I’ve noticed it can be a bit of a challenge to compile a whole week’s activities and events at the end of the week, so this week I tried writing a bit each day.
Sun. Oct. 13:
This morning we had our first house event (outside of the two house dinners we had earlier in the year), a house brunch. We made pancakes together and decorated the common spaces and the kitchen cupboards assigned to our rooms. For the first time in my life, I learned how incredible ice cream is with warm pancakes.
In the afternoon, the first year students met their host families! I met my incredible host family and we had cake together before going for a short walk. My host mom is Taiwanese and my host dad is German. They have two daughters aged 12 and 15, and their older daughter is planning to apply to UWC this year which is very exciting! The family speaks German, English and Chinese (Mandarin), and the daughters learn French in school, so I can speak to them in several languages. They are such interesting and kind people and I really look forward to spending more time with them!
Before dinner, my two first-year roommates and I decided to try and rearrange some of the furniture in our room. We put our beds together in a U-shape and the desks on the other side of the wall unit so we have a sleeping area and a studying area, and I’m really liking so far!
Mon. Oct. 14:
Today I played piano in the auditorium before the college assembly, and I was actually really nervous despite having performed piano many times over the course of my life. I think it was partially because I stopped lessons in January after 12 years of lessons and I haven’t practiced nearly as much as I should have since then. I was planning to play Jardins sous la pluie by Debussy, but there was some extra time so I played the first two movements of Italian Concerto by J.S. Bach on a whim which was even more nerve-wracking. I did the one thing my piano teacher has always told me not to do, and I forgot the ending to the last piece I played so everyone had arrived in the auditorium and our Rektor had quieted everyone down so everyone was listening to me. I ended up having to make up some chords to finally finish the piece…
In any case, I enjoyed playing for the college community and I hope most of my pieces were enjoyable to listen to as background music!
This week’s college assembly also included many project week presentations, most of which were either a video featuring different highlights of different project weeks (eg. one group’s flixbuses got cancelled and they had to stay one night with the sick students remaining on campus; one group didn’t catch their bus to their campsite so they slept at the bus station on the first night…) or a presentation with slides showing pictures of their adventures.
Today is also Canadian Thanksgiving! The four other Canadian students at the college and I had a wonderful dinner together of Kraft Dinner, hashbrowns, and Tim Horton’s hot chocolate. It was so nice to bond over something we all ate at home and to talk a bit about Canada (eg. apparently we say bagel, house and bag weirdly…)
My Swiss roommate was so kind and she bought roses for me, our Nicaraguan roommate, and herself. I’ve never had fresh flowers on my desk before, but I really love them.
In the evening I had my second official bike repair session (bike repair is one of my college jobs) and I helped work on some brakes and detached fenders.
Tues. Oct. 15:
Today at bouldering I worked on the second blue path that I’ve been trying to complete… but unfortunately I wasn’t able to make much progress, and the climbing hall is rearranging that path soon so it may not be there next week. I think I realized that it’s natural to not reach your goals sometimes and so it’s important to be open to readjusting them if needed.
Thurs. Oct. 17:
After half a class of math, our math teacher said “You know what? Let’s just drop everything and go to the garden,” and we headed to the garden to enjoy the sun, flowers, and fruit. I think I really needed that half hour in the garden thinking about nothing other than the gorgeous weather and incredible location of the school…
After school, my Swiss roommate made pizza dough and went to the mall for some ingredients. I helped (in the loosest sense of the word) her make the pizzas and we had a delicious dinner together!
(Today I finally caught up on the past three weeks’ worth of blog posts… at some points, I wondered if it was worth finishing them or if I should just pick up from this week, but I think I actually got a lot out of reflecting on my experiences and putting them together in this format :))
Fri. Oct. 18:
Around dinnertime, Linda prepared snacks for her host family, and I helped her roll (and eat) some of them 🙂
This evening we had our second UWC Cafe of the year, and I am absolutely blown away by the innumerable talents of my fellow students. There was belly dancing, African dance, Latino dance, individual dance numbers (salsa by two first-years to the song Senorita which was really, really good; popping / hip hop by two second-years including backflips !! ), beautiful singing in various languages with combinations of piano, guitar, and ukulele, rapping, and much more. I wanted to take it all in through my own eyes so I chose to not take a lot of pictures or videos, and I think it was a richer experience because of it.
In the evening, my two first-year roommates (Esther and Linda) and I looked at some old pictures and videos of us and tried to dance to make ourselves feel better about our lack of dancing talent. It was so much fun to talk together in our common bed area (previously, Esther was on the other side of the wall-unit which made it harder to chat altogether) as we got ready for bed.
Sat. Oct. 19:
I was very excited for host family weekend, and today surpassed my expectations by a long shot. My host dad picked me up at 10 in the morning and since it was raining all day, we spent most of the day in their home. First, we made dumplings (which were beyond amazing to eat after 2 months without Chinese food), then I helped my youngest host sister, Lillian, with her French homework and we played Chinese checkers.
Afterwards, the two of us baked, decorated and ate a delicious chocolate cake with raspberries, and we looked at pictures of her family’s travels and an album from her daycare. I played some piano for her and she played some cello for me (I absolutely love string instruments and would really like to learn how to play one).
In the evening, we shopped for dinner ingredients with her dad, made sushi, and then ate a dinner of sushi, bao zi (larger dumplings), salad and Japanese soup.
After dinner, Lilli and I studied together in her room. We ate walnuts (our favourite nut) and gingerbread cookies, and I brought her my favourite childhood snack of beef jerky from home.
It was a very enjoyable and laid-back day and I am so happy I got to spend time getting to know my youngest host sister and my host parents! (my older younger host sister (older than the one I spent today with, but younger than me) is currently on an exchange to Jerusalem)
Sun. Oct. 20:
Today I woke up from an incredible (9 and a half hours!) sleep and had a breakfast of toast, homemade raspberry jam and organic peanut butter, and a scone. My host mom and I went into their backyard to pick their grapes – there were so many, but unfortunately we were a bit late, and many of them were too far gone to use. We then got ready to go to Colmar, France! On our way there, we passed Breisach and the same bridge over the Rhine that we biked on our first day of project week which brought back a lot of good memories.
We ate delicious flammkuchen / tarte flambee / very thin pizzas for lunch in an area called “La Petite Venise” and then we walked around Colmar enjoying the splendid weather and quaint buildings. Lillian and I got some ice cream, and we slowly made our way back to the car. For some reason, I was very sleepy and dozed most of the way home.
When we got home, Lillian tried to teach me some strange / hard to pronounce German words like Quietscheentchen (squeaky rubber duck), Streichholzschächtelchen (small matchbox) and Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften (safety insurance society) (Germans really love their compound words). My host mom made herself and me some matcha with milk (using matcha that her coworker brought her from Kyoto!) and together we prepared a German dinner of potato salad and schnitzel. Unfortunately, my host dad had to bring me back to RBC afterward, but I’m grateful we got to spend this weekend together and I can’t wait until we next meet 🙂
That’s it for this week; until next time!
all that jazz 
Cool! Keep the blog going.
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