Roma!
We took a school trip to Rome and Milan for 8 days from November 13th to 21st. The entire student body along with the staff and other guests made up a traveling bunch of about 250. We had almost an entire train to ourselves on the overnight trip to Rome!


In Rome the students stayed in two monasteries at the heart of the center, within walking distance of all the famous places: the coliseum, St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican, etc.

It was really amazing.



We saw the Pope on the first day, and had a private audience with President Giorgo Napolitano (of Italy). At the Papa Benedetto's appearance 5 of us or so got to go up to the front row of everything and see the pope from about 5 feet away. It was really a neat experience. There were other events; a conference on Eastern Europe, a recital by ex-music scholars, and various cultural visits and dinners; but besides these, we had lots of free time to see the city and get to know the area. I feel pretty confident now that I know my way around central Rome!
I took loads of pictures.
It's hard to say what I liked the most about Rome because there was little about that part of the trip that I didn't like. I guess highlights include lunch at Circo Massimo with Shashank and Ammar, taking pictures of the Coliseum at sunrise, taking pictures in general, having American food at Hard Rock Cafe with Heidi, Diana, Salma and Elroy, getting lost with Urska on multiple occasions, cozy cafes, and just wandering around Rome in general.
On the last day I got to see Lucy's sister Nora who is on Rotary in Sicily, and got to have dinner with Lillian, an old friend from Senegal who's been in Rome for about a year.

Then, on Monday (Nov. 19th), we all took buses to Milan where we stayed with host families! We had a meeting with the Mayor of Milan and other important people, but the best part of the experience in Milan was, for me, the host families.
Adesso parlo italiano!
Now I speak Italian! This is a little bit of an exaggeration because I am still very far from being totally comfortable speaking, but I can communicate now and after about 1.5 days with my family/host sister and their friends, I was communicating quite comfortably.
La mia sorella italiana si chiama Beatrice. My italian family couldn't have been nicer and more hospitable and invited me to come back and stay when I'm in Milan next!
I loved hanging out with Italian teenagers for the first time and really speaking the language for a while with people my own age.

Both the cities were lots of fun, I had a great time in general.

We took buses back to Duino on Wednesday, and had school off on Thursday to recover. Coincidentally enough it also happened to be thanksgiving so the Americans spent the afternoon cooking and we had dinner at Anne and Jean-Paul's flat (teachers and residence tutors of Pala) because Anne is American. They had a 25 lb. turkey (which I of course didn't eat) and we had loads of other nice food.
It was fantastic.
Then we had school on Friday, and the weekend again!

I realized that tomorrow I will have been here 3 months and that yesterday we only had 3 weeks left until winter break!
It's weird how fast it's gone but how I still feel like I've been here forever. It will be nice to be back home for a while though to see my family and have some familiarity, but it will also be hard to be away from the people here for so long.

Ciao!

November 12, 2007

Ciao Tutti!
We had a show for the 2nd years this weekend called the EE Show which is celebrating the 2nd years' finishing their Extend Essays (a 4,000 word essay that factors into your IB score, on a topic you choose).
The show was stressful to put on because, at least I, put a lot of time into it. There were some great organizers (Samantha, Lilly, Diana) who did loads of work that I'm really glad I wasn't involved in, but I did do lots of acts, my band played, I made some movies, etc.
The show was Friday night and was sooo much fun to do. It was know as the "Red Carpet Affair" and was movie themed, so the 2nd years came in assigned couples dressed as assigned characters. The whole event was just fantastic. We put it on in the new school auditorium, which was great, and it would have reminded those of you who know, of the shows at UWCAD. Lots of skits, dances, LOTS of music - classical to vocal and rock.
I have been getting much busier with school in general. I feel like I need to study outside of class in order to keep up, and it's very hard to do with so much going on!
On Saturday, I went to Aviano with Heidi (USA) and Diana (UK). Aviano is an American military base N.E. of here, at the base of the dolomites. One of the residence tutors and wife (Anne) of a teacher here was really nice to drive us (about an hour) so we went and bought American food and went to a Taco Bell and payed in American Dollars etc. They have a sort of strip mall on the base for the soldiers that has a big grocery store, a general wall-mart-like store and some fast-food restaurants and a barber (I got a hair cut/buzz). It was really fun and really different to be back around Americans and American food and products.
You can only enter the base if you have an American Military ID (which Heidi does because her father is in the military) or if you are a guest of one of said people.
Anyway, it was lots of fun, we came home, made Fajitas, and today I ate Bagels and Cream Cheese for breakfast and Digiorno Frozen Pizzas and Ranch Dressing for dinner (with Heidi, Diana and Kristina (Canada)). I also bought things like egg waffles, cheddar cheese, tortillas and grape nuts cereal that I just miss being here. It's nice to have the familiarity also.
Anyway, that was a nice little trip back to the U.S.

In general here things are going well, the weather has been pretty nice lately (still cold though) and I have been mostly playing soccer for exercise. I've been playing guitar more (with band) and viola less.

I've been hanging out a lot with Urska, Lucy, Diana, Heidi, some with Lilly, and, of course, with lots of people all the time in different contexts. I reiterate that everyone here is exceptionally interesting, fun and nice.

Tuesday we go to Rome and Milan for 8 days with the school as part of the 25th Anniversary celebrations. It's impressive what they've done to mobilize 200 people!

I'll write about that trip when I'm back, I won't have my laptop on the trip because the school is allowing us to bring them in light of theft, and power problems with all of us plugging in at the residences we'll be at.
I will have my cameras though, so there should be lots of good media!

Hope everyone's doing well!
Ciao!

