Beach clean-up, kayaking, concert, movies. Weekend.

Considering that I spent most of last week being sick and miserable, this weekend was surprisingly exciting and fun. I'll try to give you an idea of what a good weekend at Pearson can look like.

Friday afternoon my marine science class went to a nearby beach to do a beach-cleanup. The previous class we learned about the great garbage patch in the ocean, and about the effect which plastic and other garbage has on the marine life. So to actually see this in action, our teacher went with us on a beach clean-up. After an hour of picking of lots of small plastic parts, beer cans, plastic bags and other more random stuff such as a baseball, flip-flops, take-away food cartons from the water and the beach, I was both super wet and quite sick of humanity.If anyone is interested in reading more about what marine science at Pearson is about, my teacher has a blog where she occasionally posts pictures of what we do on field trips or of what happens at the Pearson dock.

 https://pearsoncollegemarinescience.wordpress.com/

Saturday and Sunday morning I participated in a kayaking course for beginners, held by second-year students in the kayaking activity. The first day we spent in the swimming pool learning how to do rescues, which was pretty cool. Sunday we learned further skills, this time we practiced them in the bay. It was definitely worth waking up 7:00 on a weekend, neglecting homework and wear a wet wet-suit for several hours both days, which I think says a lot. Kayaking is awesome.



Saturday I also went to a session about ttt (trauma tapping technique) led by a person from Rwanda, who is currently visiting some staff at the school. It is a technique that is used in many countries to help people that have experienced trauma, but it can be used by anyone to relax and just feel better. The person works with an organization called "Peaceful heart network" and has been travelling to a lot of places to teach this method.

More about that here: http://peacefulheart.se/trauma-tapping-technique/

Later that day I went to an Afro-Carib dinner at a teacher's house, my visit there was quite spontaneous and unplanned, but nonetheless very nice. Ice cream and good conversations are never really wrong. Later in the evening, the second-year theater students performed their show "Black milk", which was quite a special and intense piece they had all written together. The rest of the night I spent watching a German movie (Fack ju Goethe) and eating German candy, talking to people while hanging out in one of the day room and going to bed way too late.

Sunday afternoon Saana from Sudan, Catriona from Scotland and me went to a baroque concert together with my host family. I have been trying to take advantage of and go to a few of the cultural events that are being organized in places near Pearson, both because I love going to concerts and because it is a nice chance to connect with people outside of Pearson. After eating chocolate cake and getting a loaf of bread from my host family, they drove us back to Pearson where we ate dinner and went to our house meetings. Unsurprisingly, I went to bed quite early that evening. Tired but happy. That by the way describes quite a lot of my days at this place.

At Pearson, term 2

I'm ridiculously bad at keeping this blog updated and although I have lots of excuses, I think the main cause for this is me simply forgetting about it. Anyhow, it would be extremely hard for me to summarize basically all of my first term and so instead, I will try to post things here more continuously.
 Like a lot of students here, I couldn't fly back home over winter break as Canada and Sweden are quite far apart and so the flight tickets are extremely expensive. Instead, I spent the break at a host family together with three other students. They were very kind people who not only let us stay at their house and fed us for the entire three weeks, but also took time to show us some of the surroundings and make us feel at home. I'm actually seeing them again in a few days, as we are going to a concert in Metchosin together.

During the winter break, I visited Victoria (the nearest real city) to go to the museum, buy stuff, go to the cinema, see some friends and just walk around in the quite beautiful city center. Also, I spent a lot of time baking, reading, walking along several beaches and going on adventures with both host parents and other students. All in all, although I studied way too little and missed my family sometimes, it was quite a lovely time.

Coming back to Pearson was somewhat overwhelming, but that is just what Pearson is and I've grown to love it most of the time. We are starting to prepare for the big annual show called "One World" which Pearson does every year. I will definitely write more about it soon. Also, the expectations and demands regarding academics seem to have increased quite a bit for first-years compared to last term. I'm currently preparing for my final exams in Swedish A Self-taught, which takes a lot of time and energy. Finding a balance between sleep, academics, activities, socializing and having self-time is still somewhat of a struggle for a lot of people, but I feel that I've gotten more used to it.

Seeing posts in application groups for UWC and hearing about interviews etc. brings back a lot of memories from this time last year. I remember dreaming so badly about being selected to go to a UWC. How I was so nervous and so excited at the same time. And how I had no idea of what my chances were. It still feels pretty surreal to be here now. Remembering how happy I was when I actually got selected really motivates me to do what I can to not get caught-up in the everyday routines where it becomes hard to appreciate how amazing it is to be here, but instead really work for making this the experience I imagined it to be. For example, I've promised myself to go on more adventures with people, explore the surroundings, try new things, have more deep discussions and just reminding myself of what a wonderful, unique place Pearson actually is.

Exploring Vancouver Island.

Baking German Christmas cookies at my host family.

Dancing in the dance recital we had before winter beak.

The Scandies (+ Greenland & Finland) organizing a Lucia celebration for the rest of the school.