Halloween :P

Halloween was celebrated in all the houses with pumpkin carving, ghoulish and fun costumes, apple-bobbing, graveyard cake, pumpkin cake, and silly pranks.
Students fulfilled the Halloween tradition of eating lots of candy!A tradition known throughout North America, nowadays also in many other countries, Halloween was a well celebrated and fun event on the 31st of October.
We carved pumkins, played lots of games in our dayroom and after that I observed all the peculiar costumes of various people running around on the Pearson College Campus.
I personally did not traditionally dress up as a vampire, zombie or witchmaster but instead thought of something more... interesting! ;)
My theme was to seduce people. And so, I went as 'The seduction'. I wouldn't have thought that it would work that well, but apparntly it turned out to be superb.
Whispering this and that into peoples' ears, coming close to them - gleamingly staring and simply.. seducing, made them shiver, run away or run about screaming for quite some time...
(It amazed me how many introverted and also shy people Pearson had.. hihi ^^)

Halloween was lots of fun but it was also quite an effort to take off all the leftover-spiderwebs of the dayroom walls.

Looking forward to next year's halloween (wonder what I shall do then.. perhaps.. 'The rape' ^_^ Just joking.. ;).

Chris

Pearson life!

What about Pearson life?? Apart from our cookie break.. what makes Pearson really Pearson??

Well for one thing the weather is terrible at times!! oO The first month was a lot of sun, I must admit, but from November on.. rain, rain and rain again.. And guess what: no sun in two months!! ^^
Ok, that was too dramatic I suppose.. hehe. I personally love the rain and it doesn't really often rain that heavily. It's really light rain, so to say.
But other than the rain, we've had three black outs in three months!! The first one wasn't so bad; it was just for about 4 hours due to a strong wind storm.
But the second one... omg.. a blizzard!! On Vancouver island!! It rarely snows there and even if it does once or twice a year, it never stays. And we had a blizzard with such heavy snow fall and for 4 whole days we didn't have any power, any warm water or telephone connections.
With -17 degrees (due to wind!) most of us slept in the dayrooms of the houses, since it had a fireplace. I must say it was really nice on one hand, since all the academically stressed people had no chance to work without power and a lot of socialising took place but on the other hand, I personally missed my own privacy and sleeping early.. ^^ And as cold as it was with no power for four days.. Well.. Please never again, I'd say, hehe.. :)
The campus looked very gorgious though with all the snow and ice.

The last power shortage was due to a typhoon on the last day before the winterbreak. Most students who had their flight on Friday had to leave on Thursday evening since they feared that the ferries wouldn't be driving to Vancouver on Friday. Luckily, the ferries operated on Friday nevertheless since the storm seemed to have settled. My flight was on Saturday and I spent 2 lovely days with Anne, my co year from Germany, Quoc, a second yeaer from Vietnam and our self taught teacher Christian. It was really a lot of fun.. :)

Well that was actually just complaining about the weather so far..
One thing which Pearson is probably famous for are its animals! We have a forest on our left side and a bay on the right side you could say. And so, a lot of random animals come to visit us.
In the summer we had lots of cute racoons roaming around. They may look cute (even I thought so.. ;P) but they're nasty little things in reality.. hahaha. If you leave the windows or doors ajar, then you might find the garbage and compost scattered throughout the dayroom floor on the next day.
We even had a racoon mother running around with her two babies and she's so evil!! She opens the lid of the garbage, lets her children jump inside and then closes the lid and runs away!! oO Really funny though, and mostly Pearsonites happen to open the lid and see the babies and then rescue them. ;)
The deers are also something I have never seen before. In Austria, if a deer spots someone from 1 km away for example, they immediately run away.
In Pearson however, deers run around in the evening on the college paths and look for something to nibble on between random gravels. When first I approached it (standing right next to it), I asked myself: 'Don't you want to run away? I'm a human and am standing right next to you...'. The deer stared at me with an expression on its face resembling something like: 'And so...? Buzz off..' ^^
They happen to pass our Maths classroom during the day as well.
In the evening, one can also hear the weird sounds of what I call.. the killer ducks! Seriously, it sounds as if they were monster ducks haunting the bay at night!

Now a funny subject... Pearson food. Hehe.
I talked about Pearson's breakfast which is quite decent (compared to the rest). ^_^
Being a vegetarian, I must say that tofu and/or chick peas do not have to be included in everything... Eg. Italian noodles with.. tofu?? Or burgers with... humus inside??
And in terms of soup, I never ever want to even dream of encountering the Vegetable-Banana-Curry soup again.
Is it just me who is fussy about Canadian caf-food or do other people dislike eating raw vegetables (mushrooms, brocolli and colliflour) which usually are to be eaten cooked? o.O
The food is actually eatable to be honest, but the cyclus of things is so fast that often dishes reoccur very fast and so many things are often seen in one month.

