The Final Sprint

 - a look into the everyday life of a third term IB student

Text is further down, but first a few pictures.

We skyped a few weeks ago, our whole room from last year, and it was great. I really miss you all!

I've noticed that most of us (RCN:ers) have a tendency of posting pictures of campus when the weather is great. Most of the time, it looks like this.

After song writing, the sun was on its way down and everything looked blue. We took pictures.

On Friday we had bonfires and lit the lights in the trees on campus, as well as drank glögg (Nordic Christmas tradition). 

And, since no blog post is complete without it, here's a picture of the fjord looking extraordinary. (It's not visible, but there's snow on the mountains. Winter is coming.)

At some point last year, when I was still a young and carefree (...) first year student I wrote a post about what life here is like, and how days play out. I thought I'd be nice to do it again and spot the difference (clue - less social life and less sleep...)

6.30 My first alarm goes off. I wake up, not very happily, and slowly make my way out of bed, either reading before or studying for the test of that particular day.

7.10 Arrive at kantina, sit down at Sara's table, alternate studying with talking and having breakfast. It's the end of term now, so it's not until about 7.50 that majority of breakfast eaters start showing up...

8.00 Classes. Need I say more?

14.00 Back to the room, gather my things, off to the library. I spend the afternoon studying and going to the activities I'm signed up for, and take a nap when I have time for it. Before I came here I'd never sleep in the afternoon, but like Ro says "You don't need to go to Latin America to learn about siesta, it's enough that you come to RCN". 

17.30 Dinner, talking to people, enjoying a break from work.

18.15 Back to the library, finishing off whatever I have left to do that needs to be done this particular  day.

20.00 Ro and I go to the gym, and when it's open the pool afterwards. I think this is my favorite hours of the day, especially when I've actually finished my school work for the day. Which, admittedly, is not every day. 

22.00 On good days, watch an episode of Supernatural, or have tea. On not-so-good-days, study some more. Bed time whenever that's done.

Second year life/third term life is less UWC and more IB, which is sad in many ways but difficult to avoid. From what we've heard from our second years, things calm down a bit fourth term, since most of the big assignments have been handed in, SATs are done, universities are applied to and TOK is over, and I can only hope that it's true. I miss parts of first year life - spontaneous things, enjoying a day off without feeling bad about it, participating in every event that's going on. On the other hand, second year has its high lights too. This year we're closer as a year group, and more than ever does RCN feel like home.

Not that I'll be sad to see third term gone. 17 days left.

The problem with breaks...

...or why I'm more sleep deprived now than I was a week ago

Late nights watching Supernatural

November break started on Friday. The last block of the day, Maths, we were staring at the clock and just waiting for the minutes to disappear so we would finally be free for a week.

Now, free? I'm enjoying not having classes, but somehow I seem unable to remember in the evenings that I still want to get up early the next day. 

A typical day:

7.45 My alarm goes off. I stare at it, and decide that I deserve to sleep another hour. I'm unable to fall asleep, but stay in my bed for another hour anyway, doing absolutely nothing.

~9.00 Kantina time! I come to Sara's table, and since she's a more disciplined person than I am she's already been there for an hour. We drink more coffee than we should and pretend to study. Neither gets as much done as we planned on. (This is where I am right now, writing a blog post instead of studying for a Chemistry Exam - capital letters very much needed).

11.00 People start trickling in. We have brunch. We talk. We ignore the books at the table next to us (because there are so few people here that we can use a second one for eating, leaving our books spread out at the study table). We drink more coffee (interestingly enough, my coffee consumption has also increase with the break)

12.00ish By this time my computer runs out of battery, and I make my way back to my room, or more accurately my bed. I stare at my books for a moment, decide that I'm tired, and take a short nap followed by another hour of doing nothing in my bed. Followed by an hour of watching youtube videos and not thinking about work

15.00 Ro comes to my room. We watch Supernatural. The first episode finished, and we decide that we most definitely have time for another one.

