Halloween*Thanksgiving*Christmas Party

Our dorm's wonderfully carved melon [We couldn't get a pumpkin] props to Ondra.

A random moment at Sosh on Halloween night with Sunniva and Trix.

Halloween at AC is good fun, in which everyone dresses up and goes to the Halloween Party, which puts money towards Student Bursary fund, the college, the yearbook, and other funds within the school as do all of the other parties and events that occur at AC. The Americans also celebrated with some Halloween candy that was sent by some parents of my co-years, as well as a shopping spree at Coffee Lounge for chocolates, candies, sodas, and anything else that could make us feel in the spirit of Halloween.

Andrea and Emma wafting the godliness of their terrifying yet delicious stuffing.

Our Ostritch sized Turkey that the Canteen so nicely cooked for us. Delicious eh?

Fettucini Alfredo, Chocolate chip cookies, stuffed mushrooms, and my famous pecan pie [ha!].

DIG INNNN AMERICANS!

Thanksgiving. A seemingly ubiquitous sentiment among the American students here is the desire to be home for Thanksgiving, and to have the feeling of togetherness that Thanksgiving has. Thankfully, the school pays every single year for the Americans to get a Turkey, and the Canteen cooks it for us generously. Luckly for me, I was on the American squad sent to Bridgend to get ingredients that seem to not exist in this country, and to lug back the grande turkey [I swear it was an ostritch]. So, Will [New Jersey], Sophie [Tennessee], Virginia [New York] and I got our ruck sacks and hopped onto the short train to Bridgend. We took the taxi over to Tesco [Which we didn’t realize was maybe a block away…] and commenced on searching for a turkey, and substitutes for American Ingredients that are hard to find. Turkies are INSANELY hard to find here; I’ve never really thought of it, but it’s almost a completely New World product, so to get our turkey we spent about 15£, so about $35 with the horrid status of the American Dollar here. I decided to make my family’s recipe for Pecan pie, but it’s tough when a cup of pecans costs around 5 bucks, there’s no corn syrup, and no pie crusts. So, I bit my lip and bought the pecans, found some “Golden Syrup”, and bought a pack of Pastry sheets that I simply cut into the shape. After cooking in Asbjorn and Janet’s House, we met in Powys Dayroom with the 16-odd Americans and set up the feast. First of all, we went through everyone to ask what you were thankful for, and then said quick things about the food we prepared. We also had the honor to have Selena Sermenos and her daughter Maria Alexa from the UWC-USA campus to join us in eating the Turkey, Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffed Mushrooms, Stuffing, Cranberry Jelly, Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Caesar Salad, Rolls, and Fettucini Alfredo. It was delicious, and really nice to have all of the Americans together. We also had the chance to get the Davis Scholars together and take a great picture to which Selena was going to give to Tim Smith, the Director of Admissions for the Davis Scholars at UWC-USA. Even though I was missing out on my family dinner in Texas, I had the chance to be together with my Davis Scholar family, and to be insanely loud screaming Americans around a table of food.

Second-Year Davis Scholars.

Mr. David Kay [Frieda's Dad and an AC Alumni], Selena Sermenos, and Frieda Kay.

CHRISTMAS PARTY! Every single house on campus has a budget set aside for the Christmas Party celebration, in which different houses have places around campus where you make food, decorate, dance, and have a date for the party. Luckily, Dyfed gets to have our party in the Old Staff Common Room [A grandiose Castle-Like room with a place to dance and couches!]. Another part of the Christmas party is an intra-Dyfed Secret Santa System. All of the second years have a first year Secret Santa, and all of the First years have a second year Secret Santa. The point is to basically do as many small yet fun/sweet things as you can for your Santee, and then present them with a gift at the Christmas party before we all leave to our different parts of the world again. Here are some Pictures of my Secret Santa Gifts [Creative eh?]:

I found this on the floor in the dayroom.

And this written on the boy's corridor's window...

And found this poem/song with a coconut in the dayroom as well! See below for the individual pieces of the poem.

Cheers!

Kirb

P.S. AC Holds a christmas "fayre" every year in which vendors, bands, and people from all over Wales come to celebrate. In order to make sure the castle is visible at night for the visitors, they light it up with blue, green, and purple lights. It's possibly one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen.

Amnesty International Street Theatre: A Call for the Support of Human Rights

Burma

A group of about 140 students, both my co-years and my second years, planned, rehearsed, and dedicated a Saturday to perform a street theatre in the largest street in Cardiff, Queens Street, to protest against the violation of human rights in Burma, and to support the universal human rights guaranteed to us all. The Amnesty Leaders [Nabila from Germany/Egypt, Izzaat who is a Palestenian Refugee, and Knut from Canada/Norway] sectioned us into Petitioners, Monks, and Soldiers. The petitioners job was to be able to inform people of what our street theatre was for, and to get them to understand the situation and sign the petition that would be sent to the foreign minister of Burma. The monks job was to illustrate the violation of human rights [I was a monk], and were represented by a copious amount of red and posters involving Amnesty International and the situation represented visually. The soldiers, obviously, were to demonstrate the oppression of the Government and the extent to which they were violating our inalienable rights. So, at 10am, with Soldiers dressed up in camoflauge, boots, and dark glasses, petitioners spread throughout Queens Street, the monks began to peacefully protest down the street with chants, until we made it to the point of the Soldiers. At the point of the soldiers, the street theatre began. The pictures below give a pretty accurate message in terms of what we were trying to accomplish. We performed our street theatre for about 5 hours straight, and were exhausted by the end; after lying on the dirty cold and wet tiles of queen street, chanting and being “tortured”, we were beat. In both of the street theatres last year [one being against Guantanamo Bay, and the other against the Israel/Palestenian Wall], they overall acquired around 3,600 signatures in the year. We actually broke the record through collecting 4,000 signatures in one day, which is a huge accomplishment to say the least.

Nikhil from Mauritius and a person in Cardiff signing down on our Petition.

A scan of the Article on our Street theatre.

The Link to the full Article:
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2007/11/22/lessons-from-my-own-youthful-academic-demise-91466-20142481/

At the Street Theatre there were photographers, Police to protect us, people taking pictures and videoing us, documentation through the police, and a clip about our theatre was put on BBC, as well as the link below to the article written about our protest, our school, and our new headmaster. It was a huge success, and I’m extremely proud of everyone who participated.

Also, the next day, a Greenpeace representative and expert in training people to peacefully protest through non-violent means came to train a group of 20 people. From 11am-3pm we learned everything you could possible need to know about protesting, and how to make sure you are peaceful and not obstructing and laws to ensure safety. We went through obstacle courses blind folded, practiced protesting techniques, and grew as a group in terms of being able to perform team work effectively. It was a great experience, and I’m excited to have some creative ways of protesting around the UK using 100% non-violent techniques that the community can be involved in.

Keep in touch everyone! Comment to let me know how you are!!

Kirb

+First Aid Week+

This, of the many things that are done different in AC and the other UWCs, is something that I believe should be done throughout every educational institution for both safety reasons and for life skills that will be necessary for many situations. For one week in November, all of the First years do not have codes, but have a mass first-aid training week, which is known simply as “First Aid Week”. It’s so that everyone in the school is qualified in First Aid in order to assure safety throughout the students, in our service programs to help the community, for our daily lives here at AC, and for our Activities that may require knowledge of First aid. So, three outside instructors ran sessions with us for four days in order to prepare us both through theory and practical assessments, which would end in a written exam to prove our qualification.

Aside from the serious part of this week, it is bursting with fun. Firstly, all but a few second years spent the entire week in London, as they do every year on the acclaimed “London Week”. They go to shows, musicals, clubs, restaurants, cultural events, and basically have tons of fun in order to celebrate the finishing of the EEs and other required coursework by the IB. Not only does this mean it’s the first time for all of my co-years to be without our second years, it meant a ton of bonding, the tradition of the blue garden party, and lots of house bonding events. Firstly, the Blue Garden Party. It has been a tradition for 15 years that the Thursday night of First Aid week a few people scramble money together to throw a party in the Blue Garden of the Castle after check-in, despite the fact that the staff knows about it every single year. So, after check in, the organizers had all the equipment out and everyone snuck down to the blue garden party, and within the first fifteen minutes, the German Houseparent, Christian, crept into the Blue Garden with a Hoodie on [with the hood over his head], walked in and said “I’m taking names” in a sly way. To put it simply, everyone dashed like pigeons and sprinted back to the houses. BUT! Us first years were tricky…instead of being defeated, the organizers just threw it again two hours later, and it wasn’t busted at all! It seems to be more of a simply non-communicated allowed party that’s part of tradition, and even the hilarious people teaching the first aid said they would have come joined if they were invited!

[Me accounting during the ordering of food...]

Dyfed also bonded a lot, mainly being two nights with ordering tons of Indian food, Kebab, Chinese food, and basically a massive feast together which was really great.


In the end, the first aid week also made us all realize how close we are to our second years, and how much we missed them. So, when they came back, it was a celebrating weekend which was tons of fun and a massive realization of how much they mean to us.

Some of my Second years from Left to Right: Rahel from Germany, Henning our Peer Listener from Norway, Harlem from Peru, and Ondra my dormmate from the Czech Republic.

:]

My love to all whom I haven't seen but will see soon,


Kirb

Looong Weekend

“Long Weekend” as it’s called here is a four day weekend with the Friday and Monday off along with Saturday and Sunday, which occurs once every term. My initial plans were to stay in London with Mary’s aunt, but they ended up going to the states [ironic eh?]. So, in order to prevent excessive spending of the horribly strong British £, I decided to stay home in the close-knit UWC environment to grow closer with my co-years and my second years. However, many people went to Scotland, Italy, France, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, the U.S. to visit Universities, and all over the place to have a chance to travel together with friends or go home for a quick fix of family lovin and food not involving “____ on a bed of rice” as we affectionately refer to our carbohydrate-saturated meals of rice, bread, potatoes, and caffeine. In between being in Cardiff, re-doing my dorm, catching up on the 4 machines full of laundry, taking advantage of the Weather and Campus, I managed to catch up on some work that needed to be done and rid myself of any [even though there wasn’t really any…]stress that I had. I got a lot closer to one of my main regional second years Nikkita [Full Ukrainian/Russian born in Moscow but has lived in Lexington, Kentucky for his whole life] which was really nice, as well as to Amit from Israel, Harlem from Peru, and a bunch of other co/second years. I think I will actually travel next long weekend most likely to Northern Ireland with Claire and Martin. Not a bad weekend getaway!

