Tuesday, September 30th
Today, our International Studies Class started off with a tour of the BBC. I was really excited about this, especially with everything that is happening with the US and British economies, but unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear too much about that.
We started off with a discussion in a small conference room where we learned about the breaking news area of the corporation. Apparently, the BBC has their own travel agents within the actual building, and when 9/11 hit, they took a private jet to Canada, and drove to New York from there, actually arriving before many of the U.S. news casts.
We also learned that the BBC is the biggest broadcasting network in the world, followed by CNN and SKY. The aerial view of the building is a giant question mark. We kept the lookout for celebrities, but were unsuccessful, however learned that Ben Stiller and Stevie Wonder were there only a week ago.
We got to walk around and see several of the studios which was cool seeing all of the lights and the set, and we also had the opportunity to watch a run through of a tv show that would be airing later that week. The show was called the Alan Titchmarsh Show, which I came to learn was basically the British, male equivalent of Martha Stewart, however, probably with less of a troublesome past. Most of the filming they do in studio is all sitcoms, panel and game shows, and the news. This is also where “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” was filmed years ago. They used to do quite a bit with filming drama as well, but due to expense and the need to film on location, that trend has much dispersed.
JOSH: I thought of you toward the end of our tour when we got to see the meteorology aspect of the studios. You would have thought this part was really cool!
The BBC puts out 150 weather bulletins a day, and it was crazy to see how much multi-tasking the guy has to do, and how much improvisation comes into the factor as well. There is so much pressure! We got to stand in front of the “blue screen” and our friend Mike was wearing a completely blue sweatshirt so it was fun to see “the invisible man” on the news. We also got to do a few mock weather forecasts, which was fun, and very fast paced. Later, the tour guide took us into a smaller mock-studio where Rachael got to report the news and 3 other got to play “the Weakest Link.”
After the tour, I attempted to go to TESCO to get some more orange juice, but they were all out and I was sad. We went to lunch, I got some journaling in, and then Cody and I went to the post office to attempt to send some souveniers home. After finding out that it would cost 55 pounds (that’s $100) I decided I would just rough it with another suitcase taking things home from the airport.
We waked around in some souvenier shops that we thought were cool on the way back, and I felt rather silly carrying this huge box inside of all of them. Cody thought it was funny because they probably thought I was carrying a bomb or something… I just thought it was quite the inconvenience.
After dinner, we left to go to the play “Ivanov” at Wyndham’s theatre. Definitely more dramatic of a play than either of the Shakespeare comedies that we had just seen, but it still had its bits of comic relief, despite the gloomy plot. At the final scene of the play, Rachael turned to me in revelation, saying that the main actor was actually an incredibly famous Shakespeare actor and appears in all of the Shakespeare films.
We walked back to ISH, and ended up hanging out in the bar with everyone for a while. I started talking with Katie and some other people and it we discovered they were planning on going to Ireland for Halloween since that is where it originated. I think I may be going with them, so that will be fun.
Today, our International Studies Class started off with a tour of the BBC. I was really excited about this, especially with everything that is happening with the US and British economies, but unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear too much about that.
We started off with a discussion in a small conference room where we learned about the breaking news area of the corporation. Apparently, the BBC has their own travel agents within the actual building, and when 9/11 hit, they took a private jet to Canada, and drove to New York from there, actually arriving before many of the U.S. news casts.
We also learned that the BBC is the biggest broadcasting network in the world, followed by CNN and SKY. The aerial view of the building is a giant question mark. We kept the lookout for celebrities, but were unsuccessful, however learned that Ben Stiller and Stevie Wonder were there only a week ago.
We got to walk around and see several of the studios which was cool seeing all of the lights and the set, and we also had the opportunity to watch a run through of a tv show that would be airing later that week. The show was called the Alan Titchmarsh Show, which I came to learn was basically the British, male equivalent of Martha Stewart, however, probably with less of a troublesome past. Most of the filming they do in studio is all sitcoms, panel and game shows, and the news. This is also where “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” was filmed years ago. They used to do quite a bit with filming drama as well, but due to expense and the need to film on location, that trend has much dispersed.
JOSH: I thought of you toward the end of our tour when we got to see the meteorology aspect of the studios. You would have thought this part was really cool!
The BBC puts out 150 weather bulletins a day, and it was crazy to see how much multi-tasking the guy has to do, and how much improvisation comes into the factor as well. There is so much pressure! We got to stand in front of the “blue screen” and our friend Mike was wearing a completely blue sweatshirt so it was fun to see “the invisible man” on the news. We also got to do a few mock weather forecasts, which was fun, and very fast paced. Later, the tour guide took us into a smaller mock-studio where Rachael got to report the news and 3 other got to play “the Weakest Link.”
After the tour, I attempted to go to TESCO to get some more orange juice, but they were all out and I was sad. We went to lunch, I got some journaling in, and then Cody and I went to the post office to attempt to send some souveniers home. After finding out that it would cost 55 pounds (that’s $100) I decided I would just rough it with another suitcase taking things home from the airport.
We waked around in some souvenier shops that we thought were cool on the way back, and I felt rather silly carrying this huge box inside of all of them. Cody thought it was funny because they probably thought I was carrying a bomb or something… I just thought it was quite the inconvenience.
After dinner, we left to go to the play “Ivanov” at Wyndham’s theatre. Definitely more dramatic of a play than either of the Shakespeare comedies that we had just seen, but it still had its bits of comic relief, despite the gloomy plot. At the final scene of the play, Rachael turned to me in revelation, saying that the main actor was actually an incredibly famous Shakespeare actor and appears in all of the Shakespeare films.
We walked back to ISH, and ended up hanging out in the bar with everyone for a while. I started talking with Katie and some other people and it we discovered they were planning on going to Ireland for Halloween since that is where it originated. I think I may be going with them, so that will be fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment