Winter Break

Home. This word now has a slightly different meaning to me now that I’ve been at a UWC; according to what I’ve always believed, home is in Austin, yet the saying that “Home is where you heart is” splits mine. Obviously Austin will always be home with friends and family and everything I’ve grown up with, but everyone at UWCAC have become a sort of family, and this place a Home. It’s something that my friends and I have discussed quite a bit, and we all have determined that the word “home” becomes a bit different, as even when I was in Poland [which you will read about in a later post] with the UWC National Committee, with them it even felt like home because of a sort of “UWC Family” or “United World” as it’s been called. So, to begin this post, I was going home from my International home to my Texan Home for the first time since settling into my UWC, wondering how everyone would be and if they would accept how I’ve changed, grown, or whatever else may have occurred.

I stayed a day with my wonderful link family in Llanmaes and was fed like I was a large rugby player [whom both of their sons are], with amazing sausage and eggs and a breakfast that made me nearly explode. Not to mention tea throughout the day that always warms you up in the drizzly welsh weather. At 8am the next morning I began my journey to the Llantwit Train Station with a grande sized luggage that was full of things I don’t need, and full of space for me to bring back things from home. I shot over to Bridgend to relay from there on a train that would take me to Reading, and then to take the Heathrow Express bus straight to my Terminal in Heathrow. It was nice to be in London again, and the navigation through Heathrow was fast and easy, despite the fact that I apparently look very suspicious and was checked a billion times. Hm…I go to an international school that’s part of a movement for international understanding and peace…how terrorist of me! Waited for a few hours, hopped on the jumbo sized trans-Atlantic plane, and sat down. Calm quick flight right? Ah, if only that could be so. I got the window seat which was nice, but little did I know that there would be about 20 raging drunk brits on the plane going to Chicago as well to relay off to Las Vegas to watch a fight…who did I sit next to? An extremely drunk Britt with a memory span of about 15 minutes, a will to teach me about the ways with women, and his determination to make me switch my flight and come with him and his lads to Las Vegas and then back to Manchester so that he could find me a “Manchester Woman”. Hm. How long is this flight? 6 ½ hours, but with the apparent strong headwind it was predicted at 8 ½ hours. Oh lord, this is going to be a toughy. However, I managed to sleep a bit [until he woke me up to offer me more advice on women…], eat the wonderfully amazing [cough cough] United Airlines food, and get off into American Soil. Because of the Headwind, the flight I was supposed to take out was waiting for us, but right as I went through customs I was sent away for being a Terrorist again. They looked through my stuff as I impatiently stood there, and I finally told the guy that this really wasn’t necessary and that I was quite sure I was about to miss my flight because of him. He grabbed my ticket, realized that I had nearly no time to get to my plane, grabbed my bag and said “run”. So I ran through the plane and jumped on the psycho Chicago train to get to the terminal, ran to terminal number 12, and got on my plane. Ah, what a relief, a small plane with my own two seats, time to sleep…luckily this flight was only 2 hours. I literally slept the whole way, right until the lights turned on and we prepared for Landing…I looked out and it was hard to believe that the last time I had seen this part of the world was nearly three months earlier, and that I was in Texas on the other side of the world, finally coming home. I turned on my phone and a barrage of text messages appeared to greet me, which was kind of funny since over here it’s too ridiculously expensive to receive texts or calls on my cell phone and I only use it for an alarm clock. Oh, I forgot to mention that in order to make sure my weight limit was hit, I pull the whole Poisonwood Bible trick and wear a heckload, aka 5 pairs of boxers, 3 pairs of socks, two shirts a sweater and a hoodie, and a scarf. So, I tend to look like an abominal snowman. I walked out into the airport to the familiar sight of “Keep Austin Weird”, BBQ, and all that is in Austin, something I love compared to the other impersonal airports that really don’t contain anything related to the nature of where it is located. I got onto the escalator to go down to get my luggage, and about halfway down I saw a massive sign saying “Welcome Home” with my friends and my family, which was quite ironic because I waved at them and NONE of them except for Mary even recognized me. I got down, tackle hugged them all, my mom kept pinching my cheek to make sure I was real, and I got my luggage and hugged them all. It was great. Also, my luggage was lost, and because of my hectic situation in Chicago we just did some quick things and they sent it to us the next day.

