We wish you a merry christmas

Last week we had our house christmas party!

It was a wonderful evening of good food, beautiful decorations and friends.

Our house was prepared ahead of time and booked the library in the castle which is gorgeous.

The girls spent a good part of the afternoon crowded into the bathroom and running up and down the corridor getting ready.

At 5:30 we poured into the dayroom (at this point I would like to bring it to your attention that the girls were ready before the guys who are not very 'time-aware')

As is tradition everyone in the house is randomly paired up as dates for the party (we are one of the only houses who actually has the same guy to girl ratio and so none of the girls had to share their dates). Usually the guys pick names out of a hat about two weeks in advance, but as a house we decided to change the tradition as early date choosing always results in secret swapping of dates, which the girls find insulting. So instead the party reps cut christmas cards in half and then on the evening of the party we all pulled a half out and had to find who 'completed our card' and who was therefore our date. It was pretty fun. And so after a few minutes of people milling around te room holding their cards out in front of them like they were on fire, we all found our dates.

My christmas date was Faizan, the latest arrival (he can approximately a week before) from Pakistan. He is very sweet (not to mention brilliant) and gave me flowers which were lovely!

This is Laura ( from the States [on the right]), Nora (Norway [left]) and I in our dayroom:

After establishing our dates we ventured outside and down to the library.

Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) it was raining outside and because my umbrella had walked out of my room earlier in the week (I swear that it walked out on its own!) and because Faizan didn't have one, we walked to the castle in the wet. As a result my nicely straightened hair turned into a frizzy mess.

On the bright side the library looked beautiful! The tables were set up, the couches had been moved, music had been set up and the all of the shelves were decorated.

Here is Maria (Spain) in front of the tables:

Here are the beautiful tables, with christmas crackers and everything
Here is a (slightly dark) dorm photo. From the left is: Marthe (Norway - 2nd year), Kete (South Africa/ UK - 2nd year), Helen (Hong Kong - 1st year) and me!
My fabulous first year doormie!
More dorm love:
Summer (Jamaica - 1st year) and her date Geome (France - 2nd year)
Helen, my doormie with her christmas date, Donald (Sierra Leone - 1st year)
Laura, Nora and I again
Iris (albania - 1st year) the house genius and my math party buddy (really it is her doing math and me badgering her with questions)
Dongju (China - 2nd year) trying to look like a chinese pop star (and doing a pretty good job!) and Floria (Hong Kong - 2nd year) creeping in the background
Here is Laura's beautiful hair. When she arrived at AC she had dreadlocks. However after about a month at school (she only had then down about a month before she came) she decided that she wanted to take them out. So we spent many, many evenings since then sitting the bathroom, listening to music, talking and combing the dreadlocks out of her hair. It was painful process (mostly for her) but we finished the day before the christmas party and then throughly conditioned her hair and cut it... and here is the final result! I think it looks beautiful :)
Sheila (Uganda - 1st year) who was my secret santee (I gave her gifts)
James (Falkland Islands - 2nd year) and Yuki (Japan - 2nd year)
Nora and William (USA - 1st year)
Alex (Nigeria - 2nd year) and Gabriel (Venezuela - 1st year)
Leah (USA - 1st year [she is not in my house but she came to visit]) and Hugo (Spain - 1st year)
Me and my date, Faizan!
Me with Sumire (Japan - 1st year)
Faizan, Ula (Norway - 1st year {this is a classic Ula expression - he is probably one of the funniest guys I have ever met but is still a really solid guy}), Nora, Sheila, and Facundo (Paraguay - 2nd year)
Our pensive looks
Facundo looking intelligent
Everyone enjoying good food and good company
all the yummy food!
Our house dance party. After we filled ourself with delicious goodness, we migrated down to the end of the library were the couches had been cleared away and put on our dancing shoes!
After dancing off some of the food from our stomachs we gave our final secret santa gift and thus revealed ourselves to our secret santees. I gave Sheila chocolate and a big scarf to keep her warm during the winter (when I asked her what she missed most about Uganda she said the heat!).

My secret Santa was Laura (USA)! She was a wonderful secret santa and over the two weeks she had given me chocolate, a cupcake and various messages. As her final gift she made me a gingerbread house!! It was amazing!
Here are all of the guys in my house.
and most of the girls!
Sheila with my peer listener, Gala (Germany - 2nd year)
Faizan, Ola and Ola's wicked hair.
and that is that.

The party was amazing, and the people are even more amazing.

Merry Christmas!

Term One

I AM DONE EXAMS!
woot.

Good news: I am done exams and am going home on Tuesday
Bad news: I have finished approximately one fifth of my Ac education.

a few more weary days and then...

One exam down,
three to go!

TBA

no TBA does not stand for 'to be announced'
It actually stands for Time Based Art, which is an event happening at school this week

It is an art show made up of work by the first adn second year art students.

It is unique in the fact that all of the art must have some type of movement, hence the time base.

I will try and take a few pics this thursday!

the dungeon

It is only 5:30 but it is already dark out
And with the darkness comes the cold
Seeping under doors and through the stone walls
Luckily it is dinner time
I can follow the crowd and join the dinner line
Stand and listen to the chatter and enjoy the light
unluckily I have to use the loo
and the nearest one is in the dungeon
Once home to criminals and victims
It is now home to the girls washroom
Timidly I peer down the spiral stairs into the darkness
Slowly I tiptoe down the steps
expecting movment at every bend
Finally I reach the bottom
cautiously my hand feels the wall
searching for the switch
I find it!
Light floods the room

It illuminates the corners
my silly fears are dispelled

I push open the door of a stall

It creaks in protest

Then I shut myself in

try to ignore the weight of the door

the strength of the door

the fact that these doors

were meant to be locked forever

I scrub my hands

willing the hand dryer

(that sounds like a jet engine)

to dry my hands faster

and pelt for the stairs

bounding up them

headed for ground level

Done!

