So a bit late then I planed, but though few updates about the RCN life. This time I guess I am more organized (at least I tried to be so), as I tried to pick stuff which seemed the most interesting to me.
At first
stuff that happened (in my favorite points)
- Letters to politicians. In school we are taking Extracurricular activities and one of mine is Amnesty international, where we discuss a lot of issues regarding human rights, mainly about those who were sentenced by mistake, treated badly by government and try to raise awareness and help with the way we can. So last time we had a gathering we wrote letters expressing our discontent regarding some cases, where innocent people were suffering because of confusion or in some other cases in purpose were wrongly judged. The more you write the more you get into it and understand how much you actually care. And I consider this really important as some day it might happen to us, so I would love to learn that there are people out there who don't even know me, but still care for justice.
- Peace one day. This was a kind of 2 day thing, first day we were having a ceremony in auditorium, listening to beautiful music, some inspirational quotes regarding peace (students were saying them, which made it even more special), then we said word "peace" in all our languages (we are from more then 95 countries), wrote what we thing should be changed, our opinion, and stuff we wanted then we had a peace march to silent house where people started meditating till the end of the next day. In the way back from march, we had a bonfire, where we burned all those papers with our thoughts, so that it will "spread, reach everyone" and become true.
- Hidden conflict. I signed for this workshop, thinking that it will be about international conflicts and some political stuff, but it turned out to be about our inside world, the way we feel in here and communicate, the unsolved problems that bother us. Our super-wiser was philosophy teacher, one of the bests that I know. All of us are having tough periods time to time and in here everything is new, but mainly when we look from the side it seems that all are settled and happy. Making this trust circle and sharing all with each other made us to realize that all of us have this time, that we are confused, our ideas and ideals are floating around and we are still looking for a lot of stuff. This in a way brought us closer.
- House karaoke. We had some performances in the Hough(the place where we usually have parties), had a lot of fun.
- Armenian independence day. Usually when we have birthdays we hit a spoon with a cup in cantina, which means "attention" and we say that today is this persons birthday and all of us stop doing our stuff and sing happy birthday song. Same works for important events, so this time in 21st of September it was Armenian independence day, the funny part was that people started singing Happy birthday song for Armenia. :D
- Traditional costume dinner and house pictures. This showed me again how diverse we are, was beautiful.
- Eventually I organised my corner, now it's not decorated, but still looks so nice and clean!
- Got my package form home and a new credit card, finally!
- Whether out here acts so weirdly. We already had a hail... in the middle of a sunny day!
- Never have I ever! one of my favorite games, learned so much stuff about people.
- Been sick for few days and missed some lessons, which was soo not nice.
- Sent some postcards to friends from all over the world.
- Wrote EAC reflections(wow, feel productive).
- This week we had our PBL week( project based learning). Mine was Guitar for beginners and I did not expect, but it turned out to be incredibly good and I learned so much, today we have a cafe and we are performing. I am also singing some of the songs. (: This PBL inspired me so much that I started re-learning piano and writing some more songs. Although it was quite weird to see campus half empty for a week, no 200 crazy people running around and shouting (some of us had out of campus PBL).
- We made a bonfire in the night nearby the college, which was very nice. Then we noticed a helicopter the way too close to us and for few minutes we suspected that it might land and we might get some troubles (according to Norwegian law we were not allowed to do that).
- Recently we started playing mafia, the bad thing about it is, that I am too passionate about it and both times I lost my voice after a game (and today I have to sing with no voice :/).
- Today majority of our 2nd years were taking SATs and everyone was going crazy and were so stressed about it. Now it's much better, they feel so free.
- Harry potter marathon is running on campus!
- Nice walks and talks with people.
Near the boathouse
- Movie almost every day during this week.
- Kon Tiki boat. Some of our students decided to make it and today they will give a try to sail on it!
- I signed for Pa Flukt, but I guess would be better if I reflect on this after actually making it. Have been told that it can be challenging, we'll see.
- Been to the pool.
- Studding together with friends.
Things that I learned
- DO NOT leave your stuff unattended, you might never find it again.
- Drinking LOTS OF TEA! With no sugar! AT all!
Some traditions
- Birthdays. Except of the cantina thing that I previously have mentioned, people for some reason "torture" a Birthday person, and usually through them on a fjord (as long as it's not too cold).
- A plate dance. This is a basically second year show thing, but this year we did not have it as some people felt uncomfortable with it, whatsoever iIn the middle of the night we had a plate run. It's about a bunch of guys dancing or running completely naked covering themselves with plates. Feel so sorry to miss it.
- Happy first year tradition. Not sure if I mentioned about it before or not. When a first year hooks up or starts dating with a second year they start singing this Happy birthday song, with a bit changed lyrics. "Happy first year to you.."
Things made me sad
- lack of UWC values in some people
- not managing time as much as I would like to
- people sometimes are so linked to land... I find it so weird, especially in here where we shoul realize that we are actually world citizens, limited mind... sad
- dropping literature because of my subject changes, it was one of the most interesting subjects :(
Things that surprised me
- as always I test some theories, and few of them turned out to be true again, so interesting, ahd a nice talk with one of my friends, who I thought might have changed... didn't.
- Humanitarianism is increasing in myself indescribably much sometimes, in this place I regretted for having stuff that other people do not have.
- People's effect on others.
- Craziness is becoming a norm so easily.
- SOAD, Cher, Sharl Aznavoor, people don't know them, and if they do, they have no clue that they are Armenians.
Ok, now a bit about academics.
Subjects I am taking:
- SL English Langlit
- Spanish AB initio
- HL Philosophy
- HL Mathematics
- HL Chemistry
- HL Physics
- Further Maths
- Norwegian communications
- and no free blocks :(
EACs:
- Amnesty international
- Archery
- Haugland cozy evenings
- Gender and Sexuality group
- DROP (Do Remember Other People)
- Computer and Programming
I will go through all this stuff in later posts maybe and for now I guess that's it.
Enjoy your weekend!
Helen
