(:

 Biffles.

 TRAVEL!

How my stitch looked XD

Style you Sole, & Prom

Style Your Sole

Chloé and Louis run another charity activity at AC like me with Children's Charities. There's is Toms Campus Club. It raises awareness for the Toms charity with cupcake sales etc and there big project is shoe buying [at discount] in February. Granted I was basically forced to buy a pair.

But that’s cool since I really like them.

You are able to paint them with special paints that they bring in to make them unique. This event is called ‘Style Your Sole’. Now, I am a pretty horrific painter. My doodles, well they’re spectacular but please, don’t make me ever do anything more. So my are left blissfully plain.

PROM!

My fourth and final prom. Each has been memorable in a different way. The dress I wore. The guy I went with. The dozens (hundreds) of pictures. This one has its own unique memories as well.

AC proms are really not as a big a deal as they are back home [which is very Americanised in that way]. So a couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the Quiet Room on one of the computers and Atsuki, the Japanese second year in my house (but we also share E Systems together, and used to have French) says ‘Abi, do you want to go to prom with me’. –‘Sure!’… Simple. However, I didn’t quite meet Atsuki for this big event until about 9:30.

Let me explain.

It started by getting ready with the girls in the dorm. This is possibly one of my favourite things to do as a dorm. We rush around the room, borrowing each other make-up, asking advice, slightly frantic, listening to loud music and laughing more than ‘preparing’. Gabi even took on the task of ordaining me with fake eyelashes. Oh, we went to the extreme.

At 6:20, 30 friends met at Main Gate to go to Cowbridge to celebrate our friend Avrah’s 18^th birthday, and mostly because pre-prom can be a bit boring. Shana, always the ‘go big or go home’ girl, managed to get us a 60-seater bus. Crazy. Only £4 there and back though.

We basically rented out the back room of a restaurant called Aboreal, where platters of food were prepared for us for £15 a head. It was all fresh food and super healthy. The pizza, quinoa and chick pea salad, hummus and flat bread… MMM. Chlo and I even had a pretty mojito.

When I got back I ran (in heels) back to Morgannwg so that I could be with my date. He had left a bouquet of roses on my bed! No one had ever gotten me flowers before so I was sooo happy. We walked down to prom in Bradenstoke with Einar and Gabs and danced danced danced. What a lovely time.


MOCKS TOMORROW. PROCRASTINATION OVER.
I shall let you know how they go… with no time to prepare for them. Egh.

Abstazzle.

Newsflash, Egypt Currently

On Tuesday in Newsflash, Fareed who lives in Cairo came to speak to us about what was the current situation back home. I tried my best to take notes, but some of the names went past my head so please don't take this all for fact. It’s a bit jumbled as well…

Let's see...

·         The Muslim Brotherhood is now 60% of the parliament, more pro secular conservative, but the revolution wanted more democratic

·         The Muslim Brotherhood were imprisoned for the assassinations of the president before Mubarak, all for 15 years

·         He was part of the millions that went several Friday’s to Tahrir Square

·         Now people are going to the Presidential Palace where Morsi lives, he has paralysed the circulation of the area, which has become a criticism of his rule

·         The reformations called for his glorification, the main one that he holds is the veto power [hearing this I immediately thought of History and the League of Nations = no good]

·         Seems he has more power than Mubarak

·         He wannts loans, Germany refused, China gave 4 billion

·         Fareed isn’t a big fan of Morsi, his appeal to the majority of the population is that he’s very religious, but Fareed isn’t Muslim so this doesn’t affect him. Supposedly he went to NASA and helped in something or other, but his English is very poor. His political etiquette is horrible; he apparently checked his watch while the German diplomats were speaking repeatedly.

·         The population want someone is old and wise, 30-40 years old is too young, Fareed was unable to vote in the election because although the voting age is 18, you have to be 18 for six months to be eligible

·         During the revolution the security measures were chaos, the police basically didn’t exist for 2 weeks as they had to go and protect their house. Fareed did this too; all the men guarding the house ‘it was very tribal’, most houses have at least one weapon of protection ‘this is Cairo’. They had to do this as all of the prisoners were let out of jail, this included gang members and rumours of Al Qaeda members going back to Palestine.