During long weekend we also did a bit of re-organizing for our dorm, so for your viewing pleasure I have a picture of my corner in the dorm! Note the gynormous American flag, the “Don’t mess with Texas” slogan, the map with America in the middle, my Cowboy hat on the shelf above me! Needless to say, I’m repping the American people quite well if I do say so myself.

Ta ta as the Welsh would say,



Kev

Randomoid Pictures for All

This is the photo used for the front of the AC Calendar this year created through the group's Social Enterprise; all of the students from the houses grabbed their flags and actually were allowed to climb on the roof to take the pictures [from the Watchtower]. If you see the American flag in the picture, it's me holding/waving it! I love my insanely international home.

British Parliament in London
Covent Garden [A small orchestra playing below]
Buckingham Palace! I took this picture after walking eternally from one side of London to the other...what a tourist.

Monk? Marine? Spock? Budda?!

Yes, it is true, I have no hair at all, as it is in a small bag in my room after being shaved off my head. Surprisingly I don't have as a head as oddly shaped as I thought it would be, and I seem to have a lot of people requesting that I keep it shaved! I don't think I'm going to do that though... To give a brief recap, 6 other guys and I shaved our heads for human rights [Amnesty International], and managed to collect £700 [$1400]! Needless to say, I'm very proud of the others that participated in the shaving, and am really glad that I did it.

I also got to be with my wondrous link family today [hurray for Bryn and Alison!], who made us a traditional Sunday British meal of cheese and cauliflower, roasted potatoes and parsnips, gravy, yorkshire pudding, carrots, green peas, beef, and vegetable chili! It was AMAZING, and we topped it off with Eve's pudding [kind of like apple cobbler]. They even dropped off a bag of goodies on our bed when we weren't there, so that was a really nice thing to come back to. Ah yes, Virginia and I have the best Link family :]


Love,
Your budda buddy?

Codes+Service+Activities

Codes.
Codes are what we call our classes here at Atlantic [and I believe all the other UWCs generally do so too], which consist of three standard levels, three higher levels, and TOK in our Second year. We also have "free codes", which are weird versions of off blocks that occur very frequently. The teachers are also very flexible in regards to classes. For example, today I only had two codes because I had two frees, and my Chemistry gave us a free code to study/revise for our upcoming test. Here are the codes that I'm taking [Obviously the IB because my school created the IB with Ecolint, the International School of Geneva, and some school in NY]:

Codes

Higher Level Chemistry: A two year code, with my teacher Geoff [We call all of our teachers by their first name]. Geoff is an interesting person to have for a teacher simply because he wrote the entire book used for IB chemistry, as well as the syllabus. This class only has 12 kids. So, I'm not too worried about doing well on the IB Chemistry exam :]
Higher Level Biology:This Bio class is more of a univeristy kind of class, meaning that we do more practical work than theory, which usually involves my very very very interesting and excited teacher [James, another person who is a genius in Biology and happens to contribute to everything Biology all over the world] running around outside recognizing differeing organisms, and then examining them under a microscope to identify different things within. He also is the Estate Service instructor as well as Visual Rescue. He also has a series of massive jars full of bacteria and things that he's had for 30 YEARS, and never touched.
Higher Level European History:Definitely one of my favorite classes; my teacher is Kate from Hungary [Amazing at History], and the people in my class are from Italy, Poland, Germany [two], Kenya, Mauritius , Britain, Slovakia, and me! The discussions in Euro are amazing, as we have people from the countries we are studying, and the different positions and views are the most invaluable aspect we have in this class.
SL Japanese ab initio:This is by far one of my favorite classes, yet one of the hardest as well. Japanese has three different alphabets, the grammar is completely different, and the way of thinking is opposite from that of Westerners. We're almost done with learning Hiragana, and having a class of only 6 people is very intimate yet still very intense. My teacher is Kai from Germany, who went to Atlantic a long time ago, and has been here since the year after university.
SL English A1:My teacher is Lydia [My tutor/counselor], who is an ex student and has her masters in Poetry. We've been analyzing and discussing poetry lately, and it has been amazing since poetry is definitely something I enjoy working with. We've already read a novel that we're goign to write a commentary on, and I have a presentation tomorrow about a poem that I was given to study. Definitely a very very fun code.
SL Math Methods:I never knew how many ways people could write a decimal, or a period, or a multiplication sign, or different ways to think about math. We had to go through a "standardizing" sort of period to make sure everyone was sure what was going on, but we are on to actual math now, and will go from statistics to higher algebra to trig and to calculus by the end of the two years. My teacher in this class is Kai as well, and he's an extremely good math teacher.

