My London 2012 experience: part one

At the time of writing, here’s an accurate summary of the recent contents of items covered across Britain’s various news channels:

Olympics. Olympics. Recession. Olympics. Olympics. Boris Johnson. Olympics. Olympics. Olympic-related weather forecast.

Well, you’ll never guess what I’m going to be writing about!

I hope you’ll indulge the theme for a couple of posts from me, as I was fortunate enough to experience travelling to London in late July to get a taste of the unique atmosphere. I’ve returned with enough photographs and stories to fill a few months’ worth of posts, but given the depth of coverage elsewhere, I’ll try and summarise everything in two!

One of the most incredible experiences of my lifetime!

In truth I hadn’t really thought much about the Olympics until a couple of years ago, probably due to my overriding passion for football alone! Although I could sense excitement building as the years ticked closer and closer to 2012, the reality of the Games’ arrival only really sank in with the opening of applications to become a ‘Games Maker’, one of the tens of thousands of volunteers. Seeking to get involved with such a momentous sporting occasion, I put myself forward, but being in the Lower Sixth Form at the time and only just qualifying for the minimum age requirement, I didn’t really have too much to shout about in my application.

Months came and went with no contact and, soon enough, the first round of the ticket ballot was advertised. Unsure of whether I’d be able to attend or even afford them, I applied for a select few sports – ones which I knew a small bit about, like handball and hockey – in the cheapest price categories. As it turned out I wasn’t the only one to be caught out by nationwide demand, but the results left me facing the prospect of travelling down just to see one session of handball (whilst my older brother, at odds of something like 1500/1, got the cheapest tickets to the Opening Ceremony!) – not exactly what I’d had in mind (given the North-West to London train fares!).

2012 arrived and, trying desperately to get involved, I considered the option available of auditioning for the opening and closing ceremonies, but a hefty rehearsal schedule and travel expenses weren’t feasible if I wanted to pass my exams – and eat! I was eventually contacted and asked to schedule online a time for a phone interview for a Games Maker position in ‘security’ (greeted by great derision from the flatmates!). Unfortunately it ended up taking place over a fairly poor connection, and I misheard the interviewer in a crucial question, answering with something nonsensical in the context – let’s just say that when the only updates I received thenceforth were emails saying “We’ll tell you if and when there’s a role for you”, I wasn’t exactly optimistic! Some of my friends elsewhere were accepted and had an incredible experience themselves, meeting Tom Daley and the like in the Olympic Village, but it turned out being a Games Maker wouldn’t be for me.

Accepting defeat and preparing to sell the ticket I’d been allocated, I logged back on to the ticketing website. Just before clicking ‘sell’, however, I put in a few requests for other tickets out of curiosity and a degree of defiant optimism. Seeing that a few were available which were at a reasonable price I made the snap decision to buy them and keep my original ticket – I’d make a short, sharp trip of it, a couple of days soaking up the atmosphere, visiting a few friends and seeing London. Well, that was the original plan at least. A couple of months (including a vast amount of spare time spent on the website) later...

Too much free time and a lot of budgeting during exam period!

Soon after, I was hugely fortunate to be offered a free ticket to the first dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium, despite the unsuccessful nature of my application, as a result of my volunteering, and hence a chance to become one of the first eighty-thousand or so people to see it. As the saying goes, like London buses, I’d waited for one stroke of fortune with the ticketing process and two had come along at once!

And so I found myself on the morning of Monday 23 July on a train to London Euston (by another gargantuan stroke of fortune, in a First Class seat – it was cheaper than Standard, for some reason!) with a suitcase and a vague idea of my way round the London Underground. My aunt and uncle had very generously offered me the use of their conveniently positioned flat in the centre of London, so after a speedy dropping off of luggage, I met up with my sister (who had also volunteered, but wasn’t keen on the driving role she had been offered) and hopped on the Tube to Stratford to get my first taste of the Olympic Park.

Despite having been to packed houses at Wembley, Old Trafford and even Tokyo before, I was bowled over by the sheer volume of spectators – there were queues to join the queues!

For all the horror stories I’d heard about security – I wasn’t sure whether the soldier who warned me at the gate about strip searching was joking or not! – it was noticeable, but pleasant and efficient.

After queuing for a surprisingly short amount of time, and chatting to the incredibly bubbly Makers around, we were into Olympic Park. Once again, I was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the occasion, as the quite fascinating architecture, matched by the glorious weather and an atmosphere quite unlike any other, formed a quite surreal feeling, a blend of awe and anticipation.

