This week's theme was Jungle, so naturally I decided to be a chameleon. In fairness I just wanted an excuse to steal Olivia's Reading jumpsuit, complete with Reading mud still stubbornly embedded. Also, who doesn't want to dance to french songs in a jumpsuit? Cafe went mega well, there were sketches and poems and songs and dances and all variety of things. Also, Laura and Olivia comparing as characters from Avatar was mighty impressive too. I were even nominated for best costume along with Heather as part of the Lord Of The Flies contingent and Peter and Rahael as Chuck Testa and taxidermy respectively. PLUS Imma be bassing it up for the next cafe so watch this space. For the mean time, check out this epic vid-jo of le danse francais (je suis a gauche).
After cafe, we helped clean up and that before heading out to the stairs. Most people got changed but there was no way I was gonna waste any time out of that jumpsuit. For the most part I gave Oda and Madi head massages but then come 11 we all went back to campus for CANTEEN PARTAAAAY. Being the cool people that we are, Olivia and I decided to head to the canteen about half an hour late, where we were met with 0 music and harsh lights. Newbie AV team fail. Canteen party fail. Undeterred, I somehow managed to stay entertained until about 2am whereby I got a little bored of wandering round the various dayrooms and sitting on the pavement outside block 2 DMCing.
The next day I was up bright and ridiculously early, for no apparent reason. I did absolutely NADA other than stay in brunch for longer than necessary (somehow the banoffee pie ain't as nice as it used to be) until around 1 when I decided to be a mad yoke and go to the gym. If you've ever read my previous gym-related blog post you'll probably understand how it went. I'll admit I ended up playing Angry Birds on my iPod whilst on the bike machine. And because the gym was empty I tried (and failed) to destroy the punching bag.
After that I had rehearsals for the play which went pretty well and is improving all the while! Imma get someone to film it when we perform it (less than 3 weeks now) but Imma have to keep it fairly secretive for the time being.
Then I prolly just waited around for dinner, after which I went to the supermarket avec Mia to pick up some brownie mix - we came back with biscuits and jam. Together with Dilene, we spent the next hour and a bit planning our talk on "Expatriation and Culture" for Wednesday's COP day on United World Colleges(Change Of Pace day - instead of classes there are lectures and discussions and workshops etc). Basically, Mia's a bitta China, Argentina, America, Italy, I think there was some Irish and German thrown in there too? And Dilene's Canadian and Rwandan and I'm...Irish and English. Oh joy of joys. I tried to talk myself out of leading a discussion on how expatriation has changed my life (since I crossed the pond all those wha, 14 years ago?!) but they were having none of it. Without me the presentation would lack the only thing I can ever bring to anything - vague self-deprecating humour.
After sorting out all that shizam it was off to bed with me. I'm sure I managed to stay up until midnight doing absolutely nothing though.
Monday classes and a few more classes and a few more classes and maybe bad lunch and then a presentation for China week whereby they claimed that China was a complete raging cesspit. I took it all with a pinch of salt so don't be surprised when I die from eating too much street food. After that came coral monitoring service planning and it turns out we're gonna be having our dive this Saturday instead so happy days. We watched Blue Planet and I got emotional at the part where the food chain happens. Then dinner nomnomnom followed by photography (note to self TAKE PICTURE FOR MONDAY) followed by check in followed by rehearsal. That night I also got my hair cut by Liz. First LPC cut and probably not last if I'm honest! Sustainable living and all that, she did a mighty good job!
Tuesday nowt major happened to the extent of my knowledge but I did my english homework really intensely (discussing teen culture exploitation by the american media INNIT). I also tried to sort out my bank card with Liz in Ma On Shan s never gonna work the first time so I've to summon up the strength to go one stop down the line to try again. I got mango goo juice to console me so it's all good.
WEDNESDAY WAS COP DAY yayayayay! The first alumnus talk I went to was by a student who went to UWC Mahindra. Twas all about her experience there and how at first she hated India but then went back to try and set up a radio station in a small village for a year and all the problems (mostly poo related) that she encountered! The second talk was by Chris Howarth, one of the first to attend Atlantic College UWC in Wales in 1968. He was talking about his life and how being a UWC "global citizen" had really changed his life, and all the incredible experiences he'd had because of it (one of the most graphic being a warehouse orphanage in Romania). He talked all about his United World Schools initiative and claims that from the 10 schools he's got in Cambodia and Sri Lanka at the moment, he plans to expand to 500 schools in the world's most developing countries with the help of his AC peers. Leaving the talk everyone was just like :O BAM motivated for life. I don't mean to sound unnecessarily soppy or nothin' but after that just sitting in the courtyard at bbq lunch le gach duine was really empowering?? After that it was student teacher discussion time, and the first talk I went to was on growing up in the drug wars in Columbia and Mexico. It's really crazy to think that you know people who've experienced things like this but I guess that's what the day was about. For the second and third sessions I was doing my expatriation session with Mia and Dilene and that went purdy darn good if I do say so meself. I got my oppressed-brit-living-in-the-savage-wastelands-of-catholic-ireland stories in and Dilene and Mia got their immense life stories and cultural messed-up ness stories out too, as well as learning from a load of t'others about their experiences. I missed Li Ping's talk on growing up during the cultural revolution but I've heard it was insane. Watching that when it's put up on the network fo sho.
Wednesday night was spent e-mailing and letter writing for the most part, but also revelling in the fact that I'd received a parcel from the fam. Jaffa Cakes were consumed ridiculously fast - turns out that Dutch people have good taste and Chinese/American/Argentinian people not so much. Waste of a Jaffa Cake if you ask me. Wore my new parcel pyjamas to bed and woke up on Thursday nice and late cause I had a free block first class (nomnom).
Thursday was nice, only had three classes, aced me mandarin ab test, had an intense debate in english and actually understood what the fup was going down in physics which is always a pretty rewarding feeling. Lunch was amazing because there are people starting to visit from the other UWC schools so they have to make it look like they feed us well which is nice. That afternoon I completed my geo project (outward migration from North Korea dontcha know), went for a swim with Olivia (no lie we did 2 lengths and somehow stayed in the pool for about 45 minutes), had art for non artists where we drew random stuff on the grass in the courtyard and then did some letter writing in my room whilst Olivia crashed on my bed and we both counted down the seconds to dinner. Which was kind of disappointing because it turned out that all the officials had gone out for dinner. After dinner I was going to go to the Global Issues Forum on split nations (Ireland, Korea and Germany) but that was called off because there were day long dress rehearsals for the opening ceremony of the hall tomorrow night so loads of people couldn't make it. To make up for this cultural loss I hung out in the library, writing this and bookfacing J-Kwok from his vantage point in the assembly hall of boredom. I got another parcel from the fam and the comfort food from that one is pretty much gone already too. Criteria for donations listed below.*
After that I had rehearsals again, and dya know what? It's starting to come together. 17 days to go bitchizz.
Asian love, Hannah x
*Will accept cadbury's, sherbert fountains, dipdabs, angel delight, moros, double deckers, pom bears, rancheros, meanies, yorkies, generally sugary/badforyou foods to the following address: Li Po Chun United World College, 10 Lok Wo Sha Lane, Sai Sha Road, Ma On Shan, Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong.
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