Sunday, October 30, 2011

Post-Half-Term

I just realized that my previous post is titled 'Pre-Half-Term Week.'  Glad to see I'm sprinkling in some originality with these names!

Half-term just finished and everyone is trickling back to the college in groups of 2 or 3...it was nice to sit outside the house catching up with a few people and greeting everyone who came by.  My half term break was amazing---I got to see Dad and Katie and travel to Berlin with them.  Berlin was a great city.  It combined a very modern atmosphere and lots of contemporary buildings with a sincere acknowledgement of all of the city's history.  There is still an old architectural influence on the city, but placed in the modern context it gives the feeling of being purposely preserved, as if the city is consciously saving its past because it is such a valuable history.

I enjoyed seeing all of the old-style buildings in Berlin----the Berlin Cathedral was particularly spectacular, located on 'Museum Island,' a treasure trove of great museums housed in beautiful edifices.  If I get the chance to go back, I would love to take a closer look at some of those museums.  We also went out to the Olympic Stadium, the site of the 1936 Olympic Games.  That also had an air of being frozen in time for the benefit of future generations and foreigners like ourselves.  Seeing the stadium reminded me of the 2012 Olympics which will be housed in London---the excitement is already stirring in Cardiff!

After Berlin we went back to Cardiff for a day, so I was able to show Dad and Katie around there.  They took me back to school on Saturday and saw the castle.  It was really quiet since there weren't many people around and those who stayed at school for half-term were mostly studying.  Saying goodbye was not fun, but I know that only 6 weeks separate me from Winter Break---and if past experience is anything to judge by, that time will be quickly over!

Getting back to Morgannwg we found a bit of a surprise: one of the members of our house, Anne-Sofie, decided to leave the school and return to her home in Denmark.  I did have a couple of conversations with her during which she seemed unhappy at the school---she seemed a little disillusioned by the college. In her mind, UWC is supposed to be a place where students come together to work for the ideals of the college, but the focus was more on partying or drinking.  Though there is a strong drinking culture here, I don't find that it interferes too much with what we are trying to accomplish as a community.  Then again, it depends a lot on the people you spend your time with, and while I have found a great group of friends here whose focus is on promoting intercultural understanding to change the world for the better, she may not have been as lucky.  Anyway, a new girl named Chloe has come to Morgannwg.  She is from France, and seems like she will fit into the house very nicely.  So once again, we are almost full in Morgannwg, and full of some great people.

I'm feeling entirely ready for whatever is to come during the next 6 weeks of the semester.  Seeing my family has been really refreshing, and getting a connection with home was incredible.  However, I am glad to be back at AC with all of the wonderful friends I have made.  Until next time, take care and everyone have a fun and safe Halloween!

Madi

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Pre-halfterm Week

Hello everyone,

My apologies for missing my blog post last week---I do feel bad about this, and it's not much of an excuse, but the truth is last week I completely forgot and every time I thought about going to update it something started happening that delayed it even more!  So I will let you all know what's been going on for the past two weeks.

A great way for me to remember what's been going on is to check my past emails from my school email account.  The college has a pretty efficient system of communication where anyone can email anyone else in the school, or the groups of people to whom the email is relevant.  So checking back through my emails, I can see what I and others have been up to---emails are sent out about everything from a first-year vs. second-year basketball game (which was a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders) to Gender and Sexuality Focus Week workshops to Lost-and-Found emails.  There are quite a few of the latter, since everyone who loses something sends out a campus-wide email describing it and promising food for the person who locates it.  Food is the preferred currency here....if you want to ask a favor, chocolate always helps it along!

This past week was Gender and Sexuality Focus Week, which was an awareness period about homosexuality and bisexuality within the college and in the rest of the world.  Some people ran workshops with titles like 'What if your roommate is gay?' and had debates on issues like gay parent adoption.  I went to that debate to listen to what was being said, but the debate ended up being completely overshadowed by the group discussion we had afterwards.  Everyone participated, making it a strong exchange of different viewpoints, and I don't think anyone walked away offended because in general we all accept others' rights to their own opinions.  That's something I love about this place:  these initiatives work because we are ready to have an open dialogue with each other about any sort of topic.  I'm looking forward to more focus weeks in the future!

