Challenge Camp!

AH!
What an unexpectedly great time! To be completely honest I was quite apprehensive about camping for three nights… My experience of camping in actual tents is one night on a Duke of Edinburgh bronze award in Cayman, where I didn’t manage to put the pegs in properly and got hit throughout the night. This was much better.

We left at 2:30 on Monday afternoon, about a two hour drive across the border near to Gloucester. As we were in a 60-seater bus, and the other group went in mini-vans we saw them for a brief 10 minutes as we switched over. We tried to hear some advice of what was to come, catch up on our past weekend at AC. Even in three days, it feels like a reunion.

Once we got there we were given a mat and a sleeping bag to put in one of the three tents for the girls (guys had another three). Apparently the other group had to set the tents up, which luckily we didn’t. Out first ‘challenge’ was making dinner for our group.

Overall our group was great at cooking. Sugar, from Mongolia was head chef, Abenezer from Ethiopia a superb Sous Chef, Daniel from Gambia was very good at rationing the food… and well Nicole (from Cameroon) and I managed washing up and getting all of the cutlery ready. What a team. They were all really considerate about my veggie diet, so every meal they chopped and fried the vegetables and gave them to me with the side before adding the canned meat (which looked way yummier, btw). So night 1= rice, night 2=couscous, night 3= noodles: with peppers, celery, carrots, onion and corn. MMMMM.

Every night we tried to have a fire… not too much success. The wood was too damp, the ground to wet… it just wasn’t going to happen. Either way we had check-in at 9PM by the fire. After that all the girls just went to bed. The first night was the hardest to sleep. I was SO COLD. My toes felt stuck together. My scarf as a pillow just wasn’t very comfy. Thankfully it got better every night, possibly as I wore more and more layers each time… and cuddling more with Amy from England and Laura-Bethia from Holland.

ACTIVITIES:

The first day we did Orienteering in the morning with Nick Janvier. After about an hour of explaining the course and the different sites, practicing using the compass and bearing we went off in partners to find 16 points. As a joke Nick insisted on pairing me with Abenezer. Not only does he also go by Abe which made things confusing, but he happens to be an extraordinary runner, on the Ethiopian National team for two years prior to AC. So there I was puffing besides this guy who was basically in a light prance. We had a great time though. He would hold my hand every time we went down a steep muddy side, even offering to put me on my back if it got too tough. Bless him.

That afternoon we did ‘Survival’. Thank goodness because I was exhausted. A local from the area named Steve had us make a shelter from the wood around us, build a fire, chop wood, and lastly cook some delicious bread on a stick as we did for our house bonfire about a month ago.

The next day was wet. Very wet. It was our off-site day. About a 20 minute drive away we did climbing and caving. Two things that I have already done with AoC. Look who sounds experienced all of a sudden. What is happening? Anyways I climbed the rock and Abseiled down, at the time telling Simon that there is no way I would do things like this if I wasn’t at AC, which is one of the reasons I’m lucky to be pushed in this way- mostly mentally. The rest of the climbing session I helped belay, and laughed with Chikara, my very own Japanese ninja.

After eating lunch in the entrance to a cave I kitted up to go inside. This cave was very different to the one that we went in during AoC summer as it was dry. Which made me superbly happy. Meditating in ultimate darkness, wiggling and finding our way without any lights on, allowing our touch to become so much more essential… nothing to complain about there! We even made out flags for the flag parade that evening in the cave. Group E started as eggs and became Eagles. Crazy stuff.

BTW! There were bathrooms, about a five minute walk away. The showers were low pressure and it wasn’t luxurious even by AC standards- but it was manageable. Not to worry my friends.