Service

Lifeguards:For my service at AC, I've chosen to become a hardcore oceanic kayaking surfing nutcase of a lifeguard. We have three different sessions [my sessiosn are on tuesday and thursday], which involve completely different things. Fitness sessions include running your booty off for about 30 minutes, as well as press ups, sit ups, crunches, planks, and anything else that my instructors [Alan from Zimbabwe and Harriet from...Wales] feel like doing, and then running to the pool to swim like a dolphin. When they mean we're going to be in shape, they're not kidding. I believe we did something like 112 laps during our last session, and did our time swim [we have to swim twenty lengths in under 7 minutes and thirty second by april], and I was extremely excited to actually make it in 7 minutes 18 seconds! So now it's simply a challenge to myself to get better and become a faster swimmer. We have a few people in my group that are insanely fast, and a few that still are getting the hang of swimming. We even have a few people in lifeguards that are non-swimmers! So, for them, it's quite a challenge to progress all the way to being an expert swimmer.

Activities

Amnesty International:As a group we debate about situations throughout the world regarding human rights, raise awareness, and do mostly practical things to help out. For example, we're going to Cardiff quite soon on a weekend to perform street theatre in the busiest street in all of Cardiff: Queens. We're not sure exactly what we're going to do, but it will either by protesting against the human rights violations in Burma, Guantanamo bay prison, or another event that is atrocious. Last week my entire school wore red to honor the Buddhist monks in Burma that sacrificed themselves to better their country, and on Friday I am completely shaving my head [yes, shaved as in smooth, not just buzzed], in order to raise money for amnesty. There a few other guys, and even a girl who are going to do so as long as people donate enough money [I think the goal is something like £500, or 1000 dollars].

GreenPeace: I know when you think of GreenPeace you probably thing of the insanely radical organization that will do anything to help the environment and stop whalers, but I can assure that our organization is not like that at all at AC; we raise awareness through making our school more environmentally friendly, as we are a model for the world, and can raise awareness through our status. We also are meeting with a greenpeace member who will help us out with getting started[it's our first year to exist at AC], which is very exciting.

Javanese Gamelan: The Javenese Gamelan is a large collection of confusing instruments that I'm learning to play with a few other people from the school. One neat tradition is that we are not allowed to wear shoes near the gamelan, or to step over any piece of it. If you step over the piece, you are said to disturb the Javenese spirits within [interesting...]. We've already conducted one peace that's really neat, and we're going to perfect it until later in November when we perform for the school.

Tour Choir:This is my official unofficial activity...I'm a Base, and will continue to practice with the group until we have our songs memorized and completed until our time comes in March to fly to Warsaw, Poland, and perform in a massive cathedral! We have more concerts throughout Poland, so it should be really really fun.

Meditation and Sahaja Yoga: This is what I join my houseparents in every other day with a few other Dyfedians, which is one of my favorite things here. I'd suggest looking it up yourself because it's difficult to explain otherwise. Tonight the Buddhist Abbot of the Dalli Lama [Excuse the spelling of that...] is coming to lead a school wide meditation, which should be amazing.

There are about a million other things that go on around the school, but it would take me forever to list them all so I'll just leave it at those for now. Another favorite past time is staying up till the wee hours of the morning with people from conflicting nations and debating about the situation, and the solution from both sides. For example, last night I stayed up with Amit [Israel], Malia [New Mexico], and Bjorn [Germany] debating about the Palestinian and Israeli conflict. Truly, where else can you debate with the direct members of each point of the conflict as you can here?

Anyway, I must go to Southerndown beach now to Surf [HurrahhH!] for Lifeguards, so I best go get my wet suit on.

Hope everyone is having a great Senior year!

Love Love Love,

Kev

Induction! Initiation! More!

-Where: On the coast of the Irish Sea in West Wales within an ex-students large estate.

-Who: Half of the Atlantic First years, Camp Leaders [Second years], Peer Listeners, staff, and induction crews from each service.

-Why: To commence extremely rapid and intense bonding between people of all nations, to have fun, to learn about each other, and to make us appreciate home.

-When: The beginning.

