Crazy busy and procrastinating

I have a feeling that few places are as busy as this place right before winter break - possibly this place right before summer, but I wouldn't know yet. I've been sleeping less and less and doing more and more things, fun and otherwise, the last week. Tomorrow after classes we will finish packing, clean our rooms and houses and after dinner we're leaving, not to come back until last year. About a fourth of my time here is gone, and I've started to feel like home here.

Things I've done
On Friday after classes I went skiing with around ten or so other people. It snowed over 40 cm the day before, so the snow was amazing and we had a lot of fun. In the evening, we had a café to honour Nelson Mandela, with songs, dances, poems and it truly was beautiful. I'm amazed by the talent and engagement of this place - the whole thing was put together in a matter of hours.

Saturday I realized that I still had a fair share of school work to do, so most of the afternoon went to that. In the evening we had christmas dinner and took a lot of beautiful photos. After that, my roomies and I went crazy in our room, singing and filming and just having a great time.

Sunday evening there was a christmas café where me and a huge group of people sang christmas carols. I then stayed up way too late, studying, only to wake up early for a special breakfast.

Since then, I've been studying, cleaning, talking and laughing and yes, stressing quite a bit but also enjoying myself.

The last week-and-a-half

I think she believes in snow now

Enjoyed Yemen and Indian Chai

Had the best snowball fight of my life

Made a snow angel while dressed in skirt and tights

Made - and ate - Swedish and Yemen Christmas candy

Sang ABBA-songs in a medley in European show

Made hundreds of Swedish "Köttbullar"

Got a cold (like everyone else here)

Had two maths tests

Played uno with people from everywhere

Fell in love with this place over again

Was sleep-deprivied as well as overslept

Accidentally ended up in a Swedish table

Discussed Palestine-Israel conflict, segregation at the school and nuclear power

Wrote a song

Drew a self portrait

Made peanut butter cookies and mud cake

Cooked Tikka Masala which was approved by Indians

Put up Christmas decorations

Laughed until I almost cried

Thought I would blow up the Chemistry lab ("shakey shakey")

Talked about the past, about now and about the future

Dreamed about my future, and the future

Time

The concept of time is very relevant. In different countries, a certain time means very different things. My Swedish friend and I will always be at the very least on time for everything, while our South American room mates feel like a time given to meet is anything within fifteen minutes of the decided time.

Regardless of how your culture views time, there's a very special outlook of it at a place like this. I think it's partly because everything is so close, and everyone is so close, but somehow time here is a moving thing, something which can go in many directions and at different speeds. Our Chemistry teacher compares being on time for anything with going by a train. If you're not there at the time the train is supposed to leave, it will leave without you. It's true for those classes, but in other occasions... Mostly, people leave their room, or kantina, or wherever they happen to be, at the time they're supposed to be someplace else. Everyone does it, or mostly everyone, so it never makes you late, it just makes everything later.

Then there's the fact that time flies. We've been here for three months now, and I sometimes still feel like the girl in April who went on an interview and felt as if the world would end if she didn't get in, or the girl in August whose stomach had constant butterflies, or the girl two years ago, who found out about this and thought it was the best thing she'd ever heard about. In many ways, three months is nothing. In other ways, three months is a whole lifetime. In three months, we have gotten to know people from 97 countries, learnt swears in way too many languages, heard stories about war and love and friendship and we have been bored, and we have been happier than ever before. Three months here is full of experience, and sadness and joy in a mixture so tightly tied together that it's sometimes hard to distinguish the difference between the two.

It's melancholy as well, we all know our time is short. Three months down.

Do you believe in snow? 2.0

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my Brazilian friend, who doesn't believe in snow, or rather, who didn't believe in snow, because this morning, we woke up and the grass was covered in white, cold powder. She later told me that she thought we had placed it there to trick her. An hour or so later, however, when we sat in our first class, we could see the snow falling and though some of us (mainly nordics) weren't that impressed, many people had never seen snow before and you can imagine the look in their faces as they looked out the windows!

Snowball fight! Probably the nicest one I've ever partaken in, but hilarious none the less

A new perspective on how beautiful it is here - the view from our bathroom

November Break, back to school and flying pigs

Physics lab called Flying Pig... somehow writing the lab report wasn't as fun as doing the experiment

It's been ages since I wrote something, but it's been november break and last week I didn't really find the time. Anyhow, I'm back now!

