LSE's student body is 70% international, that means British kids are actually a minority. First off. Secondly, because of this LSE has lots of "cliches" and I mean groups of racial and ethnic students. You see all the Asians hanging out together, all the Indians, and yes unfortunately the Americans - although admitedly their story is a bit more diverse-minus the accent.
If you go to events put on by cultural societies, well, in reality, it's mostly attended by students of that geographical region. I went to the MSS (Malaysian Singaporian society) fundraiser a few nights ago, mostly because people I knew were performing (it was a talent show with prizes and sponsored by Malaysian banks go figure). Anyway, Probably 97% of that student body in the room were at the very least from Asia. Don't get me wrong, I do understand why, but I was one of about five Indians, and if I remember correctly, on the ground floor there were probably three Caucasians, and a few middle eastern students. Huh. If you go to an event like that at Middlebury, it's more diverse. So, mass international proportions equals intense segregation and narrow perspectives/exposure...typical. Ironically the event wasn't even made for "outsiders," there were a great deal of "inside" jokes that if you aren't of that culture are ridiculously self-rightious and immature sounding. Basically not funny. I tried to appreciate it and I'm glad I went, but honestly, it was decidedly off-putting and reminded me once again that a school's "international statistic" means little if people aren't willing to integrate more.
Sidenotes: I've booked my train ticket to Paris! Horray. I've also managed to continue going to the gym, and am still playing paper roulette (ugg). Finally one of the two elevators in the dorm, for 13 floors of students is out of commission for "planned engineering work" FOR THE NEXT 12 WEEKS..grrrrrrr
Below are some pictures from the BBC tour, and no we were not allowed to take pictures in most of the areas inside.
-Over eight thousand people work in the building.
-The designer shaped the building like a question mark visible from the air (mostly because the news is often uncertain, you never know what's coming, or could be from the fact the design dude had NO idea what the studio funders wanted....I forget).
-There are eight main studios, and many others that are smaller totaling about 20
-funding mostly comes from TV liscensing, there are no ads which allows the BBC to run whatever they want
-If you want to hire a studio to film a show, it's 40,000 pounds a day just for the room
-The floors are plain grey and need to be painted first thing before any sets are put up. This is make sure the surface is flat for cameras and that the color floor compliments the sets/lighting. Additionally, the paint is "washed"/dissolved off, after a few coats so that no unevenness builds up
-TV didn't really take off in the UK until 1953, why was that? (Hint, it's an event that's been happening in English history for a long time as well as in much of Europe).
-The fountain on the inside circle of the question mark (see picture below) no longer runs because it a) when windy splashed celebrities on the way back to their dressing rooms, (located on the interior of the circle and b) the sound of running water constantly made employees need to go to the bathroom because all office windows are generally facing inwards towards it.
-BBC's news programs run continuously and don't overlap.
-The weather woman does her own one woman show....she just presses a button, and the cameras adjust to her height/lights to her skin tone and off she goes
The tour guides were really nice and they showed us how Harry Potter could vanish under his invisible cloak thanks to blue screens/blue blankets...freaky.
They also did a mock tv programming, where some people ran sound effects, and then someone played the main newscaster, and did headline news, and then transitioned into a game show etc.
No celebrities there, and no shows being filmed, but interesting nonetheless.
