Tuesday 25 February 2014

"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

Monday 24 February 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

Thursday 13 February 2014

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.