Tag: uwc

adrift

Hello! I promise I’m working on the summaries of notable events from Nov of last year to the end of the school year in June, but for some reason I’m facing a bit of resistance…

So I thought I would give an update on life right now. All in all, there’s not much to complain about, but I guess I’m not as happy about finally not being so busy I desperately await each weekend only for it to quickly and quietly slip away as I thought I would be… (and I wish I was happier because I know I’ll be hoping for this kind of a life all too soon once school begins)

I think I feel a bit like I did on those long, winding weekday afternoons in the summers of elementary school when my parents still hadn’t come home from work and there was nothing to do, but I’m definitely more concerned about it than I was then. There are many things I could be doing (learning so much knowledge for IB and for fun! practicing old skills or developing new ones – I really need to learn a bit of coding!) , and many things I should be doing (my Extended Essay, my Biology Internal Assessment draft, writing drafts of my Common App personal essay, exercising regularly), but they all seem a bit distant. I know I can muster the activation energy to begin something, but sometimes I’m just not interested… or I’m tired of looking at my laptop for hours and hours. It’s nice not to have to bring textbooks across the ocean, but I think having my education, assignments, extracurricular activities, personal learning, and a lot of leisure activities like finding recipes, chatting with friends or reading online books all on a screen has really blurred the lines between trying to motivate myself to begin getting something done, getting something done, and intentionally relaxing.

(I cannot wait to be able to borrow books from the public library again – I read so much during quarantine at school and basically not at all after coming home!)

Sometimes it seems like everyone else in this neighbourhood, this city, and maybe all my friends in my hometown and around the world, is occupied with something interesting and productive, or at least taking some time off and actually feeling relaxed. I wouldn’t say I’m stressed right now (although I was stressed on the day of my Chemistry Internal Assessment draft deadline), but I definitely don’t feel washed over by a wave of rejuvenation and energy for the gruelling months of college applications, numerous school and official IB assessments, and general hustle and bustle of the school year ahead. Maybe I never really learned how to let go of my obligations and do nothing for a few hours or maybe a few days, so I’m always in this weird limbo between “it’s summer and I definitely don’t need to work from 8 am – 10 pm everyday” and “I should be making the most of my time because I won’t get an uninterrupted, self-directed stretch like this in a long time”.

But, the sun keeps coming up every day (and out of the clouds most days :)). There have been some highlights to the past few weeks that I’m very grateful to have experienced!

  • Baking vegan banana bread
  • Helping my grandpa and mom make various delicious Chinese dishes
  • Cleaning my room and donating clothes and books
  • Learning a tiny bit of guitar
  • Biking up both sides of a ravine on a ~18 km loop with my dad every few days
  • Joining my former dance class on Zoom
  • Having a picnic with my best friend
from a walk with my mom and sister on Canada Day

I guess at the end of the day I’ll finish my assignments one way or another, and many of the people out there are probably occasionally experiencing some version of this…

I’ll leave you with a piano piece I’m learning, Jeux d’eau by Ravel (played by Martha Argerich).

Bis nächstes Mal! Until next time (which hopefully isn’t too far away!)

(My Duolingo game – unlike my motivation to write my personal essay – is strong but I still had to search that up haha)

fall break

This week marks halfway through term 1 and our first break!

Many students are travelling, going home, or visiting friends/family, so the campus feels very empty. It’s a bit strange having our house so quiet and no line in the Mensa, but this week was a wonderful opportunity to catch up on sleep (and not wake up to an alarm for the first time in months!), read, relax, and do a bit of schoolwork.

Mon. Oct. 28

A group of us went skating in the afternoon which I really enjoyed! I haven’t been on the ice in figure skates in years, and it was so rejuvenating to glide across the ice and feel the cold air of a rink against my face again.

My roommate and I finished our puzzle, but unfortunately it’s missing two pieces… a few days later, my other roommate found one in her book! It must have gotten caught in it before she left, and she carried it all the way home 🙂

it would have been really cool to do a timelapse of doing this puzzle…

Tues. Oct. 29

Before I left, a family friend told me her niece was living near Freiburg, and since it was fall break, I asked if she wanted to meet up. She invited me to her home in Eichstetten for lunch, and I had my first experience with the regional transit system and spent a wonderful afternoon with her and her very energetic three sons.

Usually, you can take one train from the Freiburg Hauptbahnhof (central station) to Eichstetten, but since they are doing some work on the train, you need to take the replacement bus to Bötzingen and the train one more stop to Eichstetten. The train only runs every half-hour and I got to Bötzingen early in case something went wrong. The train half an hour earlier than the one I was expecting to take was there, but I was a bit confused about directions, so I didn’t get on it. I waited for the next one, and then I realized bahn.de (the German train system website) had told me to walk to the next station. At this point, I had 10 minutes to walk what Google maps told me would take 15 minutes, and I had to orient myself, so I got to the next station just as the train arrived… but it had a different final destination on it than the one I was expecting… so I didn’t get on. A minute later, I looked at the map and realized it was just a town a little bit beyond the one I had written down, and so I waited another half-hour for the next train. (It turns out I didn’t need to walk to the next station anyway…) Essentially, I waited in Bötzingen for an hour to take the train 1 stop (less than 5 minutes!), but at least now I know!

the weather this week was a bit dreary, but the vineyards in Eichstetten were quite nice!
I’ll never get tired of our alpacas

Sat. Nov. 2

I finally finished reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, which my mom recommended to me, and I quite liked it! It’s about how we deal with mortality in medicine and what is important to people at the end of their lives.

Students will be returning on Sunday, ready to head into the second half of the term!

Until next time!

hello!

bonjour! good day! how is your wife? (beauty & the beast)
(I’ve always wanted to be a blogger, so this is exciting)

Hi friend! My name is Jasmine, and I made this blog to share my experiences at Robert Bosch United World College in Germany. Robert Bosch is one of 18 United World College (UWC) campuses around the world. Students attend UWC for two years, completing the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) alongside a diverse cohort of incredible students.

Reading UWC blogs was a fun and helpful way pass the time as I waited to hear back throughout my application process, so I thought I would try and give back to future applicants and to curious friends and family by writing my own. I’ll do my best to update regularly, but wherever you’re from (or whoever you are @friends back home), feel free to contact me at any time; I’d love to hear about you or answer questions or comments!

upward and onward!

the dorms in all their glory (image credit: Guido Erbring (Google Images))

tschĂĽss! (bye!)

(look at my impeccable one word of German!)