The Orbit Tower – at first glance I thought it was one heck of a Helter Skelter!

Outside the Aquatics Centre

And outside the absolutely magnificent construction that is the Olympic Stadium. When the Park reopens next year, make sure to check it out if you haven’t already!

A brisk walk round half of the park (the other half was closed), many photos and a couple of water bottle purchases later (you could refill your own, but the queue for the fountains was four times longer than the sales people!), it was time for us to take our seats (unfortunately not together) and see the show. I’d promised myself that once it started, I would do my utmost just to take it in, but some moments were so incredible I couldn’t resist taking my camera out… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHVSoMo4uSM

Somehow I ended up 14 rows from the front, in the centre of the stadium. The heat from the flamethrowers was quite intense!

The “Pandemonium” section of the Ceremony had my heart pounding – never have I seen anything so epic!

The remainder of the photo credits go to my sister, who was directly opposite me!

The lights came on, the James Bond theme started, the helicopter hovered above, and we all expected... but were told Boyle wanted to #savethesurprise! He certainly did!

It certainly was a struggle not discussing this for a few days, given how incredible it was!

Such vibrancy and colour, with lots of controlled audience interaction – a truly awesome technical feat!

Chances are you’ve probably been bowled over by the complete ceremony on television already, so there’s not much I can say that hasn’t been said (Flo’s succinct article put it perfectly), but it was the most incredible spectacle I have ever experienced. Even beforehand, sitting amongst complete strangers, there was a curious atmosphere floating around the Stadium. Judging from my previous experience, usually in London the tendency is to be quite reserved amongst strangers, but here people of all nationalities and backgrounds were chatting merrily and laughing. We were all soon feeding off the pure adrenaline that emanated from Danny Boyle’s outstanding direction, manifested in an unforgettable performance; I’ve never felt such energy and vibrancy hit me before, particularly when drummers suddenly appeared alongside us to signal the transformation of the “Green and Pleasant Land” in a sequence which sent an immediate and infectious chill down many a spine. The lighting, staging and general imagination of the piece was out of this world. The attention to detail was meticulous. The entire duration of events was inspirational, moving, funny, touching, and British. It was perfect.

What we saw not only amazed, but also unified, us as a crowd. Boyle specifically requested to us beforehand that we didn’t share any of it and that we maintained the Twitter hashtag “#savethesurprise.” It was a reflection on the sheer power of the performance we witnessed that night, and its ability to draw the audience into Boyle’s secretive gang, that seldom few photos were shared, if any, and much of the media was none the wiser despite most (save the splendid appearances of Her Majesty and Mr Bean) of his secrets being spread that night. It was an honour and a privilege to be there, and I’m hugely grateful to the organisers for granting me a truly special and wondrous night.

And that was just day one!

Robin

Local schools + University of Southampton = the potential for so much GOOD

Last week I decided I would get out of my perpetual slump, do something proactive, and try and engage my mind a bit.

At the end of last year I got involved with an awesome society called Student Hubs, which is also a national charity that focuses on connecting students with great causes. Our Southampton Hub does loads – ranging from international development to environmental issues, literally there are countless opportunities to get involved, and this is something I most definitely did.

So what with all the Olympic fever getting me all psyched to do more I got on a train and went up to Oxford where I mingled with the Student Hubs national team in their beautiful office. This provided me with such an amazing insight into the organisation and allowed me to become far more passionate about the cause.

So, with regards to our Southampton Student Hubs, I am their Schools Plus Co-ordinator, which is pretty awesome let me tell you. Schools Plus is a new mentoring initiative which proposes to, hopefully, improve our local community.  The University of Southampton is in the top 100 universities in the world and so it seems inconsistent not to help out our local schools and Schools Plus proposes to provide subject-specific mentoring. The scheme will not only help local school children obtain critical qualifications, increase their confidence and aspirations but also provide role models who demonstrate the benefits and viability of continued education. Schools Plus is a novel tutoring initiative which makes excellent use of the intelligent students that fill the university by training them up and sending them into the local schools so they can aid the pupils.

