Thursday 31 October 2013

#amwriting or why I must be nuts


In 31 minutes (probably less when I publish this) it will be November first. For many people, that doesn't have any sort of significance, apart from maybe that Christmas is getting closer. To me, November is perhaps the best month all year. Why? Because of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. Basically that means that during November, hundreds of thousands of people world wide go crazy and write a book during that month. Yes, I'm one of them. Yes, I'm intending to do it even though I'm here, because NaNo is one of my favorite things in the year and I don't think November would feel the same without it.

Anyway, now I'm back to last minute planning. My characters need names, backgrounds and flaws... Lots of work to do!

Monday 28 October 2013

One week to November Break

I sometimes forget how beautiful this place is
We now have four more days of school before November break starts and we have a week off. I'm very lucky to live close to the college - relatively, of course - and have the opportunity to go home for the week. Many people don't have the chance or don't want to, but will instead be staying at the college, something which I considered. As of now, I just have to make it through a history presentation and a maths test, then I can relax... I can do it!

The last week has been both very busy and very empty. Busy in terms of school work, but otherwise I haven't really had the time to do much. It's strange, because I think some of the things I did do would be incredible right at the beginning of the year but now they seem so normal. Discussing Disney movies with a Vietnamese, listen to amazing Hungarian musicians and play a Croatian song with people from all around the world. It's crazy that I've been at this place for so long that it feels like normal, everyday life, rather than something special and astounding. Then at times I realize how lucky I am to be here, how many extraordinary things I get to experience and how many people I get to meet.

So much has changed, and I will never be the same
All the people that I've met I never thought I'd find 
So let them begin
The memories
-UWC song by Leticia, Jasmine and I

Sunday 20 October 2013

Busy week

This week has been quite busy, but also incredibly enjoyable. We have November Break in two weeks, so there's quite a lot of school work that we are expected to finish by then. On top of that, we are required to write CAS reflections on PBL week as well as our extra-curricular activities. Today I've been doing History, Swedish, reflection as well as preparing fro my trip home during November break. After my short break, I'll be going back to Maths, English and Physics. At least I have garlic bread and apple tea to enjoy while working, so all in all it's not so bad.

Apart from all the school week, this Friday we had a handball practice, which was one of the best things I've done here so far. Quite a few people joined that have played before, as well as some basket and football players and some complete beginners. It was interesting to see that although we came from different countries and background, something as simple as our favorite sport could really unite us.

On top of that, we had a room evening when we made waffles and talked about everything and nothing. My room is truly great, and aw, I just love my roomies. Just imagine, two months ago we didn't even know each other!

It was delicious!

They're crazy... In a good way!

Hard working second year roomies

My first year roomie and I took picture of each other

Monday 14 October 2013

Kayaking

As I mentioned in my last post, last week was PBL week. PBL stands for "Project Based Learning" and is a week where we get to chose (more or less) an interesting project that we want to engage in. I was lucky enough to get my first choice, kayaking. This meant that I spent Saturday-Wednesday sleeping lot, reading a lot and writing a lot.

Thursday morning, we packed the kayaks, putting all our thermal underwear and other important objects in black plastic bags and pushing it into the kayaks, trying to make sure that no water would enter the bags and soak anything important.

My (almost) packed kayak
20 kilometers and 4.5 hours of paddling later, we reached one of the last pieces of land before the Atlantic Ocean. Unpacking, I found out that one of my black bags leaked - of course the one with my sleeping bag, but luckily the sleeping bag was only wet outside. 

Trying to try my wet clothes, towel and wetsuit
 The view, though, was great. We had a blue sky and saw both the end of the fjord and the ocean. Later at night, when the stars came out, we could see the Milky Way very clearly.
Our campsite
 Dinner Thursday night consisted of tomato soup with noodles and is probably one of the best meals I've ever had.
We picked chanterelle mushrooms and Pil and Moa cooked them for us... delicious!
 After dinner we made a bonfire and tried to remain somewhat warmed until we went to bed, quite early.


Friday we didn't get up until nine, and made porridge for breakfast. We took quite a long time getting ready for paddling and didn't actually get out into the water until around twelve. First, the water was completely calm and paddling in the sun was a breeze. As we got closer to the ocean, waves picked up, and soon I felt as if I was battling the water to stay out of it. No one actually fell in, though - we didn't even have any close calls! The hard paddling was worth it, as we reached a small channel between two islands in the ocean. Our leader/teacher called it "Norway's answer to Croatia" and apart from how cold it was, it really felt like that.
Low tide meant we could sit on the bottom

After taking a break on the island, we wanted to get back to mainland before the waves would get a chance to pick up and become even choppier. Therefore, we battled the waves once more and reached a location where we made lunch and relaxed for about two hours. Going to the lunch place, we saw both a mink and a seal.
Food!

At around five, we crossed the fjord to get to our campsite. Once again, it was quite choppy, and though the place where we camped didn't look far of (it's the piece of land furthest away on the picture) it seemed to take forever to reach, and was in reality about one and a half hour.

That night, we once again had delicious tomato soup with noodles, after which we sat outside in our sleeping bags, talked, ate chocolate and looked at the stars (once again incredible) and the moon. I almost fell asleep outside, despite the cold, and that night the tent felt a lot warmer than it had the previous night.

Saturday we started with packing everything up, as well as the tents. Then began the looong way back to school. The first five kilometers took about one and a half hour, since the current was against us, but the rest of the way the tide was coming in and we had some help instead. I didn't think we would make it, but about six hours after leaving the campsite we could finally see the school. I was about to give up, my arms were more exhausted than ever before, but the feeling of reaching land was amazing.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with my PBL week. I learned a lot, and while it was one of the most challenging things I've done, it was very rewarding and certainly something I will remember for a very long time.

Saturday 5 October 2013

First year show, football and PBL

Dale football pitch
"Take a new picture with the flag!" - Amalie, Norway

This past week has probably been the most normal one here so far. I've had classes, EAC's and I've been chilling alone and with nice people. Last sunday, however, was one of the more special days so far. Evening, you see, was FIRST YEAR SHOW!

I was part of three awesome acts. Three of us, me, J from Singapore and L from Brazil (the girl that doesn't believe in snow) had written a song about the performance, and Mady (Belgium) and Amalie (Norway) made a video with all the first years smiling that we put behind as L and I sang it together with C from Greece as one of the first acts. I also sang "Read all about it" with my Nigerian co-year. Lastly, the act I was the most nervous about, I and seven other girls performed a burlesque dance... It was loads of fun.

I cannot say how proud I am of all the amazing acts we managed to put together. There was Spanish songs, Bollywood dance, Break dance, Fiskekake commercial and many, many other things.  The Fox video was made as well, you should all watch it and be amazed.

Since then, most of the week has been quite chill, apart from two lab reports and a maths test, but that's the way life is and at least I'm not a second year.

Yesterday was the first years vs second years football game. All the players were soooo good, and I'm really glad I didn't embarrass myself by playing.

Next week is PBL. I'm going for a kayaking trip Thursday-Saturday, so until then I'm free. I look forward to more sleep, understandning maths, reading, socializing and just relaxing. Of course the trip is going to be great, too!

Until next time!

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Do you believe in snow?

As it gets steadily colder here, the topic of snow and coldness has come up more than once and my Brazilian friend told me today that she doesn't believe in snow. Her theory is that since the people from cold countries are so jealous of the warmer countries "sun, happiness and fun" they created snow to make people think that "you have fun as well". All the photos of snow are photoshoped and if you visit a country where snow is supposed to exist during winter, you are sworn to secrecy. I look forward to seeing her see snow for the first time.
Photoshop?