a bit muddy! ‘London Walks’, the company that offers themed guided walks around London (and elsewhere), organises weekly beachcombing walks, on the Thames foreshore. A guide will tell you about the history of the area and what to look out for. Go armed with a bag for your collectables, and good waterproof boots or shoes. The times vary as they depend on the tides but they start between 10am and 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Go to www.walks.com for all the details of these and other walks – you can even explore the site of the 2012 Olympics and see the new buildings as they are being developed. The good thing about these walks is that there is no pre-booking, you just turn up at the appointed day and time and pay your guide. Enjoy – wherever you are, walking is really the best way to explore a city (as long as it stays dry for you!)
Time Out features their ideas for the ‘Best of London’ this week – you can see our copy or check out the article on line - their recommendation for an art exhibition is the Royal Academy’s new Van Gogh exhibition. It’s been heavily promoted and well-reviewed, so if you like exhibition-visiting it will be worth checking out tickets now for some time before the show ends on 18 April. The RA has popular late-nights on Fridays www.royalacademy.org.uk
Next week – look out for Valentine’s Day and the run-up to Chinese New Year …
And don’t forget, if you’re planning your ‘reading-week’ travels and can pop by the office, we have a selection of guide books for London and the rest of the UK and Europe that you can read in the Centre or borrow for a short loan.
Cheers, Liz
Extra note for students in Scotland:
The new edition of ‘The List’ has just arrived so for all of you north of the border, can I remind you that the Glasgow Film Festival opens on 18 February and you can get the programme and find out about booking on www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk – there’s a full programme through to the end of the month. Then if you enjoy modern dance, look out for the Rambert Dance Company at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow 11-13 February and at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre 17-19 February – contact details are on my information sheet you got at the start of the semester. Cheers, Liz
Liz Simpson to come to Cambridge next week!
Dear students in Cambridge: A number of the new arrivals in Cambridge were unable to make it to our London meeting at the beginning of term so I plan to come out to Cambridge next Saturday morning, that’s 13 February. This will just be an informal opportunity for any of you to pop along and meet me for a coffee or tea and ask any questions you might have about your semester here, so I’ll be in the café at the Fitzwilliam Museum for about an hour from 10.30am – it’s very close to Pembroke College as you know. Come for as long or as brief a visit as you like! I think I may have met some of you before but if not, look for some-one with short, greying brown hair and large pink speckled glasses! If our three full-year students would like to come along too, they know where to find me as it’s where we met last term … It would be helpful to know in advance who is likely to come, but not imperative. We’ll be visiting again before the end of the semester to deal with stuff about credit, transcripts – and the bonus claims. Cheers, Liz
From the Centre ... wondering if winter will ever end! (10/2/2010)
Dear all: I think I’ve told some of you that February is the most depressing month of the year, and I’m certainly feeling it! Mind you, just heard from Providence that 6-10 inches of snow is promised today so there are some worse off than me! Some general notices and points of info this week and reminders if you are travelling during ‘reading week’ …
First of all – I do hope that everyone is getting all these emails and that you are remembering to check your US university addresses because that’s the address I’m using for most of you. Mind you, if you’re not checking them, you won’t get this reminder (a bit of a vicious circle really!). For the absolutely final time of asking, please do your personal data forms for Sue – go to www.cornell-brown-penn.ac.uk and use the personal data form link – it’s all very easy!
We’re off to ‘The Habit of Art’ this week – and then the next event is the opera on Wednesday 3 March. You can book now and I’ll do a reminder, of course as it’s more than. We’ll go to the Coliseum again, on St Martin’s Lane, where the performance starts at 7.30pm. The group discount has reduced the tickets to only 10 pounds 40p each! Our choice this semester is an opera by Donizetti, which may not be such a familiar name as Verdi or Puccini, but his operas are well-plotted and full of memorable music. ENO describes this one as a ‘rom-com’ and the director for this new production is Jonathan Miller again – he directed the ‘Rigoletto‘ which we went to last term and again he’s relocated the opera from Italy to the US. This is a co-production with New York City Opera so I suppose it makes sense. If you go to www.eno.org you can read much more about it.
As next week is reading week in some of our partner universities, I guess it will prompt more of you to take off to Europe for a few days, instead of ‘reading’ so I thought it was timely to remind you of a few things about travelling. Please take care of your passports, credit cards and other valuables. You may have relaxed a bit about this during the weeks you’ve been in the UK but you’re in new places again, and may not be as aware as you should about risky areas or behaviour. If you want copies made of your travel documents, I’m happy to do that here in the office; keep a note of the essential reference numbers, phone numbers etc and I think it’s a good idea to make sure you know where the US (or other home countries’) embassies or consulates are. That State Department website we’ve given you will help there. We recommended our own Foreign and Commonwealth website for information and I’d certainly have a look on there under ’travel and living abroad’ – the detailed information it provides includes, for example, that in Italy there are going to be many strikes involving public employees and airline staff on 16 and 19 February. And it’s important that you carry with you the documentation you used to enter the UK the first time, if you came in as a student visitor. You could be asked at immigration to prove you’re a student, again, when you re-enter the UK.
If you’re staying put, and of a romantic disposition, Sunday is Valentine’s Day. If nothing else, you’ll notice that the price of red roses has gone astronomical! But there are a few extra events in London that might interest you so I’ve collected them here …
There’s going to be a free Valentine’s day tour of the National Gallery’s most romantic pictures – just meet at the information desk in the Sainsbury Wing just before 4pm when it starts. www.nationalgallery.org.uk
The Chelsea Physic Garden (www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk ) is on Royal Hospital Road/Swan Walk in Chelsea and is a secluded three and a half acre garden. It’s normally closed during the winter but is opening specially for the Valentines w/end from 10am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday
On Sunday there’s a free showing on Billy Wilder’s comedy film ‘The Apartment’ starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine at the National Theatre at 6pm. That’s the good news … the downside is that it’s projected on the flytower outside and is best viewed from the Baylis Terrace on level 2. But if you’re feeling hardy and have warm clothes and a blanket, and friends to snuggle up with, just go along for the laugh!
Indoors this time – Sadlers Wells’ two-week-long Flamenco Festival starts on 13 February and you can get 20 percent off tickets if you book two shows at the same time. www.sadlerswells.com for all the info you need - this is an essential venue if you like dance, by the way.
Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day … you can see the Great Spitalfields Pancake Race run for charity along Dray Walk starting at 12.30pm – aim for Commercial Street and Brick Lane for the Old Truman Brewery and you won’t be far away. Or watch teams race, again for charity, between All Hallows by the Tower and the Tower of London starting at 1pm.
Up north again – to the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds (you can get there, Manchester and York students!) where Alan Bennett’s ‘The history Boys’ has opened to a 5-star review. It’ll be playing there until 6 March and then tours. I love this play and recommend it highly www.wyp.org.uk to find out more. I was checking out regional theatre and saw that Ibsen’s ‘Hedda Gabler’ will be on at the Theatre Royal Bath from 23/2 to 6/3. www.theatreroyal.org.uk isn’t a very easy site to navigate but try hard and you’ll find the full programme until March/April. It’s a charming theatre and worth the visit from Bristol and especially if you’re in Bath of course.
Finally – it’s Chinese New Year on 14 February – the start of the Year of the Tiger. This is advance notice that London will celebrate on 21 February, with loads of stuff in the Chinatown area, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square. www.chinatownchinese.co.uk will give you all you want to know and I’ll remind you again next week!
Cheers, Liz
From the Centre on Wednesday 17/2 ... book now for the opera, we missed Pancake Day!
Dear students: For some of you, this is ‘reading week’ but even if you don’t have the week off, it does mark the half-way point of the term for most of you. It’s hard to believe how quickly the weeks have gone … at least that days are getting a bit longer now (if you can see through the rain – I started putting this together on Tuesday!).
Events: Book now for the opera! I’ll start off by making sure that everybody knows that booking is now open for our opera visit this spring semester. Several of you have got in early and snapped up tickets, so I’d like to hear from the rest of you now please so I can get tickets ready for collection or sending out. As we said last week, we’ve got tickets for Donizetti’s comic opera ‘The Elixir of Love’ at the Coliseum on Wednesday 3 March. Our seats are extremely good value at only 10 pounds 40p thanks to ENO’s generous discounts for students. The director is again Jonathan Miller, who directed the ‘Rigoletto’ we saw last semester, and by placing the action in a 1950s diner, he’s gone for an American setting again. We hope you enjoy it!
