Ice skating in London

IH London students on ice

The dark nights are drawing in and the temperature is dropping, which can only mean one thing - it's time to wrap up warm and head to London's winter ice rinks.

There are few better ways to enjoy winter and keep warm in the city than by getting your skates on and hitting the ice - sometimes literally!

Get your skates on with International House London

The Social Programme team at International House London have organised two trips to London's best ice rinks this winter.

• Somerset House Ice Rink
  3:30pm, 22 November 2012
• Winter Wonderland, Hyde Park
  2:30pm, 03 December 2012

Visit the Social Programme desk on the ground floor at International House London to find out more and book a place on these ice skating trips.

Booking, timetables and locations for ice rinks in London 

If you can't make Social Programme dates, or you miss out on a place, there are plenty of options and opportunities to organise your own trip.

Below you'll find information on venues, prices and timetables to organise your own ice skating outing.

• Somerset House Ice Rink
• Hampton Court Ice Rink
•  Tower of London Ice Rink
• Natural History Museum Ice Rink
• London Eye Ice Rink
• Hyde Park Winter Wonderland Ice Age 4 Ice Skating Rink
• Canary Wharf Ice Rink

Ice skating venues around London

Students skating at Somerset House 

You can wrap up like a mammoth to ice skate in front of the Natural History Museum, ice dance around Somerset House ice rink, slip and slide around Hyde Park ice rink, skate under the skyscrapers at Canary Wharf ice rink, run royal ice rinks around your friends at Hampton Court and hold onto your head at the Tower of London ice rink.

All venues provide ice skates as part of the booking, you can take your own if you've got them, some run classes and offer discounts for group bookings.

Ice rings in London start to open in the middle of November and most stay open until early January, one or two until March.

Many venues have other winter events going on and  most have cafes and bars serving food and drinks – from hot chocolate to mulled wine (if you drink alcohol we recommend trying mulled cider too) to warm you up and help you wind down after your time on ice.

Learn a language and experience London

International House London has been welcoming students from all over the world for 50 years. Based in the heart of London we offer a range language and teacher training courses, fantastic facilities and great social activities.

• Find out more about International House London

IH London makes a song and dance for Children in Need

During November students and teachers at IH London raised money for Children in Need.
 
The fun started with a charity bakesale and ended with the fantastic IH's Got Talent show - with lots of raffles and games inbetween! These events raised £1308.79 for Children in Need - the amount was doubled by IH London to £2617.58. Check out our photos and videos below for some of the highlights.

Fun at the Bakesake

IH London teacher Chris poses with the fantastic Children in Need cakes. The perfect combination - eating cakes and raising money for charity!

Empowering English language learners at the Crisis Graduation Ceremony

This week IH London teacher and trainer David Riddell attended the student graduation ceremony at Crisis.

Crisis is a homeless charity that we work closely with to provide English lessons for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The International House Trust sponsors a teacher to work at Crisis to help improve the students’ English speaking and writing skills, as well as their confidence.

The graduation ceremony at Crisis is a regular event to recognise the students’ achievement in a range of different courses. David reports here on the graduation ceremony experience:

“It was my great pleasure to once again attend the Graduation ceremony at Crisis, and to once again experience the amazing atmosphere that exists on these occasions.

One by one, students received certificates for their work in a multitude of courses offered. As well as ESOL, the centre offers Maths Through Cooking, Hat Making, Strictly Skylight, Beginners Guitar and a host of other courses.

It was a joy to see the look on people’s faces as they received their certificates – such pride and achievement, and gratitude, too, for being able to not only study in such an environment, but also to feel part of the Crisis family. There is the overwhelming feeling of the Crisis centre being like a family home with great love and support evident everywhere you look.

There were inspirational testimonies of achievement from students, and humbling life stories. We heard from one person receiving a special recognition certificate after her studies led to her starting her own business selling Ethiopian bread!

We witnessed a fantastic dance display from Strictly Skylight which would surely even have got a ‘10’ from Craig Revel-Horwood! And the whole audience joined in singing a special song for the occasion.

It was good to meet Jagtar and Liam, the IH London teachers working at Crisis, and to hear about their projects. As well as the ESOL courses that Liam runs, Jagtar teaches a range of courses including a women-only IELTS course, and a Literacy and Cultural Affairs course.

Above all, though, I noticed the pride not only in the faces and speeches of students, but also in the faces and speeches of staff members. The commitment and dedication of staff is obvious, as is the joy they share with their students when achievement is recognised. For them this not just ‘a job’ it is part of their life.

Crisis is hugely appreciative of the support they receive from IHL, but we at IHL are also deeply grateful to be part of the work they do and we look forward to many more years’ collaboration.”

