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
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
posted by Chris in Canada! at 11:00 am
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