The last day we were meant to do Mountain Biking and then Canoeing. However this didn’t quite happen… I was all kitted out for Mountain Biking, borrowing someone else’s leggings as they were already dirty, helmet on, gloves secure. However Audrey’s chain broke within five minutes, and I went back with her. By the time we were back we wouldn’t have been able to catch up. So instead Audrey from Austria, Sara from Wales (but lived in so many cool places like Kenya) and I decided to take a walk. We basically just kept asking random questions, from favourite book to who you admire most walking upwards for half an hour and then turning back. As you can imagine this meant we weren’t paying the most attention… We only got perfectly lost to arrive back on the campsite at the same time as the bikers. Phew. My heart wouldn’t have been able to handle much more than that.

Then that afternoon we were meant to go canoeing on the rapids. However this had been cancelled the previous day as well, as with all the rain, there were no rapids- just very fast water. Not safe. I wasn’t too disappointed though, I didn’t have an intense urge to put on a wetsuit for my last activity before heading home. Instead we went ‘Gallivanting with Gareth’ (which that morning was ‘Roaming with Robbie’). It was another walk, another chance to talk to people I hadn’t had a chance to much before camp. Daniel and I compared home for quite a while, and then Karabo from South Africa beat-boxed for me the majority of the way back.

And then back to AC. Exfoliation, Cream, Floss, and dry socks. Bliss basically. In Open House I wore my wounds with pride (which included three pretty massive bruises on various areas of my legs, midge bites and a tad bit of sunburn from that day). Let’s just say that I wasn’t looking to the nines, besides my smile.

Challenge completed.

Fireworks! YAY!

Thursday Evening-

We had a barbeque in the Inner Courtyard. Vegetarian Burger and Sausage, Cous Cous galore… Life was good. After that more than half the school and staff were in the on the Top Lawn, waiting for the fireworks that went off at 8:30. They were actually pretty good. Everyone was a bit sceptical on how good they would actually be. A professional company did them, it was done by the Outdoor Pool. It kept finishing and everyone would clap, and then more would start- so there was never an obvious finale.

I realised it had been so long since I’ve watched fireworks in celebrating an occasion. I mean there are fireworks on Christmas Day and New Year’s, but it’s all a bit hectic, and no one professional display, as I missed Pirates Week festivities last November. Though it was really nice, I was a bit sceptical as to why we were having such fireworks when I thought the 50th anniversary was a monumental fundraising event for UWC. Oh well…

That evening was even Open House to top everything off! I mostly cuddled with Balazs from Hungary as we ate scones and compared our swimming history. His was far superior- but it was still enjoyable. There were then two Morgannwg showering’s, Lalita turning 18 and Vicki turning 17. Couldn’t resist have a bit of the coffee icing that Heidi made… MMM.

After that (it really seems like a never ending night), we had a house meeting. We discussed next week, which is a Diploma Period for the first years and Challenge Camp for second years… and also a major school inspection. The same association that shut down the London Metropolitan a few weeks ago is coming here. We’ll be fine though :)

THEN I read for pleasure for about half an hour. Which I’m not sure if I have done since being back! Dad ordered me the newest Ken Follett book: Winter of the World. It’s a great book to be reading as we’re covering the exact same time period in History right now. (So even when it’s for pleasure, I’m learning, yippeeeee).

Bed by midnight. Ah.

Saturday, 15th September.

Busy Saturday

Woke up at 9 and worked on homework: English homework on the juxtaposition between the intellectual and emotional in one of John Donne’s poems. Then my last Environmental Systems Write Up – on the zonation of a slipway no less.

Went to lunch at Fossil Cottage, as Antonia’s family are here and she invited some friends. Lovely time. Even indulged in some Ben and Jerry’s!

First service session of the year! It was something we volunteered for, as our service isn’t required to do things on the weekends. I did a canoeing session with Amy from England and Saleh from Palestine. The visiting group was -12-13 year olds from a Cardiff Youth Group. It was so interesting for me as they all spoke fluent Welsh. There are only three or four students at the school we are actually fluent… so this was the first time in a year that I heard Welsh being casually spoken for over an hour. The session in general was great, they were such a jolly group, had me bent over laughing when they tried to complete ‘Crazy Taxi’.