Being home was incredibly nice but also very weird. It didn't feel like I'd been away at all, yet it had been more than two months. I loved meeting everyone I'd miss, as well as enjoy Stockholm as much as I could. Things I previously wasn't too found of, like going by the metro or cooking, suddenly seemed so much better. On top of that, I didn't have much homework and so could get some sleep. Not that this has kept me from being tired again by now... sleeping properly (meaning more than max seven hours per night) just isn't possible at a place like this, especially with the IB.

Coming back was great, too. When I got to the airplane in Copenhagen, where I was transferring, I met lots of people from the school and talked to them through the flight as well as once we came to Bergen, since the ferry to the school didn't leave until a few hours later. Travelling from the airport to the school involves two bus rides, an almost three hours ferry trip and a 3 km walk. I left home at 8.30, and finally reached the school about twelve hours later, together with around twenty five other people who had been travelling in Europe or gone home over the break. I had a (stupid) plan to go to bed early, but decided on staying up and catching up with my roomies and friends instead. I hade cake twice as well as shared some typically Swedish candy.

This week as been sexuality week at the school. One of the EACs (Extra-Academic Commitments), GAS (Gender and Sexuality) put it together and it included presentations, gender-blind dates, discussions and "ask-a-gay"-session. On top of that, they had also put together a magazine with information about sexuality and gender. I really enjoyed it, and found that I widened my perspective quite a lot.

Friday and Saturday night we were lucky enough to have Alan Drop performing for us and the auditorium was full with people laughing and enjoying something out of the ordinairy. He also took the opportunity to try and embarrass his son, one of the students.

Next week will be busier than ever, since not only is school work starting to pile up but on Saturday it's European Day, with a bazaar and a show, among other things. I forsee little sleep in the future as well...

#amwriting or why I must be nuts

In 31 minutes (probably less when I publish this) it will be November first. For many people, that doesn't have any sort of significance, apart from maybe that Christmas is getting closer. To me, November is perhaps the best month all year. Why? Because of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. Basically that means that during November, hundreds of thousands of people world wide go crazy and write a book during that month. Yes, I'm one of them. Yes, I'm intending to do it even though I'm here, because NaNo is one of my favorite things in the year and I don't think November would feel the same without it.

Anyway, now I'm back to last minute planning. My characters need names, backgrounds and flaws... Lots of work to do!

One week to November Break

I sometimes forget how beautiful this place is

We now have four more days of school before November break starts and we have a week off. I'm very lucky to live close to the college - relatively, of course - and have the opportunity to go home for the week. Many people don't have the chance or don't want to, but will instead be staying at the college, something which I considered. As of now, I just have to make it through a history presentation and a maths test, then I can relax... I can do it!

The last week has been both very busy and very empty. Busy in terms of school work, but otherwise I haven't really had the time to do much. It's strange, because I think some of the things I did do would be incredible right at the beginning of the year but now they seem so normal. Discussing Disney movies with a Vietnamese, listen to amazing Hungarian musicians and play a Croatian song with people from all around the world. It's crazy that I've been at this place for so long that it feels like normal, everyday life, rather than something special and astounding. Then at times I realize how lucky I am to be here, how many extraordinary things I get to experience and how many people I get to meet.

So much has changed, and I will never be the same

All the people that I've met I never thought I'd find 

So let them begin

The memories

-UWC song by Leticia, Jasmine and I

Busy week

This week has been quite busy, but also incredibly enjoyable. We have November Break in two weeks, so there's quite a lot of school work that we are expected to finish by then. On top of that, we are required to write CAS reflections on PBL week as well as our extra-curricular activities. Today I've been doing History, Swedish, reflection as well as preparing fro my trip home during November break. After my short break, I'll be going back to Maths, English and Physics. At least I have garlic bread and apple tea to enjoy while working, so all in all it's not so bad.

Apart from all the school week, this Friday we had a handball practice, which was one of the best things I've done here so far. Quite a few people joined that have played before, as well as some basket and football players and some complete beginners. It was interesting to see that although we came from different countries and background, something as simple as our favorite sport could really unite us.

