So Fast

My first term is done. It’s crazy to imagine. How could four months of my time at AC be gone already? It seems like two weeks ago I was typing about first camp and the overwhelming mess of the first couple of weeks and here I am a quarter of the way through my UWC experience. Shock.

Today has been so bittersweet. We were woken up by the houseparents at 8:30 and had a house breakfast of waffles, croissants and fruit at 9. We then did house clean up where each of the dorms had a different area to tidy up for the winter break as well as our own corners of the dorm.

We then had a lovely Christmas lunch in the dining hall with the Christmas crackers and mince pies. From then on I chilled with some friends in their dorms until 3:00. I was the first of the group to leave so they all came down carrying my suitcase and carry-on bag to Main Gate. To simply come to Main Gate was an effort, the wind outside was crazy and it’s beginning to feel bitingly cold (well to me). We were joking around and waiting for the taxi and I realized how amazing these friends I have are, how lucky I am and how on earth was I going to go four weeks without them?

But then I remember that tomorrow, I’ll be home. Seeing my parents. Seeing my best friends. Being in the sun. How lucky am I to feel so comfortable and happy in two homes? Atlantic College has become that for me. And though I won’t write during my winter break I know I’ll think of school and the people in it every day of my break.

Merry Christmas everyone. We’ll have a hectic New Year.

Love, Abi

Christmas Party Photos! :)

 Erlend, the houseparents youngest kid :)

 Chiel! My tutor :) (the blonde)

 Dorm 12 <3 Chloe, Ruyi, Myself and Gabi

 Louis is practically our fifth dorm mate

 Vincent <3 and the remaints of our feast!

 Morgannwg second year guys

 Dorm 3 and Dorm 12

 Kristian, Albania

Sam and Hannah

 Chloe, Heidi (Norway)

 Vincent, Kenya

 Why it's turned this way I don't know... Nick was my date

 Christian and Carys singing

 Heidi!

 Morgannwg girls

 Morgannwg First Years!

 Gabi and I

 Hamdan, Abu Dhabi and Proma, Bangladesh

 Paula, Germany and Luke, USA

 Morgannwg is boss!

Hannah, Carys and Penelope

Some videos of AC (:

These are a few links to videos I saw today that were filmed this term of the campus, all with my friends and other students in them.

Because the IB can wait:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fZqQji8Dt4

Welcome from UWC Atlantic College
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDGiMUbgL24

Christmas Song (: Morgannwg Style

You better watch out

You better not cry

You better not pout

I'm telling you why

Jon Morten is coming tonight

He's checking his list,

Checking it twice;

Gonna find out who's here and who’s not.

Jon Morten is coming tonight

He knows if you are working

He knows if you’re up late

He knows if you've been bad or good

So be good for goodness sake

With Erlend beside

Hennie as well

Linnea’s not far

Synnove’s upstairs

Jon Morten is coming tonight

He knows if you’ve been drinking

He knows about your grades

He knows if you been nightriding

Stay in the house for goodness sake

Dorm 1 takes a nap

Dorm 2 is tidy

Dorm 3 is mental

Dorm 4 has Louis

Houseparents are checking tonight

Is Paul still around

Is James in his dorm?

Mary’s gone out

And Carys went too

Houseparents are checking tonight

Heidi goes on massaging

Yangchen is very sweet

Proma is always chatting and

Dorm 12 is very chic.

Students are boss

Houseparents are boss

Tutors are boss

Morgannwg is boss

Morgannwg is boss

*I'm in dorm 12 :D

Christmas Party

The long-awaited Christmas Party! Oh it was fantastic. Each house has it in a different place but I really think Morgannwg is the luckiest to get to have it in the library.

So this is how it went:

Finished my Maths exam at 5:30. Raced back to the house to start getting ready with my dorm mates, incredibly girly with the music blaring and comparing what to wear and what matches. At 7 all the house goes downstairs and Jon Morten’s kids hand each of the boys and each of the girls random halves of a Christmas card and we have to find out match. I was with Nick Olsen, a first year from Cardiff. It was really sweet he even had a yellow tulip for me.

We then take the walk down to the Library in our couple and once we are all there begin the paparazzi extravaganza while sipping on non-alcoholic champagne and eating the most yummy nibbles that Synove made. It was so nice to see all of the guys all dressed up in suit jackets and the girls in pretty dresses. We become so used to one another in pyjamas and at 7 in the morning, it was nice to see that everyone ‘cleaned up well’.