17.30 Dinner time. I stay in kantina for the whole one and a half hour. At this point, I'm starting to get a bit stressed about what I should have done,but it doesn't stop me from sitting there and chatting to people.

19.00 Back to the room, and start writing. Since apparently the IB is not enough for me, I'm taking part in a November writing challenge this year too (click here to see what that's about) and my goal is to write at least 5k words every day. So far (this is the fourth day of the thing), I'm approaching 25k and insanity.

21.00 Break from writing, make evening snack, find someone to talk to. Stay away from my room for well over an hour. Then. another hour or so of writing.

23.00ish TV-series time! "Just one more" is the key phrase here and the main reason that:

01.00-02.00 Around this time, I go to bed, too late realizing that the next day I'll also want to wake up early.

A bunch of pretty pictures

Life has been busy, and writing here has been put second to other things. Below are pictures from a couple of things I have been doing, such as skin diving PBL (incredible experience) and Peace One Day.

Skin Diving PBL

Peace One Day

Back at our home away from home

The summer has been long and rewarding, busy and relaxing and very enjoyable, but now I'm back at my home away from home - and it feels great. We were away from each other for ten weeks and when you're used to spending every day together it feels like eternity. I've really missed my co-years, they're a great group of people and many of them a second family.

Coming back for second year was a lot easier emotionally for me than coming here for the first time in August last year. Now, I knew what was waiting both here, but also what was waiting in terms of being away from home for months. 

Bergen City

When we first came, we spent a day in Bergen with only our year group. We went to the top of a mountain with a great view over the city. After that we could do whatever we wanted, so a group of us first went to have lunch, and then spent the afternoon at a café - surprisingly without being thrown out, considering the noise and how little we actually bought. 

The trip back to the school in the evening was nerve-wracking - we had yet to find out rooms out and prepared for running to our houses as soon as we arrived to RCN. Mady and I had been talking or a long time about being roomies, and as we stopped to wait for the ferry she came running into the bus I was in, telling me with a big smile "we're roomies!". No more nerves for me, the rest of the journey I had a huge smile on my face instead.

Once we found our rooms out (when we actually came back to RCN), Denmark Housers worked together to empty the storage room and then Mady and I started unpacking, with loud music on. We were halfway done, and it was 3:30, by the time we went to bed. The next day was also spent unpacking, and having several meetings to prepare for intro week and first years arrival.

My corner, with a picture of some of my favorite people ever

First year arrivals were amazing, so much fun, exhilarating, exciting, anxious and wonderful. With flags in our hands and on our backs, second years ran to the bus, yelling and screaming and banging the outside of the bus. I wonder who enjoyed it the most - us or the first years? This was done once in the early evening, once around midnight and finally at four in the morning. Our three first year room mates all arrived with the last bus, as did my personal first year. Staying up involved a lot of yawning and giggling, but in the end it was well worth it (though I have to admit I slept for an hour or so in the middle of waiting).

We have officially been second years for a couple of days now, organizing intro week and introducing first years to RCN life and all that is included. Doing this on top of school work and most importantly catching up with friends makes for a busy week, but it's also a great lot of fun.

Cutting hair the RCN way

No need to say goodbye

Just because everything's changing 

Doesn't mean it's never

Been this way before

-The Call, Regina Spektor

My beautiful roomie grauduating

Second years left Saturday. I had, prior to it, been worried that I wouldn't be able to cry, that I wouldn't feel as sad as I should. As it turns out, I shouldn't have worried - the last few days, several people have told me that I cried like a baby, and also laughed at me. Maybe that sums it up quite nicely - laughing and crying at the same time. Graduation was beautiful, but saying good bye to friends and roomie-family was horrible. I'm so proud of the great futures they have ahead of them, but this place is empty without them. I feel as if they will burst through the door any time, only they don't and instead it's quiet and empty. 

