City & Sea Exchange Summer 2008 To read a more detailed report, please click here. August 17th 2008 was the day that the group of 12 young people, with 2 staff, from London arrived in Cornwall. They arrived at Camborne station in the rain, amazed at how long their journey had been.

Outside the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London

They were then transported in the LOT minibus to their base at Coverack Youth Hostel overlooking Coverack Bay. They were ecstatic on arrival and many of them commented that they had not seen such a beautiful place before.

The Cornish group arrived about 6pm to meet their new friends and spend the evening at a barbecue at the hostel.
On Monday we all travelled to Mylor Harbour where they had an excellent presentation by Jonathan Fielding on the planning and building of the marina and its future potential. Onwards to Falmouth where they “paired” with each other to buy lunch.

A fascinating afternoon was spent at the Coastguard centre before time on the beach, then later a huge meal at Roskilly’s Croust House.
Tuesday started early with a much enjoyed and appreciated visit to RNAS Culdrose air/sea rescue squadron.
On then to Mullion Cove Hotel for lunch where the staff had prepared a superb buffet lunch prior to us meeting with Justin Whitehouse & Robyn Davies from the National Trust.
Robyn spoke about her successful surfing career & her role with the Trust before Justin commenced on his talk about the coastal work of the Trust locally. They then walked to the Marconi museum & monument to hear of the sending of radio waves into St John’s Newfoundland.

Tuesday was indeed a very full day for at 6pm we went to Goonhilly for a delicious supper & then had the full tour of Future World.
Wednesday started around 9am with a guided tour of the Lizard Lighthouse, (the mist allowing us to hear the fog horn!), a walk to Kynance Cove before eating Fish & Chips in the Lizard.
The rest of the day was another exhilarating visit, as we spent 4 hours at Coverack windsurfing school doing various water activities & swimming with dolphins; the latter providing a real highlight.
As this was the close of the Cornish end the whole group met for a wonderful dinner at the Paris Hotel, Coverack to say their goodbyes until regrouping on the Sunday in London.

The Cornwall group travelled to London on Sunday 24th and experienced an incredible set of activities based on the Financial side of Maritime.
Visits to the Baltic Exchange, Lloyds of London, The Tate & Lyle Wharf at Silvertown,
The Greenwich Maritime Museum, River Trips, the London Aquarium and the London Eye were all extremely well received by both groups.
In between all that were sumptuous meals at Tinsel Town, 2 wonderful Indian restaurants.

The interaction between the 24 youngsters was terrific from the word go and continued throughout.
Much was learnt of different cultures and many good friends made.
The Cornish group was resident in the student halls of Queen Mary University in the East end of London.
They loved it, each had a modern, single ensuite room and a handsome breakfast was provided every day.
A highlight of the trip was to watch “Rich Mix”, the THSU show of activities from the whole summer programme. It was amazing, our exchange was the first “act”! There was a huge screen show of Coverack looking wonderful and of all the Cornish activities. One of the London group took the mike & described it all to a very responsive & jealous audience. This was followed by Street dancing groups & Bollywood dancing which was an education in itself!

Student quotes:
“Amazing experience, love to do it again”
“Loved every minute, super people, it was sad to end it”
“ I found out a lot about Islam which I appreciated”
“The journey home was full of chat about our Fabulous 10 days !”

The exchange was staffed by Tony Roberts & Jacquie Pascoe for LOT, along with Jenny Cater, Abdul Azim, Mamun & Syeda Razzak for THSU.
The mixing of two very different cultures was brilliant and the interaction between all involved young people was a joy to behold.
A most successful & rewarding time for everyone including the staff.
This was again excellent exchange & plans are afoot for next year already.
For more details; go to www.summeruni.org

 

City & Sea Exchange Summer 2007

This exciting project represents a partnership between LOT and Tower Hamlets Summer University; 2007 was a pilot project, with the aim to make it a regular event.

Click here to read the report

The report is by Abdul Azim, the THSU co-ordinator.