On top of that, we had a room evening when we made waffles and talked about everything and nothing. My room is truly great, and aw, I just love my roomies. Just imagine, two months ago we didn't even know each other!

It was delicious!

They're crazy... In a good way!

Hard working second year roomies

My first year roomie and I took picture of each other

Kayaking

As I mentioned in my last post, last week was PBL week. PBL stands for "Project Based Learning" and is a week where we get to chose (more or less) an interesting project that we want to engage in. I was lucky enough to get my first choice, kayaking. This meant that I spent Saturday-Wednesday sleeping lot, reading a lot and writing a lot.

Thursday morning, we packed the kayaks, putting all our thermal underwear and other important objects in black plastic bags and pushing it into the kayaks, trying to make sure that no water would enter the bags and soak anything important.

My (almost) packed kayak

20 kilometers and 4.5 hours of paddling later, we reached one of the last pieces of land before the Atlantic Ocean. Unpacking, I found out that one of my black bags leaked - of course the one with my sleeping bag, but luckily the sleeping bag was only wet outside. 

Trying to try my wet clothes, towel and wetsuit

 The view, though, was great. We had a blue sky and saw both the end of the fjord and the ocean. Later at night, when the stars came out, we could see the Milky Way very clearly.

Our campsite

 Dinner Thursday night consisted of tomato soup with noodles and is probably one of the best meals I've ever had.

We picked chanterelle mushrooms and Pil and Moa cooked them for us... delicious!

 After dinner we made a bonfire and tried to remain somewhat warmed until we went to bed, quite early.

Friday we didn't get up until nine, and made porridge for breakfast. We took quite a long time getting ready for paddling and didn't actually get out into the water until around twelve. First, the water was completely calm and paddling in the sun was a breeze. As we got closer to the ocean, waves picked up, and soon I felt as if I was battling the water to stay out of it. No one actually fell in, though - we didn't even have any close calls! The hard paddling was worth it, as we reached a small channel between two islands in the ocean. Our leader/teacher called it "Norway's answer to Croatia" and apart from how cold it was, it really felt like that.

Low tide meant we could sit on the bottom

After taking a break on the island, we wanted to get back to mainland before the waves would get a chance to pick up and become even choppier. Therefore, we battled the waves once more and reached a location where we made lunch and relaxed for about two hours. Going to the lunch place, we saw both a mink and a seal.

Food!

At around five, we crossed the fjord to get to our campsite. Once again, it was quite choppy, and though the place where we camped didn't look far of (it's the piece of land furthest away on the picture) it seemed to take forever to reach, and was in reality about one and a half hour.

That night, we once again had delicious tomato soup with noodles, after which we sat outside in our sleeping bags, talked, ate chocolate and looked at the stars (once again incredible) and the moon. I almost fell asleep outside, despite the cold, and that night the tent felt a lot warmer than it had the previous night.

Saturday we started with packing everything up, as well as the tents. Then began the looong way back to school. The first five kilometers took about one and a half hour, since the current was against us, but the rest of the way the tide was coming in and we had some help instead. I didn't think we would make it, but about six hours after leaving the campsite we could finally see the school. I was about to give up, my arms were more exhausted than ever before, but the feeling of reaching land was amazing.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with my PBL week. I learned a lot, and while it was one of the most challenging things I've done, it was very rewarding and certainly something I will remember for a very long time.

First year show, football and PBL

Dale football pitch
"Take a new picture with the flag!" - Amalie, Norway

This past week has probably been the most normal one here so far. I've had classes, EAC's and I've been chilling alone and with nice people. Last sunday, however, was one of the more special days so far. Evening, you see, was FIRST YEAR SHOW!

I was part of three awesome acts. Three of us, me, J from Singapore and L from Brazil (the girl that doesn't believe in snow) had written a song about the performance, and Mady (Belgium) and Amalie (Norway) made a video with all the first years smiling that we put behind as L and I sang it together with C from Greece as one of the first acts. I also sang "Read all about it" with my Nigerian co-year. Lastly, the act I was the most nervous about, I and seven other girls performed a burlesque dance... It was loads of fun.

I cannot say how proud I am of all the amazing acts we managed to put together. There was Spanish songs, Bollywood dance, Break dance, Fiskekake commercial and many, many other things.  The Fox video was made as well, you should all watch it and be amazed.