The next event for booking will be an orchestral concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 12 March and I can now confirm our final group event for the year as I went down to the Globe Theatre on Monday and got our tickets for May! On Saturday 8 May in the afternoon, we have tickets for Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ at the start of the Globe’s 2010 summer season. I always get 5 pound standing places as they’re well within your budgets, even at the end of the semester! The theatre is an exact replica of an Elizabeth theatre, and is open to the elements so we keep our fingers crossed that it’s not raining, or too hot. In the ‘yard’ you can pick your own spot, to give yourself the best view of the action, and can move around a bit if you want to. I’ve booked for a Saturday afternoon so that it’s easier for students outside London to come as well, if they want to. We’ve added details of these two events to the website so you can remind yourself but I won’t be opening booking for ‘Macbeth’ until mid-April.
What else is on this week … ?
Although it was Chinese New Year and the start of the Year of the Tiger last w/end, London’s full celebrations will be this weekend, on Sunday 21 February. So if you’re in London, head off down to ‘Chinatown’ the area including parts of Soho, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square and join in the fun. It’ll kick off at 12 noon in Trafalgar Square and finish with a firework display in Leicester Square at 6pm. It will get very busy as the streets are quite narrow; look after your bags and wallets in the crowds, and find a good place for a dim sum lunch! The website www.londonchinatown.org has some info but www.visitlondon.com/china is better as it gives info about the Sunday events but has other stuff too – plenty happening this week to mark the New Year at venues all over town.
You may remember I wrote to you about the Penn alumni club invitation to you to join them for a special event at the Courtauld Institute Gallery on 2 March, centred on the new exhibition of Michelangelo drawings. They offered a special reduced price of 15 pounds for students for the evening. The exhibition has featured in an article in today’s Guardian newspaper and it looks fabulous (go to www.guardian.co.uk and look for ‘Michelangelo: up close and personal’ in the ‘Culture’ section). You can find out about the alumni offer in our 28 January email on our website. If anyone would like to come, I might be able to work something out with the club even though it’s past the closing deadline for replies – get in touch with me today.
A few things that might interest you …
On 26-27 February at the Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1 there’s an event to mark 40 years since the start of the ‘Women’s Movement’ in Britain … speakers will include, Bea Campbell, Lynne Segal and many other significant writers. The Friday evening session runs 6.30pm top 8pm and costs 6 pounds, inc wine; the Saturday session is a full day event. Go to www.freewordonline.com and search the site (a triumph of design over content) for ‘Events’.
On 25 February one of the Natural History Museum’s regular evening events is called ‘Yesterday’s DNA saving species today’ and you can find out more and book a ticket on www.nhm.ac.uk/naturelive - look for Nature Live Nights
Explore the City of London – and further afield - by joining one of the ‘Green City’ walks www.greencitywalks.com . One called ‘Hidden Gardens of the City’ runs Wednesdays until the end of March, starting at 1.30pm. You meet at Moorgate station – look for the entrance by the branch of Boots – and give a 5 pound donation to Oxfam or Cancer Research.
Forward planning – if anyone is planning a St Patrick’s Day visit to Ireland, don’t forget that Aer Lingus flies to Ireland too, it’s not just Ryan Air. The flights are fairly competitively priced and you can get more info on www.aerlingus.com London will mark St Patrick’s Day early, with an event in Trafalgar Square on 14 March!
Have a grand week, and don’t forget to book your opera tickets now! Cheers, Liz
From the Centre on Wednesday ... and let's book for the concert now!
Dear students: Time to write my weekly email with the last of the semester’s events to book and a few notices as well …
First of all – you can now contact me to take up one of the concert tickets we have booked for Friday 12 March at the Royal Festival Hall. This is a great venue for a concert as it’s very lively, with cafes and bars, and lots going on during the day. The main concert hall was first opened fro the Festival of Britain in 1951 and the recent refurbishments have cleverly enhanced the period features. Our concert is the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gunther Herbig. They’ll be playing Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose’ Suite, Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Helene Grimaud as soloist, and finally, Brahms’ Symphony No 2 and our seats are in the side stalls, with a great view of the orchestra. The concert starts at 7.30pm and tickets will cost 9 pounds 60p… please get in touch straight away.
If anyone missed out on booking for the opera next week, March 3, it’s worth phoning or emailing now as I have one ticket left over! The press notices for the new production have been very positive - ‘This is pure joy and one of the best things I have seen from ENO in years’ from the ‘Sunday Express’ - I’m looking forward to seeing it myself later in March. I’ve asked students who have tickets confirmed to come in and collect them now – or let me know immediately if they want them posted out.
‘Time Out’ is very much looking east this week … so that’s where I’m going to encourage you to look too. This coincides with ‘East’ a festival championing ‘the best of East London’ from 4 – 9 March. If you go to www.findeast.co.uk you’ll find out all about this year’s events, and the range of concerts, walks, gigs, talks and competitions featuring the best of this most creative quarter of east London – from Whitechapel to the Barbican, from Spitalfields to Bishopsgate …
The East End has always been home to communities of new immigrants to the capital from the French Huguenots in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries onwards … and the Jewish community was particularly vibrant. It’s Jewish Book Week from 27 Feb to 9 March www.jewishbookweek.com and then from 27 February for the whole of March, the new ‘Open Jewish Culture’ festival www.openjewishculture.org
If you’ve got some spare time on 2 or 3 March and fancy fresh air and healthy exercise (!) Thames21, an environmental charity, will be pleased to hear from you. To take advantage of the lowest daytime tides on the Thames for 5 years, they’re launching a major clean-up of the foreshore at four locations along the river – go to www.thames21.org.uk to find out more …
On Friday 26/2, stock up with Welsh food at an open air food market in Golden Square, just off Regent Street, near Piccadilly. It’s open from 11am to 7pm with around 20 stalls showcasing fresh foods from Welsh suppliers – it’s St David’s day on Monday 1 March after all. www.walesthetruetaste.co.uk
On Tuesday 2 March, there will be one of the regular monthly evening openings of the Sir John Soane’s Museum at 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The museum opens on the first Tuesday of each month, between 6pm and 9pm for atmospheric candle-lit tours. Students get concessionary entry but apparently these tours are very popular and can’t be booked in advance – you may have to queue outside for entry. Normal opening hours Tuesdays to Saturdays: 10am to 5pm.
Looking ahead to next week – please note that the office will be closed on Thursday afternoon, from 1pm and then will only be open for a couple of hours on Friday morning (Sue and I are going to be in Oxford on Friday afternoon to catch up with students before the end of their term the following week. I’ll send a separate email to Oxford students tomorrow with our time and venue for meeting.
I think I’ll get this email off now … and look forward to getting concert bookings in quickly. Cheers, Liz
Liz and Sue coming to Oxford next week ....
Dear students in Oxford: Sue and I have just made arrangements to come out to Oxford on Friday 5 March to catch up with you before your spring term finishes. We will be in the Mackesy Room at Pembroke College from 3pm to 4.30pm so you can pop in and see us any time then – there might even be a cup of tea for the early arrivals. If you’re a Pembroke student you’ll know where the Mackesy Room is, if you’re not – ask at the porters’ lodge on your right as you go into the college.
We’re coming out as we want to hear how you are all getting on and also to reimburse cultural bonus claims if any of you want to make claims now. If you do, please email me and let me know. I will need to know how much you are claiming and whether you have a bank account in the UK. It’s essential you do this as we will only bring cash for the students who notify us in advance that they need it. And don’t worry if you’re not ready to make a bonus claim yet … we’ll be visiting Oxford again before the end of the summer term!
We’re looking forward to hearing from you, and seeing you next week. Cheers, Liz
From the Centre: Happy St David's Day!
Dear students: I’m writing a very early – and short – general email today as I’m not sure I shall have time to write much later in the week ….
Events: The opera visit on Wednesday 3 March is now *sold out*. Tickets are here for collection/payment (if necessary). Please read on further for a reminder when the office will be open this week. If you have confirmed tickets and have not collected them from the office by Wednesday, we will leave them at the Coliseum Box Office as Sue Welsford will be at the opera with you after all. They will be available for collection after 7pm.
