So far

Once again, it has been ages since I've written a post. There's just so much to do here, that it's difficult to find the time to write a well though out post. We've now had nearly 3 weeks of classes. There hasn't been too much difficulty involved with them, and for that I am grateful. Maybe it's just that I'm used to having loads of work to do, so this is a piece of cake...for now. It would be foolish to think that this whole year is going to be easy.

I can't remember if I mentioned my activities, but here they are:

Bee Keeping, Swimming Lessons, Gamelan, Flute Lessons, and Amnesty International. The first 4 are official activities, and the last one is unofficial. By that I mean that they either count towards my IB Diploma or they don't. For the IB, we have to log a certain amount of service hours and activity hours, and this goes towards that.

Bee Keeping is actually a lot of fun. We are able to help feed the bees and take care of them. We also get to partake in jarring the honey and selling it. For the past few sessions, we've been trying to decide how we want the promenade near the hives to look like. We're going to try to have some sort of display area to show the campus how essential bees really are to the environment. I don't like honey, so everyone is really surprised that I'm in Bee Keeping activity. I just feel that bees are important, and a fondness for honey doesn't have to go along with that.

Swimming Lessons are dull. I really would rather do something else, it's required that everyone knows how to swim.

Gamelan is a lot of fun. It's a Javanese gong instrument. It's fairly difficult to describe, so I'll just post pictures of it once I figure out how to do that without an SD card port.

Amnesty is also quite a lot of fun and really interesting. This week is Human Rights Focus week, so the focus of a lot of the evening activities will be human rights. Tonight, at dinner, we're going to have a dining hall segregation. Basically, everyone will be assigned a number, and then they have to sit according to their number. For example, 1's cannot speak during dinner. If a girl is a 2, she must be accompanied by a boy who is a 2. The girl can't speak, but the boy can speak all he wants. 3's must sit on the floor, etc. We're going to have a debate later this week, and there are a lot of other interesting things planned throughout the week.

Now...classes. I'm taking Standard Level English A1, Music, and Maths. (Yes, maths...not math.) I'm taking Higher Level Biology, Spanish B, and West Asian History.

English has been going fairly well. We've been reading a short story called Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. It is a very creepy story, but it's really interesting. We are, however, tearing the book apart by analyzing it, and I hate doing that, but the book is still very good.

Music is actually really interesting. It has been rather easy for the past few weeks just because we've been going over the parts of theory that I already know. I know that there is a lot of music theory of which I have no idea, so I'm expecting the class to become much more difficult. My class only has 6 people, so it's nice to be able to have a decent conversation, instead of feeling like we're being "talked at."

Surprisingly, maths has been easy. For the first part of this term, we've been working on equations of lines and quadratic functions. I learned all of that in 7th and 8th grade. I'm reluctant to switch to HL Maths because my career aspirations don't require loads of intense maths and if I were to switch to HL, I would have to move one of my other HL classes down, and I really don't want to do that. I've been told that SL gets much more difficult as the year goes on, and I hope it does. I sit in class feeling rather bored because I've learned all the material ages ago. The teacher is the kind of maths teacher everyone should have at least once. He is from Hungary, so his accent is just perfect.

Biology has been fairly difficult for me. It seems like most of the class already knows everything he is teaching, so they're always spewing out answers, while the rest of us sit in class not completely understanding what he is saying. His lectures are just now starting to make sense to me, so I'm grateful that I'm not completely lost anymore.

Spanish, Spanish, Spanish. At first, the class was really difficult because the teacher, Almu, is from Spain, and I'm not used to the Spanish accent. She left last week because she is pregnant, so she won't be back until next year. Now, we have another teacher, Pablo, also from Spain, but his accent isn't as strong and he speaks much slower. Luckily, I'm up to date on everything I should know in HL Spanish, so I'm not nearly as far behind as other people in my class. Some have only taken Spanish for 2 years. I just need to brush up on vosotros and I'll be fine.

West Asian History is fascinating. The class focuses on what we, in the west, would call the Middle East. I'm excited to learn more about the history of this area, and with that knowledge, be able to understand the conflicts that are currently going on. The class is in the castle, which is fantastic. I love the castle.

So, service. I'm in Social Service, and I'm doing Home Visits and Computer Club. Home Visits basically entails going to the home of an elderly person and having a nice chat with them. I haven't actually started that yet because the lady we were supposed to be visiting was on holiday and now she is sick, and doesn't think she'll be healthy enough for visitors for a while. So, the coordinator found me and Tran, the 2nd year going with me, a new person to visit, and that will start today. The Computer Club is a new initiative, so I'm helping to plan it. The main focus will be teaching elderly people basic computer skills. I'm really excited for it.