A few impressions of the last week

• I'm bad at goodbyes - terribly bad
• Yearbooks are great things
• "A chair is still a chair, even when there's no one sitting there. But a chair is not a house, and a house is not a home, when there's no one there."
• I'm ready to be a second year - today Ro and I prepared packages for our first years with gifts from our second years
• Deer are beautiful animals (we went to Svanoy Deer Farm straight after graduation with all the first years)
• Being busy isn't quite as bad when it's light enough to sit without lights on at 10:30 in the evening
• I react very differently to lack of sleep in different situations - before graduation I got a migraine, but today I'm completely fine
• Even small things from second years make my corner a little cosier (M's curtains, A's bag, H's lights, R's whiteboard...)

A year is a very short time.

Favourites and not-so-favourites

Performing at a poetry slam - who would've thought that a year ago?

5 best things with RCN

• The people (it's cheesy, but true) - I don't think people here are better than anywhere else, we just think we are (ehum...). Also, we live together, so we know each other very well, it's a tight community
• The opportunities - here and afterwards
• The multicultural environment - I can't stress this enough
• The acceptance - you can be whoever, and it's perfectly okay
• Late nights and early mornings with people you love, watching the sun over the fjord, listening to music in Swedish/French/Spanish/English

5 worst things

• The food... 
• Waking up an hour too early due to other people's alarms 
• IB crashing with RCN life crashing with Uni applications and job applications and... the stress, I mean
• Having to stop yourself from saying what you think in order not to annoy other people with your opinions (even though you think you're right, but they think the same thing)
• Lack of sleep

3 weirdest things

• Fiskekake
• Birthday traditions
• Other traditions

3 things I look forward to...

• Getting first years
• Summer break
• Time with only my co-years (boy, do we have plans)

...and 2 things I don't

• Second years leaving
• First year exam

4 best experiences so far

• Kayaking PBL
• Ski week
• European show
• First year show

6 things I've learned

• Spanish (phrases)
• That failing a test isn't the end of the world...
• ... just as well as acing one isn't the ultimate goal
• Life is short and meant to be enjoyed, as much as it can, but also made use of. Balance is key, I guess
• Being on time isn't that important (depending on the occasion)
• There's no such thing as calm on a campus with 200 teenagers

1 thing I've taught

• The meaning of the world "bullshit"

Easter Break and countdowns

Another picture of amazing views with nice weather - contrary to popular belief, we do have that, although not as often as the pictures indicate

The last few days we haven't had any school, since it has been Easter which is a Norwegian national holiday. My family visited, so I had a few days off campus, with home cooked food and lots of rest (and card games, yatsy and hiking). School will start again tomorrow, but today we have had sun and heat (about 20 degrees in the sun, which is practically summer here) and although I had a lot of work planned, some of it was put aside to instead enjoy the nice weather. I normally like this place quite a lot, but I like it the best like this - the weather makes everyone come outside and do things and the whole school seems to vibrate with energy.

On top of that, so many countdowns have started now. 18 days till first year exams (!!), 33 till second years graduate and 46 till last day of classes, then summer break and then back to be a second year. I'm excited for many of the things happening, but at the same time it's scary and melancholic. I will miss the second years so much - how can you not after living together for a year? - and I don't know whether I'm ready to be a second year myself yet. That remains to be seen.

A monster of a lab

Two weeks ago we enjoyed the sun, today it's raining

Sometimes, I overdo things. This weekend, I wrote a Chemistry lab report of 18 pages (18!). Perhaps a tad bit too much, but most of the tables, graphs and images were highly relevant so what can I do? Why did I decide on Chemistry to begin with?

School here is speeding up, slowly but surely. Suddenly I realize that most of my days, evenings and weekends are dedicated to studying (or, oftentimes, doing other things while thinking about studying). We have first year exams in a few weeks (I'm scared to count the days, to be honest) and in most subjects we've started on IA's, not to mention that we have started our EE's as well.