After spending the first few days in shock because of the situation my co-years and I were all in, the time for “serious bonding” came in the form of a longggg bus ride to the coast in which I learned every detail about the lives of the three people sitting around me, as well as the eminent three day induction period that has been so anticipated since it’s mentioning. I’d heard many different stories, most involving the abundance of cow patties, freezing weather, falling tents, and frightening food, as well as the seeming side-effect of bonding and having a great time. Luckily for us, it was just the opposite! We slept [quite tightly might I add, with no pillows and no showers!] in British Air force Tents on a field overlooking the coast [Breathtaking to say the least], which we were unaware of as we arrived in the middle of the night thinking we were just on a farm, and woke up to the Irish sea and sheer cliffs around us. On the night that we walked in, dreary eyed and bums aching from the drive, our second year camp leaders were in the large barn leaning forward, heads down, and hands on their knees. Being the History Channel lover that I am and the memory of the movie “Whale Rider” popping into my head, I knew that they were going to greet us with the traditional, yet frightening “Hakka” practiced by the indigenous people of New Zealand. So, our first greeting of camp was a fired up bunch of second years screaming an indigenous war chant with painted faces while looking as scary as humanly possible. Great way to wake us up, as well as a way to confuse us just a little bit more, which usually turns into asking tons of questions and looking oblivious. We were woken up after a few hours of sleep [Dance party all night anyone?] by the second years chanting “Wake up” around our tent, while “affectionately” opening all the windows, and letting the cold air whip into our bundle of ACers huddling for warmth. After a night of fun and some talking with our second years, we started the rotations for activities at camp, which went as follows: Environmental, Surfing, Coastering, Initiative Games, Coastal Walk. For Environmental we helped build a traditional Pembrookshire Hedge with the farmer, as it would have taken him much more time than the two hours that it took us together. Initiative games was really fun as we played a bunch of leadership oriented games that I’ve never seen before, mind games, and games just to get us dirty. The coastal walk involved walking 17km down the coast of Wales, which literally means walking on a pathway with a cliff two feet away from you, and gale force winds pushing you down. Our walk leader from the CAVRA service took us to a place where we saw sea lions, and eventually to a small beach where we all had lunch and talked, until we had to run past the wild horses back to camp. And now, for the two most amazing things, Surfing and Coasteering. In order to go surfing in Wales, it’s generally a bright idea to wear a wetsuit, as it’s absolutely freezing in the water [as in much cooler than barton springs], and the jagged rocks generally don’t mix well with people. So, my Induction group and I waddled out of the van that Alan so generously sped through the practically 4ft wide roads to get to, and stripped down to get in our Wetsuits in the gale force winds, light rain, and majestic life jackets and helmets. Yes, we looked like a bunch of goonbas running around in our bright yellow helmets [Confounded British health and safety regulation!], while small children ran beside us in their stylish wetsuits into the surf. We did some warm up exercises with our French Instructor Nick, and then linked arms to walk straight into the biggest surf that I’ve ever seen in my life. Truly, While walking the waves were a couple feet above our heads like mountains crashing down, and all the time Nick continued to laugh and push us forward to the point that we were on our tippy-toes in the water. Finally, a massive wave blew us all apart and we body surfed back to shore, and commenced in beginning to surf. Much to everyone’s surprise, a Texan can surf! I actually did really well despite the large surf, and we all had an insanely fun time surfing together. And, for the Camp Finale, Coasteering. Coasteering involved my group once again suiting up in our wetsuits, our helmets, our lifejackets, and this time our Tennis shoes [or “trainers” as they say here]. Our iron men of instructors charged up the hills down to the old ruins of a slate mine, and jumped into THE coldest water I have ever felt [Most likely because MY wetsuit had a GIANT hole right in the crotch…my luck!!], and swam/tried to swim to the open water. We slipped around over seaweed and climbed through the inlet, only to jump into the expanse that was brimming with sea lions. Yes, we were swimming with sea lions in the Irish sea with people from a million different countries…Wicked. We practiced proper technique to jump of cliffs [Hurrah!], and then swam over to the part of the land mass that was jutting out, with a smallll hole that you could see when the tide went back and forth. Naturally, our instructor decided that we would go under the cliff through the tidal hole and come out the other side. As we went one by one, it literally felt as if the cliff was sucking us under and popping us back out into it’s stomach; we were in a massive cavern under the cliff, and once everyone was inside we swam out to the other side. The Using the barnacles on the slate cliffs, we were all able to scale nearly vertical parts to once again jump off into the violent water and roaring waves. I still can’t believe that it passed health and safety regulations, but it was definitely fun! We went down a few natural slides, got sloshed by massive waves that would pull you back and then cover you with the next one, climb up the sides of cliffs, and then reach a massive jump with which nearly everyone jumped off! We had two non-swimmers, so it was definitely difficult for them, we be managed to pull them along through the water and help them out with everything. My tutor, who is also my English teacher was also with us, as well as Neil Richards [Our new Headmaster/Principal] who went with the next group. We went back to Camp pumped with adrenaline at the insane feat that we had just conquered, and had the traditional bonfire that night. During our last night’s bonfire, every country that was represented sang their national anthem for everyone, and sang different campfire songs in different languages. On that note, everything here is very multi-lingual; during anything that requires counting or numbers, you say it in your own language, which becomes very interesting when you’re stretching and you hear 12 different languages within a few minutes. In the end, camp was amazing, I became extremely close to the people in my tent, the second years that were with us, and the people that were in my induction group. I hope to be a camp leader next year so that we can have as much fun as we did this year next year with our first years! Neat eh, while everyone else was in school, my school sent us on a camping trip to go cliff diving, surfing, and hiking. Everyone should get the chance to experience an education as it’s done at Atlantic, and that’s why I love it here.

Loving it,

K

This is "Southerndown Beach", which is the place that I go nearly every week with Lifeguards to go surfing and train for our certification. It varies between no surf [as you can see in this picture], and really large surf. Fun to say the least!


