Oldspeak Ministry

Academic classes (finally) begin tomorrow, so I thought in my last hurrah I’d list out a couple of random notes, which may or may not later be turned into full fledged blog entries:

• Academic pedigree. I’ve always loved Google, and if it weren’t for the fact that my career interests don’t mesh, I would’ve loved one day to work for them. When I mentioned this this other day, one of my friends mentioned that I now have the “pedigree” to go work for them, referring both to Imperial, which is significantly higher ranked than IU in most publications, and to the Marshall Scholarship. Of course, people from IU do go work for companies like Google, as evinced by internships friends of mine have received, but at the same time, it’s also true that Google and a number of other companies selectively recruit and target graduates of name-brand institutions and recipients of particular awards (I was recently invited to “spend a day with Google in London”).

  Names of other people and places with whom I’m now associated are opening doors, and I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about that. For some nebulous reason, the whole idea of being pedigree’d just doesn’t sit well with me. Perhaps it’s just a subconscious manifestation of the very American obsession with the “underdog”, or maybe Hoosier pride showing through for my alma mater, but it’ll definitely take some time for me to get used to the fact that I’m now at a “prestigious” institution. I suppose there’s nothing to do for now but take up Google on their offer of lunch.

• Anonymity. On the other hand, whatever pixie dust that may have been sprinkled upon me by the powers that be seems to go unseen here, for which I am incredibly grateful. I won’t lie and say I didn’t enjoy some of the attention I received at IU last year, but it’s really nice to be returning to near complete obscurity. I’m now just another postgraduate student, with coursework, research, and the odd extracurricular. In some ways, I’m even less noticeable than when I started at IU, as most postgraduates are supported by studentships, so the only two distinguishing factors I now possess are my age and citizenship. Should be a fun year !
• Greater London. The London tube (underground/subway) system is divided into zones, based on proximity to the city centre. Goodenough College (where I’m living) and Imperial (where I’m studying) are both in zone 1, as well as pretty much every major historical and tourist attraction. In the few times I’ve ventured out of zone 1, I’ve been struck by how essentially different the bulk of Greater London is from my usual stomping grounds. I suppose it’s probably this way for many large cities, but when I got out of the tube station at Fulham Broadway, I could’ve sworn I was in some other city centre. Where I come from, a small town in southern Indiana, everyone who lived there basically lived in the same place. I really do wonder how alike the lives of any two “Londoners” can be assumed to be when the surroundings vary so drastically over the distance of but a few miles.
• Dance classes. Earlier today, I went to the ICU dance company call-out, where I attended the beginning tap (I’ll probably actually be trying out advanced tap next week), beginning ballet, and contemporary sessions. As is often times the case in dance classes, girls greatly outnumbered guys; this I had expected. However, I had also thought that due to the uneven guy-girl ratio of almost 2:1 at Imperial College, it wouldn’t be quite as uneven as I’m used to. Was that an inaccurate assumption! There were only 2 guys (including me) in the contemp class of at least ~50, and the tap and ballet classes were just the slightest bit more even. In the various dance courses I took at IU, the ratios were never more unbalanced than 10 to 1, and in my summer ballet class it was actually even 2:1, with four girls and two guys. I sort of wonder whether this anomaly is due to the culture of Imperial as a math/science school, whereas IU had strong humanities and performing arts departments, or if there’s some other reason.

  As an aside, I should also mention that this problem seems also to be the case (source: Michelle) in the ballroom dance club, where it’s more of an issue. Gender imbalance, while an interesting anomaly in tap/ballet/modern, is naturally of greater importance in partner dances.

• Musical theatre. One of the advantages (for me) of attending a geek school is that the competition in the performance arts is not nearly as intimidating. This of course isn’t to say that Imperial doesn’t have strong performers, but in general, the calibre isn’t quite as high, simply because nearly everyone who attends is focusing on “Science, Technology, and Medicine” (or business, recently). As such, I decided to join the Musical Theatre Society, and’ll probably be playing a chorus part in their Fresher’s Revue, which is pretty much open to anyone. I did audition earlier today for a solo, but I don’t expect much, since I’m an absolutely terrible solo singer. It was good practice though, and besides, rejection in moderate quantities is in my mind one of the most important things that can happen to a person. Not only does it very obviously point out areas of potential improvement, but it also helps immensely in keeping one humble. I’d be delighted if I get a solo, but really, I’m just happy to be singing anything.

Well, that’s it for this rather random and unstructured blog entry. Wish me luck for classes!

~William~