First Week!

First Day

I arrived with my dad at around 11:30 to the entrance being packed with second years cheering and shouting. Just so excited, with flags of their nationalities and their house names made into make-shift-flags and they shouted “Which House? Which House?” and when I said Morgannwg a red-headed girl with a massive Turkey flag (though I later found out she was Scottish and named Mary) ran the whole way to our house for my Dad and I to follow. We arrived in the back entrance and the boys were there to help bring up my suitcases – so kind and manly of them. From there my dad and I had a tour of the castle and my house from a girl named Liker (born in China but had lived in Denmark for a few years). It was stunning! It may have been one of the rare sunny days in Wales, but wow it was just perfect.

We then had a short meeting with my house parents about the busy up-coming week. Jam-packed! After that dad helped me unpack, even going as far as doing up my duvet cover. I was the first one in the room so had a lot of time to do it slowly. Everything fit! Yay! Though since I’m planning to buy warmer clothes as the year goes… I may have a slight problem.

After saying bye to daddy (twice, he came back to give me the pillow I forgot in the B and B <3) I finished unpacking my things and then went down to the entrance to join the rest of the second years welcoming the individual cars that were coming in. So many names, so many nationalities – I was just a tad lost. I got face painted with an M on my cheek and a stripe going down my nose by a wicked second-year from Tice (which then ended up me looking like a second-year, probably not the best idea).  We did this for a bit and when the first bus arrived it went CRAZY. Everyone gathers in the main yard and are shouting at the other houses singing chants and getting pumped. Soooo enthusiastic. If I was on that bus I would have been jet-lagged and terrified. But to simply be on the lawn and listening to the second years be with one another and their enthusiam was incredible. Every person that comes off the bus is given a speaker phone to announce their country and the house they’re in so that the house-mates can pick up their suitcases and guide them to the house. Though I didn't actually hear many of the names because of the cheering from the previous person.

We did games to get to know one another in our house. I think one is called HAW or KWA or something... and another is called BANG. They're really interactive and upbeat :)

At night my buddy-dorm (the closest dorm to us, so they basically take us under their wing) took me and Gabi to the other houses to show us around. They’re all different, some are more modern and others are more confusing. But I’ve already decided mine is the coziest.

Showerings. This seems to be a common thing here. Basically the night before a person turns 18 they get thrown into the pool. Struggling and screaming- so be it. Everyone gathers together to celebrate them being thrown in and then the person who got thrown in then has to hug every person possible to get them as soaked as they are. This is only for if they’re 18 though, if they’re turning 17 (like me in a couple months!) they’ll  “simply” have a bucket of water (or other things apparently), thrown on them. Joy. But traditions are what I’m here for!

My second-years already feel like a family.

Good Night,

Abi

Second Day,

Another busy day! Another late night rushing to type.

We started off with a lovely breakfast in our common room that our sweet second years made for us. Waffles, fruits, croissants…yummy! We had a slow start of just talking to second-years and slowly waking ourselves up. Afterwards I spoke briefly to my tutor, he’s really young and has a name I can pronounce, but have not yet learnt how to spell – seems great though! When I know more on what we do with him I’ll write it out.

After that we had a short assembly in the hall with the (temporary) principal and vice principal. We then had a swimming test which was quite simple for them to just know if we were capable of swimming (100m of any stroke) so they know if we’ll be able of doing the activities in camp.

After we had a lovely maths test, it’s so they can give us a guideline on which maths to take, not too serious. I plan to take the simplest maths anyways so I wasn’t particularly stressed about it.

After lunch we walked around the campus. It was another (rare) sunny day so I’ve taken many gorgeous pictures and hope to put them up soon! The campus is just so big, walking everywhere feels as if it’s exercise enough for the day…then I remember I have a very kind Danish roommate with amazing chocolate.

We did various other things afterwards such as see the Health Center, learn about Diploma Period and talk with the house parents about the house duties – though when I get more experienced with what it is I’ll write a more detailed blog about each.

Probably the most exciting things I did today happened after it went dark. One was ‘wrestling’. Or the AC version of it. It seems difficult to explain but it’s so fun to watch and be a part of it – though you can suffer from carpet burn and various other injuries along the way.

After out check in at 10:15 my buddy dorm invited my dorm over for hot chocolate. We just chilled in their bedroom for two hours and ate brownies and talked about an aray of different things. They’re all so kind, I’m so glad I have them to help us. There’s Mary from Scotland, Alfrida from Bangladesh, Maren from Norway and Manin from Cambodia.

Its past midnight now and I have another busy day ahead- tomorrow night I head to camp!