Here is the video I made for and of the 2nd years, enjoy.

October 23rd, 2007

Zivjo!
We had our opening ceremony this weekend! As you probably know, this is the college's 25th anniversary year (along with UWCUSA) and lots of exciting things have been happening!
This weekend, the college had a ceremony in the Teatro Verdi in the center of Trieste. There were lots of speeches (in Italian and English) and various music performances by music scholars, the choir sang, etc.
Overall I thought it was quite good day. After the performance, we all had a nice lunch in the Perfettura - the city hall of Trieste. Lucy and Urska and I stayed in Trieste a while longer, and took a bus back around 5:30 that afternoon.
The international board and heads of other UWC's were all there, big news and media groups, they had flags from all the countries that students carried, I wore my cowboy costume.... I actually got a holster and toy guns that Salma had from my USA 3rd year who also had a cowboy costume, so that made my costume more fun.
Anyway, the weekend was good.
This week is quite short because we have a long weekend (no school friday) and today, Wednesday, is the Marca per la Pace to Trieste. The whole school is going to march for peace and then setup some workshops and things in Trieste. Should be a lot of fun!
Anyway, I have to go get ready for the march,
Ciao!

October 18th, 2007

Ciao everyone!
I've been so busy the last few weeks I haven't been keeping up very well with the blog, sorry!
The week after our Trento hiking trip was Latin Week.
At UWCAD each region has their own week over a two year period. This means that throughout the week and weekend, they do shows, have food taster sessions, poetry nights and parties. Latin week was really fun, I think they did a great job. I was also slightly sick however, so I got pretty tired by the weekend, and didn't really recover/rest as much as I should have! So I went on sick list (this means you go to the nurse and are approved for staying in your room and not attending classes and activities) on Monday, and it helped a lot.
On Sunday, I finally managed to get the people together for the band I've been intending to start. We got to play a while, and got a sense for what sort of equipment etc. we have, it was fun! We also played again this last Tuesday, although we've been having a little trouble getting everyone there at the same time (we're all very busy). Juoar and I are playing guitar, Vollen (not a UWCAD student, but the son of a teacher at the college) is drumming, and we have a few people interested in vocals that may switch off - Bongani (South Africa) is the only one that has joined us so far. I think it's going to be lots of fun, I love the opportunity I have here to play music so much of the time!
Anyway, taking Monday off has helped me survive the week (It's now Friday after classes are out!). I've found that classes are getting harder to keep up with now. The courses do not require huge amounts of work outside of class, but relative to the amount of free time we all seem to have, it feels like a lot.
This week (Wednesday) started our 25th Anniversary Opening Ceremony. Heads of other UWC's and members of the UWC International Board came to the college, along with 4 students form the UWC-USA campus (some of them carrying hugs and notes from home, which was great). This makes things even more exciting than usual, of course, and tomorrow we are having the official ceremony in 12 in Trieste in the main Piazza there. Tonight I am meeting the UWC-USA president, Lisa Darling, to bring her to Menza for dinner. I am looking forward to getting to speak with the heads of the colleges and the UWCUSA students, it should be really fun and interesting!
I've been hanging out with Urska a lot, and also with Lucy and Sarah some. I'm starting to feel like I know everyone at the school (even if I still don't have all the names and countries). The weather has been pretty cold mostly, but we have been getting some sun. In light of this and being sick I haven't been doing much exercise (I had to skip sailing on Tuesday, although I have continued my wind-surfing endeavors). Haven't been running or on my bike in a while, but I'm starting to feel like need to. I have been playing soccer once or twice a week, at least!
I also had a viola lesson (in Italian) that went quite well. I'm starting to a get a feel for the sound the viola can and should produce. I'm starting to practice a little more!

Anyway, I'll try keep up a little more so I don't have to summarize like this! This weekend should be eventful!
Ciao!
(the picture above was last week or two when Ingrid (Norway), Myself, and Urska (Slovenia) made dinner in Fore)

October 18th, 2007

October 16th, 2007

Ciao tutti!
It has been quite a while since I updated il mio blog, so lots has happened.
Two weekends ago (Oct. 6/7) I went with the school on a hiking trip to the dolomites, near Trento. I could never pronounce the name of the town we were in, so I don't remember what it was, but we were in the mountains hiking, and stayed overnight at a cottage with a group from the college and a group of Italians from a local school there. I the trip was amazing, there were beautiful mountain ranges that reminded me of the rockies at times, we had great weather (which wasn't expected) and I got to practice a little Italian.
We went on Sat. morning very early, drove about 4.5 hrs., met up with the Italian students, spent the night in a cottage after a short hike, got up the next morning and hiked about 2.5 hrs. to the top of a mountain range that was the Austria-Hungarian/Italian border in World War II, at returned to Duino by that evening (Sunday).
The trip was fantastic, it was nice to be at at least a slightly higher altitude for a while, and it was just great hanging out with everyone! We were about 30 in total: 15 UWC students/teachers and 15 Italians.


We ate lunch at this cottage above - the final destination for our hike.
To the left is the group we were with.
















Well, I have a break right now and I have to go to Italian Class, so that's all, I'll update more soon!
I'll tell you about latin week, being sick, starting my band, and meeting UWC-USA students.
Ciao!

Long Weekend (Sept. 28 - 30)

I went to Ljubljana! The plan for the long weekend (Fri. 28-Sun. 30) was to go camping in the nearby Karso Forest, however, in light of the heavy rain for the last 3 days, we had a backup. We traveled to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, on Friday, mid-day, and stayed at Urska’s grandparents’ house.

The group was: (Myself) Diana, Urska and Lucy.