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

When Sales Manager Mat arrived this morning with four boxes of handmade cupcakes, we couldn't resist sharing the pictures (and the recipe!)

Choose from chocolate 'mud' cupcakes, or vanilla and cherry cupcakes, or make both! We think they make an excellent Valentine's Day gift to impress your loved one...

Ingredients:
(makes approximately 24 cupcakes)

200g Softened butter
200g Self raising flour, sieved
200g Caster sugar
4 eggs

For vanilla and cherry cupcakes:
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
50g chopped Glace cherries

For chocolate 'mud' cupcakes:
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Equipment:

You need cupcake cases – they are a little bigger than fairy cake cases

Method:

• Preheat your oven to Gas 5 180C
• Mix sugar and butter together by hand or with a mixer until light and fluffy.
• Beat the eggs and add half to the sugar and butter. Add half the flour and mix
• Add the rest of the eggs and the rest of flour and mix until all the ingredients have combined.
• For cherry and vanilla cupcakes: Add the vanilla essence and then around 50 grams of chopped glace cherrys and mix.
• For chocolate 'mud' cupcakes: Add 2 the cocoa powder. You can also replace the cherries with chocolate drops, raisins etc.)
• Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and place in the centre of the oven. Cook for 10- 15 minutes or until the cake have risen and are springy to the touch.
• Remove the cakes from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
  

For the Butter Icing (enough for 12 cakes)
240g Icing sugar (sieved)
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla essence (you can use different flavourings)
2 tablespoons Milk 125g Softened butter

You will need a whisk or a mixer to make the icing properly.
Method:

• Roughly stir the icing sugar and the softened butter together before using an electric mixer. If you don’t do this, you will find yourself covered in a cloud of icing dust the moment you switch your mixer on!
• Once the mixture starts to come together, add the milk and the flavouring and whisk until smooth.
• For chocolate icing add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. You can also add colourings. The best thing to do is make 3 or 4 amounts of butter icing so you can use different colours and flavours for each one.

Decorating the cupcakes:

Before decorating make all your butter icing and place in piping bags. (Mat used disposable bags that you can buy from kitchen shops or online at Lakeland.)

You can then use anything you like to decorate your cupcakes with. Try sweets, silver balls, chocolate drops, cherries or sprinkles. Go crazy!

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."

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.

Felicity's Lower Intermediate A class introduce themselves to the world...................Part 2

Sam (Yuan Zhigang)
My name is Sam, I'm from Xi'an in the Northwest of China.

I live in London now with my wife. She's been working here for a long time. If I want to live here with her, I need to speak very good English. So, I need to go to school and learn English. I want to speak English as well as I speak Chinese. But I can never remember new words, it's very difficult for me. Even though English is difficult for me I'm not going to stop studying it, because I really like this country.

Soobin Kim
Hi. My name is Soobin Kim. I come from South Korea. I'm 18 years old.

I arrived in London 3 months ago. I want to study English because I want to study fashion in London. I'm going to go to university in London.

My hobbies are listening to music and drawing. I hate the weather in London. However, I love London because I can go to a lot of museums and galleries and it's quite romantic! I really want to work here so I'm going to stay in London for about 5 years.

Jeff (Park Jungmin)
My name is Jeff. I'm from South Korea and I was born in Busan in 1982.

I work for a ship building company, I'm an office worker. I came to London because I need to speak good English at work. I've been living in London for 3 months. This is my first time in London.

There are 4 members in my family, (my father, my mother, my younger brother and me).

My hobbies are listening to music and doing exercise. When I was young, I did "Taekwondo" but I hurt my knee during a Taekwondo match, so I stopped. My ambition is to start my own company, so I'm studying English and business.

Tomoko Kawashima
Hi, my name is TOMOKO. I'm from Japan.

I lived in TOKYO for about 7 years. When I lived in Japan, my hobby was Yoga. I went to Yoga three times a week after work. Yoga made me very relaxed and healthy. I'm going to do Yoga in London, too.

I've come to London to study English. I'm going to stay here for about 2 years

Mong (Mengyuan Hsieh)
My surname is Mong. I come from Taichung city in the middle of Taiwan.

In Taiwan I studied Industrial Engineering Management. At the moment I am learning English in London because I'd like to do a Masters in the UK, so first I need to pass my IELTS exam.

Khaled Iyead
I am Khaled, I am from Saudi Arabia. I am 25 years old. I have five siblings, two sisters and three brothers.

I am studying English in London because in the future I would like to go to university. I like a lot of things, for example, I enjoy riding jet skies and I'm keen on watching football matches .

Dema Al Sidran
My name is Deema I am 23 years old. I graduated from King Saud University.

I come from a large family. I have three brothers and three sisters, I'm the oldest. I enjoy sport, shopping and reading. I am keen on fashion and I like watching movies.

