Første lyd: Ankomst og O-week

Her følger et lidt forsinket første indlæg fra Hong Kong. Jeg vil ikke snyde jer for begyndelsen, et blogindlæg fra min parallelblog for over halvanden måned siden. Allerede nu er det sjovt at kigge tilbage. Men sådan her var det. Og lidt til.

Alright! En uge er nu gået siden jeg ankom til den direkte diametrale modsætning af alt velkendt. Tiden er blevet bøjet i den forstand, at omfanget af oplevelser har fået det til at føles som meget mere. Jeg ankom til skolen lørdag aften i ly af mørket efter at have stiftet bekendtskab med den tropiske luftfugtighedsmur. I bussen fra lufthavnen sad vi, de nye elever, og stirrede forgabt på skyskrabere, der som en ridslen af sand rejste sig fra en fod af skarp grøn vegetation og et roligt og reflekterende flodleje. En utrolig kontrast der forstærkes af byens lys og varmens simren, som kan ses fra skolens tage. Jeg bor på værelse med Alex og Nicholas fra Hong Kong og Max fra Kina. Søndag tog de nordiske 2.-years os nye nordics med til Ma on Shan, som er center og station et enkelt stop fra skolen. Udover nogle praktiske ting viste de os The Wet Market, som ligger under centeret og er et rigtigt gademarked med fisk, kød, krydderier, urter, tøj, avisboder og åbne gadekøkkener. Mandag var første dag af Orientation Week, og resten af ugen startede på samme måde med et informationsmøde i Assembly Hall om dagens program og forskellige præsentationer. Derfor har jeg ved vejs ende efterhånden også et nogenlunde billede af, hvad der er op og ned. Jeg har bl.a. valgt fag, Quan Cais (fritidsaktiviter) og mødt min tutorgruppe. Foruden dette har jeg været til alt fra velkomstceremoni, tutormiddag og pool games til camp i Hong Kongs vilde naturområder hvor vi vandrede gennem bakkerne til en smuk strand, blev indført formelt i UWC ved en indvielsesceremoni og endelig i går var på en Hong Kong Mystery Tour - en guide til byens transport-systemer og områder. Alting har været (er) overvældende, og mellemgulvet har undertiden krøllet sig sammen. Bruset ved at være her lever dog i bedste velgående, og jeg glæder mig til at finde en hverdag og se hvad de næste måneder bringer. Her følger nogle stemningsbilleder fra den forgangne uge.

Indgangen til skolen, her set med en af vagterne.

Fra venstre: Eira fra Sverige, Brage og  Siren fra Norge og Harriet fra Sverige.

Skolens egen "hovedvej", der løber gennem hele campus.

The Wet Market! 

Fra frugt og kurve til lamper, tøj og fisk.

Krydderier for en slik.

Jeg bor i blok 3, som kan skimtes bag træerne.

Skolens swimming pool, som er til næsten fri afbenyttelse på denne tid af året.

Vandretur i Sai Kung National Park - et kæmpe tropisk skovområde langs Hong Kongs kyst.

Udsigt til en del af Hong Kongs ydre øhav.

Angiveligt en af de smukkeste strande i nærheden.

Coke fra Mexico nyder, at vi endelig er nået frem.

Udkanten af pladsen Times Square.

Sporvogn er stadig et aktivt transportmiddel.

School's now officially opened

Very quiet atmosphere here at college Sunday afternoon. Reason? 

Our grand opening ceremony was yesterday, so we can now finally say we're a UWC school! It was day we had looked forward to for a long time, because the '11th of October' had been our first major milestone ever since we'd arrived. It was finally time for us becoming an official UWC school.

Seven years have now passed since the first work was done in creating an entirely new school. Two and half years have passed since the first construction work was done in building the foundation of the school. Now here we are, so it feels like there it's only up to us now, faculty and students, to continue to expand the school, even though it will from now on be mainly in a psychological manner, even though the school still needs to be handed some of the buildings from the construction company, because some of them still lack some finishing touches.

But even though the school now finally is considered to be 'open', we all still have a huge task in front of us. All the things that make UWC Colleges so much more than just education need to be first thought of, then constructed and put into place. And that will take time. All of the students are so keen on actually getting out in the community and making the difference that we feel is possible, but it will take time to set up the contacts and connections needed, as well as assessing security hazards. Basically, we are all settling in and getting to know our surroundings, which will probably take the next months. But we also have some big ideas of how what we can do in this area, because the opportunities seem almost endless, since we have all kinds of weather, beautiful, quite unexplored nature, as well as very different types of land ranging from the very mountainous to quite flat.

