Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Geography of Thought

For the past three days I have had no codes.
However, that does not mean that I have had nothing to do.
On the contrary I have been more busy than I usually am during a 'normal week'.

Instead of having codes, we had a large conference on 'The Geography of Thought'. This essentially means that we spent our days in lectures and small group discussions examining how different people learn, and how culture influences the way we see the world.
It was three days full of long talks, and good talks and new ideas.
My brain feels very full.

Here are a few of the topics and discussions that I was a part of:
  • The Ecology of Knowledge (Dr. Robert Smith): This examined the work of Jerzy Wojciechowski and examined his knowledge laws, such as ‘The more we know, the more questions we have’, or ‘Thought induces change’ and asked 'is the huge increase in knowledge available to us wholly beneficial?'
  • Neuroscience (Dr. Milena Penkowa): The understanding of brain neuroscience and what it means for teaching, learning and developing human potential
  • Intercultural Understanding (Andrew Flory and Pedro Martinez ):What does intercultural understanding mean and what are the implications of this for building a better College and Society?
  • Cultural Genogram (Selena Sermeno): Learning to distinguish the differences between cultural awareness [knowledge of other cultures], and cultural sensitivity, which is the capacity to relate respectfully to cultural differences.
  • Islamic vs western Perspectives (Dr. Caroline Ellwood):Cultural Intelligence and difficult issues. How ‘Islam views the West and The West views Islam’: perceptions and misconceptions .
  • Joining Nature to Nurture (John Abbott): an Education that goes with the 'Grain of the Brain'
  • Creativity and Bipolar affective disorder (Chris Davies): This examined both the nature of BP disorder itself and its link to creativity.

Monday, September 27, 2010

The Threat of Silence


On Saturday I was lucky enough to see a play called "The Threat of Silence" which was directed by a friend's mom.

It is impossible to properly describe it because there was no plot.
It wasn't even really a 'play'. It was more of a thought provoking performance which combined, music, movement and text.
It was very open to interpretation and it was the type of show where different thoughts are provoked in everyone.
I was mesmerised by the images of lush forests and the haunting cello music, and although I can't exactly describe what 'emotions' it made me feel, I really enjoyed it.
Here are a few reviews:
I am not usually a fan of things like 'modern art' or 'interpretive dance'.
But something about the calmness and the undemanding nature of the performance was wonderful

Monday, September 20, 2010

Fundraiser for Pakistan

A friend at school named Tim is running a half marathon to raise money for Pakistan.

If you would like to sponser him you can do so here

Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Globe Theatre

On Thursday I was lucky enough to go to the Globe Theatre with my English class.
It was a long day (eight hours of driving and 3 hours of standing), but it was worth it!


the beautiful set
I love that the theatre is so authentic.

Hannah and Leah - two American beauties
I ate lunch outside the Tate modern with some friends (from the left):
Christian (Germany), Avtar (Kenya), Leah (America), Sarah (Isle of Man), Hannah (America), Lin (Denmark).


Christian and I were really excited
And then afterwards we had some ice cream (Harry - England)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Useful links

I have added some 'useful links' to the side
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Sports week

MORGANNWG WON SPORTS WEEK!!

Again.

Yes, that is two years in a row that we have won
and yes, it is the two years that I have been here :)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

United Words

I wrote an article for the online UWC mazagine 'United words'.
It was published today on the site!

If you want to read a bit about my trip to Tanzania this summer click here

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Buddy Dorm Meal

Due to the new dorm styles this year (all first years or all second years instead of mixed) and so we started a buddy dorm system.
Basically a second year dorm is paired up with a first year dorm with the intention that the second years will look out for the first years.
I have a pretty awesome buddy dorm!

And last week, we had a meal together. We all went to our houseparent's house and cooked and ate and laughed together. It was wonderful.

I can't seem to upload any photos of the food, but it was delicious.

However, here is our beautiful cake:

Here is one of my buddy-dormies. Hannah (Italy/Austria)
Sheila (Uganda) my dormie and our chef

The group (from the left):
Nora (dormmate: Norway), Helen (dormmate: Hong Kong), Sheila (dormmate: Uganda), Penelope (buddydorm: Canada [Montreal]), Carys (buddydorm: England), Hannah (buddydorm: Italy/austria) and Likeer (buddydorm: China).

I love them all!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Camp photos

here are a few photos from first year camp:

The site. So beautiful!

One night we had a bonfire and everyone sang their national anthem.
These are the Germans.


Playing an amazing game called 'ninja'. I wasn't very good, but had so much fun playing and watching.
The three guys on the right are in my house: Hans (the Netherlands), Sam (Britain) and Ollie (Wales)
Brynne, my first year Canadian from Naniamo!

There was a lot of face painting

And dancing on the tables
and card playing!


The best group of camp leaders ever!