You may be wondering...

You may be wondering...
                                      why is it so that I have not done any post since the end of the last year, but trust me that I am really busy as a seconda.

         The year has started of with nearly 100 new students - our primini! But you don't feel like a second year when it comes to it, you are still feeling so fresh and new to everything that in the end it is actually the work which reminds you that your second year of IB has started.

Being the organizer of the Welcome Show I have been busy from the very first day, but it wouldn't be our generation that wouldn't make a great show :)
Following the Intro week, ice-breakers and again - new and new faces, you end up having an October.
October - being the month of stress and coming cold - oh no, you might think we have a nice weather here in Italy, but I think this time we skipped autumn and it is winter already.
 October - being the month of applications and EE!
Having said the word EE - extended essay, I don't actually feel so stressed about but when it comes to the point of choosing your right path and deciding where to go for university - that makes me a bit scared. After many, many, many hours of research I have finally made up my mind where to apply - UK, Spain and Canada. So now just wish me a good luck :P

Russian Dance from the Welcome Show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_WK3-bUQ8E


Peace One Day 2013:

CzechoSlovak group

With my Prima Eliška :) 

Exams and goodbyes

The reason why I haven't written here for such a long time is simple: EXAMS and GOODBYES

      Yes, I'm already at home enjoying the beauty of cold Czech weather and mum's food :) however my last few weeks were extremely exhausting ! I would say it started with the intensive preparation for my end of year exams. If you're a person who never had to study before then trust me you will be surprise like me and you will actually have to study :) End of year exams were everything what we did over the whole year and basically to keep us busy while the second years are suffering with the real IB exams. But in the end it wasn't that hard and I was even happy with my results. However after we finished our exams and the IB exams were over as well we had only one weekend and few days left to be with our Secondi :( Weekend was really crazy but not that we could relax - NO - we had to prepare the IB show and because we didn't do much before head, it was normal to have about 6 rehearsal per day :D Well I don't think anyone actually expected it will go so well and we really did a good show (but not the best one). And because it's UWC where everything goes extremely fast, we had the closing ceremony the day after and then? Well "just" say goodbye (not that it's anything easy to say goodbye to 100 people with which most of them you will not have the chance to see them again)... and drive home with my Slovak and Israeli friend! :)

"Prank day"

      Wednesday, the last day for second years to go to school....

All second years went to celebrate and have a dinner while all first years took advantage of it and start making many pranks all over residences - taking out mattresses, putting everything upside-down or hiding things. While we were having so much fun, second years were actually thinking about us and prepared many beautiful letters in the school building. Next morning we were allowed to go and read them. These last few days can be very emotional. Half of the school is leaving in a few weeks and it will not be the same next year. Maybe we won't be able to see many of our second years in the near future. But wait, this doesn't contradict with the fact that I'm really looking forward to meet out primi! :) 

 Even some teachers didn't end up very well

Prom (Breakfast at Tiffany's)

   I feel very bad for such a delay as it is more than a week since this happened but I believe that upcoming exams and many other important things related to school are the reason for it.

There was so much going on about the prom in our school and people were really going crazy about inviting someone in a really special way. I think that the most interesting one was renting a horse and riding on it to invite a girl. I decided just to keep it very sattle and asked my friend to go with me on his birthday.

Prom itself was fun but I must say that after all these invitation I was expecting more. The music was really nice as it wasn't just the modern kind of music which you can hear in every club and girls were wearing nice dresses. Otherwise it wasn't that special and it was more like a formal evening. I hope and can't wait to go to my old class "Maturiťák" which is really special occasion :) But still we have some beautiful pictures:

March of the Living, Poland

 

       "The March of the Living is an annual educational program, which brings students from all over the world to Poland, in order to study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate."