The whole of winter break was such a blur, with heckloads of Fire bowl Thai food with pad thai and spicy coconut soup, seeing friends and realizing how much I missed them, and being thankful that I had actually changed for the better and that everyone was still as close as ever. It was so nice to be back, and so nice to DRIVE! However, um, driving was a bit interesting at first…my brain is confused because I don’t drive here at all, but my brain is on the left hand side when I’m here, and now that I was back I could see both ways and it was strange. So to help, I drove around the neighborhood for quite a while just to adjust. I went to Westwood which was a strange experience, and kept having to sneak through the back door because I didn’t want to go through the whole annoying taking my picture thing. It was great to see Mohr, Kirk, pretty much everyone. A funny experience was me bringing lunch to Jake since he was a dingbat and didn’t have money to buy lunch, so I walked into the building with subway sandwhiches [defreakinglicious] and my old World History Teacher opened up the door for me with this look that was a mix between confusion and a bit of sweet justice because he still thought I was a student and was therefore breaking the rules. I told him that I was bringing my brother lunch, he asked a question pointing out that I should be in a class, and then I informed him about what I was doing and that I was just bringing my brother lunch. He just seemed thoroughly confused, but nonetheless “let me off”. The next weekend I went with Layne and crew [aka the whole of the Sun Dancers, a hardcore Dancing squad at Westwood, my old school] to a Ranch for and winter social, with tons of Mexican food, smores, dancing, pool, and everything else that you can do on a ranch. It was fun to be back with them because of being an escort the year before.
Christmas was amazing, to have food and family together and to be back among the familiar Texas accents and customs, and the presents were great and often hilarious, some being some rattlesnake rattlers collected at our ranch, some fried pork skin, a robe [because everyone has them here and I don’t!], and some rockin noise canceling headphones from my aunt and uncle for any future flights with drunk brits… We also had a chance to go down to South Padre with the family, visit lovely Grandmama who was as hilarious as ever, and then into Nuevo Progresso over the border into mexico for my massive craving of Auturos, the restaurant that we’ve been going to for as long as I can remember. Ah, and how could I forget, a big bag of Leche Quemada to bring back here.

In TGIFs waiting for the food...

Zach and I had a competition to see who could jump over the entire cow.

New years was with friends, seemingly tradition to go to Cat’s house and have food, go outside by the Chimanea and talk until we go inside and pull the little firecrackers all over the place. Some more fun, some more food and attempts to keep the fire going, and I wandered back to my casa with Joel [whom I get to be British with] to hang out.

Ah yes, the departure came, the whole WAHHH sort of leaving that occurred as I walked into my gate through the passage to the plane, I sit down, and I’m ready to fly back “home”. Thankfully that was easy! HAH! Yeah, tell that to United Airlines as their plane’s engine wouldn’t start… So at this point I was pretty sure It was an omen telling me to not go, so we sat on the plane for approximately three decades, and then queued up to rebook our tickets. I was booked a ticket in a larger American Airlines flight that was leaving soon, and once I got on I found out I had a full row…ah, yes. Nice flight to Chicago, and in Chicago I decided to get a massive Burrito to prevent myself from having to suffer through Airline food, which is becoming more and more the dread of my existence. So, I had my black bean and chicken burrito, went to my terminal, and sat down. A few seconds later they started to call first class passengers [hah], so I checked my ticket to see what seat section I was in. Hm, there wasn’t a seat number, it just said “First”. Are you kidding me. SERIOUSLY? Oh wow, heavens above, they actually booked me in First class all the way from Chicago to London…amazing. So I walk down the passage to the plane, and for the first time in my life, I turn LEFT instead of right into the cabin, entering heaven. Woah, decked out bed of a seat with a touch screen plasma and a desk with newspapers and a sleep set?! Amazing. The flight attendents literally treated us like royalty, most likely because I was the little redneck international child looking confused amongst actual royalty, except I’m quite sure the guy next to me was a complete hick because he looked as fascinated as I was. We started out the flight with a mimosa or two, then some warm roasted assorted nuts and amazing cheeses. Dang. So for the rest of the trip I watched a movie, slept, had the best steak of my life, ate a salad, had an omlette for breakfast, had the biggest ice cream sundae the world has ever dared to make, and soaked it all in. Once I landed the Lindsay’s had even set up a private service that would drive me to their house, as it was funny to see my name on a sign when once I had grabbed my baggage. Hm, that trip was quite a bit better than the others…
As you can see, I thoroughly enjoyed my winter break, and was glad to be back into the Austin groovyness with everyone and to get to go downtown again to the places that symbolize home. I have to admit though, I thoroughly missed everyone here and was excited to come back, but I didn’t want to leave. So, thank you all for being groovy, and I love you all very much.



Kirby/Kevin/Whatever your choice may be.

P.S. Everyone I'm writing blogs as fast as I can, but there's so many things to type up it will take me a while...so just keep checking!

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?