Essentially, it is a win-win situation; we get excellent experience running sessions with school children, whilst the children gain that extra they need. Education is something I am very passionate about and I feel like this scheme can do so much good; Student Hubs have been running this project in Oxford for three years and have achieved impressive results amongst young people who had formerly been predicted to achieve a D grade or lower. The results from Oxford speak loudly enough: ‘Students provide one-to-one tuition in maths to GCSE students on the C/D grade borderline. It launched in Oxford Community School, where only 31% of pupils achieved 5 GCSE grades A*-C, compared to the national average of 74.8%. Last year, thanks to the support of our volunteers the school beat its target grades by 6%. All students who were tutored achieved a C or above (with one student achieving an A).’

Student Hubs works across the UK to transform student involvement in social action. We seek to act as a catalyst, empowering students to become active members of their community by promoting social action, social entrepreneurship and citizenship.

So, if you think that, regardless of degree discipline, you’d love to give some school children the opportunity to fulfil their potential then this programme is for you! The difference between getting a GCSE in a core subject and failing to do so is big enough to destroy some children’s futures, however, this opportunity gives these children that extra support from an unlikely source, and surely that’s got to be celebrated. So, if you want leadership skills, responsibility experience, and basically the opportunity to change a child’s life, then this awesome programme is something you should get involved with. Please, feel free to contact me on schoolsplus@southamptonhub.org or keep up to date with the Facebook page.  Come September we will be issuing application forms for students who’d like to be a school volunteer however there are also a lot of leadership opportunities available if you felt like pushing yourself. I encourage everyone to apply because both parties here have so much to learn.

Florence

Soaking up the British culture

Time flies and yes, it does. Whilst going through the rigours of completing my dissertation for my Masters course, at times I look back and realise how fast the year has gone by. It seems as if it was just yesterday that I joined the University and was running around different buildings for my lectures with a map in my hand, trying to squeeze in some time in between my lectures for lunch and enjoying meeting new people and making friends. Yes, that is what University life is all about especially from a postgraduate student’s perspective.

Well, I had always heard that the one year postgraduate courses are intensive, yet exhaustive and you won’t even realise how time flies. So, as an international student, whilst you have not even found a firm ground and some peace of mind from the numerous chores: finding a decent place to stay, striking some sort of bonhomie with the new flatmates, attending Fresher’s events, getting used to lectures…. sometimes six hours in a day, coping with the initial jolt of the course as you are amazed at the level of peers in the class, finally deciding on your optional modules (one word of advice here, always go for modules you have genuine interest in, weigh all the pros and cons before selection and definitely do not go for a module just because your friends are bent upon choosing that…. else you shall repent later..... believe me…. I can say so from my personal experience) and the pain of preparing your own meals and so on and so forth ……that suddenly you find yourself getting absorbed in the vicious circle of assignments and course work and find yourself circling dates in your diary and chasing deadlines.

But you’ll realise that you have to make the most of your time here as opportunities are a little too many at university and some sort of time management will be required – and the sooner the better. So, there are numerous clubs to join as per your interest be it salsa, theatre or photography and numerous activities to choose from. Well, one of the things which caught my attention as I was settling in was the host UK programme. On this programme, an international student gets an opportunity to spend a weekend with a British family and this programme is run in collaboration with the University. Well, I applied and was so glad that our university was running such a programme for the benefit of international students as I thought there would be no better means of understanding a different culture.

So, I was offered an opportunity to spend a weekend in November with a family in Oxfordshire in a small town called Abingdon. Needless to say, I was already too worked up with assignments and deadlines and was desperately looking forward to some respite and I immediately agreed. Coincidentally, a classmate from Ghana and myself had been invited together by the same family. I was particularly excited at having got such an opportunity and was thrilled to get a message from the host explaining how to reach Oxford from Southampton and the directions to meet her.

We were promptly received at Oxford bus station by Mrs Hancox, our host for the weekend. On our drive back home in the evening, she told us about the plans she had made for us during the weekend and it all sounded good. It was a really enriching experience for me as this was the first time I was spending some time with a British family. After a warm welcome at home by Mr Hancox and a brief chat about ourselves, we settled down for dinner. We were served a typical British dinner – fish pie and roast potatoes with wine and a lemon cake for dessert and to say the least – it was awesome.

With the Hancox family

Post dinner, as we sipped our coffee, we had a very lively discussion about our cultures. Mrs Hancox had visited India once long ago and she was quite curious about the growth story of India. She was well-read and was quite impressed at my decision to come to the UK for my Masters at such a difficult stage in my life.

