Because we live in a castle beside the sea

Have you ever felt intoxicated by the company of those you stand beside, of the diversity you sit beside?
Have you ever watched the sunset from within the bare autumn branches?
Have you ever lost yourself in a conversation late at night?
Have you ever, in a moment of truth, loved this place, truly loved it?
Have you been changed at all in your thoughts, feelings, your actions your judgements?

International Show

On friday and Saturday our school put on the annual International Show.
This show is preformed for the students and for people from the outside community to show off a bit of our multiculturalism. This year it was filled with a mixture of music, poetry and dance:

1. Dance from Chicago (All that Jazz)

2. Canadian poem (* I did this one)
3. Chinese music: piano and violin duet
4. Tikiling Filipino dance
5. Chopin Nocturne
6. English folk song

7. African poem
8. Norwegian fashion show
9. Filipino song
10. Chinese Lion Dance
11. Gumboot dance
12. Russian folk song

13. Norwegian Sketch
14. Doll Dance
15. Italian song
16. Ballet
17. Native American story

18. Bollywood dance
19. Akilah’s poem
20. Fishermen Dance
21. African Drumming

22. Flag Ceremony

I read the poem We are More that was preformed in the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics

Ink

My school has a newspaper called 'Ink' that comes out sporadically throughout the year. It is comprised of articles, poems, and randomness. Most articles are filled with opinions on the current hot-topic of the school and they often spark a lot of conversation. This week another edition came out, and amidst the reviews of 'cinderfella' and the lookalike photos one article caught my eye. It was an article written about an English class. and not just any English class, but mine! And as I started reading I started laughing and I laughed until I started to cry (for those of you who know me, this is really not that unusual of an occurrence). I laughed because it was exactly what happened. So I thought I would share it with you:

Preemptive Strike Incapacitates Standard English Code

by Timothy Lim

Ruth's English room, Language Block - W code started promptly at 11:20 am this morning. The class was assigned to read of the whole code is utter deathly silence.

As the students diligently buried their very souls into Like Water for Chocolate the first signs of the impending attack started to show. At 11:26 a student seated at the back of the class started to exhibit suspicious symptoms. The student proceeded to blow her nose vigorously with a crescendo, climaxing in a mind blowing reverberation. Always on her guard Ruth donned her precautionary glasses before looking up to examine the threat.

The student was given 1 minute and 3 seconds to blow her nose before Ruth politely demanded her eviction. The student replied, "Yes, do I have to leave the English block?"

Ruth relied with a firm "Yes."

The student disposes of the contaminated tissue in the bin and exits the room.

Leaving the invasive germs with no quarter nor mercy, Ruth secured infected table in just a few seconds wielding a can of Dettol spray. The ill-fated attack was immediately suppressed and obliterated by a rain of vaporous gases of antiseptic.

The use of such chemicals in military warfare have long been banned under the Germeva convention.

Reports are coming in from the capitol of the Germ Capital naming this disaster the Gallipoli of the 21st century or the D-Day if the Germans were prepared.

Ruth completed the massacre by disinfecting the immediate area above the now completely sanitary table.

She them calmly proceeded to sanitize her own hands.

The class was in shock withe the efficiency of the is retaliation. Many would credit it to extensive reconnaissance and intelligence.

According to sources, the main thought running through the students was that of "WTF"*.

*Teenage slang, loosely translated as: 'Wowzers, what the Flying Kerjeepers!'

Peer Listeners

In each house there are two second years, one guy and one girl, with the title 'peer listener'.
They are supposed to be two people from the house to whom you can talk about any problems you might be having or to get advice from about a sticky situation. They are supposed to provide guidance, support and a friendly person to talk to.
In the first term they meet with the first years about once a week to talk about different issues such as: how to deal with stress and homesickness, EDW (excessive displays of wealth) or smoking and just to see how we are all doing.
I had two great peer listeners, Gala (Germany) and Dylan (USA).

This past Sunday the new peer listeners in each house were chosen. They are chosen now so that there is time for them to go through about of training on how to talk to people and to learn about the rules they must adhere to in terms of confidentiality etc.
In every house people signed down or spoke to their peer listeners to express their wish to run, and last week the present peer listeners and the houseparents held interviews.

In my house seven girls and four boys ran.
And two of them were chosen:
Maris (Spain) and Donald (Sierra Leone)

Congrats!

A few more

I took some photos of Paris off of my friend's camera and I thought I would share the best ones with all of you.
The first few are shots of the streets and scenery:
A street corner
Sitting beside the river

A typewriter at Shakespeare and company

A cheese shop

a cafe

The setting sun

Random people at a restaurant

And here are some more of me!

