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..