Did I mention that there are sheep EVERYWHERE? Plus, I learned something ridiculous the other day; sheep are born with large bush tails, but they take them off! There's a bunch of sheep that are brown and white in Llantwit that have their tails still...we were dumbfounded.

London & Co

Dear Texans/Family/Friends/Acers/Loved ones,

I apologize to everyone for not having posted anything for quite some time, but the past few weeks in the UK have been absolutely insane with adjusting to my new country, the systems here, London, induction, and a million other things that have been happening. I’m going to separate everything to make it more clear, and make my blog more of a journal now that I have full computer access and can do so from my dorm. Okay, So! First of all, I flew out of Austin International airport on the Friday morning up to Washington D.C., and then flew out of the airport there to London Heathrow through the middle of the night. I managed to sleep a couple hours, but with the granted situation miles above the earth in a rocket of a machine and tremendous turbulence, it was light to say the least. We sat next to a couple going to Oxford with their little girl, who turned out to be quite the trooper! As ridiculous as it may seem, we actually ran into them on the day that we went to Oxford [Sunday] and met up with my co-year/friend Anisha from the Netherlands/UK/America/India. Not having crossed time zones before by plane, jet lag hit my family and I very hard; we came into London at about half midnight U.S. Central Time [Normal time to go to bed for me], but in London it was 6:30am. Yup, that’s right, we had to fight the jetlag and stay up for about 48 hours in the chaos and confusion that is traveling. Navigation through the airport was really easy, and once we got to customs the officer actually laughed at me and gave me two weeks to last in Wales, and told me that it would be one of the biggest culture shocks of my life. Right he was, but only about the culture shock; I absolutely love it here. We stayed in the Jury’s Doyle Inn near the Imperial Wharf in Chelsea, which unknown to us is probably the most isolated hotel ever in terms of public transport. Arriving in the morning made it especially difficult, for we could not check in until 2pm, and with the entourage of luggage that I had, it made the taxi trip quite ridiculous, as well as moving through one of the busiest airports in the world. Oh, I forgot to mention that I traveled across the world wearing my cowboy hat & cowboy boots :] It was not just to be funny, but for the fact there was no way to store my cowboy hat, and boots would weigh too much to fit in the bags properly and pass the weight limit. Once we stored our luggage in the hotel, we jumped into the massive city of London. Not having used public transportation in my life, it was quite the adjustment, as well as the fact that I felt we were going to get in a head-on collision every time a car/moped/bike came flying from the other way. We wandered around through Kings street all the way to Buckingham palace [where I collapsed near Hyde park in the grass to take a public nap],and eventually made our way back to the hotel to eat dinner on the imperial wharf. The next morning we were supposed to wake up early and make our way to Oxford by 12pm, but the jetlag got the best of us and we left nearly at 12 for Oxford. The bus system & rail made more sense after getting to Oxford, so I feel confident now with using public transport. First of all, Anisha is one of the most amazing people ever, and I’m very certain that I am going to apply to Oxford now, but I’m not sure which college within the University that I would apply to. Anisha toured through the city with us and showed us a bunch of historical places, and we even got to go to the very top of a famous tower that gave you a complete aerial view of the city, see the Thames river and students punting along it, and walk through the gardens of Christ College. We went to my first pub named “Eagle and Child” [Right?] that was a really cool experience, and I had my first Fish n Chips in England, and I whole heartedly approve of it. We went back to London that afternoon, and ventured around more until we went back to Chelsea. On Monday we went to the London Eye [one of the neatest creations ever!], saw Parliament, Went to Covent Garden and saw street performers, had great food, and neat stores, and later that day we went to a place on Earls Road called “Gourmet Burger Kitchen” and had a REALLY good burger, which was a very nice send off. The next morning we got up very early and began the trek towards Earls Court, took rail to Paddington, and then took the national rail towards Bridgend on a high speed train. The scenery in this country is jaw-dropping, as I’m sure that everything is as green as you’ve ever seen. After the two hour rail we arrived in Bridgend, grabbed a “jacket potato” and some Chicken Tikka, crammed our luggage into a small cab and drove to my second home, Atlantic College. Going through the gates was probably one of the most surreal situations possible, with all of my second years dressed wildly and holding signs representing the different houses, as well as clanging pots and pans while yelling chants to represent their house’s pride. One of my second years [Henning from Norway!] recognized me from the list that they have of us, and came to help my family and I bring my 234567654457 kilos of luggage to my house, Dyfed [Pronounced “Duvid”]. After dumping my bags into a drawer and putting everything else off for later, good ol’ Henning sent me off with Signe to see the campus, which is incredible. I can’t even describe to you how surreal this campus is; the day was perfect, and you could see clearly from the castle down the steep incline to the coast across the Bristol channel to England. Everything is green, calm, breezy, yet warm when the sun is out. Our castle has an incredible history, and is in every way imaginable a Castle…props to the builders of our Castle! We met my Houseparents [Asbjorn and Janet], and then the emotional goodbye was done, Anisha began to cry because the parents began to cry, and it was just a stereotypical boo-hoo except for the fact that I go to school in a freaking castle by the ocean. In the confusion of emotions they swept me away and I began to repeat the common phrase for all UWC Students: “Hi, my name is Kevin, I’m from Texas and I live in Dyfed. [Accompanied by a hand shake or occasional flying-hug]” I met everyone at least 7 times, and at the end of the night I was still clueless and confused, and in complete shock of what was going on. We played a huge amount of initiative games and name games, and had a ton of fun and bonded so fast that it seemed fake. It sounds weird, but every house has a group of people that seem to connect perfectly and have personalities that mix well and fit the reputation of the House. Dyfed has a reputation of being calm, intelligent, friendly, happy, and never hosts parties [We do live right across from our headmaster!!], which many are true, but everything works out for the best here. My house represents the following nationalities: Switzerland, England, Russia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Pakistan, Palestine & Isreal [interesting eh?], Germany, SierraLeone, Georgia, Malaysia, South Korea, Belgium, Turkey, Peru, Nigeria, Isle of man, Spain, India, Mexico, Norway, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Colombia, St. Vincent, US [NY, D.C., TX!, NM], Japan, and China. When we say we’re a 6th form international boarding school, we don’t joke around! There are about 50 more nationalities represented here, and if I can get that list I’ll post that as well. Summary: I love my second home, my housemates are as close as family, I love my Codes, and I love this opportunity. Read the following posts [I have a bunch more to catch up on] and you’ll see just what I’m talking about when I say that this is the most amazing school in the world, nothing is like it, and school should be like nothing else other than the way it is practiced here. I miss you all, and apologize once again for being at the school for busy-bee children. If any of ya’ll feel like coming and visiting, there’s a place for you to stay in the Castle, and I’m sure you’ll fall in love with the people, ideals, and campus too. Hope everyone is doing well at the Wood and that your lives are happy! If I’ve learned one thing here so far, it’s that the greatest thing we can do for one another is to make each other happy, and to never take a second for granted.

