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
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