International Reception 2008

And what a wonderful evening it was! The autumn weather was fine and everything was prepared. In fact local volunteers had been working hard at Woodlands Centre for most of the day getting all ready. The night went by with jovial entertainment from Josh and his band, Transition. Do you remember Tony with his Union Flag waistcoat and guitar when he sang a traditional English folksong, ‘My grandfather’s clock’. John will be remembered for his dazzling white jacket and pink carnation, who was, on a number of occasions, mistaken for the head waiter despite there being no waiter service! May looked her beautiful self.

The animal game was amusing, but no-one imitated Oscar, the resident international eagle owl who’s taken up residence at BISC. The capital cities competition was won by Mevna de Silva (Sri Lanka) with 30 answers all correct, and the night proceeded by. All the papers handed in were marked by John. It was an easy task as only three papers were actually handed in. You might have not been aware but Hannah was not feeling well that day, but despite this she put on an excellent performance.
Here are some statistics from the night for your interest. Some 350 international students attended the International Reception representing 55 nationalities, countries or regions. However, there were one or two ‘international’ students from the UK and possibly one from Wales too!

Just to finalise, I certainly enjoyed it and wandering around during the course of the evening I am certain that you also enjoyed the evening. I trust that you made new friends and got into contact with fellow students from your own country. If you are happy then so are we at BISC and we can all say ‘job well-done’.

Globe Cafe - 'A Taste of the UK' evening

I (John) arrived at BISC at 6.45 in the evening to be met by hordes of students and only three cars, and they were little cars! So May and I got things moving and phoned up local churches for more transport to get things moving faster, and by 7.40 all the students (about 80) had been safely transported from BISC to Ebenezer Church (Ebe). John even got his hard pressed wife (Hazel) involved! It was like the Berlin airlift mark 2! Meanwhile, at Ebe, the Globe Cafe team had decked out the church with flags and soft lighting creating a pleasant ambience and atmospshere.
The evening started with the National Anthem of the UK and all of the students stood up! This was followed by video shots from the UKs past, Churchill to Diana Princess of Wales. It’s funny but we were sure we saw John with Churchill in the 1945 clip! Tony with his banjo and guitar serenaded us all before food was served. This was an English delicacy who recipe is known only to a few in the Royal Household and English nobility; ‘bangers and mash’ with peas and carrots. May was taking photographs throughout this event. John was wearing a blue jacket, grey trousers and a culturally correct tie with his BISC badge but was mistaken on numerous occasions for a bus driver! One person though he had escaped from the local psychiatric hospital!!
After ‘bangers and mash’ it was back to the band! To great cheers they even sang one song in Mandarin! After the band had finished a Beatles tape was played, their early music early 1960s and Hazel (John’s wife) and Ann (from BISC) danced the twist!!! After twenty six years of marriage I never knew that Hazel could do this!!! John met a young lady called April from Taiwan and she was standing next to May, so I went looking for June and July! For us at BISC we would like to say on behalf of the students who attended a big thank you to the folks at Ebe who catered for all our needs in entertainment, food and song.
All in all it was an excellent evening, and all the students looked happy and were smiling, and so it was back to the Berlin airlift to get everyone home safely. All-in-all BISC can honestly say ‘Job well-done’ thanks to the folks of Ebe and the wider Christian community of Bristol.