Saturday’s happenings (written on Sunday)

Saturday morning kicked off with a bang with a meeting about social service at 10 o clock. After a briefing in the auditorium we then went to the school building (three flours of classrooms) where about ten classrooms each had a presentation by secondi about the social service they do. The college facilitates a lot of service, with a strong emphasis on helping people in the local area, not just Duino, but the nearby town of Monfalcone as well as the major city Trieste, with a particular focus on disabled people (interestingly called ‘diversely able’) and elderly people. Some of the services include being a friend to disabled children, being a minder to disabled children, visiting and being a friend to mentally disabled (and I know that some people might think that’s not such a nice way to put it, but really I mean no harm) young adults, playing music to various old people’s homes, visiting local old people, being a companion to old people in homes. There are also services with the local multiple sclerosis society, the local animal shelter, teaching English to school children, giving multiculturalism workshops to local school children, art with local school children, teaching conversational English to young Italians of a similar age to us and finally first aid, with 18 and above year olds having the option to work in the local ambulance service once qualified. That’s pretty much it and you must fulfil a certain amount of service time to qualify for the IB, however you can do extra service if your timetable fits it. Unfortunately it did seem like with some people doing service was just something to get the IB, not actually a way of helping others less fortunate, and giving back to the community who hosts us, although this was quite a minority. In fact, it seemed that a lot of the secondi had been changed by their service activities, especially with disabled people. During their presentations, some of the secondi talked about how at first they really didn’t want to spend two of their week-day afternoons looking after disabled young adults (not such a nice sentiment, but at least they were honest) but they now talk about how all they want to do is go back to see them after the summer break.

We then had to choose which service we would most like to do and give preferences, as there is no guarantee which one you will be given (for example, the college might need a native English speaker - of which I am not the only one - for services such as teaching conversational English. Talking about conservational English did you know that in Finland in the schools in the English lessons the children learn how to small talk, specifically for coming to England. The concept simply doesn’t exist: ‘oh this weather’s not nearly as good as last year’ etc and it’s simply fine not to say anything, if you cant think of something necessary to say, even when with friends. Back to the matter at hand: or Italians might be needed to converse with people who can only speak Italian, musicians for the band etc) so the college chooses which one you will be allocated, looking at your preferences and the needs of the services.

After the ‘taster sessions’, I managed to get my first time on Skype to mum, dad, and Jake, which was really nice. The most annoying thing, as I was discussing with my south African co-year, Josh, was that everyone can understand what we’re saying, whereas people from, say, Iraq (such as my roomo, Zaid) can speak Arabic (or Kurdish, as he also speaks that) with less people knowing what you’re saying. I’ll have to try and find an empty classroom sometime to get a private skype call… or at least some headphones and a mic, rather than whoever I’m talking to’s voice blaring out to all. On the other hand, I also feel really guilty that I really have to make no effort to speak to people as the main language is English (without English at UWCAd, you wouldn’t be able to pass the IB, as the teaching language here is English) whereas so many people are making such a huge effort. That’s why I will make such a big effort to learn the only language I can learn, Italian, due to the fact that English is my mother tongue, as I want to show effort. I’m also practising French with my Mauritian room-mate and hopefully going to go to Spanish and/or Portuguese after school classes. Although these wont give me the depth of knowledge about a language that learning a language formally would, it’s better than nothing. Also, since we are in Italy, Italians are the largest number of people (30 altogether), they all like it when I make an effort and even though elssons don’t start until Tuesday I’ve definitely been learning. According to Francesco and Gabriele, my accent has improved a lot. I still have trouble with pronouncing the word ‘ciao’, as I always say it like ‘chow’ rather than the desired ‘cheeaaow’ [but obviously a lot faster than that]. I have to say though the advantage of being one of only two British people at the college is that it’s really easy to just start speaking to people, as there are not lots of us to ‘cling’ round, which I imagine happens at most of the colleges, at least it does here in that the italain speakers (for some are not Italian, such as the prima from Slovenia, but speak italain better than their ‘mother tongue’) tend to hang around with each other. Not that they shut other people out, I suppose it’s just much easier.