One of the things one learns from Pearson in terms of food is.. Bananas are superb and holy! (since the rest is only apples and mandarines which are not often that tasty), praise bread if ever you get back home and Starbucks is really yummy when you get into town!! :)
It's also common to find people eating noodles or making popcorn in the dayroom and it's also common to find asians running around with their ricecookers (go Asians.. :D Gosh I missed real, eatable rice.. :)

Getting away from complaints again.. ^^
During weekends, most people visit Victoria, mostly on Saturdays to either spend the day shopping in downtown, in Canwest shopping mall, or to simply have a nice time away from Pearson relaxing, etc.

A lot of people encounter stress in Pearson. Personally, I rarely have stress. Why should I after all? It's something I wouldn't voluntarily want.. ^^ (but mind you, I know people who do.. oO)
I'm quite fast at finishing my academical work (and nevertheless maintaining good grades) whereas I often see people working on essays and other things in the library the whole day.
Something you will often hear in Pearson college is the term EE; EE's are Extended Essays and Second Years have to do a 4000 word Extended Essay on a chosen subject and I often encountered (and still do) 2nd years running around moaning and stressing over EE's...
National Day stress is also terrible; I've experienced it already! ^^ During the first National Day (Latin America) I was merely a spectator of the show but during the 2nd one (Afro-Caribean) I participated in 2 dances and had to realise that apart from classes and activities, the day is filled with repetative National Day practices. The magical number is always 5, meaning that if you're in more than 5 acts.. time related.. you can be seen as.. dead.. ^^
For the current National Day (European), I'm soooo stressed out, or rather am going to be.. :S It's up this month and I'm leading 3 acts and probably going to be in 4 or 5 acts all in all. So much stress!! :S But more on that later, when I will be talking about my National Day.

Pearson is really a lovely place. It often happens that one doesn't get enough sleep because you find yourself wanting to go to bed eg. after having have had a wonderful day filled with activities, conversations and a lot of fun just to then encounter another person to talk to for another hour or two and then you end up going to bed at 3 am. It's kind of sad sometimes if you realise you need more than 4 hours of sleep a day, but on the other hand it's really very rewarding and very interesting as well, getting to know other people, their lives, their cultures and their stories.

That was a small attempt to give you an idea of what Pearson is about, but I'm also aware that I'm missing tons and tons of information and details (apart from fussing about weather and caf-food).
It's really hard to understand what a UWC really is all about and you really have to live the UWC life to be able to understand it, but I suppose I tried my best to give you a glimpse into the life of a United World College! ;)
Every UWC is unique and this was my report on life in Pearson College! :)

Chris

Pearson College, Pearson College, hmm..

So all the time you guys hear me talking about Pearson College. But what exactly is Pearson College about and how is Pearson life???

I think I ought to start with the academical part.
The Lester B. Pearson College, United World College of the Pacific is one of the currently 12 United World College's around the world, situated in Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It follows the International Baccalaureate programm (IB) and so there are 6 subjects which one chooses out of 6 subject pools. My subjects are:
A1 language: German, Foreign Language: French B Higher, Arts: Music, Social Studies: Philosophy, Science: Environmental Systems and Maths: Maths Standard.
I'm really passionate about my subjects, especially Music and Philosophy which I will be taking both on Higher Level next year (in the second year, students choose which subjects are to be taken on Higher or Standard Level and one must take at least 3 higher levels).
My day pretty much always starts at about 6:30 am. I have half an hour time to take a shower, dress up etc. and then go for breakfast at 7:00 am. We have stuff like toast, jam, brown sugar, various cerials, porrige and Oranges for breakfast. (Breakfast is my personal favourite meal.. hehe)

Then I work out for a while until classes begin, so for about 20-25 minutes.
We usually have 5 classes every day at the highest. It really sounds like little (compared to my 10 hours every day in Austria for example), but the day isn't stressless since activities and things like National Day practices pile up on the time schedule.
And something which contributes to Pearson life... the cookie break!! :D After the first 2 classes, there's 15 minutes of COOKÎE BREAK!! It's what makes Pearsonites.. Pearsonites! ^^ The cafeteria staff cooks lots of cookies or also muffins and the students can then take up to 2 cookies (so that there's enough for everyone else) and especially on chocolate chip cookie day, students turn into zombies screaming: "COOKIE BREEEEAK!!!" :)

Aaaanyhow.. After the next 2 lessons we have lunch break for an hour and then the last lesson.
Students usually have activities after that. The activities are divided into 3 groups: Social activities, outdoor leadership activities and creative activities. Students must take at least one from each group within the 2 years at Pearson College and so most students take 3 activities within one year (2 are the minimum).