*Tickets are still available for the concert on Friday 12 March at the Royal Festival Hall*. We weren’t able to get as many as usual and it’s a lovely programme of music by Ravel, Schumann and Brahms so do get in touch this week if you’d like to go. The tickets will cost 9 pounds 60p as we have a group reduction and they knocked 20 percent off for us! All the details are also on our website under ‘Events’.
Visiting Oxford: Sue and I are visiting Oxford on Friday afternoon – I have emailed the students there already, but this is to let the rest of you know that the office won’t be open … which leads me onto …
Office hours this week: Tomorrow (Tuesday) we’ll open at 1pm. Wednesday is normal office hours. Thursday and Friday we’ll close at 12 noon. So you do need to check this to see if we’re going to be around in the office if you want to visit or need anything quickly.
I hope I gave you a few things ideas of to do this week in Thursday’s email … until my next message, have a great week, Liz
PS St David is the patron saint of Wales, in case you were wondering ….
From the Centre on 11 March ...
Dear students: Your weekly message so you know what’s going on … I’m hoping that my copy of ‘Time Out’ will arrive before I post this on Thursday (it didn’t – I had to buy one!)
Our events: First of all – we’ve allocated all our tickets for the concert at the Royal Festival Hall on Friday now so we hope those of you who have opted to go have a great time. The RFH is a big place, so do be sure to check your ticket carefully and go in the correct door, on the correct level and side of the hall! This is the last event before the Easter vacation; the next one – and the last one we have booked for this year – is a performance of Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on the South Bank on Saturday 8 May. All the details are posted on our website under events but I won’t open this for booking until mid-April at the earliest, as it’s so far ahead; it will pay you to check your email inboxes from time-to-time during the Easter holidays.
Site visits: We will also be making arrangements to meet as many of you as possible on your UK university campuses (if you’re outside London) after Easter. We have already booked our visit to Scotland in May, and we’ll come to Cambridge and Oxford in June. Please keep an eye open for possible visits to Bristol or Bath, and also to York. Sue and I still need to sort out dates so bear with us for a bit! The reasons we’ll be coming to see you is to find out how more of you have been getting on (we loved hearing what students had been doing in their spare time in Oxford when we went there last week), to make sure you know all about your transcripts, credit transfer etc for when you get back to he US and last but not least, to sort out claims on cultural bonuses for those of you who still have money to claim. If you’re going to be travelling around in the UK this Easter, keep your tickets and receipts etc, but you can’t claim for expenses outside England, Wales, Scotland or N Ireland. (A clue – if you need to translate your receipts or tickets from euros to sterling, the item isn’t eligible to claim back!)
What’s on this week? Well, Sunday is our ‘Mothering Sunday’ which is a different date from ‘Mothers’ Day’ in the US if you were puzzled by the ubiquitous pink cards and overpriced flower arrangements. You could surprise them at home by doubling up this year!
Do you fancy exploring a tunnel under the River Thames this weekend? On Friday 12 and Saturday 13 March between 6pm and 10pm there’s a unique chance to explore the tunnel built by famed engineers Marc and Isambard Brunel under the River Thames and opened in 1852! It’s been inaccessible for more than 100 years but now they’re opening it up for a special event (based on a Victorian fair) before it’s used as part of the new East London line extension route. The entrance is part of the Brunel Museum, by Rotherhithe tube station; you have to book ahead and it’ll cots 5 pounds a person but it could be fun … go to www.visitlondon.com/brunel for a link with more information, how to book, and a map.
12-21 March is described as ‘National Science and Engineering Week’ with events throughout the country – but I noticed that there were going to be several thing happening at the National Maritime Museum and Observatory at Greenwich, included guided tours and ‘sun spotting’. If you go to www.nmm.ac.uk.solar you’ll see more (it’s not a brilliant website by the way). If you’ve never been to Greenwich, I do recommend it. The area around the museum is actually a protected heritage site because of the number of fine buildings; there’s the Queen’s House (built by Inigo Jones for Queen Henrietta Maria), and the Painted Hall of what was the Royal Naval Hospital, besides the museum and observatory, up on the hill in Greenwich Park. You can get there by regular train, by the DLR and by bus 188 from Russell Square. There are regular riverboat services too – if the weather’s good I’d certainly go at least one-way by the river – you get a completely different perspective on London travelling this way. www.tfl.gov.uk and click on the ‘river’ link at the bottom of the screen.
St Patrick’s Day is March 17 and some of you may be heading off to Ireland? If you are, please do remember Ireland (as opposed to N Ireland) is not part of the UK and you do need your passports and your university documents when you travel. A good friend of mine and fellow programme-director has just been to Holyhead in Wales to meet one of her students off a ferry from Ireland as the student had left her passport in London and couldn’t get back into the UK. I will not do that! But … you don’t have to go to Ireland to celebrate … on Sunday there’s the big St Patrick’s Day parade in central London, starting at 12 noon from Piccadilly, going down Lower Regent’s Street to Trafalgar Square and ending in Whitehall. There will be event all day in the Square and you can go to www.london.gov.uk/stpatricksday/ for full information. You should note that this will mean lots of crowds, and traffic diversions and delays, so if you don’t want to join in, avoid the area, it’ll be heaving with visitors!
A rather quieter event is the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park, running from today to Sunday. 120 commercial galleries will be exhibiting contemporary art works to view and buy and if you’re interested you should be able to get concessionary entrance at 10 pounds during the week and 13 pounds at the weekend. www.affordableartfair.co.uk for all the information you need – there are free workshops and demos too … and if you haven’t seen this part of London before, it’s a good excuse! Wait a few more days and in Scotland you can go to the 2010 Glasgow Art Fair which will be in George Square from 25 – 28 March www.glasgowartfair.com with a concessionary entrance fee of 4/5 pounds. There’s a 2 for 1 tickets offer in ‘Scotland on Sunday’ – look for vouchers in the paper on 14/3 and 21/3.
This weeks’ ‘Time Out’ (I gave in and bought a copy) gives 40 great things to do on a Sunday so come on in and browse – or go online to check out their recommendations www.timeout.com/london There’s an interesting feature on the smaller historic houses you can visit in London too – like the Handel House Museum, Dr Johnson’s House and the Benjamin Franklin House (UPenn students please note – this is the only remaining residence of Benjamin Franklin anywhere). I’ll include info on this next week …
Finally - office openings next week: Please note, the office will only be open to visitors between 2pm and 4pm on Monday 15/3 and will open at 1pm on Wednesday 17/3. Otherwise, we’ll be around as usual. Have a good time … Cheers, Liz
From the Centre on Friday ... sorry the weekly message is so late (19/3/10)
Dear all: First of all, apologies for a late email this week, I was off sick for a day in the middle of the week and everything has got a bit delayed!
I’ll start with another note about office closures, so you’re all ready for the next couple of weeks. Next week we will be closed all day on Friday 26 March and the following week is the start of the London University closures for Easter so this office will also be closed from Thursday 1 April to Tuesday 6 April inclusive – we’ll open up again on the following Wednesday. On Friday 9 April we will not be able to deal with any visits to the office or phone calls, as I’ll be on a conference call with colleagues on the US home campuses. This is quite a long way ahead so don’t worry, I’ll remind you all again!
As the long Easter vacation comes nearer, you’ll probably be making travel preparations so a few practical suggestions …
Remember how careful you were of yourself and your personal effects when you first arrived in the UK, and try to be just as careful as you travel around. Tourist sites can be targeted by professional pick-pockets or thieves so please be extra cautious and look out for yourself. If you haven’t already made photocopies of your passport to carry with you, do so now (you can use the copier in our office if it’s convenient) … and if the hostels or hotels you stay in have safes, use them rather than have all your money, credit cards or your passport with you all the time. I think it’s a good idea to prepare yourself by checking where your countries’ embassies or consulates are in the places you’ll be visiting and I really recommend using the FCO website www.fco.gov.uk/travel to check out travel and other issues in the countries where you’re travelling – they’re very good on strikes for example (always a possibility in Greece, France or Italy – not to mention BA!). Finally, on our website www.cornell-brown-penn.ac.uk there’s a link ‘Absence Form’ you can use that to let us know your travel plans and how we can reach you in an emergency.
I was looking out for a few things you’d like to check out and spotted these … as ever, my taste for theatre, museums and food comes to the surface!
