Marina, Elan 8 was probably the most comfortable house but much of the comfortability was filtered out over time by policies from 7 trickling down. In my time, 3 was viewed as the corrupt house, 7 was the robotic house and 8 was the family house. Sounds a little biased coming from me, but that's how we saw it.
When I was in Elan, I liked Tania but could not help but noticing how draconian the policies were in her house. As I left Elan and continued to stay in touch with my sister who was in 7, I grew to really dislike Tania. She said something to me in my sister's graduation that didn't bother me much at the time, but as I thought about it later, it infuriated me. Still does actually. I also can't help disliking her as I hear different stories from various kids who went through her house. The bottom line is that she is in charge of many of the unfair policies and procedures that leave teens feeling hopeless. I am an adult and although I've said less than nice things about Tania, I would be willing to sit down with her and articulate why I feel this way. However, this will probably never happen.
Marc Rosenberg and I were very close and although we haven't talked in a few years, I still miss him. I was stupid to put him on a pedestal when I knew him, but I think a lot of us viewed him with an almost cult-like status when we were in Elan because we were impressionable teens. I feel like I know Marc better today and while he's very imperfectly human (like we all are), he's still a good guy. People say Marc was vicious but honestly, the LEs he handed down were usually lenient compared to Clare. When he geared the incidents, a lot of them were talking-tos. Marc was a lot of bark and I think that made people dislike him a lot. But once you got to know him, he could be really nice and generous.
I'll never forget the encounter group I had with Marc Rosenberg when I was in a three-month demotion to DH of SC toward the end of my stay. I tore him to pieces and Clare told him he was being "defensive." It was actually very productive and it helped us over an impasse at the time. Marc ran the Service Crew and was a bitch to work for -- I'll tell you that much.
I still have a book Marc gave me at my sister's graduation. It's called "The Zen of Recovery," and I still read over it from time to time. It's really interesting.
Overall, Marc is a good guy -- at least in my opinion. I respect those whose experience and opinions are different.