We took a bus from Duino to Trieste, and from Trieste to Sezana (a town just over the border). In Sezana, we got on a train, accidentally sat in first class, got kicked out into second class, and spent a lovely hour and a half or so traveling across the Slovenian Country sie (quite near Urska’s home).

When we arrived in Ljubljana around 18:00, we walked around the city for a while, and took a bus to Urska’s grandparents’ house. My first impressions of Ljubljana were, I think, that it was quite quiet, that it felt very Eastern-European, and that it is really very pretty (both in terms of the architecture and that mountains and hills surrounding it). Urska’s grandparents couldn’t have been nicer or more hospitable. Neither of them spoke any English (or if they did they didn’t learn it) but I think that made the experience even more fun. I started learning words (and trying to learn phrases) in Slovenian, and I really want to continue. I really like the language.

Anyway, the entire trip was really really really fun! Urska’s grandma is an exceptional cook and made us wonderful, healthy, vegetarian, homemade meals, and was very nice. I felt bad that I couldn’t say anything more than “Hvala” (thank you) to express how nice it was to be there. It really felt like a grandparents house; it was warm and cozy and smelled like very good food all the time. The food was especially nice compared to the rather repetitive, deep fried food at the college.


(It was Cold)


Anyway, we arrived at Urska’s grandparents home, ate a wonderful meal (something with broccoli and spinach and mozzarella), played a French card game I taught them, and watched a movie. We went to bed oddly early, and got up around 8:30-9:00 the next morning – most sleep I’ve gotten since I got to UWCAD!

As a result of said excess sleep, the day seemed very relaxed and was really great. We ate more great food (courtesy of Urska’s grandma), walked around the Ljubljana city center, walked up onto a really beautiful hill with a castle (Castle Hill?) near the city center, and enjoyed the beautiful autumn afternoon. I remember thinking sincerely that I didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world at the moment. It was really great.

(Lucy, Diana, Urska, Urska's Grandmother)

Urska’s grandma offered to drive us home (about 1 hr. 15 min. from Ljubljana to Duino by car – 6 hrs. traveling by bus and train!) and we stopped at some very cool caves on the way. We also had the pleasure of meeting Urska’s mother briefly, on the way down to the caves from Ljubljana (near Urska’s home). She was very nice, speak wonderful English, and invited us to come visit this winter some time. I would really love to; I’ve loved all of Urska’s family that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting!

The caves were very cool, although quite developed (as usual). They were, none the less, really pretty and I enjoyed seeing them.



(at the caves)




We got back to school around 20:00 and hung out in Diana’s room and had a mini dinner with some cheese and bread and such…
Slovenia was really wonderful, I hope to go back soon, and I am sincerely considering trying to learn Slovenian. It’s a language that is not even remotely similar to any I have ever studied at all, but I really like it!


Here are some of the words I learned that I can think of:
(these are all spelled phonetically, so I’m sure they’re way off – sorry Urska!)

ena – one
dva – two
tri – three
sditti – four
bet – five
hvala - thank you
dio – good bye
dan – hello
iti – to be
yus sum – I am
govoriti – to speak
yus ne govorim slovensko – I don’t speak Slovenian
govoris slovensko? – do you speak Slovenian?
fajn – fine?
prossimo – your welcome
kie yie – where is…. (I’m positive I severely massacred the spelling)
morati – ? (this is the one I was trying to learn…but accidentally said the next one)
morit – to massacre
mi premo – we go
midva – us two
mitri – us three
ti - you
srcek - darling

That is all my vocabulary after one day of asking Urska to repeat and sound out words over and over, I’m sure I got very annoying! (Hvala srcek!)

Now it’s 2:00 on Sunday, and I need to go to sleep, but the weekend turned out better than I could have imagined! I can’t even go into highlights, everything was wonderful…



Dio
Ciao

September 17-24, 2007

Ciao tutti!


I've been so busy lately with lots of school and extra-curricular stuff, I'm sorry I haven't been writing about recent events. So, here goes the last week in a nutshell...
Venice was last weekend, the went well, classes are starting to set in to some rhythm although I still have less homework than I expected/expect to. But, with all the other college activities and services I've been participating in, I've still been incredibly busy.
This week, for example (a pretty regular picture) I went to Sailing and Soccer (two evenings), Art, a photography meeting and the opening of a show by Eric Heartman (the photographer after who our art center is named), I spent a couple hours working on College Bikes, met with the 25th Anniversary Planning Committee (which I'm on), we had the opening of a new Hall/Auditorium which I filmed parts of and took pictures for, I visited the Duino Castle (which was amazing), I went to a 60's/70's themed dance party.... oh and Urska and Juor and I went swimming and attacked the Thursday sailing class and jumped on their boats... (that was a highlight) - just to name the things that come to mind immediately. It's amazing how one week can feel like months.

(Yes, I wore my national costume)
Simone (Canada), Remy


I've spent a lot of time this weekend and last week taking pictures, filming college shows, and then trying to rip all and upload all this media onto my computer and give it to the people who want it.... I still haven't managed to put anything on Facebook. (sorry)
The cool part about all this is, however, that I'm making a proposal to get a video camera for the college that can be used to film all of these events (in light of the 25th anniversary), and my sources of contact sounded optimistic about the possibility and told me to figure out what camera I wanted and the price...

This weekend and yesterday (Monday, 09/24/07) we were practicing and performing for a show we did at the University of Trieste in light of a ceremony the university was doing to honor people who had done various social projects... It was a big deal with the media and all, but I couldn't understand much as it was all in Italian. Anyway, they asked us if we would provide performances, so we did the show! I sang with the choir (I'm singing bass), and there were a number of very cool dances and a few instrumental/percussion performances students had put together. The shows we do here remind me a lot of those at UWCAD for those of you who know. I love them. This one was lots of fun to rehearse, perform, and film etc.