Improvements:

·         Media has been the biggest change, he can now read a newspaper without being disgusted at the favouritism for the old regime, it’s not something that tourists would notice though

·         Bassem Youssef, the Jon Stewart of Egypt started an Arabic version to the Daily Show

·         Improvements for women in every sector but medicine

·         Investigation Police [attempted English translation], basically like the Gestapo is non-existent now

International Show- auditions complete

After two days of about 30 auditions we have choosen the acts that will be in the International Show! Soooo many were amazing, I felt pretty pathetic being a judge when I couldn't even clap to a rhythm.
The list below are the acts :)

 

1.       Bollywood Fever- Sub-Conti Dance

2.       Bernadette- Nigerian Song in native language about love

3.       Ellinor, Scottish- Harp

4.       MOVE, International- Dance (one)

5.       Mila, East Timor- Tetun Song with Guitar

6.       Bram, The Netherlands- Guitar

7.       Chikara, Japanese- Martial Arts

8.       Josie, English- Beatles Song with Guitar

9.       Yihan- Chinese Dance

10.   Mark, Irish- Italian Opera  Song

11.   Japanese Fisherman Dance

12.   Bram [Dutch], Arjun [Indian], James  [English] and Michael [Cypriot]- Mumford and Sons Song with instruments

13.   Nick [Welsh]- Ginger Song with Piano

14.   African Dance

15.   Whittaker Girls [House on Campus]- Cup Song

16.   Oli [Hong Kong]– Piano

17.   Acapella [International]

18.   Prabana- Sri Lankan Dance

19.   Karabo [South Africa] and Karen- [Nigerian] Hip Hop Song

20.   Clement [Québécois]– Juggling to Justin Bieber

The show is in four weeks tomorrow!


The MCs will be Louis [mentioned in here far too often] from Belgium and Guillaume from Quebec. They will be fantastic together.

Food Festival

Sophie Killip, a Welsh Second Year organised a food festival on Sunday. It entailed many e-mails and quite a bit of organisation and was really something special! If you didn’t provide any food (as I didn’t, the cost was only £1 to try others). I can’t remember everything that was there, or the names of the things, but if I will try to say some…

Norway- Salmon, Cream Cheese and Rye bread

Bermuda- Cassava Pie (with chicken)

Wales- Welsh Cakes

England- Scones

Russia- Pink Soup? Potato Salad

Brazil-   Brigadeiro- Condensed milked boiled with chocolate butter and butter. Rolled into ball and covered in sprinkles. Very sweet and amazingly delicious! Brigadeiro means Brigadier in Portuguese, a position in the army. The sweet was made up by Brigadier Luis Antonio’s wife, when he ran for government, as a campaign tool. He wasn’t elected but the sweet caught on.

Pao de Queijo- Translates into cheese bread. Balls of soft bread dough and cheese baked until soft in the inside but crunchy on the outside.

Turkey- sweet thing… and Turkish Delights

Hungary- pastries of some sort

China- Noodles, and seeded Dates

South of Africa-

1)Seswaa

2) Spicy Onion and Tomato: diced onions and tomato with salt pepper and chillies. This is usually served with something called Kapana which is spicy barbecued beef meat cut into small squares.

3) White Bloomer bread. This was a replacement as we could not make Pap (pronounced p-up).  It is a traditional porridge  made from maize meal to a thick constancy and is more specifically known as Stywepap (ponounced stay-vah-p-up) meaning thick porridge. it has a very bland taste and is almost always accompanied by with sauce and meat.

Italy- Tiramisu

Guatemala- Tamales

International Show PROMOTIONAL VIDEO

This should be public tomorrow. It is FABULOUS.
Ryan Chin from Singapore made it, with Kiera from the US as the voice. It's to publicise the International Show, I just spent the last 3 hours watching auditions - it's going to be an amazing event. Wish you all could come.