On 26-28 March, look out for the Chocolate Festival in the square behind the Royal Festival Hall (Belvedere Road). It’s open from 11am to 8pm daily and promises dozens of stalls offering all manner of things chocolate-y. And this weekend the Chocolate Festival is in Brighton, giving our student at Sussex the chance to sample the same treats, on New Road opposite the Royal Pavilion, 10am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday www.festivalchocolate.co.uk
This Saturday, Tate Britain invites us to ‘Go Public’ … they write ‘Join us this weekend for BP Saturdays: Going Public. Take centre stage or simply watch the performances unfold during an afternoon of social experiments, talks and artist-led tours’ … explore what’s on offer through http://art.tate.org.uk/go-public and then head off to Millbank for the afternoon.
In Edinburgh, the Traverse Theatre is staging a new productions of Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’ 24-27 March and it looks well-worth checking out. Students in Scotland can catch the ‘Giselle’/’Man Y Man’ programme by English National Ballet that we saw in London earlier this term at the Theatre Royal Glasgow until Saturday.
Last week I mentioned that Time Out had a great feature on the smaller, specialized museums in London’s historic houses and I’m going to list them here. Some are free, there are entry charges for other but you should always check for student discounts!
The Handel House Museum in Mayfair has the added attraction of having briefly been the home of Jimi Hendrix – there is a programme of concerts throughout the year (more Handel than Hendrix though). www.handelhouse.org
Dr Johnson’s house is in Gough Square off Fleet Street, EC4 – and don’t miss the statue of Johnson’s cat Hodge, ‘a very fine cat indeed’ www.drjohnsonshouse.org
Burgh House and Hampstead Museum on New End Square NW3 gives you a focus for visiting Hampstead – it has more restricted opening hours than the other though … www.burghhouse.org.uk … and not far away is the Freud Museum in Maresfield Gardens. It was Sigmund Freud’s home after leaving Vienna in 1938. www.freud.org.uk If you chose the right day, you should be able to go to both houses …
Then, one specially for UPenn students (?) the Benjamin Franklin House in Craven Street near Trafalgar Square is the last remaining residence of Benjamin Franklin and has been restored and reopened to the public to recreate Franklin’s London years between 1757 and 1775 www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org
This week’s Time Our features five short but scenic walks in London so that you can get outside and enjoy the start of spring (? … I have seen crocuses out this week, and the sun!). The routes are Parliament Hill Fields to Primrose Hill, Blackheath to Greenwich Observatory, Crouch Hill to Alexandra Palace, Tate Modern to the London Eye and ‘Jurassic Park’ to Crystal Palace. They have all been selected to give tremendous views over London – and places to stop off for a reviving coffee! If you want more, go to www.timeout.com/walks for another 27!
From the Centre - next to last group email until after Easter!
Dear students: I’m sending out this email as the penultimate group message until after Easter (just a reminder, we’ll be closed on Friday this week and then from 31 March to 6 April inclusive). If the listings magazines are on my side, there are a few things to help you enjoy the next few days!
Actually, I’m going to start with a couple of events in early April that might intrigue you: For students in Cambridge or those who are willing to make the quick journey there – from London Kings Cross station it’s under an hour by non-stop train, check out the Cambridge Spring WordFest 9 -11 April www.cambridgewordfest.co.uk for details and a downloadable programme. Well-known authors and poets will be visiting Cambridge for talks and workshops so I hope you’ll find something to enjoy. In the other place, the last few days of the Sunday Times-sponsored Oxford Literary Festival (it closes on 28 March) are now taking place – if there are any events still open for booking, you’ll find out on www.oxfordliteraryfestival.com Then in London, at the South Bank Centre (that’s where the Royal Festival Hall is) look out for ‘Alchemy’ described as a ‘festival celebrating innovative, classical and contemporary artists from India, UK and South Asia’ from 7-11 April www.southbankcentre.co.uk/alchemy for all you need to know … apart from music, dance and other performances, there’s a food market on South Bank Square and hatha yoga! And, if you’ve never been to a concert at St Martins-in-the Fields Church, why not try one during the Handel Festival 5 – 10 April? There are two *free* lunch-time concerts at 1pm on 6 and 9 April and then some ticketed events as well – the cheapest tix for these are 6 quid so they won’t exactly break the bank! Go to www.smitf.org for programme details and booking …
One of our own study-abroad students, Nathalie, invites you to a free performance of an adaptation of Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ in which she’s appearing. It’s on 5 April at 7.30pm at the Lost Theatre on Wandsworth Road (www.losttheatre.co.uk , Stockwell or Vauxhall tube stations). No charge but you do need to get in touch with her so she knows in advance how many tickets are needed – nfb6@cornell.edu
On Friday this week, Kensington Palace opens for the season with a new exhibition – ‘Enchanted Palace’ a combination of fashion, performance, story-telling and film. Kensington Palace is one of the historic royal palaces in London – like Hampton Court and the Tower but it’s the least visited. So now’s your chance to see what it’s like (High St Kensington or Notting Hill Gate tube stations are best) and you can check out everything on www.hrp.org.uk
Also re-opening soon – on 3 April - Leighton House on Holland Park Road was the home of famous Victorian painter Lord Leighton. It’s been closed for a while during refurbishments designed to show off the amazing interior. Go to www.rbkc.gov.uk/LeightonHouseMuseum to see what you can expect. (I went to a wedding there a couple of years ago!).
And catch this exhibit before it closes on 5 April – at the British Museum, a free display ‘Warriors of the plains: 200 years of native North American honour and ritual’ showcasing some of the BM’s surprisingly wide collection of artifacts from North America. ‘The Kingdom of Ife’ the BM’s latest special show (entry isn’t free for this one) focuses on Africa and has been garnering high praise for its displays. It runs until June so you still have time to see this.
What else can I suggest? How about ‘Frock Me’ vintage fashion fair and tea-room at Chelsea Old Town Hall on Sunday 11am to 5.30pm (admission 2 pounds with student ID) www.frockmevintagefashion.com or an Open House and sale of work at London Glassblowing, 62-66 Bermondsey Street, SE1 www.londonglassblowing.co.uk from 26 to 28 March 10am to 5pm each day. There will be continuous demos and refreshments, and it’s free too …
Finally, are you planning to visit Paris in your European tour this Easter? This week’s Time Out is worth looking at in hard-copy or online as its travel focus is Paris, with lots of hints on places to see and things to do that are a bit out of the ordinary. The ‘Paris for Visitors’ guide can be picked up for 4 quid at the Time Out shop (and I’d bet you can get in at the Eurostar station too).
That’s it – with a final practical note: the office is closed on Friday and our clocks go forward this weekend for Summer Time (in the US it was two weeks ago) so don’t forget this on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Then we’ll all be on the same time schedule for next week and my final quick email before Easter. Cheers, Liz
From the Centre - the last message before Easter! (29/3/2010)
Dear students: A swift message today as I expect that lots of you are about to go off travelling, if you’re not already away. I won’t have very many recommendations for things for you to do over the Easter weekend I’m afraid, as my ‘Time Out’ isn’t going to arrive until after the office closes for the holidays … go to www.timeout.com/london later this week to see what’s on …
The first thing for me to do is correct a mistake in my message last week; as our Cornell student Nathalie pointed out straight away, her performance is on 15 April not 5 April as I wrote in error. It’s just before she finishes for the semester!
Over the Easter weekend: As this is a major religious holiday, you’ll find that all cathedrals and churches will have special services with fine music on Good Friday and Easter Sunday (please don’t expect them to be open on Good Friday for sight-seeing as this is a very solemn day in the Christian calendar). If you are visiting other countries in Europe it will be the same. For example, Rome will be extremely busy; if you’re in Greece, Easter in the Greek Orthodox calendar is celebrated at the same time as the western church this year so look out for their special services.
Then, to remind you about office closures for Easter: We will be closed this week from Wednesday 31 March (I’m going to be popping in and out on that day so I think it’s safest to say we’ll be closed for visitors so you don’t waste a journey) until the following Wednesday 7 April, when we re-open at 8.30am. I am pretty sure you’ll find that university offices will also be closed for a few extra days over the Easter w/end too, so if you were expecting to be able to use libraries and study rooms for working, please check in advance to make sure they are open. Both Friday this week (Good Friday) and next Monday (Easter Monday) are public holidays so banks and offices will be closed. Some shops, museums, galleries etc may have slightly different opening hours too – Monday is not a public holiday in Scotland.