Since then, most of the week has been quite chill, apart from two lab reports and a maths test, but that's the way life is and at least I'm not a second year.

Yesterday was the first years vs second years football game. All the players were soooo good, and I'm really glad I didn't embarrass myself by playing.

Next week is PBL. I'm going for a kayaking trip Thursday-Saturday, so until then I'm free. I look forward to more sleep, understandning maths, reading, socializing and just relaxing. Of course the trip is going to be great, too!

Until next time!

Do you believe in snow?

As it gets steadily colder here, the topic of snow and coldness has come up more than once and my Brazilian friend told me today that she doesn't believe in snow. Her theory is that since the people from cold countries are so jealous of the warmer countries "sun, happiness and fun" they created snow to make people think that "you have fun as well". All the photos of snow are photoshoped and if you visit a country where snow is supposed to exist during winter, you are sworn to secrecy. I look forward to seeing her see snow for the first time.

Photoshop?

I'm feeling good

I have great hopes for this weekend. Yes, I might have to squeeze in time to finish my Chemistry lab report, but hey, that would happen no matter if I was here or in Sweden! However, a bunch of exciting things are happening:

• My grandparents are coming today...
• ...and they're bringing my guitar!
• First year show on Sunday (will not write more detailed than that, since there is a small risk that second years read this)
• Monday there is no school, instead we have health day! (Basically two lectures and four workshops - hopefully it will be fun!)

On top of that, lots of great things happened last week:

• It was sunny three (!) afternoons, so I studied outside...
• ...and we had Swedish class outside! (What's that about Nordics being crazy about sunshine?)
• I went to Friday Ball games in Dale and played some handball (!) and tried lacrosse in the sunshine and amazing view. Next week I'll take pictures!
• We watched a great movie last night (Kon-Tiki)
• Chemistry deadline was postponed a week
• I found out that I'll do kayaking for PBL-week - so exciting!

Other Swedes blogging about RCN!

Are you Scandinavian? Would you like to read my co-years' blogs? (Of course you would!) Ylva and Clara oth write in Swedish about the wonderful and overwhelming life here. Have a look!

An Awesome Weekend

This weekend, I think, has been one of the best here so far. After school on friday, we made mudcake (again)... and took it outside to enjoy the rare sunshine. We talked and just did nothing during the afternoon, which was nice after a busy week.

Cake!

At 7 pm there was World Today in the auditorium. We discussed Roma People and minorities and over all it was very nice to hear what different people had to say on issues concerning how minorities are treated.

Then, at midnight, Peace One Day started. It is a 24 hour day when we think about peace. Funnily enough, UWC day was on the very same day, which made it extra special.We started with a midnight assembly, where different quotes about peace were read in different languages, and some songs were performed. We also were asked to write, on a scrap piece of colourful paper, who we wanted to make peace with. The papers were then put around a tree that we pass everyday and they will stay there to remind us of our wish for peace. After the assembly, we were all given a candle and we walked through the campus in silence, a long row of students and candles in the cold darkness. It was beautiful.

During Saturday there were different activities concerning peace. We had vegan brunch, meditated, wrote and painted post cards to the UN and wrote letters for Amnesty. In the evening, there was an amazing cafe with goodies such as spring rolls, pretzels and soy milkshake and we danced Norweigan, Greek and Scottish folk dance.

Colourful and peaceful postcards

Beautiful braided bracelet

At midnight, a small group of us walked through campus with candles again and ended with placing them outside each of the student houses. Although it was very cold, it was incredibly rewarding to actually get a chance to think about myself, people around me and the world. Until two, a group of us just sat in the day room. We threw pillows at each other, told nationalistic jokes (why Norweigans/Swedes, etc are stupid) and had chocolate cake (again...)

Mud cake <3

 Today, I've slept, written half a lab report, an English essay, done maths, and had two huge cups of tea before dinner. After that, Mady (Belgium) and I went to TSK, and although I have a beautiful picture of her as we tried to work out, I will spare her the joy of seeing it her. Maybe another time...