The saddest thing is that this is the time to socialize as well. In just a few weeks (again, I try not to count) our second years will leave and we don't know when (or if) we will meet again. I'm so fortunate to have met so many fantastic people but it's disheartening to know that many of them I will only meet during the one year we share this place.

In an hour or so, I will take part of a student council meeting as an actual member for the very first time. Exciting and a tad bit nerve wrecking, but I'm sure it will be fine. In no time, it will be this time next year and we will be handing it over to a new group of excited first years.

My maths books are calling (no better way to procrastinate than to write a blog post?) and I should get back to it. Life is busy.

Holi and College Hoodies

Yesterday our school, belatedly, celebrated Holi, a Hindu celebration of love and colours. We covered each other in paint, fjord water and mud, the idea being that once we were all coloured we were equal (although they phrased it in a more beautiful way when they explained). It was cold, funny, amazing and just great. It's the things like Holi that make me happy to be at a place like this, where I get to experience such a variety of cultures.

On top of that, myself and the other organisers just sent off the orders for college hoodies, something we have been worrying about for weeks to no end, so it's nice that it's - almost - done. Next week, the Queen is coming and the week-and-a-half-later, we have Easter Break. Work is piling up but the weather is great and the campus has come alive again.

Spring forward

The view is beautiful from the Upper Road

Spring has finally arrived in Flekke and we're making the most of it. The motivation that has been lacking the last two, rainy weeks is back and I'm loving life right now. I even went for a run - those who know me knows that I hate running (I've done it probably five times since August) but in the sun it was amazing and I had a smile on my face the whole time. I've written a song, read about the Cold War and sent important emails.

The nice weather also makes me remember all the things we did last fall, back when it was still sunny and light. I really look forward to when we can jump in the fjord again, walk outside without shoes or just study outside without a jacket. Spring makes me very grateful for the winter - without it, this wouldn't be nearly as wonderful (especially since it's probably only a few degrees in the shade).

Happiness

What makes you happy?

The last few weeks have been like most weeks are here - busy but mainly very happy/nice/interesting. The pressure of IB is starting to get to us first years, but so far it's manageable. Terms like EE and IA are starting to make sense to us and this week we got our first grades. Mainly, I'm happy with them.

Things that made me happy the last few weeks:

This girl, my now nineteen years old roomie <3

Harry Potter marathon all night and most of the day with this girl and two others (who were mysteriously missing at this point)

Pancakes and fruit salad for breakfast a normal Friday

Studying not so much, but I've been postponing this lab report for two hours already so I better get going.

Gender Week "An expectation I don't like"

"Girls are bad at sports" - me

"Women are supposed to be beautiful" - L, Sweden

"Men can't have long hair" - M, Bolivia

"Women are submissive" - C, Norway

Me, throwing an idiotic gender expectation out

Let's talk about gender. Let's talk about how I'm supposed to be different than you because I'm born a different sex. Gender is not sex.

This week, we're organizing Gender Week at RCNUWC. If you want to take part, take a picture like the one above, trashing a stupid gender expectation. I'm so excited for everything that's going to happen, from swap-clothes-with-a-friend-dinner to Open Mic to Vagina Monologues. It's going to be great, I think, and so far people I never thought would show interest have, which makes it all the more interesting.

What gender expectation don't you like?

"How long is forever?"

"How long is forever?"

"Sometimes, it's just one second."

-Lewis Carroll

I just read a blog post on the Swedish UWC page from one of my second years. They have 87 days left here now, is that so much more than I have? I find it strange, that though I came here only a few months ago, we don't have that much time left at this amazing place. I want to cherish it and make it everything it can be, because if I blink, if I look away, if I get too caught up in unimportant things, I'll suddenly realize that time has passed faster than I thought and that I've lost the opportunity of my life.