(This is the venue for the Trieste Show)






(Some of the Choir)



Anyway, it was yesterday we performed, and tomorrow we are doing a similar show in a town on the border with Slovenia (I'm not sure of the name or purpose of the show, but I will find out soon enough!). Last night, on the way back from the show, our van stopped in Trieste for Ice Cream at midnight, and I got up this morning at 7:00 to make Crepes with Salma in Sholtz residence. I haven't been sleeping much, but I love everything I'm doing, so it seems worth it! Today, I went sailing in very little wind (so it was quite boring), but I swam afterwards which was fun. I also went briefly to a ceremony some Asian students did that they celebrate at home that has to do with the Full Moon cycle and a new year. It was fun.

This weekend is our first long weekend which means that we don't have school on Friday (it's such a big deal here it's weird to think that it was normal at home). People plan trips everywhere - Myself, Lucy, Julie, Diana, Urska, Juor, Xana, and a few others are planning to bike for two days (hopefully to Slovenia) camp, andI come back.... Should be lots of fun, we'll leave on Friday Morning, and probably come back on Sat. Night/ Sunday morning.

I have been spending time with lots of people, I feel comfortable hanging out with just about anyone here. Especially been with:
Uska (Slovenia)
Salma (Canada)
Lucy (US)
Kaleigh, Juor, Simone, Julie...

I'm doing well overall. I am listening to music from the show this weekend - right now a song called the Israeli Chair Dance that the second years have an very impressive dance/routine to. I'm hoping to put some of these videos on youtube.com.

Hope everyone's doing great!
Ciao!

September 17-24

Ciao tutti!

I will upload pictures for this post soon, the server isn't letting me right now!

I've been so busy lately with lots of school and extra-curricular stuff, I'm sorry I haven't been writing about recent events. So, here goes the last week in a nutshell...
Venice was last weekend, the went well, classes are starting to set in to some rhythm although I still have less homework than I expected/expect to. But, with all the other college activities and services I've been participating in, I've still been incredibly busy.
This week, for example (a pretty regular picture) I went to Sailing and Soccer (two evenings), Art, a photography meeting and the opening of a show by Eric Heartman (the photographer after who our art center is named), I spent a couple hours working on College Bikes, met with the 25th Anniversary Planning Committee (which I'm on), we had the opening of a new Hall/Auditorium which I filmed parts of and took pictures for, I visited the Duino Castle (which was amazing), I went to a 60's/70's themed dance party.... oh and Urska and Juor and I went swimming and attacked the Thursday sailing class and jumped on their boats... (that was a highlight) - just to name the things that come to mind immediately. It's amazing how one week can feel like months.

I've spent a lot of time this weekend and last week taking pictures, filming college shows, and then trying to rip all and upload all this media onto my computer and give it to the people who want it.... I still haven't managed to put anything on Facebook. (sorry)
The cool part about all this is, however, that I'm making a proposal to get a video camera for the college that can be used to film all of these events (in light of the 25th anniversary), and my sources of contact sounded optimistic about the possibility and told me to figure out what camera I wanted and the price...

This weekend and yesterday (Monday, 09/24/07) we were practicing and performing for a show we did at the University of Trieste in light of a ceremony the university was doing to honor people who had done various social projects... It was a big deal with the media and all, but I couldn't understand much as it was all in Italian. Anyway, they asked us if we would provide performances, so we did the show! I sang with the choir (I'm singing bass), and there were a number of very cool dances and a few instrumental/percussion performances students had put together. The shows we do here remind me a lot of those at UWCAD for those of you who know. I love them. This one was lots of fun to rehearse, perform, and film etc.

Anyway, that was yesterday we performed, and tomorrow we are doing a similar show in a town on the border with Slovenia (I'm not sure of the name or purpose of the show, but I will find out soon enough!). Last night, on the way back from the show, our van stopped in Trieste for Ice Cream at midnight, and I got up this morning at 7:00 to make Crepes with Salma in Sholtz residence. I haven't been sleeping much, but I love everything I'm doing, so it seems worth it! Today, I went sailing in very little wind (so it was quite boring), but I swam afterwards which was fun. I also went briefly to a ceremony some Asian students did that they celebrate at home that has to do with the Full Moon cycle and a new year. It was fun.

This weekend is our first long weekend which means that we don't have school on Friday (it's such a big deal here it's weird to think that it was normal at home). People plan trips everywhere - Myself, Lucy, Julie, Diana, Urska, Juor, Xana, and a few others are planning to bike for two days (hopefully to Slovenia) camp, andI come back.... Should be lots of fun, we'll leave on Friday Morning, and probably come back on Sat. Night/ Sunday morning.

I have been spending time with lots of people, I feel comfortable hanging out with just about anyone here. Especially been with:
Uska (Slovenia)
Salma (Canada)
Lucy (US)
Kaleigh, Juor, Simone, Julie...

I'm doing well overall. I am listening to music from the show this weekend - right now an song called the Israeli Chair Dance that the second years have an very impressive dance/routine to. I'm hoping to put some of these videos on youtube.com.

Hope everyone's doing great!
Ciao!

Venice Followup

Here are some pictures from Venice. I'll have lots more up soon on facebook. Ciao!














Marchine, Jay, Remy

















The group (50 1st years) led by Henry Thomas










I have to go, but I'll try to put more on the blog also as soon as I get a chance.