As it is Elizabete's (Latvia) birthday tomorrow we surprised her in the day room of our house at ten tonight. There was amazing chocolate cake (even better than the two I'd already had this weekend) and lots of birthday songs. I participated in the Norweigan, Swedish and French, but it was also sung in Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Hindi (not so sure about that, they might have faked it), Chinese and Spanish, apart from everyone singing in English. People gather around the birthday girl or boy and jump around them in a circle, clamping their hands and singing as loudly as they can. It's so much fun, and definitely one of my favorite parts of the birthdays here. After that, at Elizabete's second year's insistance, she was put on a chair that was heaved high in to the air eighteen times. She yelled, we laughed, it was great, even when she came a little too close to hitting the ceiling.

Now I'm off to bed, a little later than I had planned but very happy and definitely ready for another interesting week.

Things I've learned

Walk to Flekke shop

• Understand Norweigan
• (Almost) understand Danish
• Eat spicy noodles
• Not all Brits like tea
• Norweigan humour is funny - according to some people
• Some people put sugar on tomatoes
• Bread with honey and cheese is really good
• Swimming in water that's maximum 10 degrees is cold. Very cold.
• Doing your homework in the dayroom while someone is watching funny videos does not result in homework being done, but blogs being written.

A normal day here

There really isn't such a thing as a "normal" day here at RCN, but this is a generalization of what a day is often like.

06:30 My roomies alarm starts - she doesn't wake up. I turn over and fall back asleep.
07:00 My alarm rings, I wake with a start and regretfully jump out of the bed, tiredly put clothes on and make my way (often through the rain) to the kantina. We often are about twenty people there until ten to eight, when everyone else shows up to hurriedly have a sandwich and a cup of coffee or tea before first block starts.
08:00 First class of the day! We all have seven different blocks, (A-D block, W-Y block) and over seven days we will have each class four times. For the Scandinavians and those taking Norweigan Ab Initio, we have six classes and one free block, everyone else has six classes and Norweigan Communication this term. Term 2 and 3 we will all have ToK instead (Theory of Knowledge).
09:10 Cookie break = coffee! Cookie break is a break when we can eat "knäckebröd" and drink tea or coffee inbetween classes. Some people don't have breakfast and so they eat at cookie break instead.
09.35 Two more classes before lunch, with a ten minute break inbetween.
12:05 Lunch. Often the queue is very very long and by the time you get food all seats are taken. Yesterday a group of us had lunch on the floor... oh well, you have to be creative!
12:50 Last class of the day - joy!
14:00 Everyone heads back to their rooms, some sleep, others start on their homework or chill in the dayroom.
~15:00 Generally, this is when EAC's start (Extra-Academic Commitments). There are plenty of different EAC's, something for everyone. I'm taking Song Writing, Waterpolo and PAM (Performing Arts and Music).
17:30 Dinner. Normally it's not nearly as crowded as lunch, since the kantina is open until 19:00 so people eat at different times.
18:00 - Every evening is different. Sometimes I go to TSK (the gym) or to Fitness for Girls, other nigths the pool is open. Otherwise, there is always some homework to be done, and friends to talk to. People make noodles and have sandwiches with Nugatti (Norweigan Nutella).
20:45 Connect time and evening snack. At some point between quarter to nine and quarter to ten everyone has to pass by their day room and tick their name of on a list with the teacher that's on duty that particular evening. If you're lucky, the teacher on duty can help you with your homework, too.
00:00 Sleep! Zzz.

RCN - a taste of the world

Before I came here, I imagined that RCN would be a magical place, full of perfect people. I thought I would be completely happy every hour of every day. Naturally, I'm not. This is a part of the real world - there will be people you don't like, homework you don't want to do, headaches, anxiety and everything that you would normally experience, no matter where you are. That is not to say that this place isn't magical. Being here is like an amazing adventure, with so many exciting things happening all the time, as long as you cease the moment and take any opporunity to experience new things. Some things I have tried that I'd never done before:

• Eating rice with chopsticks (very difficult)
• Honey on bread (sooo good)
• Swim in an ice-cold fjord
• Share room permanently with 4 other girls
• Fiskekake (better than I expected)
• Ethiopian snacks (kolo, I think they're called)
• Write in Norweigan
• Play water polo (insanely fun)
• Make pancakes in a sandwich grill
• Read Danish
• Speak English with complete beginners
• Norweigan chocolate
• Watch a comic book turned film film (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - so strange)
• Watch movies in the auditorium at night
• Make typical student noodles with viatnemese spices
• Rock climbing in the rain

+ so many other fun, exciting, scary and interesting things. I've been here for not even three weeks, and yet I have already challenged myself on so many levels. In the end, being here isn't going to be even close to perfect, of course not, but if you keep a positive attitude I believe that it will be absolutely amazing.