The next day we visited a local school and attended their Christmas fair. The mood was jubilant and one could sense the arrival of Christmas. We did participate in a few games and even won a prize for Mrs Hancox. Later in the day, we went to Abingdon city centre and the cathedral. We spent the whole afternoon walking around with Mrs Hancox as she explained the history of Abingdon. In the evening, we attended an opera in a church, which was being conducted to raise money for a church in Russia. It was the most beautiful part of the whole stay. I had never attended an opera before and stood mesmerised at the performance. We even went to a local pub in the evening for a drink. It was quite an eventful day carefully planned by Mrs Hancox for her guests and all I can say is – kudos to her planning.

The town of Abingdon

The next day, we went to Oxford town. I had always wanted to visit this place as back in India I had heard a lot about Oxford and Cambridge and these two university towns had a special place in my heart. It was a great experience to visit Nuffield College, which our great economist Prime Minister had attended.

As the day came to an end, and we reached the Oxford bus station for our return journey, I realised how quickly the weekend had passed. I was truly grateful to the Hancox family for spending a memorable weekend with me, making me feel a part of their lives and giving me an opportunity to soak up the British culture.

Rohit

Pimm’s, photos and plenty of memories: Graduation day 2012

Three years of hard work came to an end on Thursday 26 July when I finally graduated from the University of Southampton with First Class honours in BA English.

It’s quite astonishing how quickly the last three years have gone. Reading the posts of Robin and Florence as undergraduates really does make me realise how far I’ve come from the nervous, awkward 18-year-old who started University in September 2009. It seems impossible to celebrate everything that has happened over three years in just one day, but that’s what graduation is basically all about.

We decided to travel down the night before to save time, staying over in a local hotel with my family. The next day, after we had tucked into a hearty continental breakfast, my mum, dad, sister and I all headed onto campus to begin the day, aided by the uni-link park and ride and a very friendly bus driver.

After donning my cap and gown with no problems, getting the obligatory professional photo done in the Students’ Union (which no doubt will be on my parent’s mantelpiece for years to come), and having a family photo session on one of the many patches of green grass that are abundant on campus, I headed over to the University’s Nuffield Theatre to officially graduate with all my classmates. By this time, the sun was already rising high in the sky, and we were beginning to feel really rather hot under our mortar boards! Of course, the blue skies and hot sun were welcome instead of the wind and rain that I had dreaded for months. I was lucky that my graduation had landed on what was apparently the only week of sun we will be seeing this summer.

Me and my family before the ceremony, very proud and very happy!

There had been some speculation that the Nuffield Theatre and Turner Sims concert hall were not ‘grand’ enough as venues for our ceremonies, with a number of articles and debates on the matter. However, upon entering the theatre and finding my seat amongst my fellow graduands, I was impressed with how distinguished the whole place looked. Classical music filled the air as graduands and visitors filled the seats. Within half an hour or less of the ceremony starting, I walked onto the stage, shook the hand of the Chancellor, and collected my certificate. My part in the ceremony was over – without anyone falling down the stairs!  Once the grand ceremony had ended and the speeches had been made, we were finally released into the real world as fully fledged graduates of the University of Southampton. A lovely reception was provided, with strawberries and cream and champagne, giving us the chance to mingle, chat and thank many of our lecturers – even having photos taken with those whose help had been vital to our success. I spent the next hour or two posing for yet more photographs with my closest friends and repeatedly throwing my cap into the air to gain that perfect, stereotypical ‘I’ve Graduated!’ Hallmark photograph, before my family and I headed off for a Caribbean meal and a couple of celebratory cocktails in the town centre.

Officially a graduate: Me and my certificate after the ceremony

Myself and legendary lecturer Professor John McGavin, who had greatly influenced my decision to make Southampton my first choice back in 2009 after his fantastic open day lecture, and has continued to inspire me throughout my time here.

It was a perfect celebration of the best three years of my life so far. I spent the day with my family, and many of my closest friends; the sun was shining; the Pimm’s was flowing and the whole day went without a problem. The facilities on offer were fantastic, with noodles and ice cream and a BBQ available, and everything seemed to run very smoothly. I must take this opportunity to thank the University for putting on such an incredible day for us all!

My course-mates and I celebrating our graduation!