I then came back to defrost. And shower. And work on a bit of History Note taking of Hitler’s Rise to Power. Then I went to see Illisha so we could discuss our presentation on Monday English class about the poem The Flea by John Donne. It’s such a seductive poem, the guy is peer pressuring the girl to sleep with him, but using ‘metaphysical conceits’ and all this other hoopla that you don’t realise. So we’ve decided to read it aloud to some seducing-worthy music. That should help.

THEN I got in a mini-bus, that seated 16 and went into Cowbridge to celebrate one of my friend’s 18th’s. We went to a really nice restaurant called the New Market Place. I was really thankful I ate before I went though… the other didn’t get their food till 9- I would have been ravenous!

After we went on the Coastal Path near school and lit some fireworks Janos’ mum brought from Germany. It was different, which made it special.

Such a fulfilling day!

Tomorrow my grandparents come, which I’m so excited for.

And the party continues.

I'm on the right, my shoes were glowing whenever I wasn't in the light too! At least I looked like a professional climber, right?

Last night was great! I went down for my shift at 7PM, kitted out with knitted socks, to layers of leggings, 2 jumpers on, and even a hat and gloves if need be. Thankfully it wasn't that cold. I first billayed Illisha for 10 climbs and did six myself afterwards. We had so many 'guest climbers', extra students who wanted to try out the wall for the first time that a lot of the AoC students had to wait... Which was a bit problematic. Even so that night I did 15 climbs, moving faster towards the end when Robbie promised it was good to tone all of the leg muscles! When I left that night we were at 350 climbs, and there was another shift from 9-11 of students still to go.

This morning I got there at 8AM, planning to do at least 15 more, but they told me there were only 40 more climbs to go! We overestimated how long it would take us to do the climb! Evenso I got up there first and did 10 more, with only 10 more climbs to go so I got down so others who were on the same shift as me could have a turn. Even made it to double-code History. Phew.

We'll all be there for the last three climbs at 2PM this afternoon, I know the atmosphere will be great. Our service had a great time.
Thank you to everyone who supported the climb, all the proceeds are going to the Atlantic College Student Scholarships.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19656834 ^^ Here is a short video that you can visually see Queen Noor and the burial of the capsule.

More of tonight!
Abi

The big 5o!

I have a blog entry from last Saturday to put up, it's just on Chloe's computer! Technical Difficulties!

Sunday

Grandma and Grandpa came for the night! It was so nice to see them, made me unbelievably happy. They arrived at about 3pm and after having a chat in my room (and being blessed with a supply of new food), all three of us went into the dayroom and read for a few hours, with a cup of tea of course. We found their room, Middle Gibbet, on the spiral staircase up twoards the History classrooms. Bunk-beds! And a single, luckily neither of them had to take top bunk. That evening we went to dinner at Il Visuvio (crazy!), with Chloe, Ilisha and Shana as well. It really was an amazing night. Nothing extraordinary, but amazing. We even managed to catch the last 20 minutes of the British National Evening. Though Grandma and Grandpa are far superior Brits to what we were performing.

Since we got split up, Chloe said Shana, Ilisha and her went to 'tuck them into bed' and say thank you that night.
Monday-

I had breakfast with them, and the sadly had to say bye. But it wasn't too bad because I know I will be seeing them in three weeks for my 18th. :)

That afternoon I got to see my third-year, Dmitry. He took a very long detour on his way to University of Edinburgh. Flying into London, train to Cardiff, taxi to AC (then taxi to Cardiff airport and flight to Edinburgh that night). I hope the three hours he got to spend at AC were worth it. We went to Il Visuvio (two nights in a row, and three restaurants consequtively for me!), with Louis and Chloe. Such a lovely time.
Wednesday:
THE 50th ANNIVERSARY!

We missed the code after break to watch Queen Noor of Jordan arrive in her helipcopter.
Then our Student President and Vice President helped her burry a time capsule that will be opened at the 100th anniversary, filled with letters that the students wrote.
 Then the principal of UWC Pearson (in Canada) rode the last couple of km into the Main Arch with students.
There is currently an Assembly going on in Bradenstoke which I am listening to live on the AC website while writing this blog. (Two things at once!)
The climb in in ONE HOUR!