       I was selected to participate in the March of the Living 2013 and therefore I left the school on Thursday morning for 5 days with other 6 UWCAD students to Warsaw. There we met with other 18 students from other 6 UWC which we never met before. First I have to say that this trip should be split into two different parts. The first part I would call the fun part because meeting all the new people who are sharing your kind of experience on the other side of this planet is really interesting and finding out information about their school and your co-years there. I must thanks our sponsor who was so kind and pay for this trip as we had the most comfortable accommodation and especially the breakfast was delicious.
        Now I would like to move to the main reason why we were there. Maybe sad but definitely important to all of us. As we came from 25 different countries all over the world we came because of different reasons and interests. But what I believe that we all want to do in the future is to spread what we heard and seen as it is important to remember what Holocaust is. The whole program was prepared very neatly as we were accompanied by very interesting people.
        Trip started in Warsaw where we visited the Museum of Polish uprising in 1944 or the Warsaw centre, we have been to Treblinka, then Krakow and "finally" Auschwitz. For me personally, it was very strong and emotional experience and I believe that it is important to share this experience so it would never ever happen again. The most interesting quote we heard was from a French survival who came to talk to us: "All I wanted to do was to live one hour more than Hitler." I wish I could explain you what I felt but that is impossible. I came there with many questions but I came back with even more. I wish I could say that I understand why it happend and how it could happen but I can't. All I know is that I'm lucky.

Asian and Middle Eastern show + 3rd year reunion

           Amazing weekend full of events!
     Not only it was the Asian and Middle Eastern national week but also around 40 people from my 3rd year came to have their reunion. Everything was so exciting and also stressful in a way. I must say it was weird a bit to see that many new people and see what a good relationship they have with our 2nd years - but it is totally understandable when they spent a whole year together and we have only 3 days to get to know them. Still it was nice to meet so many new and interesting people, see my 3rd year  again and talk about her experience with university and life in London.
     And the show? it was simply beautiful and so much fun :) This time I had to dress up as a panda ;)
Also I was finally present on a taster session of their national food and it was worth it!

 Security check for the show

 Even I was taken for some "bad" behaviour

Our beauties from orient :) 

UWCAD 2013 Anniversary show in Teatro Verdi

       Definitely the biggest, most important and serious event of the school's year. For the anniversary of 50 years of UWCs and 30 years of our college we managed to rehearsal this magnificent show and presented it on Friday night in the spectacular teatro Verdi in Trieste. The whole show started with a presentation of David Sutcliffe's book -Kurt Hahn, with some speeches about the foundation of UWC.
Then it was our time to come and shine. I must say that all students who performed did they best performance on that stage. I personally was involved in Latvian traditional dance which you can see on this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOTUVwuGE8E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyjbUOe6HTw

Project Week - Praha

      After bit of trouble on Saturday morning we finally managed to leave Duino and eventually get to Prague. We were 10 people and we all stayed at my brothers place right in the centre, which was more than amazing as everything was so close. Our Czech experience started with Czech meal that night and I was surprised that all people actually liked it :)
      On Sunday we managed to visit the exhibition Slavic Epic of Mucha (my favourite Czech artist), most of the historic places of Prague and other many beautiful places. In next few days we have seen another gallery, the Castle, went cycling, visited attraction park and changed the cousine from Chinese to Mexican and finished with Italian restaurant. We all had really amazing time and as we had quite a lot of money left (my country is cheap) we even could effort to go to chocolate museum and cinema. It was interesting, stressful but definitely not regretting event to organize!
       And for the long-weekend I had the chance to stay at home with my family and also see my friends, up for that - Santa and Yulia stayed with me :)

Mucha

The whole group :) 

"The calm before the storm"

     Nothing special is happening, everything is calm, the weather is still changing - from winter to summer, days suddenly stop floating when normally the time is running much more faster than anywhere else, Second years are having their Trials but even their mind is totally above the whole issue - it is still not the real exam, it is hard to say when was the last weekend and how long are we here for - BUT
- the Project Week is coming - all students will spread all around the world to contribute to a two of the CAS challenges, I decided to organize one - Prague, but among this one there are many different places such as Turkey, France, Netherlands...and many others. Well let see how it goes on Saturday - I think I will need a bit of luck for our travel :)

Aquileia and Grado

     Once upon a time there was a Sunday afternoon and the trip with my lovely Czech seconda, Slovakia co-year, seconda and Julius - the only mature adult :)

We spent amazing time visiting the old town of Aquileia and the beaches of Grado. It was beautiful sunny day, yet cold.