Venice, September 15

Venice was amazing!
I feel like I've always had this subtle desire to go there and take photographs, because it is this entirely different, very romantic, historical place. Now, I have been to Venice, and I took lots of photographs (about 250)! I really did love it though, it is a very beautiful and cultural city.
The school trip left at 6:35 in the morning on Saturday, we drove about two hours to a port town, from which we took a ferry for about an hour to Venice. Approaching the city from the water is very impressive, it looks very dramatic, with large churches and towers, and building that show the Eastern Muslim influence in historical Venice.
Having Henry Thomas along on this excursion makes all the difference from the historical perspective, because he knows so much about the history, architecture and art. He gave us a tour of various churches and piazzas, and explained quite a lot about the history. What I especially remember him discussing, is that Venice was very powerful in the 14th century or so, and controlled all the trade with the know Eastern world at the time, that was coming into Europe. Thus, Venice reflects this with the architecture, art and things from Egypt etc. Venice was, because they controlled all this important trade, also the richest city in Europe, so it's quite impressive. There are something like 1-2 Million tourists visiting Venice every year...
Anyway, very interesting.
We stayed all day, had free time in which we walked a lot and I took lots of pictures, ate pizza, and saw cool places...
The day was amazing overall, and I look forward to going back possibly in February for a big festival where there are impressive masks. Sounds like lots of fun.
So I like Venice alot, the trip back was great with a sunset over Venice on the ferry... lovely.
That night, we stayed up late dancing at this beach nearby called Sistiana, which was kinda ridiculous and also lots of fun!
Ciaociao!

September 14, 2007

The school week went by very quickly! I guess that was my second full week of actual school... and it still feels like I've been here for months!
Everything is great, I'm starting to like most of my classes a lot, and am finding most of the subject material really interesting.
Our activities are all starting around now too. We had physical activities this week for the first time, and Aesthetic and Service activities start next week. I found out today that I was selected for Photography Activity and for Music Activity (Viola Lessons) which is awesome, especially because I don't think you're supposed to be able to be in two core activities, but I'm on the list twice! I'm really excited for these! I spoke with the Photography teacher at the taster session for Photography last week, and he said that I would probably be able to be in Intermediate Photography class, even though it's only for 2nd years normally - and I'm in! The teacher, Angelo, doesn't speak English, but he's been teaching at the college for 25 years and is very cool. I think it will also help my Italian to be taking a class in the language.
I had sailing (my core physical activity) this week also, and it was lots of fun. I basically got on a small sailboat (a laizer, I think) with another girl who had learned how to sail it 3o min. previous, and I figured it out! We almost hit one of our groups other boats once, and we almost capsized at least twice, but we didn't and it worked out! Either next week or in two, I'm going to start wind surfing during the activity, but the instructor thought it would be a good idea for me to get down the tactics of sailing, before I added the balance part into it.... So that will be fun!
The weather has been warmer lately, and I've been swimming the last few days. I also went running on a nice trail called Wilke Path, that leaves from the Fore lawn, and ends up in a nearby port called Sistiana. I ran there and back yesterday, it was amazing, and the view of the sea off the cliffs was phenomenal.
Two unusual things happened this week. The first is that our Physics teacher arrived late from China, we had one physics class, and two days later, the teacher decided that he was not going to stay! This was not only a little shocking, but a little frightening as we have now gone 2 weeks without physics classes! Anyway, the headmaster has interviewed other teachers and says we will have one soon, I hope so!
Also, an Indian girl Shristi left on Wednesday. The story is that she didn't like it here, and that she missed home. I believe they may be sending a replacement from India, but I found that extremely shocking. I guess UWC doesn't fit for everybody...

The first years are also planning an EE Show for the Second years, which is a tradition at the college. When the second years have to turn in their Extended Essays (EE's) on Nov. 2nd, we're planning a big performance in the Hall/Auditorium that's being inaugurated on the 22nd of this month! I'm playing a main role in the planning, and it sounds like I'll be in charge of the musical sections of the performance... it should be lots of fun, I'm excited!

Highlights this week included starting the planning for the show, running and swimming, Sarah (my seconda)'s Birthday Party we had in the woods on Wed. night, and a dinner we had with some of the Americans, Canadians and British.
I can't really think of any lowlights... maybe just not having gotten other things done, but there is only so much time in a week!
Anyway, I am going on the school planned cultural visit to Venice tomorrow, we are leaving at 6:35 tomorrow morning! Another group went last Saturday, and said it was amazing, so I'm really looking forward to it!

Ciao, hope everyone's doing great!

p.s. This is a picture my Mongolian room-mate Jay took when I was about to go biking last week!

September 8,2007

Ciao everyone!
It's the weekend! This sensation of having a weekend here is very weird actually, because everything is so busy and exciting all the time, and there are so many things I always have to be doing, but now I can really do what I want with my time...
I took a bike ride this morning (I got a key from Julius, a very nice teacher who's in charge of the bikes at the college so that I can start doing some work on them to fix them up a bit for the year) and then took a swim with two new girls at the school, Natasha and Kristina (they arrived late from Romania and Russia), but then ended up swimming from Porto to Fore beach with Tomash and Andrea.
The weather was beautiful today (still a little cold in the water, but not so much that we couldn't swim for an hour) as it was yesterday (I also took a swim then).
Reflecting back on this first week of classes, they got better at the end! Things are still a little moving a little slow, but I have come to realize that it's the first week so they should be! Also, I think they are taking things reasonably slowly for the non-native-english seakers, to give them a chance to really learn English well - I can't imagine taking a difficult academic course in a second (or third!) language, so I admire most of my classmates who are doing just that! So I'm ok with it going a bit slow for now.
The second years are all working on their Extended Essays (EE's) and the deadline was yesterday, so they were all very stressed and not sleeping the last few days. Thus, I'm sure I will be very academically challenged soon!