Pictures

Yes, I finally managed to get my pictures into the computer!

Tiramisu that my roomie from Yemen made (we live in room 102)

Norweigan cinnamon buns at room meeting

Absolutely gorgeous view from the student village towards the classrooms (yellow buildings)

Denmark House!

Finland House (orange-y) and classrooms (yellow)

It was sunny, and everyone was amazed...

...therefore lots of pictures of the fjord were taken

Student village (Denmark House is the first blue house)

The path towards the classrooms (yellow) and the kantina (red)

Amazing knitted tree

The view on the way to kantina

Classrooms...

The boathouse, from where we jump into the (cold) fjord

The most amazing shoes ever, both waterproof and super comfortable

Our room

My corner

Making pancakes in a box, because we couldn't find a bowl big enough

Pancake making in the sandwich grill... yep

Intro week

The view on my run this morning (the houses are some of the student houses)

I came here Tuesday, and although it's just Thursday so far, it feels like I've been here for weeks already. While I was quite intimidated the first few hours, I quickly got over it. The thing about getting here is that even if you're new, there are about a hundred other new people, and everyone wants to talk to everyone.

The weather
Flekke is amazing in that it's one of the most beautiful places ever, but I believe that it's largely due to the rain. It rains all the time. Today we've actually had a blue sky since lunch, and everyone was enjoying it. I walked on the shore with a Danish girl and a Faroese girl, and just enjoyed the sun, and being properly warm for the first time in days. Raincoat is a must here, as are good shoes. I'm sooo thankful for the hiking boots that I got before coming, don't know what I would do without them.

Residentals
Here at RCN we live in five houses in a student village - Finland house, Iceland house, Sweden house, Norway house and, of course, the amazing Denmark house. There are about 40 students in each house, and five in each room, first and second years mixed. However, I have yet to feel the need for more privacy, as we actually have curtains to close around our beds. We have a shared day room in each house, in which I'm currently sitting along with some of my house mates.

Intro week
So far in intro week we have been in different group, doing all kinds of exciting activities, from learing how the laundry room works to rock climbing. All the games and activities are great for getting to know each other.

Flekke fashion
Flekke fashion is what the amazing clothing sense here is called - basically mixing most things you own that is neither wet nor dirty yet. It almost always consists of a raining coat, with the nice exception of today.


That's it for now, I'll try to write again soon, and add some more pictures as well!

I'm leaving, on a jet plane

So... tomorrow at this time I'll be in Norway. In 48 hours I'm at the school and my dad has probably just about left. Everything is a bit hectic right now, as I have to make sure that I pack everything I will need (most likely way too many things... I know myself!) It's strange, because it still doesn't really feel real. I mean, I've been packing for weeks, or at least planning, but it is very surreal. I've been dreaming about this for years and now it's happening.

Bags
I'm pretty sure that I will bring too many bags, but instead of taking things out of them I just add more and more... maybe I shouldn't be doing that. As of now, I've packed about maybe 30 kilos, and I have a lot of things left. Mainly summer things though, and some shoes. Hopefully I will actually be able to fit everything at the school, but we'll see about that. Additionally, I'm bringing my computer and my guitar, both which will take some place both for bringing and storing. Oh, well, it'll probably work out. I hope.


I should keep packing now, but I'll write as soon as I can, after arriving!
Hugs,
Anna

31 days and counting

In 31 days, I will meet my new classmates (roommates, co-years, second-years, friends) for the very first time. This is probably a good time to add some new things on my experience, as I would very much like to share not only what I'm sure going to be two amazing years, but also some information about the time leading up to that. 

Pre-UWC paperwork

The documents to be filled in still greatly confuses me. There are so many of them, and I don't really know my way around the school intranet yet, and so I stumble around (figuratively speaking) trying to find out when which document should be sent in and by whom. Hopefully I'm not doing too poorly, but gosh am I thankful that I live in Sweden and therefore don't need to apply for a VISA! I suppose that maybe I'm a bit better aware than I was a month or so ago, but I still feel like I could very much miss an important document and it scares me a bit.