Dancing in a ballroom at the museum d'orsay

Blowing on a giant dandelion fluff... that wasn't really a dandelion fluff

Eating lunch in the gardens of the Louvre

Relaxing by the river

And the greatest photo of the trip:

Tim eating a gigantic donut.

Paris

For ten days in the spring, codes are suspended and all the students at AC join a project. Some of them are lead by teachers and some are lead by students.
I was lucky enough to be in the Paris project.
Last Thursday I hopped on a bus and then a plane and then a train and then a subway, with about thirty other students to see the sights of Paris and to practice our french.
It was an awesome trip!
And although my feet my never forgive me for all of the walking I did, I saw so much of the city and made some great memories.

Here is Anette (Norway) and I on the first day looking very excited!
A normal street in Paris. It was amazing to me how beautiful even the 'normal' buildings were.

Some church.

On the first day we walked to Gallery Lafayette and climbed up to the roof where there was a beautiful view of the city

The Eiffel tower!

Anette and I

The roof of the gallery Lafayette

One of the angels on the roof of the opera house

Anette and Kami were excited to be in Paris

Printemps had Alice in wonderland stuff in all of their display windows.

We went into this crazy car showroom/building called Citroën on the champs-elysees. I personally thought that the cars on display that week were sort of boring (albeit very comfortable) but the building was pretty cool.

The arc de triomphe.

The sun was setting as we walked back to our hostel

Moulin Rouge!

Our hostel was about two blocks away.

The wall in the hostel we stayed at was signed by people who stayed there.

Our hostel was right at the foot of the sacre coeur. Out the window of my room we had a beautiful view of it:

The climb up the steps to the sacre coeur was worth the view of the city

Viktor (Norway), Anette and Tim (malaysia)

We saw a marching band!

Anette eating a crepe outside a restaurant in montmartre

We walked past this beautiful house in search of a market

One of the beautiful roads we strolled down

Some cool graffiti

We went to the pere lachaise cemetery to see Oscar Wilde's grave

We figured sad faces were more appropriate for the setting

The cemetery was absolutely humongous. We had to get a map just to find out where we were going. And we spoke to a man who worked there (in french might I add) and he said that because there were family graves that there could be up to 13 people buried under one tombstone... It was a bit mind boggling On the way we visited Marcel Proust

In the middle of the cemetery there was this big, freaky crematorium. The walls were covered in these plaques

Eventually we made it to Oscar Wilde's resting place... and were not the first...

...his grave was covered in kiss marks (and is apparently cleaned every two weeks)

We then walked to this monument looking for a museum... which didn't exist... oops

Viktor capturing the city through his lens

Finally we made it to Notre Dame!

We were excited to get there

But were sooo tired from walking all day

The fat pigeons

Viktor was a fan of the star jumps

And then I dragged them all to Shakespeare and company!

I was soo excited. So, while they all collapsed into chairs I wove my way through the book shelves, feasting my eyes on all the beautiful spines, inhaling the wonderful smell and trying to absorb all of the knowledge by diffusion.

All the quotes and messages left by others who had visited this wonderful book store

Much later, we manged to make it to the Eiffel tower!

Unfortunately the stairs were closed, and because we didn't want to pay/wait to go up the elevator, we didn't go up. But it was amazing to look at.

The next day we had our dose of cultural and art.

We started at the Louvre.

My favourite part is the Egyptian stuff.

This is probably my favourite thing in the whole building.

It is a carving of the constellations made by the epytians

And of course we had to go and see the Mona Lisa.

But I couldn't get very close because there were sooo many people

A re-do of a photo of me from a year and a half ago

Viktor, Mia (Bahamas), Kami (Nigeria) and Anette

Outside the louvre

The controversial pyramid

For lunch, Anette, Viktor and I ate sandwichs and sat beside a fountain to enjoy the sun

Next we went to the museum d'orsay to see some more paintings:

After that, Viktor, Anette and I walked along the river past notre Dame in search of an ice cream place that my teacher told us about

We walked across this bridge covered in locks.

One each lock a couple has engraved their initials, and then after locking it they are supposed to throw the key into the river.

The trees along the river were covered in initials and drawings

The island where Notre Dame is

Some of the stairs near Sacre Coeur

Goodbye Paris.

Maybe one day I will once again walk your streets, breathe in your polluted and cigarette laced air, eat your bagettes and love it all.