This was just a small insight into the girl's washroom in the Castle.

It really is in a dungeon

and it really is reather frightening to go into it alone at night

During induction they told us that two girls once died in it

But I don't mind

I don't believe in ghost

Hello, my name is Jessica. I am a emergency responder. May I help you?

Over the last three days I have learned how bandage wounds, treat shock, stop bleeding and essentially bring someone back to life.

It was.... First aid week!

While all the second years (except for the few poor sods who haven't finished their EEs [extended essays]) went galavanting around London, the first years shuffled from classroom to classroom taking notes and practicing CPR.

There were seven groups and there are six houses which meant that one house was scattered amongst the other houses. My house was that lucky one. It actually ended up being quite nice as I was able to talk with some people from Sunley who I would not normally hang out with.

The down side was that the house was unusually empty (no seconds years and the first years had their free blocks at different times)

And while all of the information was very important, I have learned almost all of it before thanks to bronze cross and bronze medallion. Which meant it was sort of boring.

However, the evenings so far have been wonderful. With no codes and only half of the student body around, it felt really relaxed!

Today we had our exam. In the morning we had a practical assessment where we a simulated situation was explained to us and in groups we had to enter the scene and do our stuff.

Then, in the afternoon we had two written papers: primary and secondary aid.

It was pretty simple stuff.

I passed! and am now an emergency responder!

So if you are ever choking, or not breathing, or bleeding, or broken, or poisoned, or crushed, or stung, or hyprothermic, or experiencing cardiac arrest, or bruised, or in shock, or vomiting, or unconscience, or drowning, etc.... I can help!

Up to speed

Dead camera battery + bad memory + lack of free time = this post that is later that I planned, and without photos.

Anyways, here is an update on what I have been doing the last week or so: (this events are not in chornological order)

- Sustainability forum
On Saturday there were a series of talks about susatinability. They varied from architechture, to permaculture to IB. Overall the event was pretty good (they did have pancakes for breakfast for the people who attended so I have to be a bit positive). However I felt like it didn't really give me any good ideas on how we can improve the sustainability at the school. And I still don't feel like I fully inderstand permaculture...
- Secret Santa
Secret Santa is a strong tradition at AC. What happens (for those who don't know) is that everyone has a person to whom they give small gifts for a certain period of time without them knowing who your are. Most of the houses started last week but the party reps in our house are a little slow. Finally Sunday night they decided it was time for us to start! So we all pulled names out of a box.... only to be told a few minutes later that they forgot to put some names in the box and that we should forget the names and that we would do it again later.
So about an hour later the party reps came around with a new set of names and I chose a new Secret santa. So yesterday morning I snuck into my secret santa's room and put some chocolate on her bed. Then, pleased with myself I went to day room. But on the door was a sign that said 'we are very sorry but please forget your secret santa and we are giving you new ones today'! So I had to run upstairs and take the chocolate off the bed of my 'no-longer-secret-Santa'.
Finally yesterday they got their act together and we all have secret santas that are official... I hope!
- Kitchen:
Every house has a kitchen. And they are all small and dirty. However our house parents were so fed up with the state of things (I agree that it was gross and therefore never use it) that they took everything out of it and unplugged our fridge. It is a bit depressing to see that the future generation of our world cannot even be bothered to clean their own dishes (Mom: you will be proud to know that anytime I did use the kitchen I ALWAYS cleaned my stuff ... and usually other people's as well)
- Laundry
Today the washing machine ate my money. It was very sad.
- coastal path
On Sunday, it was nice and sunny and so one of the girls in my house (Nora) and I walked into Llantwit along the coast. It takes about twice as long as walking on the road but it was worth every min. I love Wales!
- math party
When you don't know how to do your math homework, what do you do? When the Albanian girl in the dorm next to you is a math genius, what do you do? When you happen to have some chocolate from your secret santa, what do you do? When you have an ipod and speakers, what do you do? You throw a math party! obviously!
- Fire alarm
Some smart individual opened a door that triggers a fire alarm on Firday. It was annoying.
- AC vibes
on Saturday night there was an event called AC vibes. It was basically people playing/singing/preforming music. It was really wonderful. Some of my favs were: the gospal choir (which was basically a group of girls who sang a song and clapped and looked like they were having tons of fun), a small jazz ensemble (who were really good and I just wanted to get up and dance [ and the drummer broke his drumstick!]), and a group of girls who rewrote 'ganster paradise' as 'AC paradise'.
- Service: no longer kayaking
I officially finished kayak trainning for my service. Last week we did orienteering. and in the next term we are doing rock climbing. I can't wait!
- Fundraising event
there was a large fundraising event held at my school on friday. I joined the group of students who dressed up and helped out. We set the tables, greeted, served the food and cleaned up.
They were fundraising to build a well for a school in Africa and so a group of the Africas did some dancing and singing and had a fashion show of their traditional clothing. And the best part was that they had a goal of raising £1000, but in the end they raised just over £2000 pounds!!

It has been a wonderful week!