Though I am not climbing until 7pm tonight, I will go for the beginning. Robbie and Rob (two of our instructors) have put a tent up at the top, and are planning to sleep the night on the tower. We stop climbing at midnight and start again at 5am tomorrow morning. Every student has to climb at least 27 times, and the instructors a fair bit more. My slots, with 10 other AOC students, are from 7-9PM tonight, and then 8-10AM tomorrow morning. Illisha and I have promised to be eachother's billayers. I'm nervous... but it will be great! And am so proud to have raised money for it!
Okay, I will get what I did on Saturday up tomorrow. With news of the climbing, the BBQ, the fireworks.. oh so much!
Love,
Abi



PS *apparently the last time Queen Noor was here, in 2003, students wrote EDW on her helipcopter. They got into a lot of trouble for it, possibly expelled.. Just thought it was an interesting thing to know.

AOC FUNDRAISER!!

http://www.justgiving.com/Abi-Drummond

HELLOOOOOO

In order to celebrate 50 years of UWC AC, the instructors and students of this service are climbing the height of Mt. Everest (8,848 m) in 24 hours on the new climbing wall. The climb will start at 1700 on Wednesday 19th September and we will finish it at 1700 on Thursday 20th. We will have to climb the tower approximately 800 times to match the height of Everest!
Your support and generosity would be very much appreciated.
It is hoped that by taking part and completing the challenge we can achieve some objectives for the college:
1. Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the College with action.
2. Raise some money for the College so that we can continue to support students through bursaries and also through support for activities and projects at the college.
For more information please look at the links below:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/AtlanticOutdoorCentre
http://www.facebook.com/#!/UWCAC


I'm quite sure I've spoken of my fear of climbing at least half a dozen times on this website. Please support my amazing service and school. <3

Abi

FINISHED...sort of.

Finished!

I have finished two of the most laborious, tiring assessments for the IB in the last week. YAY.

On Wednesday I had my ‘Viva Voce’ meeting with Nick, we read the whole essay through together, corrected some of the punctuation and then chatted about the overall EE. I then went to the librarian, Rachel, who put it through Turnitin. What an amazing piece of technology. The EE had 10% other people’s work, but some of the things it picked up were ‘United World College of the Atlantic’ and ‘North of Rhode Island’. So overall I only had to add about 3 more references and reword one sentence which was fine. Since the majority of my EE was from internet sources, which is information from other sources, the actual sources Turnitin found were ones I’d never heard of. Fascinating technology…
Anyways I e-mailed the final to Nick, 4 weeks ahead of the deadline. He made a joke about me going to celebrate with some ‘Lionfish and Chips’. It’s weird to imagine not looking back at it again, but at least I don’t have to worry about it while I’m doing my other work.


Interestingly enough I was more satisfied today with printing off my History IA. Maybe it was holding it in my hands, which I didn’t do with the EE. I truly did enjoy working on it...hopefully it’s worth it.

But as with the IB, when one thing ends another starts. ToK, (which is worth just as much as the EE in points), essay topics came out a week ago. The essay first draft will be due the first week in January, so most students do it over Christmas break. Here is the list to choose from:

1. In what ways may disagreement aid the pursuit of knowledge in the natural and human sciences?
2. “Only seeing patterns can give us knowledge. Only seeing particular examples can give us understanding.” To what extent do you agree with these assertions?
3. “The possession of knowledge carries an ethical responsibility” Evaluate this claim.
4. The traditional ToK diagram indicates four ways of knowing. Propose the inclusion of a fifth way of knowing selected from intuition, memory or imagination, and explore the knowledge isses it may raise in two areas of knowledge.
5. “That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” (Christopher Hitchens). Do you agree?
6. Can we know when to trust our emotions in the pursuit of knowledge? Consider history and one other area of knowledge.