God Nat,

Abi

PS – Anne-Sophie just taught me to say Good Night in Danish! (the d’s are silent…)

Third Day

In the morning we simply gathered in Bradenstoke Hall for explanations on the different subjects and what to choose if you’re looking to become a lawyer or in medicine etc.. Each group (there are six) got to talk for about half an hour and then we were able to ask the teachers questions. That took most of the morning and when we were done we met with our tutors and spoke about what subjects we would like to take. Basic Stuff.

We then met in front of a board of six teachers (my tutor and I) to tell them the subjects we wanted to take and find out if the worked in the time schedule. I’m taking HL English Lit, History European and Geography and SL French ab initio, Maths Studies and Environmental Systems. A very ‘humanity’ based course but I think it suits me the best. 

We also took pictures in front of a tree in our house that are used for the school website and given to teachers… that’s as much as I know.

Later in the day we packed for camp, had Library introduction and Computer introduction.

After dinner four of the seven houses departed for camp! *Second year camp leaders were already there, second year peer listeners and some of the people who run the services also went on our bus. The journey to camp is supposed to take about two and a half hours to the West of Wales. Though one of the two buses broke down about half way there for an hour so our journey was a long one.

CAMP!

Camp was an experience I’ve never had anything like before. I loved some bits but will never miss others. There were about 100 first years and 20 or so second year and then teachers. Our camping was quite luxury compared to ten years ago or so I think. We had bunk bed with springy, squishy matresses – about 25 per room and bathroom and hot showers.

The second years were really against any of us showering. I’ll admit I did every night. Though to be fair I didn’t bring face wash, deodorant, perfume, shampoo or conditioner- so in some ways I was still sticking to the ‘camping’ idea.

I don’t want to say everything that happened at camp and ruin it if next year someone sees this and knows all of the things that happened. Basically though we were in 6 groups and had 3 days of doing things- one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

My first day I did Initiative Games and then Coasteering. Which was probably my favorite part. We go to this gorgeous old slate mining area that was blown open to let the salt water in and is now called the Blue Lagoon. You get to climb the rocks and jump off the cliffs. There was a Nigerian girl who wasn’t a good swimmer so I was able to help her by her holding onto my legs and swimming for her (nice little free-style drill right there!).

That night we all went around the camp fire to sing our national songs. It was really interesting to see how some people got emotional while singing their anthems and others were so passionate. I went up twice, once by myself to sing Cayman’s national song which made me really prideful and was glad to have everyone hear it. So few people here have actually heard of the Cayman Islands – I have so much ground to cover to get them all aware of my beautiful home. I then went up a second to for the English ‘God Save the Queen’, which I must say I knew more of than most of the Brits!

The second day my group had a sustainable walk around the place we were staying, it’s actually a farm that grow barley, potatoes… and some other things. It was a beautiful walk and at the end we pulled a form of flower from the field that is poisonous for the horses to eat when it gets chopped. I worked with a German boy named Constantine – we made a great team! In the afternoon we went surfing… I was so cold with an oversize wet suit and had such terrible balance I ended up chilling in the waves with my board by my side talking to a second year lifeguard from Venezuela named Juan and his reasons for coming to UWC AC – much more fascinating.

That night we had a wonderful talent show with so many great singers and dancers and role-play. It was so funny to watch and in most of the songs everyone would just start to sing along. An amazing atmosphere.

My last day I went for a 3 hour walk around the coast, apparently we were much luckier than the year before which was about an 8 hour walk. I really enjoyed it, spent most of the time talking to a boy from Iran and Quebec about our different cultures. And I only slipped once- success! In the afternoon we went canoeing in the lake they use to irrigate the crops. It was loads of fun with us doing activities of running around the kayaks and playing some weird game involving two balls and ducking skills.  I also managed to learn a few clapping games, very impressive for myself and my superb co-ordination skills.

The camp was great and typing about it now I realize how must fun I truly had there. We got ‘home’ a about 11 and everyone rushed to the showers for a ‘shower-party’. Now I’m not quite used to this yet but all the second-years are a bit uncomfortable and all the second years are just like ‘SHOWER TIME!!’.

Now we’re at today…where I’ve been having inductions to all my services. Today I went through life gaurds service to start the morning. Before I arrived at AC I assumed I would be a lifegaurd simply because I love to be in the water and have a fairly decent swimming background. I never considered how cold I would be. At camp, doing all those water-based session in wetsuits I realized how miserable it made me to have teeth-chattering- and this is August. So though I have great respect for Lifegaurds and how intensely physical and cold their service is- I've decided it's not for me. Though I did still do the swimming test where I managed to get the Gold with my room mate Gabi! I was so proud of her doing the 800m swim. 

*More on the other services later!

Love,

 Abi