Home campus admin: now all our three universities have on-line preregistration for courses, it’s so much easier when you’re away but obviously you need to be aware of dates etc when you’re overseas. As far as we can check, UPenn’s pre-registration for fall 2010 is open now, Cornell’s opens 7 April for juniors and 12 April for seniors and Brown’s opens on 20 April. It’s regular practice now for your university registrars’ offices to contact you direct about this, or for your study abroad offices to send out emails … we no longer see the notifications so this is just a heads-up to be sure you check your emails regularly. If you have any problems get in touch and we’ll try to sort them out; and if you need anything faxed over, or scanned, we can do it from this office if you can get into us. (Some of you have already used us for sending over housing contracts).
Our admin: It really is a good idea – just in case – to let us know your itinerary and contact info if you are leaving the UK for a vacation. You can go onto our website and do the ‘holiday absences’ link, or just email me and let me know where you’ll be.
When you come back after the holidays, most of you will be getting down writing your third term’s essays and to revising for examinations. We know you’ll all be working hard, and you’re bound to be aware that your fellow students will (in some cases, at last!) be getting down to work too. Please don’t get panicky about things: if you’ve been keeping up with your work so far, there’s no need to get any more worried than normal. Set up a sensible revision/study plan and give yourself time off too – you can get stale. Please don’t leave everything to the last minute. That’s when your computer is going to crash, guaranteed! If you have any questions or concerns about how you’re getting on, please get in touch with us and we’ll see how we can help.
So, Sue and I wish you a most enjoyable break and we’ll be in contact again after Easter (when we’ll open booking for ‘Macbeth’). Cheers, Liz
From the Centre - after Easter! Time to book our last event ...
Dear students: Now the university offices are open again after Easter (even the ones that were taking extended breaks!) it’s time to get another email message out to all of you. I hope you have time to read it, even if you are travelling, as there are going to be a couple of especially important bits … so read on!
Travel tips: I’m just repeating a message I sent before the holidays, as unfortunately we have had several students reporting the theft of their property while travelling this vacation. I’m betting you’re all being extremely careful (and I know the people involved in the incidents we were told about were being careful too) but please be aware that your property can be at risk, even in the safest of seeming locations. Those slim pouches that you wear inside your clothes are probably the best way of keeping your passport and credit cards safe, by the way. If you are involved in an incident, do let us know – and remember that we have emergency funds in our account here if you need money to tide you over while you wait for replacement ATM or credit cards.
** Our final event: You can now claim one of the pre-booked tickets for our final event this semester – a trip to the Globe Theatre on the South Bank to see Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ on Saturday 8 May at 2pm. Tickets are only 5 pounds as these are standing places in the ‘yard’. The tickets are un-numbered so I’d prefer you to come in and collect yours (unless you are out-of-town students, where we’ll post them to you as usual). If you’ve run out of ‘bonus money’ you’ll have to come in and pay cash, of course. So let me know who wants a ticket as soon as you can … **
Academic stuff – exams are on the horizon: Many of you are already approaching the examination period (which goes on much longer at UK universities than you are used to at home). I just want to pass on some basic tips which you may reckon are pretty obvious, but it will pay you to think about them; don’t assume you know exactly what to expect, because you’ve been doing mid-terms and end-of-semester exams for more than two years. Check on old exam papers so you can see how they are set out, the length of the typical exam and the number of questions you are going to be asked to write on. Maybe even try a timed practice test … You are expected to write your answers on a separate answer book, not on the exam paper itself (I know this sounds obvious, but one of our students tried to do this one year!) … Make sure you know where the exam is going to be as some universities or colleges have to use halls away from the regular campus area … Check and double-check when the exam is going to be, no-one is going to take the responsibility for telling you! If your university of college offers sessions of preparing for exams or planning revision – see what they are like, they might be useful, even to veterans like yourself. And if you have any concerns at all, get in touch and we’ll see how we can help …
Cultural bonuses: A quick reminder about these. You need to give us a day or so’s notice that you are coming into the office to collect your bonuses so we can be sure to have enough cash available. The website and your information booklet tells you what you can claim for – and if you’re eligible for a bonus (there are a very few exceptions). We will definitely be visiting Scotland, Oxford and Cambridge this semester so that students there can claim cash bonuses from us. If you are at other centres outside London (York, Sussex, Bristol, Manchester) would you please contact me immediately to let me know when you are finishing your semester in the UK and returning home, and if you plan to be visiting London before you leave. We can then work out the best way for you to make your bonus claim …
What’s on in the next few days? In Edinburgh, at the Festival Theatre, you have Scottish Opera’s production of Puccini’s much-loved opera ‘La Boheme’ starting on Monday next 18/4 and running for a week in repertoire with Janecek’s ‘The Adventures of Mr Broucek’. Scottish Opera offers special deals of cheap seats if you’re under 26, so take advantage of this if you’re in town now, especially if you’ve never been to an opera before. Then at the end of the month (28/4 – 1/5), Scottish Ballet presents a modern retelling of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, though with the familiar music of Prokofiev. You can book tix for both shows through www.festivaltheatre.org.uk
Back in London, If the weather’s good on Friday 16/4 – head for Chelsea to the Physic Garden, when it opens for free between 12 noon and 5pm. With spring flowers finally open, and a very nice café, have a pleasant hour or so in this garden, established in 1673. www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk to find out more …
On Saturday 17/4, Trafalgar Square goes orange! To celebrate the Dutch national day there’s a full programme of events in Trafalgar Square including great music, Dutch food, flowers for sale – and if you want to pop into the National Gallery, free tours of their Dutch art collections at 4pm and 5pm. www.holland.com/uk/holland-house-london
On Sunday 18/4, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre marks St George’s Day and Shakespeare’s birthday (23 April) by opening up for a free day of events – the 2010 season launches on 23 April too as you know (we’re there on 8 May) www.shakespeares-globe.org
Trafalgar Square is the venue for free concerts on Saturday 24/4 for St George’s Day – it looks like a combination of folk music and Music Hall if that’s your scene – the shows run from 1pm to 6pm
And finally, for something completely different, Spitalfields Market in E1 (near Liverpool Street Station) will host Alternative Fashion Week from 19/4 to 23/4 with more than 70 young designers hoping to make their mark, www.alternativearts.co.uk
That’s all for now … more next week, I hope. Enjoy your travels if you’re still away. I hope you’ve all dealt with registering for courses, by the way … but let me know if you’ve had any difficulties. Cheers, Liz
Volcanic eruption in Iceland and resulting travel problems ... for student who are still travelling
Dear students: I’m sending this out to the full list on Monday but it applies to the travellers and would-be travellers only! I’d be grateful if those of you who are reading it while in continental Europe could let me know where you are and what your current travel plans are. I have already heard from two or three students whose return travel to the UK has been affected by the closure of all UK airports, so I’d like to have a better idea of how many of you are affected.
First of all, if you’re in the UK now and had planned to make a trip away by plane this week – I think it’s highly unlikely that this is going to happen. If you’re already booked on Eurostar, or a ferry/coach, then you should be able to travel but the ports, stations and trains are going to be very busy so please allow more time for check-in.
If you’re on the continent and hoping to fly back to the UK this week, you’re going to encounter delays, even if the situation changes for the better within the next couple of days as there are so many people at airports all over Europe trying to get to their homes after the Easter holidays. What follows are a few notes based on information from our FCO’s travel pages http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=22071058 (I checked the US sites and there’s nothing much there so far but please check http://travel.state.gov (if you can get onto it) or link via http://london.usembassy.gov so that you can find a list of the embassies and consulates for the countries where you are …). Keep checking the websites and local/international news to see if the situation changes from day-to-day.
If you are travelling on a package holiday, then the company you’re travelling with is responsible for getting you home and your accommodation and care in the meantime. I guess you’re more likely to be travelling independently, and this is a direct quote form our government website for travellers coming from an EU airport or on an EU airline “Contact your airline to confirm arrangements. Under EU legislation passengers are entitled to either a refund or to a later flight. Passengers accepting a refund will end their relationship with the airline and will have no further entitlements. Passengers who are re-routed onto a later flight will be entitled to assistance including reasonable meals and overnight accommodation. Passengers must confirm arrangements with their airline and should not assume that an airline will continue to pay for their existing accommodation”
If you think you will try to find an alternative route home to the UK instead of flying, then there’s a link to the transport information page that lists ferry, coach and train companies for starters. Don’t forget that Eurostar runs from Brussels as well as Paris, and some trains stop en-route at Lille in northern France. There are still passenger ferries between French coastal ports and England and the Hook of Holland and Harwich. These alternative travel routes are going to be heavily booked but you still might want to consider this if you’re very anxious to return. If you have travel insurance, it could cover you for these extra expenses, but you or your families will need to check the small print very carefully. If you find that you have run yourself very short of money when you get back to the UK, then contact me immediately so I can see what we can do about an emergency loan.
