Hello everyone!
Sorry I missed the update last week---we were away in Oxford at Shared Planet Conference, which was basically a weekend full of sustainability and human rights initiatives. It was a really interesting experience, and I got to go with a lot of fun people. I took away some good ideas from the conference, especially for Made in 48, an activity that I am a part of at school that deals with workers' rights. However, parts of the conference were a little extreme for me, and many of the participants have been arrested in the UK for protesting and regularly choose protest as a way to express their displeasure with 'the system' in general. At a school like AC, where we work to find peaceful solutions to problems interculturally or within our own countries, protesting (particularly violent protesting) doesn't seem like the best option most of the time. I did attend one very interesting workshop on how to encourage sustainable food consumption by buying locally or setting up a student-run co-op, so maybe that will be an option for AC.
Gallivanting about Oxford was also fun. Ok, it wasn't really gallivanting, but we did explore up and down Cornmarket street, which is this lovely pedestrian road near the Town Hall, and we ate food that wasn't from the canteen and spent an inordinate amount of time at a bookstore like the nerds we are. Amy (UK), Luke (USA), and I split the cost of the fourth book of the Eragon series three ways so that we each only paid 3 pounds for it. Oxford is a beautiful place, and many of my American co-years fell completely in love with it and are absolutely convinced that they will go there for university.
One of the strangest things here in the UK is how dark it gets and how quickly the sun goes down in the winter. In the summer they get a lot of daylight, but in the winter---well, it's 3:30 right now and it is beginning to get pretty gray. It will be dark by 5. That makes running very difficult, and Heidi and I have had to cancel our Friday afternoon runs because by the time we get out of classes at 4:45 (Friday is a long day of codes) you can't see anything! I've been swimming with Kate and Paula instead, and we have found that morning swims not only wake you up for the day but also allow you to shower in the pool room with some actual hot water!
I had a really lovely dinner on Tuesday evening with Heidi, Heidi's mom (who came to visit and take a few of us out), Paula, Hans (from the Netherlands, he's a second-year in my house), and Chloe (France). We went to the pub and had some great conversation and good food. It was a bit of an impromptu arrangement, but those are the only ones that truly work at AC, because you don't have to look far to find someone who is up for whatever you are doing.
I'm looking forward to going home for the break and spending Christmas with family---the Christmas decorations have been up since before Halloween over here, and holidays are in the air. I can't wait to see everyone!
Ok, the actual purpose of this post was to talk about our current diploma period on Critical Engagement, but I might have to finish that in another post, partially because it is not over yet and partially because I have another workshop in 5 minutes! But I'll put everything in as quickly as I can.
This Diploma Period is designed to get us to think more about our own identities and the identity we have at AC as a community, and use this knowledge to interact positively with others here and outside of the college. We've spent the morning in theoretical sessions about topics like diversity and identity, trying to figure out where identity comes from and how much diversity can create conflict or resolutions. The afternoons are devoted to action workshops: for instance, I just came from a workshop on engaging in conflict where we tried to find a resolution to the new night rule everyone is upset about by identifying the needs the staff had when they imposed it and how we can work with those.
I know that's a spotty explanation, but I really have to go, so until I can post again, everyone have a great weekend!
Madi
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