Abi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwjI8WGepHo

Ice-Skating Extravaganza.

Two Friday nights, two firsts. This one thankfully planned, and less extreme.

Our houseparent’s organised a trip to the Ice-skating rink in Cardiff for the whole school! We had to pay £10, and for that got our entrance and the travels there. About half the student body went, around 160 of us in three buses J

We arrived by 8 and were on the ice by 8:15. I spent the whole two hours trying to ice skate. I had SUCH a good time. Since I am not a proficient walker, skating is quite an ordeal. I managed to roller blade with the four wheels by pushing off and gliding- but ice skates don’t have that beautiful brake which I so desperately needed.

So for the whole time someone would hold my hand and take me around. By the end it even looked like I could do skate (though if someone let go of my hand I would instantly scream in terror). Finn from Portugal was telling me I just needed to glide and push out…no comprehension. Even so it was good fun. The end of the night also reminded me of something I wrote on my Bucket List when I was probably 13 after watching Ice Princess. I really hope that one day I get to drive a Zamboni – it just looks SO satisfying (OCD tendencies).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkJbvv3pHg

To top it off? It was ONESIE night. Chloé and I dressed in COW onesies. Sexy is right. Pictures to come.

Though I think Mum and Dad did an amazing job for my childhood (love you two ;)), there are a few things I hope my kids can do: 1. Speak two languages fluently. 2. (Ice) Skate/Ski 3. Play an instrument…partially.

 Saturday night was spent mellow, I stayed in and watched a movie (Rise of the Planet Apes!) with my First Year, Vicky who lives in England but lived in Honduras so she’s in the Latino crew. It was unexpected and chill.

 There were two bonding sessions to note: 1. Francophone, where they had to dress up as chavs. Chloé arrived back from the bonding to get on the bus to Marcross with face paint and a diaper around her neck. It was confusing.

TALL PEOPLE BONDING- or as it was called on the FB event: Gigantomachy. I didn’t go, though I am probably the fourth or fifth tallest girl in the school. I think for girls they had to be 178cm and guys had to be 190cm (AC is blessed with many tall guys, it makes me happy J).
I considered going but just wasn’t in the mood by that time. I heard it was quite good… seriously we bond in any way possible.

 

Quidditch. It's serious.

 

More balls than rugby,

More goals than football,

More brooms than housekeeping…

 

Saturday, 6 April.

There will be an AC intra-college Quidditch Match.

If you want to be a Beater, Keeper, Chaser, Seeker, or Referee on either team,

Come to Quidditch Practice.

Sunday.  13.00-14.00.

St Donats. Doodling at its best.

American ''Student Council'' Vibes.

 

The elections for the new Chair and Vice Chair of Atlantic College are being held tonight.
A funny picture which was sent to us by e-mail today:

 

More Yearbook Slips

To the Houseparents:

”Baparapa” ”Baparabam” – Jon Morten, you are infamous for your personal announcements.  As much as we love your long anecdotes during house meeting, and wish we could reflect that right now, this note will be to the point.

Let us remember:

First Sosh, as AC ”babies” will always be remembered for the 3AM house meeting, at which point we realised what an exceptional family we had become a part of, as you Synnøve called it: ”Baptism by Fire”.

In the last two years, you have taught us that coffee is essential, no matter what time of day, cleaning our dishes is really mandatory and not for fun “occasionally”, and that the challenge is to eat as many waffles as physically possible. Challenge (always) Accepted. We are proud Norwegian children.

Though it is known around campus that our house is physically the most worn out, it is quickly dismissed when we remind anyone who dares taunt us that you are our houseparents.

The barbeques are savoured. The bread baking was intriguing. The Couscous is phenomenal. Our bonfires. The Christmas Parties. Painting the first year portrait at midnight, hours before they arrived, in antics but still… a family.

Being away from home was made easier with the family environment that you provided. Although we have tried to be discreet, we now have learnt that you generally know what we are truly doing. But that is another story.

Thanks for Genuinely caring for us.

We love you.