As I said before, you’ll need to check the news regularly as the situation will change from day-to-day; it does look as though airlines are asking that the blanket closure of airports might be reviewed – and the more fanciful stories include bringing in the Navy! As I get more information that could be relevant and/or helpful, I’ll use email to contact you all again. Good luck, Liz
From the Centre 21/4 - the skies are open again!
Dear students: This week’s message is bound to concentrate on two themes, the volcano and the upcoming British election (which I completely forgot the mention last week!
First of all, the volcano in Iceland and resulting travel disruptions. I did an email to the full list on Monday, and will do further emails if they are required though the STOP PRESS news is that, as of last night, all UK airports are open again! 20-odd students have emailed me to tell me of likely delays in their return to the UK. If anyone else is stuck, and hasn’t got in touch, please do so now. It will give me (and colleagues back in the US) a better idea of the size of the problem and I can inform our UK partner universities as well. So far, the replies seem to be split into two camps; those of you who are staying in the cities you are booked to leave from, waiting for your flight to materialise and then those of you who decided to make new travel plans, and take trains, coaches and even ferries, to get back to the UK. If you’re in the first group you might still want to consider alternative methods of getting back ‘home’; there really is no way we can forecast how long the delays and cancellations will last. Some of you have also been kind enough to let me know that you are safe and sound here in the UK, and that’s very helpful too. Some UK universities have also sent out emails to their students, which you may have received. I’ve seen copies of emails from UCL and KCL so far – Goldsmiths and the LSE in London have also posted informed on their websites and/or sent it to students. I know that the obvious matter of concern for many of you is the fact that exams are due, and so are deadlines for last assessments. That’s why it’s very important that you contact me or your UK universities direct to let us know where and for how long you are likely to be stuck because even though it’s possible to fly in and out of the UK again, there’s bound to be delays to flights for several days to come.
Before the volcano hit the headlines, the news media were full of the upcoming General Election, called for 6 May. I hope politics students are taking note! For the first time we have debates between the leaders of the three major parties (Labour, Conservative and Lib-Dem) on the TV and the surprise of the first one was the resulting surge in popularity of Nick Clegg, leader of the Li-Dems. It remains to be seen whether he does as well in the next two debates, but it could make a difference to whether Labour or Conservatives manage an overall majority in Parliament, or whether we have a ‘hung Parliament’ where the votes of members of smaller parties would be crucial. Do take advantage of your being here for our election and read as much as you can about it, keep up with the news, and maybe go to a local meeting?
I’m a regular reader of the ‘Guardian’ newspaper (note left-wing bias when you read it, compared with, say, the ‘Daily Mail’ or the ‘Telegraph’) and there are two articles in the Tuesday 20/4 edition that it would be fun for you to read. Both are in the G2 section: one is ‘Clear sky thinking’ about a ‘world without planes’ … the other imagines Nick Clegg, not too seriously, as our Obama ‘Yes, he can!’ Go to www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/19/nick-clegg-obama for that one, the planes article is www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/20/iceland-volcano-world-without-planes
The big event in London this week is the London Marathon www.virginlondonmarathon.com on Sunday. The mass run starts from Blackheath in south London, and follows a route through Woolwich, Deptford and Rotherhithe, then across the river, back to Millwall and the East End, before heading west again and finishing in St James Park. Even if you don’t plan to see the runners you need to be aware that this causes a fair amount of disruption to bus-routes, some tube stations might be closed and if you’re not carful you could find it impossible to cross from one side of the road to another (I got stuck one year!). So do go to the website where you can check the route and timings and see what’s happening. I don’t have my weekly Time Out yet so if you want to check out the best of other events in London, go to www.timeout.com/london
We do still have a few tickets left of our booking for ‘Macbeth’ on Saturday 8 May at the Globe Theatre – only five pounds for a ticket so get in touch right now if you want to get one of them. Enjoy your week – and good luck with your travels! Liz
Quick new message from the Centre on Friday 23/4 ...
Happy St George’s Day (no-one else will wish you that, to be sure!)
Two quick points:
Please continue to keep me informed about travel delays etc – yesterday I discovered from our friends in Cambridge that several more of you were delayed overseas than had informed me, despite my emails to you. As soon as you get back to the UK, please let me know so I can check you off my list of ‘students stuck abroad’ and I can let the home campuses know! If you continue to experience delays in returning to the UK, and consequently think you are going to miss an exam or a deadline for submitting a paper, then I must let your hosting universities know. Always check their websites: several have posted information for their students (and staff!) who are affected by travel disruptions and others have sent emails to students. By the way: Ryanair has suddenly changed its mind about compensating customers who were delayed, check the website to see what they say …
And the second thing is that if you have asked for ‘Macbeth’ tickets on 8/5 and I’ve confirmed them, you can collect them (and pay for them if necessary) any time next week, Monday to Thursday inclusive (the office will be closed on Friday). I still have one or two tickets left so if you want to book, please do so quickly! As usual I’ll post out Oxford, Cambridge tix or any others where it’s not convenient for you to collect them from us.
Cheers, Liz
From the Centre late on 26/4 - and another Bank Holiday is coming up!
Dear one and all! It looks as though most of our group who have been delayed in Europe by the airport closures have made it back or are definitely on their way … several students stuck in the US seem to have flights booked for this week too. Reading the newspapers and seeing the news makes me very grateful that you didn’t go for more exotic destinations, I think you’d still be stranded in airports if you were holidaying in Thailand, India or China!
Office closures: First things first … we have another Bank Holiday coming up, when banks and offices will be closed; it’s this coming Monday, 3 May (a day off in lieu of 1 May). And I am actually going to get away to France for a short holiday so I’m shutting the office for a couple of extra days. We’ll be closed on Friday 30/4, and Tuesday 4/5 and I’ll be back on Wednesday 5 May. If you need to contact anyone in an emergency during that period, I’d recommend checking with your home study abroad offices first, if your UK university offices aren’t open.
Macbeth tickets: As you can see, this means that if you want to collect your tickets from the Centre this week, you need to come before we close on Thursday. The following week you’ll have Wednesday to Friday inclusive to drop by. I plan to get tickets in the post to students who have requested it (as well as the ‘out-of-towners’) by this Wednesday. So far, I have allocated all the tickets I have bought in advance and I have a couple of students on a ‘waiting list’ for tickets. If you’ve asked for one and have now changed your mind, please let me know now – and if you have any last-minute requests for tickets (no guarantees!), I need to know that immediately too.
Students in Scotland: This is a reminder that Sue and I will be coming for our scheduled end-of-semester visit to see you all (apart from the ‘parliamentary interns’) before you leave. I will do a note to all of you but this is the schedule: We have booked the meeting room at 55 George Square again for Wednesday 19 May from 4pm to 5pm for students in Edinburgh; on Thursday 20 May we’ll come to St Andrews and meet the four of you there at lunch-time; finally, if we miss anybody on Wednesday you can meet us on Friday morning before we leave Edinburgh at noon. Apart from hearing how your semester has worked out (and how you all got back to Scotland after the Easter vacation!), this will be the chance for you to make your final bonus claims in cash so please start getting your receipts etc together. All the events, travel, accommodations have to be in the UK … basically if you need to translate from one currency to another, you can’t claim reimbursement! We will need to know who is coming to meet us and who much you’ll be claiming so do look out for my next email to you all.