There also have some internal challenges; as we've been reminded over and over, we shape the whole atmosphere of the college, and therefore have a lot of influence in how the school will work in the next many years. Obviously, we're only staying here until the end of May 2016, but the school isn't even at full capacity until 2019. The challenges ahead of us are quite fundamental: We have to decide on a set of rules and guidelines as well as create the values that the school is built upon. I think both the students and faculty members have a pretty clear idea of how we want the school to be in two, five, or ten years time. Our question is how to achieve this. Because obviously one thing is having the goal of something, a completely different thing is to actually achieve this goal.

But slow progress is being made all the time, since we seem always to be expanding in all senses of the word. For example we had our first Action CAS-activity outside college territories today, going on a 15 km hike in the surrounding mountains. The hike was about 4 hour long and brought us about 2 kilometers above sea level, in a rare completely sunny day. Truly outstanding surroundings and nice to finally be allowed to go exploring! So progress is being made all the time, with us slowly starting to figure out how we can get things done. Two photos are attached from our hike earlier today.

Until next time, see you!

No place like home...

...But where is my home?!?

It took me a week to settle down here at UWC RBC. It took me two to get to know people's names. Four to get an overview of my classes, CASes and activities and now after 7 weeks I  finally feel at home!! It took me a few days away from the school to realize this, but now that I have I feel more relaxed and balanced. 

The life here at campus is so intense that you eventually need to get away for a while. For four of us this meant an extended weekend to Basel, Switzerland where we practiced intense relaxation, eating and laughing. Even though this trip wasn't a true UWC experience at school, I don't feel ashamed admitting that it was one of the best moments so far. We were so exited to leave; no more Mensa food (our kitchen is still under construction), no strict curfew (at school we have to be back at 23:45 in weekends) and no homework! We had a blast and for a while it made me doubt why I left that life at home in exchange for the squared boarding school surroundings. I got my answer at the day of our return; I realized that I really missed my "home" at campus, and that the friends I call my house mates have indeed become more as a family to me. 

When we came back I ran to my house and knocked on people's doors gathering the "family" for a movie night. Again, I had a blast! 

So today I decided to throw away the quotation marks around the words home and family referring to house 9 here at RBC, I will never forget the experiences I've had outside of campus, but I tend to forget all the wired, cozy and random stuff we experience within the walls of the school, which usually is just as giving and joyful. And these are indeed the most important for my well-being here and for the reason why we manage to get though all the stressful times with a smile on our lips. 

I want to share a few of these moments with you so you can see that the UWC experience is indeed very diverse and what you  want it to be. It can be what you learn in the classroom, how you develop as an individual but also what you do with your friends on a weekday at 4 am to get your minds of the homework you need to do. As you can see we're having a blast here - I hope you at home (and you co-years around the world) are too! 

Game night - playing RISK until 4 am 

This is the best spot to relax after classes with a great view over our garden!

Poker night vol. 2.0!

 Celebrated my friend's birthday singing and laughing on a hill with view over the city - alternative but a great evening!

Three guys donated their hair - we could buy a change to cut it however we wanted and the donations will be sent to Syrian refugees (the results were quite funny and really ugly!!)

PBL-Week

PBL-week (Project based learning) has now begun, which means that half of Campus is gone, doing different activities. Some are kayaking; some is surviving in the woods, some play basket, and many other exciting things. I am staying on campus this week, learning about the Thai culture, food, massage, and a few use full sentences in in the language. 

It is strange to say that it feels empty to be here since we are almost 150 students left, but it actually does. I miss 50 smiles, 50 well known voices and 50 beautiful faces. This really has reminded me about how much I already like all these nice people surrounding me every day, and how much I am going to miss them during winter break, but worst is it to think about how much I am going to miss them when these two years are over. When I realized this I decided to appreciate everything here at this wonderful place, just a bit more than what I already do. 

