It begins

Hey everyone –

This entire last week has been devoted to visiting classes and determining what we want to take for the next year. In my last post I put the subjects that I planned on taking, so I went into the week with a pretty strong idea of my subjects. [Most of] the classes were really interesting, and I took many opportunities to see classes that I wasn’t even planning on taking. I put in my final schedule request on Friday, it looks like this:

HL English A1

HL Bio

HL Maths

SL Social and Cultural Anthropology

SL SiSwati

SL Music

I guess the theme is, higher levels are things I want to study in my lifetime and continue with in college, and standard levels are classes I’m really intrigued by and curious about (perhaps things I will pursue).

Social and Cultural Anthropology is taught by a graduate of WK, the class seems like it will be one of my most interesting. Even though we were in orientation week, we had a discussion (reminiscent of Girard’s class) about culture and the causes of cultural shift.

I’m also very stoked for SiSwati, because I think if I really work at it I can be a decent speaker. The teacher told me that a student came out of SiSwati last year and was fairly proficient in the language. We have the opportunity to go to town at least twice a week, so I think I’m going to go to town and practice as much as possible… even though I will definitely look stupid. The people here seem to be very entertained when you try.

For a while I was debating between taking Spanish or SiSwati, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I’ll always have access to a Spanish education. If I look back at my UWC education in five years, will I regret more not taking Spanish, or not taking SiSwati? And I figure, this is where I am right now – I should to immerse myself in the culture as much as possible. Basically, this is my way of saying, sorry mom :)

Oh! If you are super observant, you might have noticed that I switched out Peace and Conflict Studies for Music. As much as I wanted to take the former, unfortunately the class is under that category of “school-created curriculum”, or something like that. It’s still IB, but.. different somehow?

In any case, they won’t allow me to take Peace and Conflict and SiSwati simultaneously. I decided to take Music instead, which at standard level necessitates a performance aspect. So I’m going to try to do it on the kalimba (thumb piano). I’m excited and nervous at the same time. I’m sure most of the people in the world that do IB Music do performance on piano, and I’m going out on a limb a little.

But hey, it’s all about new things and taking risks, right?

More exciting news – today I went rock climbing on real rock for the first time since falling (!!!) It was exciting and slightly terrifying (I had a rope, of course). The school has a climbing wall and team, and just last year a group of 14 routes was set up on a rock face in the area. So we walked out there today and did a couple climbs. Good times.

I must apologize (apologise?) once more for the internet, it’s very.. unpredictable. As I sit typing this, I wonder if the connection will allow me to complete the post. I can be on FB and answer something, connection fine, and the next second everything is sluggish. I plan on sending out postcards soon, you can send me your address if I don’t already have it (receiving information is MUCH easier than sending it, email or FB). It’s a weird feeling, to have more faith in snail mail than the internet. Is this what the olden days were like?

So, that’s what’s up. School starts tomorrow, for real… I’m stoked and bummed and nervous all at once.

But mostly stoked. :)

TTFN

Love you guys

Eli