oh yeah, i have a blog..

Hey peeps –

So this is it – term three, the beginning of the end.

Well, not really. But the popular opinion among my second years is that term three is when IB begins to really pick up and get difficult. Unlike AP, where you essentially are doing an accelerated class with an exam at the end of the year, IB has many, many components beyond immediate classwork: extended essay, internal assessments in every class, group projects, theory of knowledge presentations, reports on community service, and so forth. And term three at Waterford is when these components start coming to the forefront of my education. And on top of this, we are now beginning to get to the more difficult material in many of the classes (as beginning terms were about laying a groundwork, and now we’re building).

So, needless to say, there’s a lot to do.

The entire IB1 began the term with a piece of work that will actually be part of our final mark: Group Four Projects. Seeing as that group four is the sciences in IB (physics, chemistry, biology, and environmental systems&societies), the whole thing was essentially like a science fair project that I did with nine other students from IB1. Now, as cheesy as it may sound, I really appreciated the Group Four Project, as it gave me a chance to get to know students from IB that I normally wouldn’t have mingled with. The groups were selected based on alphabetical order of last name, so by crazy random happenstance, I ended up being the only non-African student in my group. To be quite frank, I usually hang out with white people. And that’s not to say that I don’t hang out with others, but to be honest, national committee students tend to gravitate towards each other, just as old students remain tight knit, and so on. In any regard, it was really cool to get to know my group members in this new capacity.

The other fairly significant project I’ve had this term was a Theory of Knowledge presentation on knowledge issues in Paradise Now, an outstanding film about the Israel-Palestine conflict from the view of a Palestinian suicide bomber. I don’t want to bore readers with the details of my presentation, but if you ever get the chance to watch the movie, don’t hesitate – it’s really quite fantastic. Check it out and we’ll have an existential / epistemological discussion sometime.

Now that I’m done with these projects, I can get a momentary breath of fresh air before plunging back into the next set of challenges: IB1 Exams (start next week, eep). 

But enough about schoolwork – while I’ve been busy, the weekends and activities I’ve been taking part in this term have been by far some of the best. To name but a few…

-          I ran my first half-marathon. The decision to do this was (almost) entirely whimsical (I had heard about it last term but hadn’t been training… at all). It was a great experience and I’d like to do another someday – while the last three kilometers were totally killer, I still managed to push on and run the whole thing (although it helped that I had company and an iPod, dunno how people did these things before portable music devices). Because the run started at 6am, I still managed to get back to school before I would have normally woken up on a Saturday morning… it’s frightening to think that, instead of bumming around and sleeping until noon every Saturday, I could be running a half-marathon every morning. Even considering this, though, I don’t think I’ll be changing my habits any time soon.

-         Last weekend I went with a group of friends to see Coldplay at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg. WOW. The concert was phenomenal and the place was ABSOLUTELY PACKED (estimates at 65,000 people there). Even though we were out in the boonies and had to sit, the show was still worth every cent. We stayed at a friends house in Pretoria where we were received amazing hospitality and extraordinary meals (many cyber thanks to the Bezergas!)

-          I performed, along with a group of others, in Waterford Kamhlaba’s Evening of Dance. We’ve been working for the past few months on a choreographed piece in Argentinean Tango, and during this evening we got to share our work with the whole school. The performance went quite swimmingly, and there’s a ton of pictures and videos that help to recreate the event (I’ll share the vids when I get home). It was the first tango performance ever done at Waterford, and we’re likely one of the few tango groups in Southern Africa (if not, at least, Swaziland). So, needless to say, it was pretty exciting. Pictures are forthcoming..

-         I went to a show at House on Fire (premier concert venue in Swaziland) with some friends and, by crazy random happenstance, met a group of Arizonans, including a Tucsonan who went to Catalina Foothills High School. Circumstances didn’t really allow us to sit down and have a proper convo (music was quite loud), but I managed to ask him if he knew anybody I knew:

Me: “DO YOU KNOW CODY REIFFER??”

Cameron: “MAYBE.. I CAN’T REMEMBER! WHO ELSE?”
Me: “DO YOU KNOW GENE BUNGER??”

Etc. Totally random. SMALL WORLD.

 Check out the pics from some of the better times here in Southern Africa:

 Euphoria outside of Soccer City - On our way to Coldplay

With Dimitri (France), Jenny, Live, and Ingrid (Norway) 

Kind of the biggest concert I've ever been to? Far back but still phenomenal. 

As a final note, I’ve started a prank warfare with my friend Leo (Germany) that will likely last for… an indefinite amount of time. Until the end of IB? Keep an eye out for pictures on FB and the blog of our shenanigans (Mom, Dad, I’m working hard. I promise).

 

Leo's first prank: booby trapping my room with string. He also changed all the contacts in my phone. Stay tuned for pictures of my retaliation (coordinated with Jenny). 

Nelutsandvo (With Love), and until next time, 

Eli