I've been making some amazing friends here. It's hard to believe that we've only been here a month, and I already feel like I've known these people for a long time. Time goes so quickly here, so I’m trying to savor every moment.

So far....

Well, this is my first post at Atlantic College. The past few days have been incredibly full of information, activities, and socializing. I feel like the days are just slipping by. I can barely remember the first few days just because so much has happened. I actually really love it.

On September 1st, I arrived to London Heathrow Airport. My flights were very comfortable, surprisingly. From Grand Rapids, I flew to Chicago, which took half an hour. Then, I had a four-hour layover until my flight to London from Chicago. I only slept for about an hour during the 8 hour flight. I was just too excited. Once it was about time for everyone else on the flight to wake up, I could see the ground. My heart was beating quickly, and I felt exhilarated.

Once we landed in London, I was just full on energy. I got through customs quickly. I had to stand in a really long line so they could make sure I wasn't going to kill everyone. Then, I went to get my bags. From there, I had to take all three of my bags to the other end of the airport in order to get to Terminal 3, where I was to meet up with the rest of the AC students.

I looked around for a bit, and then I saw Abby's hair. I knew that she has colorful dreadlocks, so I instantly knew I was in the right place. I felt like I was at home, and everything felt okay. I waited in the terminal for a bit, and met a few of my co-years, and my 2nd year room mate. There are a lot of Malaysians and Norwegians here. There are at least 20 Americans here, so it's nice to have bits of home here.

The bus ride to AC was very relaxing. I was able to speak with a few 2nd years and get to know more about the school. For most of the ride, though, I slept. Luckily, I woke up soon before we were to arrive at the college. I have a few pictures from the ride, and I think I have a fairly good one of my first look at the college in person.

As we were arriving to the college, there were 2nd years covered in face paint shouting and banging pans. As we were getting off of the bus, we had to state our name, country, and house. I had seen pictures of this "ceremony" before, but it was still quite a shock, and fun.

On Friday, we went to first year camp. That was quite a lot of fun. We were there for three days. The campgrounds are three hours away, on the western coast of Wales. We did surfing, coasteering, a hike, and a bunch of other activities.

When I think of surfing, I never think of Wales, or even the UK in general. The waves were actually pretty good, and I was able to surf moderately well. I was even able to stand up once for a few seconds. It was exhilarating. Additionally, we did coasteering. Basically, that is about jumping off of cliffs into the water. The biggest cliff I jumped off of was 4 or 5 meters, but it was still a lot of fun.

I had an amazing time at camp, and I made a few new friends, which is always good.

We chose our subjects earlier in the weeks, and here are the ones I've chosen:

Higher Level
Biology
Spanish B
West Asian History

Standard Level
English A1
Music - Flute
Maths Standard

We received our timetables today, as well, so that means that classes start soon. Monday, I think. I'm actually quite excited. I know I'm going to get lost; I already have several times, but I'm still looking forward to the first day. It will be nice to actually have things to do.

I miss you all at home, and I hope that the school year goes fantastically for everyone who has started, and try not to get too stressed out about APUSH and AP Lit.

A Matter of Time

I leave tomorrow. 0_0 It feels really good to say that.

I haven't felt such an odd mixture of emotions for a long time. I'm extremely happy to be going to UWCAC, but I'm also sad that I'll be leaving all of my friends and family back in the U.S. Such is life, though. Changes happen, and they're not always bad. A whole new world will be opened, introducing many more experiences and people.

This isn't a real goodbye, not really. Just another form of hello.

On another note, I'm surprised by how empty both of my flights are. My flight to Chicago only has 20 people on it (it holds 50) and my flight to London only has 50 people on it. (It holds almost 300!)

Okay, now for a bit of immaturity...

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow

One Week!

I leave in one week and 2 hours. I still can't believe this is happening. What started out as a mere whim is becoming a reality. I still have to pinch myself every now and then to see if this is really my own life I'm living. I can't stop thinking about the bus ride. It's only a 2 hour drive from London to Llantwit Major, but I'm sure it will feel like the longest trip of my life. I can just imagine pulling up to Atlantic College. That's going to be the most amazing feeling in the world.

Packing, packing, packing. I still have a lot to do. I'm going to bring one suitcase and 2 carry-on cases. That's what a few second years recommend, and that's what the bus company recommends, as well. My room is a cluttered mess right now because I've started the packing process and I'm figuring out which things I really need and which things I want.

I found out my roommates and dorm last week. I'm in Pentti Kouri house, formerly Dyfed. My roommates are Ferenc, from Hungary; Chris, from Hong Kong; and Imran from Nigeria.

Everything is finally concrete. The visa process was unnecessarily complicated, but I finally have one.

I'm nervous, but I know everything will be okay and this will be an amazing experience.