Yesterday I filmed some around Duino and will make a quick video to post here soon! I'm planning on starting a band (rock) with a few people here also. We have also talked about a classical string quartet, so the music opportunities are certainly here.

Anyway, the couple of days of nice weather was great, and it was nice to sleep in and recover a little bit this morning, a week here can tire you out pretty well!

I'll post the video as soon as it's done, and more pics to come!
Ciao

September 7. 2007

As I said, we started classes this week, which has made everything more hectic, but exciting and interesting at the same time. The schedule we run on for classes is very weird: we have an 8 day cycle, with school 5 days a week. So the cycle will finish on Wed. of next week, and then start again on thursday. I have 6 classes (listed before) and various blocks free, which show up quite randomly durring the 8 days - the best times for free block are in the morning so that you can sleep longer! Classes start at 8:00 and end around 13:50, depending on when you have breaks.
I've been doing less excercise this week, partly because I've been so busy, but also becaus the weather here has gotten pretty cold. It's been okay durring some of the days, but it feels a lot like fall already. Everyone says it's unusual to get cold this early. I don't mind the cold too much, but I got used to taking long swims in the sea, and I can't anymore because it is way too cold to be in the water. I'm considering trying today anyway though, because it looks sunny outsied.
This week we have aesthetic activity taster sessions, which is where we try out the different aesthetic activites we are interested in and see which ones we like - we sign up for them this weekend, it think.
Remember that all students have CAS - Creative, Athletic and Service (I don't think that's actually what it is, come to think about it, but that's the idea, and I can't remembert the actuall acronym or what it stands for) - as a compulsory part of our education here. We have to take one in each section.

So far, for Creative I'm thinking of doing Photography, Choir, and Music Lessons
For Physical, sailing (windsurfing I think), soccer and maybe capoeira
Service, I'm probably doing Band Service (performing in groups for free around the community) and hopefully the 25th anniversary planning group for the college service.

Between figuring all these things out, doing homework, going to class, and socializing, I've probably been as busy this this week as I will be when I actually start having all these things regularly! (at least I hope so because if I'm any more busy, it might not be fun)
I'm also hoping to start working on a video of the college (maybe just a short, informal one to start, so that I can post it on facebook or youtube and everyone can see a bit about my life here)!

Anyway, class is starting, gotta go,
I'll write more later!
Ciaociao.

September 1-3, 2007

September 1, 2007

We had a school trip to Trieste (for the 1st years) today. We were briefed for the trip with a little Italian history and divided into groups that we would be with for our “scavenger hunt” of the city. There were nine in my group (including three Italians – which proved helpful!) and we named ourselves “mare moto” (tsunami)! The trip through Trieste involved finding things like statues of famous people, certain ice cream shops, churches and synagogues, and important landmarks. At the end we all met back up at this great church on a hill called San Giusto. It has great history (which the great World Arts and Cultures teacher Henry, told us about). It was a Roman Church under the Byzantine Empire at some point, and then was built over by other people (I think Muslims) and then by the Catholics…. It went something like that! But it was fascinating to listen to Henry talk about it all, I wish I was able to take his class(but full schedule, you know…).

Anyway, then we returned for mensa at the college and then went to the “Rumble in the Jungle”, the jungle-themed show and party that the Second Years put on as a welcome for the first years. The teachers were all there, as well as all the students and various people from Duino. The show was great, with various talent-show-like acts and short skits that made jokes about the college life, etc. It seemed weird to me to be being welcomed now, when we had been at school for such a long time… and then I realized that it had only been 7 days since my arrival in TRS!!!!!! It feels like it’s been months! Interesting sensation… Everyone here just feels like family, it’s hard to think that I’ve only known them for 7 days… some even less! Anyway, the show the second years did was amazing and I really nice for us. At the end, they had a slideshow of pictures they had taken our first week, it was touching. So that night we had a dance party in the residence Pala that was great. I ended up being DJ for it actually, because nobody else was getting much together and I organized some people, got some big speakers and the schools mixer and my laptop, and started playing music! I think everyone liked what I played too… I mixed Reggeton (latin American dance) with American hip-hop and European techno. I threw in some merengue too. I think it was a hit, and it was fun to be known a little more at school too! It’s really fun to see all the people dancing to all these kinds of music too. There are some amazing dancers (mostly African) but everyone likes different styles more and less, and we all dance to everything! I can’t describe how fun it is.



September 2, 2007

We had various school functions Sunday, Nicolas, my roommate, and I swam to Fore Beach from Porto again (2nd time for me) and the weather was nicer now. I’ve started to really like swimming in the sea, it’s a new thing for me, but it’s a great workout if you swim far, and it just makes me feel very alive to be out there in the open sea in (what is now) pretty cold water.
The weather has been a lot nice now (less hot) which seems to be very unusual for this time of year. It hasn’t been windy the last couple of days, but somewhat overcast and a very nice cool to be out and about in. Still, it makes it a little cold to swim, but we go all the same and it is great!
Sunday night, I went to bed pretty early because classes Started early Monday!


