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