Many of you reading this may be graduating within the next few years, so the whole process might seem distant / daunting / alien to you. But trust me; the day will suddenly be upon you, and you’ll be abruptly entering the ‘real world’ (though my MA means I’ll be avoiding that for another year!). So here are a few tips that I’ll share with you in preparation for your big day:

1. You’ll probably be reluctant to take your robes off before you leave. Make the most of your ability to do accurate impressions of Dracula / Batman / large birds before you have to hand them back.
2. Photography sessions with friends and family will take forever, and people will start to get impatient or bored – but you only get a day, so be as snap happy as you want! You can always delete the excess photos later. It’s better to have too many.
3. Take plenty of hair pins, safety pins, and blister plasters. It’s a long day, and you and your outfit will need some TLC and attention.
4. Make the most of any free drinks / nibbles you may get in any reception you may have. Just because you’ve just graduated doesn’t mean you must lose the love you had as a student of free things!
5. You will get awful hat hair afterwards. I don’t think there’s a remedy for that one, aside from going bald… so just try and avoid cameras after you return your robes.
6. Make the most of your special day with your family. My dad said that a graduation day is on a par with other big life events such as christenings and weddings, and most people only graduate once. So enjoy their company – they’re going to be proud of you, and will want you to realise that the day is to celebrate the hard work you put into the last three years.

My sister and I on campus post-ceremony

It’s been over a week, and I am still looking over photographs of the day. It was mostly down to my wonderful family, who supported me through three years of joy, excitement, tears, worrying and stress, and who made the day and the time leading up to my graduation as special and exciting as possible. My friends also have a lot to do with it, and my University experience as an undergraduate would definitely not have been the same if it wasn’t for all of them. I know that I have made many friends for life.  Though I will (hopefully!) be graduating from my Masters in December 2013, my Graduation this year was definitely the best day of my year and possibly of my life so far. And if the next year is anything like the last three, then I can’t wait to get started!

There are obviously far too many photos that I want to share with you all, so these were only a selection of the best!

Joanne

Looking back on first year: A sea of opportunities (part two)

Following on from my last post, here’s more of the opportunities I’ve been lucky enough to take advantage of in my first year at Southampton...

January:

- Exams.
- Worth it, however, for the post-exam parties!
- Took part in filming for SUSUtv’s A Game of Sport period drama as a tavern customer – a 5.30am wakeup perhaps wasn’t so welcome, but the end result was so professional and polished that it was a credit to everyone involved.

February:

- Got to grips with my new modules, doing my best to learn from my mistakes of the previous semester.
- Saw student shows of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, Noel Coward’s Bittersweet and magic and comedy at SUSU – there’s always something happening there worth checking out!
- Co-hosted an event – ‘Southampton’s Got Talent’ – live for the first time; nerve-wracking (and it really showed in the final footage as I’m constantly shifting feet!) but a great first taste of another performance type.
- Acted in Theatre Group’s Unseen, a unique process in which the cast met one another on a Saturday, knowing that we had a week to produce a piece of devised theatre which could be performed four times the following Saturday for charity. Themed around the premise of a secretive cult, our own quickly came together as a team of misfit characters we’d adopted (I became a depressive in a dead-end job, so slightly more serious than You Can't Take It With You, see my previous post!), and the end result was something we were all delighted with – although, at the end of a long week, most of us fell asleep at the after-show party!

The Unseen ‘family’!

March:

- Got stuck into SUSU elections – I’ll leave them for another post, I reckon, or you’ll never reach the end of this one!
- Saw yet more excellent Performing Arts productions such as Showstoppers’ The Wedding Singer and Theatre Group’s Lear in the Nuffield Theatre. Even if you don’t take part, it’s well worth going along to see student performances, as their quality does their respective shows more than justice, and they’re fairly cheap nights of entertainment for students too.
- Acted in another SUSUtv project, the soap opera Gordon Avenue – hopefully also coming soon!
- Watched the mighty Southampton FC at St Mary’s Stadium at home to both Ipswich (1-1) and then Barnsley (2-0 win) within a few days. Check out the student deals SUSU offers; they’re superb value for money.
- Managed to be all packed up before the parents arrived to collect me for Easter holidays. Well, it’s the only time of the year I managed it!