The last few days I have had a lot of things to be thankful for. Yesterday the sun was shining all day, and it was quite warm outside. I woke up, ate breakfast, and afterwards I got invited to make cinnamon buns with Sofia and Mar. Since the weather was amazing, we decided to move all the ingredients outdoor, and bake out in front of Iceland house. It looked like a TV-program when we stood there with flour all over surrounded by the mountains and all the autumn colours in the forest. The cinnamon buns turned out very well, I think they are the most beautiful and well tasting I have ever made. We went up in the forest to eat them, but on our way up there, we walked through student village, and I am not sure whether it was our nice company or the smell of cinnamon, but all of a sudden a lot of other students decided to join us on our picnic.

Later on, I went back to continue my outdoor baking, but this time with Iman my roommate. We made pizzas for the room, which also turned out very well, and we had a super delicious room dinner.    

Hvad gør jeg her?

Min meget kloge Moster gav mig til min konfirmation blandt andet en bog der hedder "Hvad gør jeg her?", og handler om en ekstrem spændende mand, der rejser rundt i verden for at skrive alt imens han oplever det ene sindsyge efter det andet.

Ikke for at sammenligne mig selv med en sådan sjæl, men spørgsmålet titlen stiler, kan i den grad godt sætte sig dybt i baghovedet mens man er her. Jeg havde det rigtig godt derhjemme med fantastiske venner, spændende fritidsinteresser og en uddannelse på Danmarks bedste gymnasium - hvorfor kunne jeg ikke bare være tilfreds med det? Der er nemlig ingen tvivl om at det ville være det letteste, både akademisk, personligt og socialt så hvad laver jeg her? 

Sådan kan man vidst ikke lade vær med at tænke engang imellem, men svaret kommer i klare glimt, hvor jeg ikke er i tvivl om, at jeg befinder mig et helt specielt sted. Under de glimt går det også op for mig, at jeg bare har værsgo at nyde den oplevelse, jeg er så heldig at have, i fulde drag. Få mennesker får lov til at opleve hele verden hver dag, og det skal man huske selv når man er ved at vænne sig til det. Jeg får her lov til at lære nogle fantastiske historier at kende, og får et unikt indblik i over 100 forskellige kulturer. Hvis det ikke kan får de fleste til at føle sig små, ved jeg ikke hvad kan. 

En af mine rigtig gode venner herovre er for eksempel blevet Khaled fra Syrien. Da han var 5 flygtede hans familie fra Palæstina til Syrien, og han arbejdede for at hjælpe til husholdningøkonomien fra han var 11. Som om det ikke kunne være udfordrende nok at bo som flygtning i Syrien og jævnligt se sit oprindelige hjemland blive bombet, udviklede tingene sig som bekendt voldsomt i Syrien. For 2 år siden da konflikten var godt i gang, blev han eftersøgt af regerigen for at have sendt billeder og videoklip til CNN. Han var "wanted" i et par måneder, men fik så mirakuløst til fuldt stipendium til skolen her, og nu er han vores student council president og tager en international uddannelse. Og nå ja, så arbejder han også over nettet som grafisk designer, for at hjælpe sin familie med at have råd til at komme til Sverige. 

En anden historie jeg også må dele er om Ahmed fra XX afrikansk land. Han er ikke homeseksuel, men opdagede i løbet af sit første år her, at man kan anskue verden på en anden måde, end de gør i hans homofobiske hjemland. Her er han blevet aktiv i skolens LGBT rights gruppe, og han taler dårligere og dårligere om sit lands holdninger. Disse tanker er dog ikke noget han kan dele med sin familie eller venner derhjemme, da alene sympatiserende tanker ift. homoseksualitet er grund til stening. 

Der er folk med endnu vildere historier, men det virker ikke passende at dele dem her.

Selvfølgelig har ikke alle en så dramatisk historie som de to foregående men eksempler er der nok af: Xingling fra Kina har aldrig gået på andet end en kinesisk kostskole, hvor de var "lukket inde" i et klasselokale 10 timer om dagen uden pauser. Nicole har boet i en SOS-børneby i Romanien hele sit liv indtil hun fik muligheden for at komme her, Andreas fra Guatemala lærte engelsk på 3 måneder da hun kom, Dilly der fik foundraised 200.000 kr. til sin tur osv. 

Folk er så seje her, nogle gange kan man føle sig så kedelig. Men så skal man jo huske at jeg ift. til mange har haft et åh så eksotisk liv med sne, mørke, jantelov, velfærdsstat, hav og åbenhed.