Rather boring this week … mainly admin stuff. Have a good week and week-end ahead. Hopefully you’ll find some special events for May-Day by checking out www.timeout.com/london (Narrow boats at Little Venice on the Grand Union Canal on May Day, Sikh New Year celebrated in Trafalgar Square on Sunday 2 May among several events listed) and www.list.co.uk. The British Library is open til 10.30pm on Friday with Peyoti for President and other groups (free – part of Reveal King’s Cross Festival and to mark the opening of the BL’s new exhibition ‘Magnificent Maps’). Then on Sunday there’s a talk at 2pm and two guided walks of the area at 11.30am and 3.45pm to show you just how much King’s Cross has changed over the years. These are bookable in advance in person at the information desk in the BL or via the website www.boxoffice.bl.uk Good luck with the revising and writing …
Cheers, Liz
From the Centre: Details for Liz's and Sue's visit to Scotland, May 2010
Dear students in Scotland: These are the details to confirm our visit
to Scotland in May. As you can see, we need you all to reply to this email
and let us know that you are meeting us, how much of your ‘cultural
bonus’ you’ll be claiming (all of it, we hope!) and whether
you have a bank account in the UK.
We will be in Edinburgh on Wednesday 19 May and will be in the meeting
room at 55 George Square from 4pm to 5pm. HopefuIly the majority of you
can meet us then so we can talk together (and have cake!) but if you can’t,
you could pop round to our hotel at 6pm – we’re in the Carlton/Barcelo
on North Bridge. Alternatively, we could meet you on Friday morning before
we leave Edinburgh – contact me to arrange a time/location. On Thursday
20 May we will be in St Andrews. We have booked a table for lunch at the
Doll’s House restaurant, 3 Church Square at 1pm and expect to see
the four of you there.
Looking forward to hearing from you to confirm your attendance, and seeing
you next month, Liz
After the Bank Holiday ... a quick message on 5/5
Dear all: I hope you made the best of another day off on the Bank Holiday
- or were you all too busy working? As I wrote last week, I’ve been
away for a few days but I’m back now and the office is open again
for the rest of the week. If you plan on collecting your ‘Macbeth’
tickets before the show on Saturday, I’m sorry, but I’m not
going to be in on Thursday morning as I have to stay home. I anticipate
being able to open the office by 2pm and I’ll definitely be in all
day on Friday.
I wanted to highlight a few things to look out for: For starters, the
Brighton Festival opened on 1 May and runs through to 23 May. You can
check out what’s happening on www.brightonfestival.org . If you’re
in London and you’ve not visited the town, this could be the time.
There’s a good train service there and the station is centrally
located (look down the hill and you can see the sea!). Loads of places
to shop, club, eat and drink – and you have to visit the Pavilion!
Another feature of the Festival is the Artists Open houses weekends www.aoh.org.uk
where you can visit artists and craftspeople in their own homes/studios.
A must-see exhibition – a wonderful exhibit of Renaissance drawings
from the BM and the Uffizi in Florence goes on display at the British
Museum and runs through til July. This is one of their big shows that
you have to pay to go and see but there are reduced prices for students.
I think this is going to be very popular so I’d plan to go early
in the morning before the crowds arrive, if I were you. Or try one of
their late-night openings. You can find out more and book ahead on www.britishmuseum.org
Friday 7/5 is ‘Late at the Tate’ at Tate Britain when the
gallery stays open until 10pm. It’s an East London-inspired evening
of art, film, music and performance and you can go to the two current
shows, Chris Ofili and Henry Moore for half-price www.tate.org.uk/lateattatebritain
. Watch out for special events linked to Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary
celebrations too, over the weekend 14-16 May. More news on that later
…
Cheers, Liz
From the Centre on Wednesday (12/5/10)
Dear students: As several of you have visited the office recently to
make final bonus claims and say good-bye, it has made us realise that
for many of you we are only a couple of weeks – or even days –
away from the end of the semester. Hasn’t the time has sped by this
spring … ?
So I’m going to concentrate as mainly administrative matters in
this email (adding a few entertainment suggestions at the end of course!)
First of all – the office is closed next week, from 19 – 21
May as Sue and I go up to Scotland to meet with students who are finishing
their semesters there. We’ll just be open on Monday and Tuesday.
Oxford students – I have now arranged our day to visit you before
you finish – as I emailed separately, it’ll be Friday 4 June.
Cambridge students – I will be in contact shortly to confirm, but
I think we’ll be coming to see you the following week on Thursday
10 June.
Finishing up in the UK – just a few reminders: Please do make sure
you have settled all your bills and have returned all your library books.
*If you have borrowed books and equipment from us, we need these items
returned*. Your transcripts will be sent to this office and we will pass
them on to the US campuses – we expect the first of the transcripts
to reach us in July and hopefully the majority will be in the US by the
start of the fall semester. You need to be sure that you take back assessed
work that has been given back to you, syllabi, book-lists, note-books
and any other assignments you’ve completed, as you will need this
when you discuss credit transfer with your advisers. If you have any questions
now, or over the summer, do get in touch with us here in the office.
And don’t forget those bonus claims … give us at least a full
working day’s notice that you’re coming in to claim your bonuses,
and bring along proof of how you have spent your money.
The office will be open all over the summer as I get ready for the new
student intake but we have to complete our end-of-year accounts at the
beginning of June so do please try to make your claims before then. Remember,
you can only do this in the UK and if you need cash you will have to visit
the Centre. If you have a bank account in the UK, we can send you a cheque
of course (and I’ve already emailed the few out-of-London students,
apart from those in Scotland and at Oxbridge, to make special arrangements
for them).
When you get back home, I’m sure that you’ll hear from all
three universities about your time in the UK. You’ll probably be
asked to complete an evaluation, which can be quite helpful; but there
are other ways in which your expertise can be put to use. All universities
have students helpers or peer counselors in the study abroad offices –
watch out to see if you’re invited to apply for these positions.
If you are asked to take part in a pre-departure meeting or briefing for
new students, I hope you’ll join in (we’re often asked to
recommend potential participants!). If you feel like volunteering your
contact details so that the new study abroad applicants can contact you
for information, I hope you’ll do that as well … and share
your images of your overseas experiences in the photographic competitions.
To help you enjoy this weekend in London, two of the major museums/galleries
have events that might interest you. On Friday the V&A is open to
midnight – though I challenge you to find out anything about this
on its website! Together with the exhibitions on quilts and ‘Grace
Kelly: style icon’ they are offering free screenings of the Hitchcock
films ‘Rear Window’ and ‘To Catch a Thief’ from
6.30pm to 11.30pm. This is part of the Museum Nights events, which are
taking place all over the country – and in other European cities
too. If you go to www.culture24.org.uk – type in your postcode to
find the nearest event - or www.timeout.com/museumsatnight (for London
only) you can see what else is happening. And on the South Bank, Tate
Modern is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a full weekend of special
events www.tate.org.uk and use the calendar to find the special weekend
events. Walk along to the Festival Hall and ‘Udderbelly’ opens
this week for the start of its summer-long programme of music, theatre,
circus and stand-up comedy (with the emphasis on comedy!).You’ll
find the details on www.southbankcentre.co.uk/udderbelly
Keep warm – who’d have thought I’d be typing that in
May! Cheers, Liz
From the Centre on 17/5 ... before we go to Scotland
Dear students: I’m emailing you all primarily to remind you that
the Centre is only open today and tomorrow because Sue and I are spending
the rest of the week visiting Scotland so that we can meet the students
studying there in Edinburgh and St Andrews before you finish. So if you
are planning to visit us to bring back borrowed books or equipment, or
to claim bonuses, watch out so you don’t waste a journey.
Students in Cambridge – I have now confirmed that Sue and I will
definitely come to Cambridge to see you on Thursday 10 June. I’ll
do an email just to you, giving you details of where and when you’ll
find us at Pembroke College on the day.
Then, finally, I want to make sure you are aware of a couple of things
that might affect your travel – either within Europe if you’re
planning a bit more after exams, or on your return journeys home. You’ll
have picked up on the news that the volcanic ash-clouds are still affecting
British air-space from time to time (there were shut-downs this weekend
for instance). This means that flights could be delayed or cancelled and
you must keep up with the news and keep in contact with your airlines.
The other news item is that cabin staff at British Airways are planning
more strikes between now and the first week of June. Although negotiations
are still happening, there’s a good chance that there will be a
strike. BA’s website www.britishairways.com/travel/strike-ballot/public/en_gb?refevent=strike_home_banner
is regularly updated with information.
Have a good week – more next week, before the second May Bank-Holiday!