April:

- Ran for positions on the Theatre Group and SUSUtv committees at their respective Annual General Meetings; I was unsuccessful, but it was definitely worth a shot, and there’s always next year!
- Went to the Performing Arts Summer Ball, a chance to get dapper, eat posh food and have a great night in a swanky venue with the brilliant friends I’d made over the course of a year’s worth of acting.
- Performed in the annual Theatre Group Showcase, a series of ten to fifteen minute scenes which attempted to display diverse, challenging original student theatre. I was involved in ‘Come Gather’, a sketch in which I, a larger-than-life, run-down alcoholic named Graves, put on a travelling show alongside the rather more melancholy Mortenson and our neurotic stage manager Terry. It’d take a while to rattle off everything that happened in Showcase, but sufficed to say it seemed to go down well with the audience (and ‘Come Gather’ was mentioned in both student and local press!). It also featured one of the best personal moments I’ve ever had on stage, when, after my character made a groan-inducing pun, the sound effect of a rimshot (better known as a ‘*ba dum tisssh*’) played over the theatre’s speakers – if only that happened every time I made a joke!

The final show I was involved in this year, the Showcase. Starting the advertising early this time round: Next November, come and see Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations!

May:

- A coursework rush, having the pleasure of seeing a magnificent spectacle of a stage show called ‘Vindice’ (a modern rewrite of the Revenger’s Tragedy), exams galore, and then the inevitable summer celebrations!

Phew!

And that’s not to mention birthday parties, many nights out, and lots and lots of time spent with the books (naturally)! I’m ultimately quite confident that I got as much out of first year as I possibly could have without activities detracting from my progress on my course, a goal which I was very happy to achieve.

So... that was my first year! Any final tips for Freshers?

Well, I guess I’d challenge any people coming in to get out there, and enjoy being in the playground that is Southampton – I certainly did!

Robin

Struck down by a severe case of OLYMPIC FEVER!

Something happened to me a few days ago, I can’t quite pinpoint when it occurred, but something inside me definitely changed; massive excitement for the Olympics took an unrestrained hold of me, so much so I am now contemplating buying a union jack for my front garden.

The sailing is held in my neighbouring town and due to the increasingly aging population I seemed to suffer with endless complaints regarding the changes to bus timetables, the disruptions to the roundabouts and the ‘god awful amounts of tourists’. Constantly listening to this was driving me a little bit mental and I grew to resent the Olympics and everything they represented more and more. This was primarily because I thought they represented tasteless sponsorship campaigns, materialistic vulgarity that led people sell their torches online and a forced enthusiasm which made me want to flee the country. Despite my best efforts I had been coerced into an Olympic opening party which was, typically, fancy dress and out of a desire to distance myself from the United Kingdom I donned a sari and went to represent India.

However, come Friday morning I sensed a sort of change growing inside of me, despite being disgusted to say it, I was actually excited. After constantly rejecting anything Olympic related, after such annoyance that an event which hadn’t even started yet already seemed to have lasted five years, I unintentionally contracted a serious case of ‘Olympic-hype’. I don’t know why I felt such a dramatic change, I fear pure reluctance set in – it was a sort if you can’t beat them, join them party. 

Somehow I’d gotten into the whole swing of it, I’d bought a lottery ticket and was convinced (along with the majority of the country), that I’d win a million, Tom Daley and Bradley Wiggins were my new heroes and I was eagerly anticipating what the mastermind Danny Boyle would create. If someone told me last week that watching the opening ceremony would actually fill me with pride and happiness I would have laughed at them, for back then I was full of scorn, but no longer. I’ve never really harboured a great affection for my country, but I am embracing and enjoying this change in attitude. I am now 100% team GB.

With a dubious start comprised of maypoles and twee farmers I prayed we wouldn’t humiliate ourselves in front of the world, however, somewhere in between Isambard Kingdom Brunel reading out Shakespeare and the banter the Queen herself provided, I remembered that I love Britain. It was heart-warming to witness the undiluted praise for the NHS and Great Ormond Street – coordinating 300 children is no mean feat! This massive celebration dedicated to the glorious wealth of children’s literature and iconic musical influences throughout the decades just reminded me how awesome we are. It felt pretty good to know that one billion other people would be coming to that realisation too. There was something so spectacular about seeing the Olympic rings being forged, their merging and culmination only emphasising a sense of union and elegance – this seemed to be the true spirit of the Olympics - which I’d forgotten a long time ago. The beauty of the cauldron epitomised Boyle’s celebration of creativity, of incredible innovation, and the sheer brilliance and pure spectacle of the event, which was both refreshing and invigorating. The disgusting politics of the Olympics were forgotten when it wasn’t some gaudy famous face lighting the cauldron, but young, incredibly talented individuals – literally the future of the event. This ceremony wasn’t about showing off, it wasn’t Hollywood sparkles and glitter, but nonetheless it was perfect - it was simply British; it was done as a gift to us all with in-jokes only we’d understand. It was funny and clever and beautiful all at the same time. I had pride not only in Britain, but somehow in the whole world. Incredible, inspirational people filled the stadium from all over the planet and there was something enormously impressive about the meeting of that wealth of talent irrespective of socio-political issues. This year marked a massive development; every country had female participants, this enormous equality milestone only emphasised the importance of events like this.