September 3, 2007

Today we had our first classes starting on a regular schedule! I had the first block free (which was great) so I didn’t have to be at class until 9:00. Our periods are 55 min. long and we have 5 min. in between. After the first three periods (at 11:00 or so) we have a 25 min. break before the last two classes.
So there are 5 periods a day - Starting at 8:00 and ending a little after 13:00.
Today I had Music and 9:00 followed by Economics. Then there was the short break, English and Math. Then Lunch…
Music was OK, we looked over the syllabus which basically says the three things we will be doing are: Musical analysis (listening and analyzing pieces), Solo performance, and composition. The later two sound great to me and the first one not as exciting, but I think it will be fun.
Then there was Econ with a teacher from Holland who is young, a cyclist and very nice. I’m excited for Econ. It sounds like we will do Micro and Macro economics (business/individual and national/global) this year and next year go into econ in respect to other things sort of. I really think I will like this course.
Math was a little slow…. I found out I placed high enough on the standard level placement test to be in Higher Level Math, but I didn’t have enough free higher level blocks, or the desire to take HL Math… but it was still kinda slow. I guess we have to start at the beginning so that everyone is on the same page.
English was also a little slow. I didn’t come out of it too excited, but I like the teacher and I think it will be interesting. We have 7 books on the syllabus this year.

Overall, I came out of my first day of classes a little discouraged because not much happened, but I’m going to believe for now that it’s just because it was the introductory day, and that it will get better as the year picks up.
Short amounts of time here seem so long… it’s very odd. I like it though! It’s like having more life..

August 31, 2007

Today I sat through a slightly painfully long presentation on the social services of the college and social service in general. It was too long in a hot room in front of a projector...
Finally, I made my social service priority choices -

1. Band Service (playing music for elderly people etc.)
2. Working with disabled adults in Trieste
3. Environmental service (cleanup of areas/helping animals)
4. First Aid training

These are not for sure, but they were what I requested, the school decides.

After all the 4/5 hr.s of sitting around in the morning, I made up for it by being very efficient in the afternoon! I played viola duets with a music scholar Miga, from Mongolia - we are going to play something for a small event on Sunday. I also took my first Italian Bike ride! In full team FITaos kit! I hope to get some pics for the team of their overseas representation...

Anyway, then for dinner the entire school went to a bowling/pizzeria place, were we ate pizza (and didn't go bowling).

Then there was a dance party at the residence Pala that was pretty fun, and now it's 2:00 on the first day in September and I'm going to sleep!


(Trip to Trieste, Italy, tomorrow)

Reflections and Updates - August 30th, 2007

I'm sitting in my dayroom (at Fore) watching about 15 people from at leats 12 different countries very informally ballroom dancing, talking and laughing to something that sounds like jazz/Latin music.. I can't quite tell! This doesn't feel at all unusual to me, but it has definitely not yet happened since I've been here... at UWC it seems like there is always something fun, new, and interesting happening all the time!

I've come to find that the more I talk to people the more I like them, and the more people I meet the more I feel surrounded by a very big community of incredibly talented people in areas that I had no idea. There are at least 5 people I've heard play incredible piano out of nowhere... they hadn't mentioned it! There are at least three VERY good violinists, and one VERY good violist (Mongolia) and a good cello player. Almost everyone is more talented than almost anyone I had ever met before coming here, and I enjoy spending time with all of them.
It's incredible.

Lucy (2nd year - USA) said, one night when we were walking with probably 70% of the college to ajip ( a gas station nearby) that it was the most united she had ever seen the school! And that was in the first week! I think this is largely because we all seem to get along very well, the 2nd years are almost all great about interaction with the 1st years. Whatever it is, the school is wonderful, and I think feel like almost everyone is comfortable and close - something I thought impossible with 200 teenagers before!

Classes have been chosen now, after various introductions by teachers.
The IB has 6 subject blocks, that can be filled by classes in their respective categories.
You typically take 3 higher level (HL) classes and 3 standard level (SL) classes.
My schedule has been finalized, but it can be changed - it looks like this:

English (for native speakers) HL
Italian HL
Music HL
Economics HL
Math SL
Physics SL

I am taking 4 higher levels, which is unusual, but I don't think it will be nearly as hard as having 7 subjects - which almost all the non native English speakers do.

I don't have times for my classes yet (should be in my mailbox now) but we basically have classes in the mornings (until 1:15) Monday-Friday, with activities and service in the afternoons.
The CAS system stands for Creativity, Activity, and Service (both College Service and Community Service). You are required to take one of each of these while you're at the school. I haven't entirely decided what I'm doing yet, but possibilities I'm considering are:

ACTIVITIES - Sailing, soccer, capoeira
SERVICE - Fixing college bikes, ski instructing? - haven't heard about community service yet
CREATIVE - Photography, choir

It will all be done soon, classes start next Monday along with physical activities. We are still figuring out the exact CAS schedules though.

I've made lots of friends and feel free to hang out with just about anyone. I'm probably been hanging more with:

Diana (UK 1st yr.)
Urska (Slovenia 1st yr.)
Nicolas (Argentina 1st yr.)
Christina (Canada 1st yr.)
Juor (Norway 1st yr.)
Lucy (USA 2nd yr)
Julie (UK 2nd yr.)
Jay (Mongolia 1st yr.)

Here's a picture we took today:

(Left to right)
Remy, Urska (Slovenia), Bogo (Poland), Diana(UK), Nicolas(AR)









These are just the names that I thought of the fastest right now, but I have been spending time with SOOOO many amazing people!
Highlights in the last couple of days have been:
-Going swimming at night in the Adriatic with the Latinos (which we were reprimanded for and told we aren't supposed to do)

-Playing pick up soccer with a handful of fellow students.

-Playing Viola/violin duets with Micha (also Mongolia - not sure about the name spelling)

-Swimming from Porto (the local port and swimming area) to the Fore beach (half an hour swim) in windy, big waves with Diana and Bella (Spain). (This swim has never been done before as far as we know, and we got some good comments from fellow students!)