OK, after that long interval…

About 10 of us then decided to use the freedom of the rest of the day to go for a swim, meeting another large group of primi and secondi who were down there already. After about an hour there we then all went to the other side of Duino – half an hour up the hill - to get ice creams from ‘bowling’ – which is basically a clump of buildings on the edge of Duino, one of which is a bowling alley, and one of which is a gelateria (ice cream place– Italian ice cream cannot be described, only tasted; gelaterie - the e indicates plural - in this part of Italy, especially Trieste, are the equivalent of chippies and Chinese/pizza takeaways in the UK) and mini-supermarket (where I bought some brie for breakfast). We then all spent about an hour talking. Raymond, my co-year from Hong Kong, knows an impressive amount about British politics- in fact, to all intents and purposes he could be British, and Andriy, a secondo, from Romania was also quite clued up. He was informing me which of the Brit expat teachers (about half the teachers are british, and then another load are Canadian, with a few south Africans and Americans thrown in, along with Italians and Slovenes and the odd Bulgarian) were ‘tories’. Actually only one of them is, and he’s very nice really, you just wouldn’t expect it from an organisation such as UWC, although I suppose it’s testimony to its appeal that it attracts so many people from different backgrounds and ideologies…

After we reached the college back in the centre of Duino, a few of us then decided to return to porto, owing to the fact that the weather was so nice and that we all have the feeling that we might not have so much free time in a few months time… Only about 4 of us went this time and then what happened next, although minor, I think sums up one of the (many) nicest (and don’t bother to correct me on whether ‘many’ and ‘nicest’ work together. Superlative, shmuperlative) things about the college. As I was standing at the top of the four metre high rock that we jump from, there was another boy about our age preparing to jump. ‘Having fun?’ he asked. He then explained how he was living in nearby Monfalcone, although his mum is Australian and dad Venezuelan, so he is fluent in Italian, Spanish and English. Lucky so and so. Anyway, I am using this (sort of) analogy to show how this sort of thing is only able to happen as the college here in Duino really is part of the town. Whilst all the other colleges have amazing locations and unique aspects, UWCAd is the only one that really isn’t on a separate campus (there are some which are situated in a town, but mainly within a campus, and some which are situated on completely isolated campuses) and that’s something I love about being here. We can really interact with the local community.

After dinner we then had to dress up for the UWC Welcome Show. A piece of paper had been left on all the beds of all us primi inviting us to dress up as a specific allocated character. I was a ventriloquist and luckily Theis (pronounced ‘Tie-ss’) from Denmark was a ventriloquist dummy although the height balance was perhaps a little unusual for a ventriloquist and puppet, in this case the puppet being at least a foot taller than the ventriloquist. The UWCAd Welcome Show had the theme of a circus (as you might have guessed) at the start, with all of us walking into a fanfare and underneath he raised arms of secondi and it took place in the auditorium. A huge range of performances was given by the secondi, ranging from traditional Japanese and Bollywood dances to the more wacky: aerobics dances given by some of the second year boys, a quite good attempt at the evolution of dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg one hundred million people can’t be wrong. Yes I know it’s the view count, which is 151 million, and obviously there will be repeat views, but if I say it like that it sounds a lot less impressive doesn’t it? If you don’t know what I’m whittling on about, check the view count for it) and a very impressive surreal dance to the song (‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’) which is impossible to explain. I think Roberto, my Romanian fellow primo, filmed the evening, so if he puts it on youtube I will forward you the link. The only other Brit at the college, my secondo, Ganbriel, is the singer of the college band, finished off the evening with a sort of ‘disco’ thing, at the end of which the teachers had very sneakily crept out the windows…

Oh yeah because I left my camera at home and it’s currently on the way (or sitting inside Poste Italiane’s head office, while everyone’s on one of whichever day it is’ lunch breaks. Or post-lunch siestas. Or pre dinner early days off work. Or whatever) I haven’t been able to take any photos to show you of the area. It really is beautiful and hopefully the camera will arrive before the days turn cold (normally about October, but apparently winter is coming early this year…)

Robin