Aquileia’s Basilica

Eating ice-cream so we won’t be that cold :) 

With Esterka

Italian Week

     Since there are only few National weeks every year and I missed the first one - African, I was very excited about the Italian week!

     It all started on Thursday night when we listened to music of Fabrizio de André preformed by the Italian students, it was all set up in Mickey’s - the local bar and therefore there was very beautiful and cosy atmosphere! The following was an Italian Show taking place in the Auditorium which consisted different parts of Italian history, music, theatre. We all had to dress up according to what we were told to, I had to be Mara Carfagna - an Italian politician and former showgirl but some of us had to be a pizza :)
     On Saturday afternoon all students had the chance to learn how to cook real Italian food and even the better chance was on Sunday- eating it :) The top was a formal concert of Italian songs performed again by the same amazing singers on Saturday night!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScsxXxq-1IQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB3TfBXUOKw

"Carnevale" in Venice

YEEEAAH!

Isn't it an awesome idea to go to Venice and see the famous Carnevale for which people from all over the world are coming to Venice to see it?

Not when it rains and everything is cancelled, let's hope I'll be more lucky next year :)

"See and die"

Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place 

The Sea

 The Castle

The Rilke Path

 The Sunset

But this reminds me it every morning

England or Italy?

        I must say that this is very hard topic to actually talk about...well let say that England and Italy is something totally different. Not only the countries itself but the school system, people, weather...
 Last year I went to typical boarding school in Bruton (near Bath) and it will stay in my memory forever for many different reasons. Maybe we didn't have much freedom and all rules were really strict comparing to Italy but the principles, competition and traditions have its own unique mood. It is much harder to fit in and I probably wouldn't if I didn't have my own international friends (*) but it gave me so much - first of all I have finally learnt how to speak better English, partially understood what it means to be an English person, however one thing I will never understand - their sense of humor ! :D
 - http://www.kingsbruton.com


It is such a big chapter of my life that I would have to make another blog to talk about it....

My best Russian, Spanish and German friend *

 Being English means being very serious (choir) 

Hockey 

One thing I have learnt is that English people loves to have chickens on their gardens 

with my English best friend **

Your true blood!

Because time to time it's great to talk in your own language or at least hear something which is really close to it!

Usually once a month there is a Czechoslovak dinner or just any food with people who can speak Czech or Slovak - which means another two Czech and two Slovak girls plus one Slovak teacher! :)
There are two main benefits of evenings like that - after a long time you realize how simple it's to talk in your first language (or how hard it can be to understand Slovak) and food which you wouldn't get in mensa - meaning food which your mum would make for you :)

Me and Bára (my co-year)

Again my lovely beautiful krajanky!

Christmas food

Just imagine...

(Unfortunately, not with full scholarship for the Czech Republic but still it is a special opportunity to go for, there is nothing else like that so just go and try it...I can ensure you that you will love it, well at least I do :) )

Skiing in Zoncolan

On Saturday I went skiing for the whole day. It was lovely, the whole day started very early in the morning as it took about 2 hours to get there. First we had a warming up with the beginners as I had the role of instructor. Most of them actually never stand on skis before so it was hard and funny at the same time :) Then for two hours I could be skiing all around this lovely places with all the other student-instructors. After lunch we got back to work with our beginners, but this time on a real blue slope and yes, it was physical to keep eye on them. I got back exhausted but happy.

 My amazing student Santa

Second Term (everyone says it is the best one)

After having the most amazing time back home I'm back for the SECOND TERM!

First term you are finding your place, now you know your friends, there are still second years and not so much work or exams like in the second year! We'll see if it is actually true, things to look forward? Project Week, March of Living, Long Weekend, shows....

!HAPPY NEW YEAR!

January swim? - DONE