The essay is meant to be between 1200-1600 words. My presentation will be the week after half-term break. I’m working on something to do with women wearing bikinis in Arab countries and women wearing Burqas in Western countries. Hopefully my class mates, and Chris will find it interesting.

Dinner last night [Friday], with Gabi her mum, husband to be , Shana and Dan. We went to Jaipur which was the restaurant that Dad and I went to the first night we came to Llantwit, a lovely time.

Activities:

Children’s Charities – our second activity is going to be spent baking in the Sunley dayroom so that we can sell goodies at Tuesday break time. Should be a fun session 

Ethical Felt Design- Basically making things from the sheep wool we get from the farm. Very excited. I would love to make a scarf, but not sure if I’ll have enough time as there are only four more sessions left. Maybe I’ll go next cycle as an unofficial activity. The person who runs the activity is a professional felter, called Claire Cawte- pretty cool life!


Lots of love,
Abi

Dorm9

The kind of e-mails we get...

Dear All,

It has been randomly decided that tomorrow is going to be Dashiki Day! (keep on reading if you don’t have an idea what’s happening….)

So, anyone who has clothing that looks anything like in the picture below, WEAR IT! (Or if you don’t have a dashiki t-shirt, wear something colourful anyway and be awesome – yes, it makes you look awesome.)
IT’S OBLIGATORY, NOT OPTIONAL.

It’s going to be crazy. It’s going to epic. It’s going to be a Dashiki Day!

Love,
Sarunas and Savannah

*Sadly I can't participate.

Camp Leaders!

Rushed as ever.

This blog entry has been much put off. You know when there’s something to do but it’s going to take sooo much time so you leave it to later, but then it becomes a bigger thing to do? Yeah..

CAMP:

• Learnt the Haka for the first night
• Were a bit too scary to the Firsties coming off the bus, apparently
• Big Booty performance for the Talent Show, half the Second Year girls on our camp
• Bonfire, as lovely as ever. National Songs <3
• Danced on the tables
• EXHAUSTION


Work:
The History IA is complete! All of my corrections have been fixed and I am so glad it’s done. Never before have I spent so long working on something that’s only 2000 words.

The EE is almost done. So close. I have my ‘Viva Voce’ meeting with Nick on Wednesday afternoon where we discuss the last minute detail. I will then put it into the system ‘Turnitin’, to make sure it’s below 15% other people’s words.

Codes started on Wednesday. I’ll briefly say what I’m doing in each:

English Lit- John Donne poetry (he’s SUCH a romantic, I’m obviously loving it)
History- Weimar Germany
Gerography- Extreme Environments
E Systems- Biodiversity
French- Past Tense
Maths- Sets

Fun times all around.

Activities:
Activities have changed this year in that they are running in 5 week cycles, so instead of doing four a year people will do 8. This is really nice! However as I’m leading Children’s Charities for the whole year I only have one extra. I signed up for Arts ones primarily as I haven’t done one this year.

So my new activity:
Ethical Felt design
Claire Cawte
This environmentally sustainable activity uses the college environment as a source of inspiration and materials, including; college sheep fleece, plants and kitchen waste. Global and climactic changes impact the environment and what resources found in nature collected and combined to translate into an expression of our creativity.
Inspiration drawn from recognised issues that can be transformed into a visual language and express in designing a costume for the end if term Fashion Show or site specific art around the AC campus.

The Eco-Rep in me is thrilled!

OTHERS:

My LNAT exam is booked for October 6th. Freaking out, slightly.
Caribbean Bonding last night- jerk chicken (I enjoyed the smell) and festivals with our two Firsties: Ricky from Puerto Rico and Zooey from Aruba. Six Caribbean students, 16 Italians… how?!

House Bonding- had a bonfire in the valley. Synove brought a bowl full of bread dough, we put them on sticks and made bread  The Scan version of S’mores I suppose…

Spent a night at the Cottage with 8 friends, thanks to Isabelle’s amazing parents coming to visit. Had a great time!
Gym is still closed… Abi is itching to work out.

Love, Abi

PS- The First Year show is tonight!