We sat on two long tables opposite our dates, our tutors were there as well as the house parents three kids. Synove made some amazing food. Pork, Salmon, Vegetarian Lasagna, Couscous – everyone was full by the end. There were also a few musical performances including a song rewritten by one of the second-years that I’ll have to get a copy of to put on here, it was hilarious.

After dinner we some students said speeches of how thankful we were to our tutors and house parents and then we exchanged our last Secret Santa gift. I had so much fun leaving gifts on Paul from Hong Kong’s bed every other day, and he seemed so happy to find out it was me.

Though I didn’t bring my camera to show right now how pretty everything was last night I’ll be sure to steal the pictures off of someone else’s camera very soon.  And the song. Can’t forget the song.

It seems surreal that in only five days I’ll be home. I’m incredibly excited I think about it constantly. But even now I can’t imagine not seeing my Morgannwg family for four weeks. Going away for a weekend seems like ages.

The next few days are winding down of codes, I do have one more French exam to go but otherwise it should be chill. We shall see.

The CULTURE of CONSUMERISM: a MISSION FOCUS WEEK

Another Mission Focus Week! It's going well :)
I went to a workshop tonight led by my peer listener, Vincent from Kenya and a friend in AOC Jerry from South Africa called the Culture of Poverty.
They discussed for an audience of about 20 students the vicious cycle of the hand-to-mouth mentality, that in some cases communities blame the poor for their conditions and the myopic way we deal with the situations with our gap in communication as we do no understand the mechanisms of the culture and try to bring in our own. Also that when studying these issues we tend to look at them as projects and forget to think of them as people too.
Vincent gave an example of working in a slum in Kenya over the summer, by educating high school drop outs in how to finance their familes they would be bringing themselves out of poverty.

We spoke about so many things, I have so many notes and this is super rushed. I just have a free minute and was trying to get it on 'paper'.

Here's the whole schduele to give examples of other workshops being led:

	Saturday 19th	Sunday 20th	Monday 21st	Tuesday 22nd	Wednesday 23rd	Thursday 24th	Friday 25th
16:30-18:00		Occupy AC 10:30-16:30 Inner Court Yard General Assembly Meeting (information session) 18:30	The Culture of Consumerism: Human and Unsustainable (Luke) Economics	Consumerism: a spiritual system? (Iiris, Guillaume, Shanna) Economics	Consumerism: the individual (Iiris, Guillaume, Shanna) Economics	The Culture of Consumerism: Human and Unsustainable (Luke) Economics
18:30-19:30			The Fishing Game (Frederik) Economics	The Culture of Poverty (Vincent) Economics	Economic Sustainability in Developing Countries (Nichil and Christian) Economics	Trade Game (Global Justice) History	DEBATE: Christmas and Consumerism (19:00-21:00)  (Ricardo, Guillaume, Shanna) Great Hall
19:30-20:30	Film Screening: FIGHT CLUB Coffee lounge			Good and Bad Capitalism (Ricardo) Economics	Capitalism without Resources (Tariq) Economics
20:30-21:30			Practical Anti-consumerism (Harry) Economics			iSweat (Made in 48) History

Cinderfella!

Cinderfella

On Saturday we had Cinderfella. This is basically a fashion show of two guys from each house who dress up as girls. The charity that it is done for is Operation Smile, you pay 3 pounds in advance or 5 pounds at the door to watch it. The amount of effort these boys went through in shaving/waxing themselves and learning a dance routine was reason enough to go. The two parts was a little dance then they had to model swim wear. Chloe is a dancer so she choreographed our two boys- Dmitry from Russia and Einar from Norway a Burlesque dance with them; I went just for the fun of watching them learn it. They did really well. It will be a night to remember.

National Evening

It was the East-Asian National Evening last night: China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia. They had a lot of great dances and funny skits, slideshows which I had everyone laughing. Ruyi, my dorm mate, was in it which was great to see J

It’s crazy how fast things are going right now. I have to prepare for my end of term exams, only two weekends left at school and then I’m back home. Crazy to think I’ll have been away for four months, it has rushed by.

The leaves are off most of the trees now, but I rarely see my breath (that’s my indicator on how truly cold it is: can I see my breath??).  Even so, the idea of being back in the sun in two and half weeks is amazing. Home sweet home.