Written for Kate's History class (we only had 100 words since she has two higher level classes)

Kate’s D-code:

Origin: Mostly Powys-ians (+ “Amann? Oh, she’s not here.”)

Purpose: To fill the shoes of the famous D-code

Values:

•       Use of Marta’s carrot and the stick (“beautiful”)

•       Perspective of a teacher from behind the iron curtain (“I was not oppressed.”)

•       Louis looking things up (perhaps a limitation...?)

•       Photographs of Hitler as a baby and on the same rock as Kate

•       Instilling fear when homework is forgotten (“not good”)

Limitations:

•       Zoran—on the phone; laughing at horrific events

•       Erasmo’s hatred of communism

•       Response to Fergal: “Well, kind of, but not really...”

ACMUN 2013 VIDEO!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMYFxktpu_0

This is a video made of the ACMUN conference.
It may be far more fantastic to me since I know and love pretty much every student that I saw in it. But I think it would be something for anyone to behold, whether to see the skill our students have in conveying thier cases, or the beauty of the castle rooms (Econ Classrooms, Library, Great Hall).

At 2:00 in there is a clip from my conference. Though I don't look the most interested in that moment (whoops) while Chloé is talking. You can also see Joaco, as Bolivia having to pack up and leave after he was banished from the conference.

At the end there is something quite exciting, with Šarūnas who I have spoken about before on this blog. This might give reason to why I think he is such a boss. It is also done in my Carrell Unit, to give a very blurry idea of what it looks like.

Watch the Video!
Abi :)

United World Cuisine: An International Cookbook Made by UWC Students

The United World Cuisine is a cookbook made entirely by UWC and for UWC, with 50 mouth-watering recipes from 50 different countries. From desserts, to appetizers, to soups, to drinks and main courses - there's something for every taste! Purchase one (or more) books today and not only enjoy tastes and smells from around the world right here, but you also get to share the experience with friends and family at home.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/United-World-Cuisine-International-Cookbook/dp/0957374208/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359913635&sr=8-1

 

All profits go directly towards UWC scholarships!

Only £15, get it today!

 

 

 

In Other News:

I mentioned on here that AC students sent a letter to Malala offering her a scholarship to Atlantic College. Though she is about to have surgery this week, her father will be visiting the college in the next two weeks! Also, the two other girls which she was with may be offered places to other UWC's.

 

Very exciting!

 

Bonding, to a whole new level

I heard that last night there was going to be Axis Bonding.

AC students really do use any excuse possible to spend time together with as many different nationalities as possible.

I think the Germans, Italians and Japanese had a good time last night.

I myself had dinner with the four other Caribbeans. Bun and cheese. Mac n Cheese (I know, American, but we compensated with the unusal idea of adding PickaPeppa Sauce). Festivals. Rum Cake. Ting. And Jamaican music. Yeah buddy.

On a side note, I just saw on my homepage that I have now had over 7000 views to this page, after 125 posts! I'm really baffled... when I started this out it was simply a means of explaining to my parents, grandparents and (if needed) National Committee what I was doing. Makes it easier for sponsor letters. Reflections. Etc.

But I like to think I really help future AC students know 'inside knowledge' of the campus and encourage them to apply. Wishful.

Lots of Love,
Abi

UWC Atlantic College Model United Nations 2013 - Reflections:

UWC Atlantic College Model United Nations  2013 - Reflections:

(though this if for my tutor, so it's some what  flowy)

1.        In your understanding, what is the Model United Nations (MUN), and what are its hopes for educational outcomes?

 MUN gives students the ability to show a different side of themselves. How to argue. How to propose. How to stick to formalities- learning the lingo and how to agree the pragmatic things. Educational Outcomes are bringing a new confidence to each student who able to see that their contribution to the committee is an essential part, and give us an idea of what could be our potential futures… as we are the generation that it matters.