Last weekend, the Swedish to-be-second-years found our first years out, more or less. I can't believe that we're going to take over responsibilities more and more until suddenly we're the ones greeting a new group of scared and excited first years. We'll give them our lacking knowledge of the place, we'll be expected to be able to answer questions about nothing and everything. Are we ready? Maybe not, but I'm sure we'll do it. 

Denmark House 2013-2014

Ski week

There are many things that sets this school aside from other schools. Some of them are quite obvious, we live here, for example, but then there are other things which also happen to all students at the school at one point or another. Last week, one of those milestones happened to all of us first years - ski week, or maybe more correctly, Friluftsveka ("Free-air-week" - week to do outdoor exploring). Unfortunately, we didn't have enough snow to go downhill skiing, but plenty enough for cross country skiing and hiking. The view was great and it was really inspiring to see people who had never seen snow a couple of months ago skiing like they'd never done anything else. I think that's one of my favorite things about UWC - that people aren't afraid of trying.

Hiking

With this view, I understand the Norwegians' love for cross country skiing

We're doing it!

Greek, Italian and Brazilian enjoying the snow and sun

Estoy Cansada

We've had spring weather the last week
(picture from UWCRCN Facebook page)

This should ideally be a very long blog post about the many things that have happened and caused me not to write anything for a while. MUN, First Aid, my birthday, Lunar New Year, and so on. However, I don't have the time to write a very long blog post, so a short one will have to do.

MUN
Model United Nations, where all the first years become delegates of one country or another in a certain committee, where we argue and declare war (ideally not, but with a bunch of creative teenagers what did you expect?) and hold speeches and most importantly speak in third person. In the three days we did it, I went from hating it to loving it and now I'm a little bit sad that we won't get to do it again.

First Aid
Three days of learning about accidents, what to do and what not do to, trying to make sense of "situations" with loud music and lots of fake blood and meanwhile enjoying ourselves immensely.

My Birthday
I know that I've said it before, and I'm likely to say it again, but my roommates are absolutely spectacular. On the evening before my birthday, they organised a dinner with them and a few of my friends. The food was great and I really enjoyed it. After that, they blindfolded me, took me on a short trip outside and into the day room where a bunch of people sang for me in English and a few other languages, such as Norweigan, Spanish and Arabic. On my actual birthday, they made another cake and we had a cozy time in the room. Luckily for me, we had this day off so I could sleep in rather than go up early for classes.

Lunar New Year
The school celebration to this happened to coincide with my birthday. It was celebrated with a nice dinner as well as an evening show. Against better judgement, I participated in a play about the Zodiac that explained why certain animals represent years.

So many days and I will never be the same

So many days

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

-Anna, Leticia and Jasmine, So many days
(Click on the first line to listen to the song)

Ro, you chica loca

A girl who doesn't believe in snow but is kick-ass good at writing songs

That would be me

My crazy Norweigan (see post a few days ago)

Midnight adventures

"I really like this picture. I look crazy, but I really like."

Socializing, Studying, Sleeping (and Sports)

The  moon last Tuesday morning

I remember right at the beginning of the school year, we talked a lot about balancing your life here. Oftentimes, three S's were mentioned - sleep, socialize, study. The second years all insisted that it was impossible to manage all three, especially if you wanted to add the fourth - sports. Naturally, at the time, I thought they just didn't try hard enough and of course I would manage. Let me tell you - I don't. Whenever I finally go to bed (late, later, latest) there's always something I've missed out on. Either I didn't study for the quiz the day after, or I did but I missed a nice gathering, or I went to TSK but then I didn't go to bed until very late. Somehow, no matter how hard you try, 24 hours isn't enough to get everything done.

Then, in the weekends, I sometimes expect that I'll miraculously will be able to do everything I didn't do during the week. I plan on reviewing and doing past papers, on having tea with most people and going swimming, never mind actually getting some sleep in. I never succeed with this either, and this Sunday, as usually, I have a long list with things I have to do. MUN paper, Feminist Club and some climbing.