-Dyfedian named Kevin

Here's a random preview of some pictures to come...you can see me [obviously] and a little of Bjorn from Germany to the right, and Sam from England on the left; the entire school dressed up as self-made superheroes: ME=Texsanta
:]
Crazy Picture [Courtesy of Yaroslav] of me in the dayroom. Most likely around three in the morning.
Here's Andrea from Ny and I on the main portion of grass to lounge in front of the castle overlooking the bristol channel. This is picture only shows a tiny amount of how amazingly gorgeous this place is...it's unbelievable

Alas, The Time has Come.

It’s nearly midnight on Wednesday evening and the thought of flying over the pond in 35 hours is becoming more and more of a promise than the illusion that it has been for quite some time. I will be flying out on Friday with United Airlines at 11am up to Washington D.C., and then over to Heathrow Airport in London to face Jet-Lag head on. With a couple shots of espresso and the adrenaline that’s running through me at this point, I think I’ll be able to handle it decently. After spending Saturday in London, I’m going to Oxford for part of the day on Sunday to meet up with my Co-Year Anisha so that we can get to know each other before we’re both at Atlantic, and it will be neat to get a tour from a native with the town and legendary school. On Monday I’m not really sure if we know what we’re going to do yet, but one option that popped up was to go to Bath for the day and explore around, and hopefully go to one of the Baths themselves and jump in! I’ll be heading over to Atlantic by rail on the 11^th sometime in the morning so that I can be there when everyone arrives with the banging of pots and pans by my second years.

Ah, for other wondrous news that has come up lately. I received news that I will be in the house “Dyfed” at Atlantic [One of the 7 houses, the others being Tice, Powys, Morgannwg, Sunley, Whitaker, and Gwynedd], which is the house closest to the castle and the center of Campus. I have three “dormmates”: Ondrej [Pronounced “Ondra”] from the Czech Republic, Juan Sebastian from Colombia, and Hedd from Wales, who I will be living with for the whole year. Both Ondrej and Hedd are second years, and Juan is my co-year. I’ve heard amazing things about all of them, so as you can predict, I’m pumped to be able to live with such great people.

During my first two weeks or so all my co-years and I will be going through induction in order to choose our service [I’ll update you all as soon as I decide!], our activities, as well as the classes that I will be taking there. Another completely amazing thing that we all get to do is go camping together for three days in order to have immensely ridiculous bonding, and experience the environment that is our new home.

Btw, my parents had a going away party for me that was awesome; I had the opportunity to see some people I haven’t seen in a very long time, and a bunch of people were there who really mean a lot to me. Thank you to all that came and made an effort to be there, you know who you are!

Also, the first few weeks will be very chaotic for me, so I can’t promise an in-depth post for everyone, but I promise I will do my best to update y’all weekly on what’s going on.

Here is my mailing address:

Atlantic College
C/O Kevin Irby
St. Donat's Castle
LLantwit Major
Vale of Glamorgan
CF61 1WF, UK

Also, here is the direct number to my dorm: +44 1446 799259 Ext. 1259*

*I wouldn’t suggest calling simply because it’s outrageously expensive, and not to mention the time difference means confusion. I will be six hours ahead over there, so please take that into consideration that it’s before 9pm if you do call our of courtesy for my dorm mates [means you’d have to call before 3pm in the States].

As I emphasized in the post before, I can basically only talk to you if you use Skype on your computer. I will not be using my Cell Phone at all because it’s a dollar a minute+, and each text message is 35 cents [Ouch!]. In fact, it’s possible that I may not even have a cell phone over there if it isn’t practical.

I will be taking loads of pictures, which you can all see by going to [picasaweb.google.com/Irby.Kevin], and will put many of them on the blog if they are related to what is being updated. You’ll notice that once you choose an album there will be a map on the left side of the screen, with which all my pictures will be tagged with the location in which they were taken. You can put the map into “hybrid” mode so you can see a satellite view of it as well…It’s pretty neat! There’s a bunch of pictures of the campus, so make sure to check those out as they are a good sum of what my new home is like.

As I spend my last day in America with friends&family, I’d to thank everyone who is tuning in for your support, and wish the best of luck to everyone here in Texas and hope that all of you do great this year! I wish you all the best of luck on College Apps, and hope that we may end up in school together again one day. You can always comment on my posts [Which is easier for me than mass emailing], so make sure to ask questions or make suggestions about what you’d like me to post!

Sincerely,

Kevin

Communication!

This post is too ALLLL of my friends and family, so listen closely, for I want all of you to do this ASAP.

This is a mega-quick post, but it's definitely necessary so that I can dodge the $1 a minute price of international cell-phone usage that will certainly deprive me of all my earnings.
Solution:SKYPE!
If you would like to experience more than the weekly post on my blog, Skype is the way to do so. It's absolutely free, and all you have to do is go to www.skype.com, download skype for free, create your quick account, and voila! You can call me, I can call you!
I already have a microphone in my computer, but if you don't, it doesn't cost much to get one anyway. If you have a webcam you can make video calls through it too!

Information:

My Skype ID: Irby.Kevin

Website: www.skype.com

Once you get it, let me know by adding me in the contacts and sending a little message with it!

Cheers,

SkypeChild

Workzilla

Second Post!

Basically, this post will sum up a big chunk of my summer activities/plans/responsibilities/[Insert other word here] due to its domination on mi vida. My main reason for living right now seems to be working as much as possible to pay for my Harry Potter 2.0 expedition [See post below] so that my family doesn't have to pull out money from my college fund or any other place that does not need to be deprived.

La Lista:

AM

It's A Grind

Currently, I am Bagel Boy/Pastry Child/Panini Pal/World Famous Barista, and still working on my Barista skills. I've got all of our Iced and Iced Blended drinks down, so whip on by and I'll whip you one up! Complete randomoid note about a Machiatto: did you know that "Machiatto" means "to mark" in Italian, and that's why a Machiatto has a dollop of foam on top, and also that "espresso" means "especially for you"? Pretty neat, eh? Coffee Sugestions: Iced White Mocha is amazing...and an "Uncoffee" suggestion is our Iced 50/50: It's fresh orange juice blended and iced with ghiradelli white chocolate, aka an amazing dreamsicle of sorts! I'm telling you, we honestly have better coffee & prices than Starbucks! I can't tell you how many times every day we hear that.

PM

I work in the Banana at the new outdoor mall called The Domain [It's a huge 6 million dollar flagship Banana Republic] in Sales on the floor and actually have training to work Cashier as well to put in some more hours. It's quite fun and I have to meet insane quotas, but everything works out in the end. Another benefit of working here besides the pay is I get some pretty hefty discounts...60% on seasonal clothes and 50% on everything else, and I also get discounts at the other two stores [Old Navy & Gap] because of Gap owning all of them!

Sunday+Wednesday

Canyon Creek Church aka "Jesus School" according to Mother Unit.

On Sunday mornings I work in the childcare center as both a Sunday School Teacher, as well as basically anything else that my bosses tell me to do! I work with the "Dragonflies" who are about 4-5 years old [They're all going on to Kindergarten now!] and the cutest darn children you've ever seen. One of my saddest things about leaving to Wales is that I'm going to miss my kids a bunch, as well as all of the really neat people that work there! Wednesday evenings I hang out with a bunch of kids for a while and play with them/prepare for Sunday/watch movies on the gargantuan movie theatre that the church has. I love it!

And of course in typical american summer spirit, I mow my family's hard as well as our neighbors' yard. I actually pulled 53 lbs of weeds out of the neighbors yard a couple weeks ago...IT WAS INSANE!

I don't think I'm going to be able to go to Camp C.A.M.P. at all this summer, unless I can somehow find time to take of work. I talked to a bunch of my friends that are counselors there and they said it was good ol' Camp and that I definitely need to come. There's a good reason that Camp is my favorite place in the world! I'm hoping that I can somehow utilize Atlantic College to help C.A.M.P. out [It's fully funded through donations and needs a lot of help], but I'm not really sure how I can do so yet.

I'm supposed to receive my official letter of acceptance into Atlantic, along with an information packet about "Codes" and services offered there, as well as other information required to be deported. I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but in Wales they call your classes "Codes", so that's what I'm talking about when I say that!

Hope all is well with everyone!

Busy but having fun,
Kevin