I miss my family, especially my little brother Mushal. I want to go back to Saudi Arabia and see my family as soon as I can, but I'm having fun in London and I'm trying to improve my English.

Abeer Bugshan
My name is Abeer. I am from Saudi Arabia, my hometown is Jeddah. I am 25 years old and I live in London with my husband and my two children. I like watching TV, going shopping and also I like hanging out with my friends. I'm keen on Saudi, Italian and Chinese food.

I am a student at International House. I study English from Monday to Friday for about five hours a day because I went to improve my English and I want to get a masters in psychology.

Recipe of the Month - an easy one!

Hi there - I'm Mat and I work in the Sales and Marketing Department at IH London. I've been here for quite some time, 11 years! and in that time I have clocked up quite a few air miles visiting countries and promoting the school.

There is far more to learning about a culture than studying its language. As I enjoy cooking and get to travel regularly to all sorts of places, I often like to entertain my friends and have themed events where I cook a particular country's food.

I had the opportunity to interview one of our Arabic teachers some years ago and this led me to looking into the food that is eaten in some Arabic speaking countries. The other weekend I entertained 9 friends to a Moroccan Day. Apart from turning my dining room into a tent and filling it with north African lamps and cushions, I had to prepare an array of meals from Hummus and breads, to Lamb and Apricot Tagines.

The great thing about studying in a large city like London, is that you can buy almost any ingredients in the capital. A great time was had by all, but more importantly, this is an excellent way to explore the language and culture of other nationalities and have fun whilst doing it.

My next event is going to be Japanese as I travel there in April – but you could easily do any nationality – even English!

If you fancy "having a bash" (having a go) at making Hummus – its really easy and delicious

(recipe for 4 people)

• 200g/7oz canned chickpeas
• 2 tbsp lemon juice or more
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 3 tbsp water
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp paprika or Cayenne pepper

Put all ingredients (except paprika or Cayenne) into a food processor and blend until smooth. Put into a bowl and sprinkle with cayenne or paprika and a little olive oil – grab a pita bread and enjoy!

Advice on living in London: A student's perspective

Recently we have been discussing the pros and cons of life in London. Of course there are more positives (pros) than there are negatives (cons) but for those of you who are thinking of coming to London in the near future, the students of Lower Intermediate A have put together a few pieces of advice that we hope

you might find useful:

Transport: The most common problem experienced

has been the 'tube' (underground train). This can get very busy at rush hour (between 8am - 6pm) and if you don't like confined spaces we suggest you take the bus or walk! The best way to use the

transport in London is to buy an oyster card. This is a plastic card (the size of a credit card) t

hat allows you to use buses, tubes and some overground trains in the city. You can either buy your travel for a month or more or, 'top-up' the money you spend as you go (e.g. £10, £20...etc). You can buy an oyster card at the ticket desk of any tube station or on the Internet at http://www.tfl.gov.uk/). Tube maps are free so we suggest that you pick up one at your local station and keep it in your wallet.

English for beginners: Some students choose to come to England when they are at elementary level. This is a great way to start but also has its difficulties...We suggest that you buy a dictionary before arriving in the UK, perhaps also an electronic dictionary (these might cost a little more) and learn some 'key phrases'. Here are some examples that our class suggest are helpful:

"I would like to go to this address please......"
"Where is the nearest tube station?"
"How do i get to..........?"
"Please"
"Thank you"
"Hello, my name is .........."

Accommodation: Living in London is fun but if you don't like your accommodation it can dampen your enjoyment. Here are a few suggestions that our class recommend looking at before you arrive:

1. Contact IH London and find out about their help with accommodation (http://www.ihlondon.com/) different options include: student apartments and host families.

2. You might want to live on your own or with a friend who is coming with you. If you choose not to live in

the accommodation that IH London provide you might want to look at flats that you can rent privately. There are thousands to choose from in the city but we suggest that you research the area first, before you make a decision. Some areas are more convenient for student living than others. Decide your budget, research an area (district of the city) and then look on the Internet for different rental sites.

Weather: Ah! The famous English weather! In the winter the temperatures can be anywhere below or around 0-10 degrees (cold!)....we suggest that if you are coming in the winter, you bring warm clothes: a coat, a scarf, a hat, gloves and warm shoes or boots! This especially applies to those of you travelling from the Middle East or South America who have very little snow or rain! In the summer, temperatures are usually warm but definitely not too hot!

These are just a few of the points we have discussed and agree would be useful to know before coming to London. City living is great but it can also be a very new experience for most students. Make sure you are well prepared before you arrive, everyone will be experiencing similar problems too remember!

Speak to you soon,

Signed,

Lucy & the class of Lower Intermediate A