One might think that this would be stressful, and I suppose that in some ways it is. I never feel like I've done enough, I always want to work just a little harder, talk just a little longer, sleep just a little deeper, but there's not enough time. However stressful it is, it's also the most fun I've ever had. I've learned more about life in these five months than I did in the seventeen years before I came. I've learned that it's short, and it's fragile, so never put things off, always enjoy yourself and don't worry too much because as long as you do your best, you'll have a great time.

A post from a crazy, wonderful Norweigan

 (Listen to this while you read)

This post is from wonderful Amalie, my Norweigan co-year.

Hello Anna's blog readers! I live in the floor above Anna (Denmark House 204) and I am often in her room, not only because it's close to mine but also because of the amazing people living in it ( Denmark house are full of them) :) 

Apart from visiting Anna's room I generally like everything about this place and I am very grateful to be here. 

I especially like to be in the art room because it is always people there playing Spanish or Icelandic music which inspire not-so-artistic people like me who take art and kind of suck. Anyway, it's kind of nice to be surrounded by all these movie stars, geniuses, dance talents and artists because it make this school unique and totally different from all my previous schools (Norwegian school system...just saying..).
 I am not really a blog person so I think I will end it here, but keep reading about our exciting life here in nowhere (Flekke, Fjaler, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway).

XOXOXOOXOXOOXOX Amalie without an U

Merci!    

PS. Anna is very grateful for parcels (especially food ) :P :P UWC Red Cross Nordic, N-6968 Flekke, Norway


Fun fact: Amalie is Ei lama backwards and it means a llama in Norwegian (in wrong article)

MUN, TSK, IOP and then some

This week it has been sunny and with the snow this place is as beautiful as ever

IB is full of abbreviations. We have TOK, EAC's and EE's, not to mention ROP, OTC and FOA's. In some ways I think UWC's are even worse, because we live at the school, so every aspect of our lives at the moment is named by IB students or teachers. It takes a while to get used to all these different abbreviations and remember exactly what each of them means, but surprisingly it actually stops being confusing.

Anyway, this week is full of abbreviations on my behalf. This Friday, the position papers for MUN (Model United Nations) is due. While I'm excited for the actual thing (basically two days of all the first years and some second years acting out United Nations) the writing part is a little bit exhausting, and a great bit confusing. (Related abbreviations: SPECPOL, MUN, PBL)

On Tuesday I have my IOP (Individual Oral Presentation) for Swedish Lit. I actually happen to like holding presentations, but it's never the less a little bit intimidating to realize that what I do now will be 15% of my final grade. Hopefully it will go smoothly, and then I'll be done with 15% (not really, but a girl can dream).

Naturally I, most like everyone else, have a few things I'll try to improve this year in terms of how I live. My main goal is to try to go to TSK (don't know what it stands for, actually, but it's the gym here) at least four times a week, as well as go swimming Tuesday mornings. After another fifteen minutes or so in the library, trying to work on the two above mentioned things but mainly - sadly - procrastinating, I'll go back to my room and get ready for TSK. I'm already tired, but since that's a constant state of mind at this place I can't let it stop me.

To the best roomies a girl could have

I'm back at the end of the world (or the beginning or middle, who knows?) that is Flekke and it's great. I've missed so many people and seeing them again after a month is priceless. I read somewhere that no hug is better than a I've-missed-you-hug, and I find that truer than ever.

The beautiful girls in the picture above are my roomies, the picture a bit nicer than the ones I normally post since it was taken during Christmas Dinner by one of the teachers, when we were all dressed up and ready. Having room mates is incredible, and hands down one of the best parts of this place. It's hard to describe the special kind of relationship which you develop after a few months in the same room. I feel like I've known them my whole life, and whether it's watching Walking Dead in A's bed or teasing M for whichever reason (although to be fair, it's the other way around just as often) or drinking chai with H or mate with R, the four of them are the best room mates anyone could wish for. Whereever we go after the year we share in DH 102, I know that I will always have you. <3