Cheers, Liz
From the Centre on 26/5 - a Bank Holiday reminder
Dear all: On Monday next, 31/5, we have our second Bank Holiday of the
month in the UK, and it coincides with the Memorial Day holiday in the
US, so we’ll all be closed! And please note that on Friday 28/5
I must shut the office at 3pm in order to make a 3.30pm meeting. Don’t
forget that if you need to reach me in an emergency over the w/end you
need to use my home phone number 020 7249 9393 and if I’m not there
when you call, leave a message with a return phone number for me to phone
you back.
When I started thinking about what to put in this week’s message,
it was really warm in London and the sun was out – so I thought
I’d concentrate on out-door and summer events. Then I heard the
weather forecast for the rest of the week, and I’m sure I heard
that there might be snow in the more exposed parts of the Highlands of
Scotland … it’s May for heaven’s sake!
What’s on? Anyway, let’s be positive … for theatre-goers
who enjoy the fresh air, the programme at the Globe continues over the
summer, with ‘Henry VIII’, ‘Henry IV’, parts 1
and 2 and a new play about Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton joining the repertoire.
Will you have time to fit another play in, at only 5 pounds for a standing
place in the yard? www.shakespeares-globe.org for information. Then the
Open Air Theatre in Regents Park will open for its summer season today
with Arthur Miller’s classic ‘The Crucible’, followed
by Shakespeare’s ‘The Comedy of Errors’ and later on
in the summer, the Steven Sondheim musical ‘Into the Woods’.
This is a lovely place to go to the theatre on a summer evening, sipping
a glass of Pimms as well – www.openairtheatre.org. If you enjoy
dance or opera, we hope that you may still be around for the open-air
live relays from Covent Garden Opera House this summer. On 8 June there’s
Bizet’s opera ‘Carmen’ relayed live from 7p to Trafalgar
Square in London, Millennium Square in Bristol and Exchange Square in
Manchester. On 10 June a triple-bill of ballets, Chroma/Tryst/Symphony
in C, go live in Trafalgar Square and then later on, on 13 July, Verdi’s
opera, ‘Simon Boccanegra’ will be shown live on the big screens
in Trafalgar Square and Canary Wharf on London. These two events both
start at 7.30pm. It’s free, just turn up and find yourself somewhere
to sit and watch. Indoors – the big musical event of the summer
is ‘The Proms’ – the summer series of concerts at the
Royal Albert Hall, sponsored by the BBC so the seats prices are kept quite
low. As the names suggests, you can also ‘promenade’ –
they take all the stalls seats out so you can get cheap tickets on the
day to stand for the concerts – or buy proms passes for the season.
All the details of the programme and the tickets are on the website www.bbc.co.uk/proms
and we have a Proms programme here in the office if you’d like to
look through it.
And for the holiday weekend, a couple of things to look out for, In June
the Queen’s ‘official birthday’ is celebrated by ‘Trooping
the Colour’ (military historians among you will know what that means!)
but on Saturday, starting at 10.30am, there’s a full rehearsal for
the event that you can watch along the Mall and at the end of Green Park
– no queen, but you get all the rest, and fewer people to get in
your way. You can fid details on www.royal.gov.uk – go to ‘Royal
events and ceremonies’ and you’ll get a link to ‘Trooping
the Colour’
On 28 May, the post Great Fire of London galleries at the Museum of London
re-open after a major re-design and refurbishment project costing millions
of pounds so this is the perfect time to visit the Museum (one of my favourites!).
Located near the Barbican Centre in the City of London, it’s a great
place to start exploring our city properly, especially if you haven’t
yet done so at this stage of the semester. The nearest tube stations are
St Paul’s or Barbican.
Next week I’ll do an email with more admin stuffin it, but this
is a quick reminder to students who may have books or small items of equipment
on loan from us, not to forget to return them to the Centre in the end-of-semester
packing rush. And if you plan to claim your cultural bonus soon, please
give me at least a working day’s notice that you want to come to
the Centre. As well as the Bank Holiday closure next Monday, we might
be closed on Tuesday too, so as we will be visiting students in Oxford
on Friday 4 June, the best days to be sure to find the Centre open are
Wednesday and Thursday. Cheers, Liz
Last group message from the C/B/P Centre for 2009/2010! (8/6/10)
Dear students: This is the last message I’m going to send out to
the full mailing list this semester and it marks the end of the 2009/2010
academic year. But … and we’ve said this to students we’ve
met recently here in the office or on campus … the Centre will be
open until you are all finished in the UK and it remains open over the
summer as we get ready for the next intake. So, please feel free to keep
in contact, give us your news and check up on anything that’s concerning
you.
First of all – this really is a *final reminder about claiming your
bonuses*. We have to do this as we are completing our annual accounts
now and have to provide them on Monday. So claims need to be made this
week. I’ve already emailed students at one London college with suggestions
of what they can do, and I’m visiting Cambridge on Thursday to clear
claims there. Otherwise you need to contact us this week and it’s
really important that you let us know in advance that you are coming in
to make a claim so we can have cash available for you.
And remember, *the office is closed on Thursday 10/6* as I’m in
Cambridge …
A quick reminder about *transcripts and grades*. We expect all transcripts
from UK universities to be issued to us in London first of all. We’ll
then check them for accuracy as far as possible (if you’ve told
us what courses you’re taking!) and then we’ll send them straight
on to Cornell, Brown and UPenn, within 24 hours if we can – there’s
little or no delay our end. Transcripts will not start appearing until
mid-July at the earliest, and I’m afraid that some universities
are not very prompt in getting them out – we’ll be nagging
them though, never fear! Seriously, it should work out that your transcripts
are in the US by the time you return to campus. Our three universities
process the transcripts in different ways, with Brown listing all courses
and entering ‘S’ on your transcripts, and Cornell putting
the grade as provided by the overseas university, with no ‘translation’
from one grading system to another. With both Cornell and Brown you will
keep the GPA you had at the start of the semester/year. UPenn does translate
grades and will factor the UK marks into your GPA. One thing, if you have
a problem with a mark that has been reported, will you please contact
your study abroad office first, or us, before emailing an individual professor
or international office at the UK university. And although you may find
your grades ‘unofficially’ through your universities’
online systems, they aren’t ‘official’ until a paper
transcript is received. It will be your responsibility to work with your
advisors about credit, so you do need to bring back with you any assessed
work that you have had returned to you, courses syllabi and book-lists
and test or exam question papers if you can take them. Please note that
you will not get exam scripts returned to you.
When students have visited us recently in the office, I’ve had a
chance to ask some of you about *helping out at the study abroad offices*
in the US and I’d like to repeat that suggestion to all of you.
I’m sure that over the summer you’ll be getting emails from
the offices asking you to evaluate your time abroad. They’ll also
likely be informing you about job opportunities, both paid and unpaid,
at the offices and asking if you’d be a contact for future students.
I’d like to ask you to seriously consider this. It’s great
to have past students at information meetings, as you’ll probably
remember from your pre-departure meetings, but even if you don’t
fancy that, just offering your email address as a contact can be extremely
helpful as you’ll have the most up-to-date experiences to report.
And keeping involved with study abroad this way is a means of keeping
the memories fresh and maybe even avoiding some of the ‘reverse
culture shock’ that you might experience …
At pre-departure orientations and other meetings, we always talk about
culture shock, but it’s quite possible that you could feel some
of the same slightly disorienting effects on your return. *‘Reverse
culture shock’* can be just as unsettling for you, especially if
you’ve had a really good study abroad period. You’ve had the
chance to live abroad for a length of time, which maybe your friends and
family haven’t and it’s bound to have given you new insights
that they may not share. At the very least you’ve had the chance
to look at life in the US from the outside. Do take up any opportunities
that you can to share these experiences with other people, and make use
of them in your social interactions, your research and study and maybe
your job searches in the future.
I have a *final request* for you too. I’d be very interested to
hear from any of you about the type of things you’ve been doing,
outside of academic work, this semester/year. I know you have travelled,
but what about clubs and teams, choirs and theatre or music groups, interesting
jobs or volunteering … has anyone got information they’d like
to share with me?
So you’ve survived avian flu and volcanic eruptions, the coldest
winter for years and a pretty wet summer so far … now all you need
to do is make sure your bills are paid, your library books returned, you’ve
brought back anything you’ve borrowed from the Centre … and
off you go!
Sue joins me in wishing all of you a great summer and a successful time
back on campus. We hope you’ll look back on your time here with
good memories and that you’ll keep in touch with us in the future.
It’s been great having you with us this year, we hope you’ve
enjoyed it too! Cheers, Liz