Saturday, 14 January 2012

Has it only been a week?

Just to confuse you I've written two blogs but am posting them in one post since this has been my first opportunity to move them from my USB to the school computers :)

Happy New Year!
First day of codes started back today and with that a new principal. The school went a year without a principal, my whole time at AC has been without and official principal, Nick Lush acting as the step-in principal. He lives right across from Morgannwg House in what Chloe told me is called the ‘Tardis’ or something of that manner, a Dr. Who reference that went right over my head.
Not everyone is back to school yet so the family isn’t complete, but to simply hear the bustle down the hallway as I type this makes me smile- there’s constant laughter.
We start Theory of Knowledge (or as the second years who are finishing off their essays in the subject say with a grimace- TOK) in the next couple weeks, takes away two of my free codes though! No!
I’ve signed down for my Activities. When I find out which two I got as my official ones I’ll write about them J  Service this week said Archery in the afternoon session and the start of our NARS pool lifeguard in the evening session. Looking forward to both!
Only been back for two full days now so will have more to say very soon – I’m sure of it.
Love, Abi







Okay one week back into at school and the list of things I have to type about is mounting! Need to stop putting it off! Where to begin- hmmmm.
Activities:
The two Activities I will be doing this term are:
Amnesty International
19.00-21.00
Languages upstairs.
28
3
Rebecca.B J, Kaylea K, Almog Z
Amnesty activity works to promote and protect human rights around the world and at Atlantic College through direct and indirect action.


And a two Mission Based Classes, one in the first half of the term and another in the second half, the first half is:
History of Chinese Political Thought and Regimes
Lin Shi, Yuexin Zeng
A look at the political systems and regimes  in different eras throughout the 5000 years of Chinese history. This includes:
B.C. 2070 (Xia dynasty) – A.D. 1840 (Opium War with Britain)
We will focus on different political systems and the connections to cultural development throughout 21 dynasties in ancient China. This includes the introduction of the development of centralization, Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism.
1840 (Opium War with Britain) – 1949 (the foundation of P.R.C.)
 In this specific time period, we will focus on different political movements and revolutions that carried out the development from Feudalism to Semi-colonialism & Semi-feudalism, and then to New Democracy. In further aspects, we will also discuss the origins and course of Chinese revolutions and the rise of CCP (Chinese Communist Party)
1949(the foundation of PRC) – present
This will include a brief introduction of significant historical events (e.g. the Korean War, Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, Opening up and economic reformation of Deng), as well as political thoughts- – the development in Communism in China (e.g. Maoism)


Really looking forward to both of them J



Service:  
Had my first pool lifeguard training session on Thursday! Was fun, nice to be in the water and knowing I’m learning something I’ll be able to use for the rest of my life. Next week we’ll be practicing a lot of techniques; this first session was simple assists for helping stressed swimmers to the edge of the pool and then how to safely get them out.
I was a lot better at Archery then I thought I would be! Think I’ll really enjoy leading those sessions in a few months with the kids
J
Cambridge Law Conference
Congratulations! You have been allocated a place on the Cambridge 6th Form
Law Conference 2012. Just to confirm, the conference will run from the
afternoon of Monday 19th March to lunchtime on Thursday 22nd March. A
provisional programme is still available at
www.law.cam.ac.uk/conference
Louis, one of my closest friends from Switzerland and I are both interested in studying Law at University and are thrilled to be given the opportunity to get to go on this conference in a couple of months!
Food
So this year I’ve decided to become more sustainable and stop eating meat. Not sure if I’ll make it throughout the whole year but I still eat fish so I’m a pescatarian.  I haven’t found any problems or cravings for meat yet.
Chloe, my lovely roommate is on a gluten-free diet which I find to be much more challenging though I really respect her for it. Her mum has Celiac disease it’s genetic, so though she hasn’t gotten her blood test results back yet she’s been supporting her mum and being on the safe side until she’s completely sure she doesn’t have it by not eating anything with gluten. (Celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, is a genetic disorder. Those affected suffer damage to the villi when they eat specific food-grain antigens that are found in wheat, rye, and barley.) It’s really opened up my eyes to having to be super aware of everything that goes into your body. I’ve always known people with certain allergies like nuts and shell fish but to the amount of food that flour is in has never crossed my mind before.
Extended Essays
We’ve had our first meeting of the scary topic of Extended Essays! Oh boy… Next week we’ll be having talks in all of our classes, seeing examples of past Extended Essays and able to ask our teachers questions on choosing their subject for this lovely 4000 word essay that makes up a point and a half of the 45 in the IB. Each teacher is allowed a maximum of 10 students for Extended Essays- and even that is a huge commitment of work.  I’m thinking of doing mine in either Geography or Environmental Systems, but we shall see.
Afro-Caribbean National Evening
Is in a couple of weeks! YAY! It’s going to be a lot of fun, when we have set plans on what we’re doing I’ll type it up. And the pictures too ;3
Bonding Session
Which brings me to my plans tonight! Amy from Barbados actually brought in her suitcase frozen fly fish and the 9 Caribbean people at this school are getting together for some good food. It’s going to be great.
Peace Conference
Lots of Diploma Periods coming up! Next Friday is the Peace and Conflicts Diploma Period run by my tutor! We had work to do over the holidays on finding out information of our own countries and the rights that we are given, so I’m sure everyone will be well prepared and have a lot to share (as always).
Friday Night Lecture
It’s such a shame I don’t have the notes I took last night with me right now but I went to the lecture which I found really interesting:
"Do we have a right to pornography?"

Loosely based around Dworkin's article. 
Lecture by Tom Theuns. 

Tom Theuns is a Dutch postgraduate student of political theory at Balliol College, Oxford. He did a Liberal Arts degree in Social Sciences from Maastricht University. And even before that, he was a UWC student at Pearson. He was involved in the initial stages and opening of UWC Maastricht.

When I get my notes I’ll tell you all about it.

MISC
Can’t write a blog without talking about the weather! Apparently this morning there was frost on the grass but I slept too late to see it. Chloe is being super optimistic and telling me that it’s going to snow. I really hope it does! It’s colder then when we left in that we can all now see our breath when we’re outside at any time of the day. And to think I still made a twenty minute walk to Marcross with Chloe last night for dinner. Where is the island-girl in me?
Also went swimming with a gang of Morgannwgs’ on Wednesday night and had the great idea of jumping into the outdoor pool at 9:30. BRRRR. I think Nick screamed ‘I now understand why they died in Titanic’. But you’ve got to do it once right? J

Also been running quite a bit. Trying to get into shape... Have ran three 5k’s this week and my nice slow pace on the treadmill in the gym while watching The Big Bang Theory. Could be worse right?
Quidditch
That’s right.  Muggle Quidditch is a real sport, and incredibly popular at American universities.
Have a meeting tomorrow on playing the epitome of all sports at AC. Just to make AC feel even more like Hogwarts.


**And I think that is all.
Love, Abi

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