Thursday 15 July 2010

IH London students sample a Brick Lane curry


From the Wimbledon Tennis Championship to a mouth-watering night of curry. Social Programme Co-ordinator James takes IH London students to one of east London's most famous streets....

"Last night, we set off for Brick Lane in search of a traditional ‘British’ curry. There were 15 of us and we worked out that there were eight different nationalities. We had made a reservation at Tayyabs, a famous Pakistani curry house.

On the way we stopped off at Tesco to buy some beer to wash our curry down. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the restaurant our hearts sank as it was very busy and there was a very long queue down the street. Even though we had a reservation for 7:30pm, we still had to wait a further 20 minutes for our table to be ready. While we were waiting, the students had to look through the window at the other diners enjoying their curry. Poor Ahmed was so hungry that he was ready to eat someone.

We finally got a table downstairs for 15 people. We all had poppadoms and samosas for a starter. Everyone decided to each choose one dish and then dig in to everyone else’s. We all tried naan, which is a traditional bread, and pilau rice. JJ decided to have a garlic naan, but luckily he wasn’t planning on kissing anyone that night.

Ahmed suggested we should all eat with our right hand as is the custom, but everyone opted to use a knife and fork. Susanna had to drink a lot of Coke and water because she found the curry very hot. The service was very good and the waiters were all really helpful. The food itself was excellent and everyone was extremely full or as Ahmed put “completely stuffed” at the end.

After eating a lot, everyone took a stroll along Brick Lane to let our food digest and to soak up the atmosphere of the area. All in all, it was a most enjoyable evening."

Thursday 1 July 2010

Students enjoy an 'ace' day out at Wimbledon

IH London runs a busy Social Programme for our English language students. There are events nearly every evening and weekend - from theatre trips to football games, and cream teas to club nights.

This week we slapped on our sun cream and went to Wimbledon to see the world’s most famous lawn tennis tournament....


Pamela decided that she really didn’t understand the British fascination with “queuing”. Once inside the grounds, everyone took a rest on Murray Mound (formerly Henman Hill) to watch Venus Williams go crashing out on Court Number 1 on the giant screen, which was a big shock.

Most students then decided to do some more queuing at the ticket re-sale to get tickets for the main show courts. Laura and Federik went to Centre Court, where they saw the Byran brothers play.

Meanwhile most of the others opted for Court Numer 2 to see Ana Kournikova (Esteban didn’t mind missing Spain against Portugal in the World Cup as he got to see Ana in the flesh) and Martina Hingis in doubles action against two British players. Unfortunately, the British players didn’t have much of a chance. Afterwards, Neval had her cap signed by the players.

Next, everyone did a spot of shopping in the Wimbledon shop and bought some souvenirs to take back home. Margot bought a giant sized tennis ball as a present for her brother.

Mia tried some strawberries and decided to wash them down with some Pimms. Finally, after a good day out, everyone went back home contented.