I have 5 activities and they are: Ukranian Dance, Special Needs Teens, Choir, Singers and Martial Arts. Sounds like a lot? It is.. ^^ And nevertheless I seem to manage my time well..
Ukranian Dance is a lot of fun, but to be honest.. it's REALLY tiring!! We practice for the big Ukranian Dance act for the One World show in February and the dance is 12 minutes long. If ever you happen to try out Ukranian Dance for the first time, you'll realise that 5 minutes can already be tiring..
Special Needs Teens is a social activity in which we go to Metchosin and do games or activities with teens with special needs. We haven't started this activity yet (looong story.. ^^ has to do with teachers lucking their driving licence.. hehe) but we are supposed to start it this coming 2nd term after the winter break.
The choir is also called the 100 voice choir and is a lot of fun. I especially love the voice practices we do before we start singing our songs. The choir also performs on special events such as Metchosin day, Metchosin Christmas concert or the One World festival.
Singers is similar to choir; it's a smaller choir with about 17-19 people who go through an auditioning. About 50 auditioned this year.
I must say that Singers is a lot of fun, since it's really professional singing and not every voice would be able to sing the songs we sing, but choir and singers are both fun - just in different ways.
My last activity is Martial Arts. It's a student run activity and they teach us the martial arts of Tae Kwon Do. It's a lot of fun, also tiring at times, but the real Tae Kwon Do in a dojo surely is a lot more strict and more tiring.

Activities mostly go till about 4:00-4:30 pm and then there's time for random stuff or academics. Dinner starts at 5:00 pm and is available till 6:30 pm. Basically, there are no obligations after activities, so this 'random stuff' I was talking about earlier could include things like working on academics, socialising with other Pearsonites, checking ones mails or surfing the net, doing sports, going to Metchosin for a coffee or so, etc. etc.
I personally often either socialise with people, but often also go to the Maxbell (our theatre) and play on the grand piano, working on my concert, playing songs I usually like to play or just simply composing.

Apart from activities, every student must also have a 'student job'. These 'jobs' can be carrying compost from the cafetaria to the compost area, tutoring other students in eg. English or being one of the fire fighters. I have 3 student jobs (not different ones though); I tutor students in playing the piano. All three of them have never played the piano before and I must say, they're really into it and can already play stuff like Für Elise or Ballade Pour Adeline.. :) I'm really proud of them, and having half on hour with them once a week is really a lot of fun.

Other than our usual classes, we have special blocks in which we gather in the Maxbell and have mostly 2 people present interesting and important issues. We call this block International Affairs and mostly students do this presentation and after that there's time for questions and discussions. These topics range from economics and poverty in (eg) Latin America up to political issues in Africa for example. Depending on which was the last National Day (currently, the last one was Afro-Caribean National Day), we have people talk about issues from this region.

Also peculiar is our timetable. Other than most timetables people are familar with, we at Pearson have a 11 Day timetable. 'Huh?' Well, let me explain! ;) We start the first (academical) day of the year with Day 1 and so the next day would be Day 2 regardless whether it would be a Tuesday or perhaps even a Wednesday, Thursday, etc.
So when Day 11 arrives, the whole thing starts again from Day 1. I think this is a great idea, since this timetable prevents the feeling of daily routine which does make life seem dull sometimes (in my opinion anyhow)..

Well that's about enough for the academical part I suppose. Next up.. Pearson life! ;)

1st Project Week

(Ok, time to update a lot of stuff, hihi.)
So what exactly is Project week? Well, at Pearson College, there are 2 Project weeks per year in which a student must do at least one project during the 2 years.
The campus closes during these 10 days over project week, and students mostly stay with host families in the area close to where their project is taking place.
My project was the 'Cultural Ambassador' project. The 4 of us - Edwige from Bukinafaso, Stepan from Russia, Andrea from Hong Kong and myself - were to be cultural ambassador at an Elementary school, talking to the kids about our countries and our culture. It was a great project all in all, but with looots of organisational complications which I will, due to nostalgic scars left behind (being a bit overdramatic.. hehe), will not refer to in detail.
In any case, we ended up doing our project in Metchosin instead of Nanoose Bay, also at an Elementary school. Edwige, being a second year and already having done a project in the last year, decided to devote her time to academic work instead of the project.
During the first weekend, the 4 of us stayed with a really lovely host mummy in Metchosin (wonderful Marlene.. :); I was even able to actually cook food for the first time since summer (since Pearson doesn't allow students to have stoves due to fire hazard)!! We all enjoyed my european cuisine of Carrot creme soup and baked chamignon aux sauce tartare.. :D (along with a few of Marlene's great dishes).
After that weekend the 4 of us split up to new host families. Stepan and I stayed with a really nice lady called Irene in Victoria and the other two.. god knows where.. ^^
In any case, working with the children at the Hans Helgensen Elementary school in Metchosin was lots of fun. Stepan and Andrea mostly worked with the elementary students tutoring them in various subjects and I worked with the KG kids during the daytime while I had music lessons with the elementary classes during the afternoon, telling them about my country's worldfamous Mozart, etc. and playing them this and that on the piano.
A lovely week in Metchosin and also a lovely break from Pearson life.
We all ended up hugging each other as soon as we arrived in Pearson College, having have missed everyone. Lots of tears too.. ;P Amazing how one week can turn out to be so long...

That was my report for Project Week Number 1. A couple of photos can be found on the photo link! ;)

Chris