-Staying up until 3:30am with Diana, Lucy and Julie talking



***The number of dancers in the dayroom has hit more like 20 now (after a slight decline)***


There haven't been any significant lowlights!



Here's a bit of other info that I am randomly remembering at the moment:

My personal tutor's name is Stefano, from Italy. He is also the music teacher. He helps me with scheduling, classes, important documents like my permisso di siggiorno (permision to reside here) - which I got! - and other questions we have.
My residence tutors names is Reema. She is nice and helpful and I see her occasionally.
I haven't found somewhere to put my bike yet, so it's outside the Mensa door on a bike rack but not locked. I'm working on changing this as soon as I can!

To answer some other questions:

WEATHER: It has been very sunny and quite hot since I got here except yesterday and today. Yesterday (Friday, August 29 07) it was overcast and very nice out. Today it rained very hard for a few hours (before our epic swim) and it was very windy and overcast almost the entire rest of the day. I loved it! Something about the weather was exciting, sort of anticipating... not sure what.

I'm putting all the pictures I've taken here on facebook, you can see them at:

http://hs.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1047000043

Initial Traveling and First Days

My flight itinerary was basically as follows (Days August 24th - 25th):

6:15am ABQ to Houston, TX
Houston to Newark, NJ
Newark to Rome, Italy
Rome to Trieste, Italy 10:45

There were a couple of my 2nd years in the airport waiting to greet me when I arrived, along with a number of 1st years who had arrived the day before.
Everyone was really nice, Lucy (2nd year from Durango, CO) was there and was really helpful and welcoming - I have to say it was nice to see a fellow American and a little familiarity!

I came in on the same flight with Zoe (Japan) and Heidi (USA), and I didn't realize it!
Apparently I had been on the same flight with Heidi all the way from New Jersey!


Here's a few notes I jotted down while in the plane part of traveling:

"I'm on the plane from Newark to Rome, and I can, for the most art, tell who the Italias are. They are much more personal and shameles than the Americans. Very nice though, sort of that take-it-slow-and-savor-life attitude. I can already see it. I have just been loking at Italian books and listening to the Cd's, and I can understand if it's spoken slowly. I can feel like I'm catching on to the speaking part a little too even after just an hour of sort of studyng it. It's past midnight (2 or 3 o'clock) by Italy time now, and I'm not tired. I dn't think it has hit me yet that I'm going to UWC."

Anyway, got to the College by bus with two bags checked, a violin/viola case and a messenger bag with my computer and cameras (my bike arrived a few days later). I didn't see any adult who was in charge at the college for the first two days or so! The second years had things under control, checked me in with the office, showed me my room, I unpacked, had dinner, met people, and got a tour with Lucy, by night, of the 7 residences at the college.

My residence is foresteria which is perched (literally) on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Adriatic Sea. We are pretty much in the center of Duino (you can see the town center - the piazza), and are in the same building as the cafeteria for the college (called the Mensa) and our dayroom hosts most of any of the big meetings/presentations that are done (waiting for the inauguration of a school hall/auditorium soon). There are 54 students in fore, more boys than girls - boys on the first floor, girls on the second. We have internet access by plug-in ethernet in the dayroom. I love fore's beautiful view, central location, and the fact that we are about 12 seconds away from Mensa at any given time. We are also right next to a very pretty lawn and the art/music building with a practice room and piano (although it's usually occupied).

Anyway, we all just got settled in out rooms and the town for the first couple of days. We made a trip to Emisfero, a supermarket/mall in the closest town - Monfalcone, where we bought school supplies, our own cutlery and silverware for our dayroom, and anything else we needed.
My roomates are Nicolas (Argentina) and Jay (Mongolia) - both very cool guys, we get along great. I met what I thought was the whole school (of course I couldn't remember many names) and then at the first entire 1st year class gathering, I realized that I didn't recognize at least half of them! You kind of have to make an effort to meet people in other residences if you don't have any activities in common! But I think it gets easier when school actually starts.

Everyone says hello and "have I met you?" to everyone else, all the time. People couldn't be nicer.


Here are a few thoughts I jotted down on my second night here (August 26th):


"Yesterday and this morning I had this strange feeling like I wasn't excited about being where I was. this was pretty much temporary, but I felt that way ever once and a while. Now, I still have few thoughts of any kind about the future, but I am very glad to be here. I think my highlight today was meeting and speaking with people. Especially meeting Lilly (Holland), Ludavika (Italy) and Marta (Italy) -met them in the Duino Odyssey scavenger hunt around Duino set up by the second years- and talking to the N. Americans and ARgentinians/Latinos. Rodriguez (Chile) said he considered me a latino now because I speak spanish, play futbol, and like matte! I spoke spanish for a while! Lowlights - waking up at 11:00 and not playing any music all day. I feel like I ahven't been doing/accomplishing that much because I've bee considering time spent not talking to people wasted time. Funny how your priorities change!
I did need sleep though - even after 11 hrs. sleep or so, I was falling asleep sitting up durring the head master's welcome meeting - it was interesting too! Anyway, have to be somewhere at 8am domani. It's about 1:00am!"


Starting that first day (Monday, August 27th) we started to get schedules and everything for the week of trying out different physical activities. I started meeting people and getting to be very busy...

Intro

Hello Everyone!
This is my blog I have set up to tell everyone what I'm up to here at the United World College of the Adriatic!
Let's start with the basics:

There are currently 12 UWC schools open around the world.
The UWC Mission Statement is:

"UWC makes education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future."

UWCAD is located northeast of Venice, Italy, and is located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea very close to the border of neighboring Slovenia.

Here are my experiences so far. They are in diary/narrative format: