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