Leaving home

I think this goes for most UWC:ers, but for me, this is the first time I'm going to be spending most of the year away from school. While I'm thrilled about some aspects of this (freedom!), there are other aspects that scare me a little bit, or at the very least makes me nervous. I'm not too afraid of overwhelming homesickness, as I'm normally very good at handling that, but still... I don't think I'm going to realize how important my family is to me before I'm actually at the college, "alone" in the sense that I don't know anyone as well as I know my sisters and my parents. At the same time, I'm so excited to get to know people better than I have ever done before. Overall I'm more excited than nervous, but of course that doesn't mean that the later doesn't apply.

Packing

I think that no matter what way I go around it, I will forget something at home, something that I am most likely going to miss. Hopefully it will be something relatively unimportant... Either way, I have now started to make a packing list, including everything I would like to bring, from my jeans to my favorite books to tea. Let me tell you, I do not look forward to marking everything - it's going to take forever.

That's it for now, I'll probably update when leaving comes closer. Until then!
Anna

Pre-RCN emotions

When reading blogs about UWC-schools it would sometimes surprise me how people didn't seem as exited about UWC before going as I would've thought that they would be. This post is an attempt to explain all the different feelings I, at the very least, experience the few months before leaving for Red Cross Nordic UWC.


Finding out I was accepted
I got a phonecall from my sisters when I was on the bus on my way to meet some friends. I had spent the day worrying about not getting in, as I knew some people that had already found out that they had. Once I got the call, though, I couldn't believe it, and I still really don't. Today I spent my last day at my old school, writing my last test in Swedish, perhaps ever, and it didn't feel special at all. I think, in a way, that I've been dreaming about this for so long that it is still completely insane that I acctually got in. At times it hits me just how lucky I am, but then it feels unreal again. According to "Days Until" on my phone, it's 70 days until I leave for Norway - a little more than 2 months. It's completely unreal and I can't really put words to the feeling.

Filling in all documents
Nothing bad about RCN or UWC's in general, but I really find all the different documents really confusing. I don't know when what papers are to be sent in, I have no clue whatsoever about what some papers are meant to contain concerning information... yes, I am confused. This, I think, add to the unrealness of the situation. I spend much of my time thinking that somehow I will mess up the documents and get rejected that
I don't actually believe that I will arrive at the school.

Chatting with future co- and second-years
Here's the thing - the internet is nothing like reality. And although I veryveryvery much want to get to know everyone, I don't want to get a prejudiced idea of them before actually meeting them. Therefore, I think I would prefer staying away from all the exciting internet things before leaving. At the same time, I use these groups and so on as a way to make sure that I don't fail with all the documents, or when to arrive to Norway, or what to bring.


That's some thoughts and feeling that I have right now. Of course, overall I'm sooooo excited, but I thought it worth to note that I'm not only excited, because I'm sure that I'm only going to remember the excitement in a few years when I look back on this summer.
 Anna

Facebook really can be amazing!

I know, I know, it's not yet August... however, I want this blog to portray the two years at UWC, inludinc the scary months before getting there! Anyway, why is Facebook so great? Because, through facebook I have gotten in contact with quite a lot of my future classmates! We have group chat and currently we are doing a challenge "An Ordinary Day". Basically we're taking a lot of pictures of a normal day in our life and adding them to our group. Even before getting to the school I get some of the experience, when it comes to sharing our opinions and cultures. It's cool, because we all think that everyone else's cultures are exotic and cool, while our own cultures are perfectly normal.

I got in!

The 21st of April I got the phonecall I had anxiously been awaiting for way too long. I got in! That means that next year I will be spending my life not here in Stockholm but outside of Flekke in east Norway. Am I excited? You bet! In fact, so excited that I have already borrowed a Physics standard level book from my school library to try and get some reading done before I get there. Over-achiever much? In this blog I will try to give a fair picture of what a UWC school is really like, and my life at one. It's meant as both a way for people back home to know what I'm up to but also so that future applicants can learn more about UWC. After all, I have spent a fair bit of my own time reading blogs and so I figured that I probably should try and return the favour. I will not start updating until close to school starts, but hopefully I will then manage to give a fair picture of everything I will experience there. Anna