Checking further back in my emails, I see that we had a Disney Marathon in Morgannwg last weekend---that basically consisted of showing multiple Disney films and people from other houses crowding into our dayroom to catch a glimpse back at our childhood.  One interesting thing about watching Disney with international students: everyone knew the songs in their own languages!  So while I was singing along in English, Coral might be joining in with the Spanish version while Paula added German, and someone else sang in French or Chinese or whatever.  That was lots of fun.

I see from several extremely stressed 'lost' emails regarding missing USB drives that two weeks ago was the second-years' deadline for their Extended Essays, one of the IB requirements...it was a hectic week for them as they tried to pull it together, and missing USBs were a big issue.

Service has been going very well---we have been doing sessions for about a month now, and they are really rewarding to participate in.  I'm leading my first session on Wednesday---that means that I will make a plan for what songs and activities we will be doing at the session, as well as taking charge of the session while we are there.  Hopefully it will go well! 

There's only one week of school left before our week-long half-term break....a wonderful feature of the British school system that I know we all appreciate.  Dad and Katie are coming over, which I am very excited about, since I miss them and everyone else at home.  Some people who live close are going home, but others are traveling around the UK or Europe during this time.  Some are staying in the castle, but whatever anyone is doing it is sure to be a welcome break.  One of my goals is to catch up on sleep---we have all acrued a heavy sleep debt whilst here!

Finally, I'd like to say Happy Birthday to Susu and Papa John...hope you guys have/had great birthdays!  To everyone else at home, I miss you a lot and I hope you are all doing great.

Madi

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Post-Diploma Week

Once again I find that the busy flow of AC life has delayed me in posting when I should---I know it is no excuse, but the weather over the weekend was so gorgeuos that the entire campus flooded outside to soak up some sunshine before the Welsh rain came back!  No worries, though:  The dark gloom and doom is back in the sky, so we are expecting some cloudy days ahead.

Sunday was, as one of my second-years put it, 'the best mental health day ever.'  A group of  us went down to the seafront at low tide, and it was very similar to a day at the beach back in Jacksonville---we made a gigantic sand castle, looked for strange creatures on the rocks, and threw wet sand on each other.  Later some of us went back down and swam in the outdoor pool, which was one of the only times we'll do that of our own volition and not because of service or being thrown in for our birthdays.  It was so refreshing.  Sunday night we had a great house barbeque to celebrate our Sports Week win (actually it was total domination), and of course house bonding went along with that.

Now we are back to regular routine, with some changes as many first years have decided to switch their classes around---we were only given 45 minutes to decide on our schedule for the next two years during Induction, so there are quite a few people who want to alter their schedule.  Luckily for me, I'm very happy where I am, so I don't have to go through the hassle of getting make-up work or anything.

Last night my co-year Sara dragged me to a Student Council meeting.  It was an interesting experience and I'm glad I went to see it.  Each house has two second-year representatives on the Student Council, and it is completely student-run with a student president conducting the meeting.  Any student can bring concerns to the council, and some relevant issues came up which were dealt with very efficiently by the reps.  They also sprinkled in some humor and made the whole meeting enjoyable.

After Diploma Period people are buzzing with new ideas and ways to change life in the college for the better.  I think we first-years are stepping into our roles as full participants of the community here, since we've gotten over being the new arrivals.  I'm working on a small project with some co-years regarding sustainable food products.  We got the idea during a workshop on enacting environmental change, and we are researching which food products are the most environmentally friendly to purchase.  The main goal of this will be to spread whatever information we gain in a quick, accessible way to the people on campus.  This might be in the form of blurbs posted around campus, a notice on the dining hall, or cards handed out to people.  By suggesting alternatives to certain products, rather than just saying what is bad, we hope to nudge people in the right direction when they next go to buy food.

I hope everyone reading this blog is having a good week, and I miss you all a lot.  Time is flying, and my free code just flew away from me, but best wishes to everyone back in the US, wherever you are.

Madi