So, I’d like to congratulate Boyle on bringing a little bit of magic to England, the whole ceremony felt distinctly ours, so much so that I almost felt protective over it in the face of scorn from other misunderstood countries. If the whole world was watching, I feel we did them proud. Hopefully this festive team spirit will continue for the duration, as I am sure that there will be the need to celebrate GB’s undisputed and endless victories. For someone who is wholly uninterested in sport, Olympic fever has defiantly overcome me – long may it last.

Florence

MSc Sustainable Energy Technologies – Class of 2012

It is my sincere belief that any chronicles reflecting my bundle of rich experiences at Southampton can never be completed without a mention of, or rather, in a more dignified way, a tribute to the diverse mix of students in my class. It would be an understatement if I said that this multifarious lot has been a great company and the times spent with them have been the most enriching part of my stay here and I shall always cherish them. Life in totality is nothing but an ensemble of memories… some good and some bad, and it is the thought of these good memories which gives you the strength to tide you over during the tough times. Well, I take this opportunity to apologise if I sound a little too philosophical as I reminisce those lovely times – blame it on my youthful exuberance.

Well, the most conspicuous characteristic of this small class has been its diversity. There are students from varied disciplines; architecture, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and to top it all physics. Also, the whole class comprises of international students with not even a single British student amongst us. And yes… the whole international community is represented with students from China, India, Brunei, Thailand, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Italy, Malaysia, Ghana, Mexico, France and USA. I would again reiterate (at the risk of sounding repetitive) that our class provided the true international exposure required in today’s competitive diaspora with students from all over the world and with a multitude of skillsets.

Needless to say, I was the ‘Grand Old Man’ of the class but never did I feel that I was sharing my course with people seven or eight years younger than me. I had a little hesitation initially to mix with them but very soon I found myself tuned to their frequency as we spent more time together between lectures and during breaks.

I was in a group with eight of them for my group project in the first semester. No group meeting would begin without a reference made to football and rugby, or end without a tribute to the Chinese art of prototyping and their love for gadgets. More often than not, our group leader had to remind us of the theme of the meeting and urge us to stick to it, only to find himself deviating after a few minutes of discussion giving us insight into Chinese medicine or teaching us swearwords in Chinese. As one of the more confident English speakers, other than my American colleague, I often found myself struggling to decipher their English. My Greek colleague had a different accent which was cataclysmically opposite to how my Italian colleague spoke. More often than not, we would laugh and joke about the English expressions used and how a wrong usage would spoil its true meaning.  It was during these group meetings that I was drawn towards the Greek art of philosophy, the Italian flamboyance, the Chinese never-say-die attitude, the Thai simplicity, the Turkish charm, the Mexican bonhomie and the American confidence. There was so much to learn from each one of them. Our group found ourselves on slightly shaky ground initially when the supervisor literally dismissed our work as a half-hearted approach. But we rose to the occasion and truly showed ‘unity in diversity’, spending hours in the library together and throwing new ideas around and finally managed to score the highest marks.

As the term progressed, I found great pals amongst them. We would find a reason in the smallest of joys or sorrows to get together and strengthen our bond.  I have very fond and distinct memories of great evenings spent in their company at the Stag’s Head (the student pub on campus) to wind up the day’s work or at each other’s flats enjoying a new cuisine every time.

Enjoying the 'Great British Summer' with a barbecue at Southampton Common

A typical Monday night at Jesters

As the year draws to a close and the days together are almost numbered, one tends to get nostalgic at times. The year that has gone by has not only given us colleagues but friends for life. I am sure each one of us shall definitely miss the companionship we found in each other. And this truly has been the best gift of the University to me. Our class of 2012 shall always have a special place in my heart and the times spent together shall forever remain etched in my memory!

Rohit