 

2.       What would you say were the main outcomes of your individual participation at the AC MUN 2013?

 

This year I was in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) where we discussed the Millennium Development Goals and their importance in Sub-Saharan Africa. I was the delegate of Belgium. Not too controversial of a country to be representing, Chloé sitting next to me was China and proposed that all countries in the area should adopt the One Child Policy which would enable the health care to more focused, or something similar which was quite a lark.  My individual participation was significant in that I was able to contribute the knowledge and statistics I know of the Millennium Development Goals (Geography revision!), and also that I got to get into a heated discussion over what was the best form of action. Though all of the formalities with voting, point of information, moderated caucus is a bit much for me.  

 

3.       In what ways did taking part in AC MUN 2013 enhance your own insight into UWC Atlantic College’s wider educational mission?

 I suppose it reminded me of all the countries we represent at school. It’s not the same in formality but we are impacting each other on a daily basis. I doubt many MUN’s have students in a room, all delegates of a certain country but also representing their own home, all different at the same time.

 

4.       What were the highlights of your participation in the AC MUN?

 

My high-light was a silly one. Towards the end of the day Chloé decided to shake it up a little. When Joaco (who was representing Bolivia) made a proposal, Chloé (representing China) stood up, and in a spiel of words pronounced she could not agree with Bolivia as they had no right to be in the committee, their representation was of little value. It became war. We were all enraptured.

Adventure and Butterflies.

Well…

Last night was an adventure. A memory. A first.

It started off and seemed like it was going to end like a good, common AC night.
I had a catch up session with Louis, because though we see each other every day we hadn’t actually recounted our holidays and just spoken us two since being back. So that was really nice.

We then got the 9pm bus to Marcross where I go to spend time with Saktish and Chikara and just have a lovely time. We then had Suit Up Sosh in Bradenstoke (because of MUN, more on that soon). All fine. I got back to Morgannwg, took off my shoes and then went downstairs.

Then, Jimmy told me Gabi wasn’t feeling well and I might want to go and check on her. Instinct takes over and I start running up the stairs. All fine. Let me just remind everyone I was blessed with the grace of an antelope. All fine.  Just starting down the corridor, in my socks, I lose my grip and BAM. Hit my chin hard.

To me, it seemed like a little cut which was barely bleeding. Jimmy was not so convinced though. He said it looked quite deep. I showed Chloé (who was actually asleep so now I feel bad about that), and after much cajoling on Jimmy’s part I agreed to go and show the Jon Morten. Who then recommended I go show Synove. Who said it looked exactly what Hennie (her daughter) had done not long ago. So she called Vicky, one of the night porters who agreed I should go to the hospital and get it looked at. I really didn’t want all of the fuss! At this point Chloé came downstairs and convinced Jimmy she would go with me (=best friend) as she wouldn’t be able to sleep until I was back anyways.

So we left the house (before midnight), having to turn off the alarm (so exciting!). As I was leaving I saw Louis and jokingly said “See you Louis, just have to go to the hospital”. He freaked out and ran outside with us, and Jon Morten had to make him come back in because the alarm was going to turn back on in 10 seconds. Such drama!

So off we drove to Port Talbot (Synove recommended this hospital instead of Bridgend because Bridgend you have to wait ages). Chloé was in the front seat chatting away to dear Vicky while I was in the back holding a napkin to my chin. Cute.

After 40 minutes of driving, which 1. Seemed like far too long for me and by this point 2. Quite unnecessary (honestly, in the Drummond family we just Neosporin everything and get on with the day) we got to the hospital. Luckily there was no wait. The doctor looked at it and said it was good I came otherwise I would have had a nasty scar. Phew. She sterilised it, glued it and put two butterfly stitches on. Done in 10 minutes.

Back to AC before 2am. This morning I went to the health centre where I was given saran wrap and tape for my showers for the next 6 days [which is going to be interesting…]. It doesn’t really hurt, only if I smile too much, which I do when I tell the story. Hm.

What an adventure!

I never did get to look after dear Gabs…

Pictures

 AOC, Acid River Game. I decided to participate :)

 He was so cool!

 My henna.

All of our henna.

 The boys making crepes.

OFF TO INSANITY! The snow got way cooler after this.