Tales From Trieste: Wednesday 16th September 2010

Today Gabriele and I had the luxury of a free block in the morning, although naturally Raza managed to wake us up at the normal time. At least we could go back to sleep until half 8, though (well 8.15 for me, as I had biology to finish. Old habits do indeed die hard).

In English we went through poetic terms, for example assonance, alliteration and sibilance for any of you doing English lit GCSE or A-level. I also managed to work out what Dadaism is (as a poetic term) due to the fact that last night in the Ways of Seeing taster session with Henry, we also looked at Duchamp’s work and the Dada poster. I was, as they say, well chuffed. In case you’re wondering my example was, ‘Why is there a fire engine in my bed?’ I should be, like, a poet or something.

In Biology we looked at the sheer scale of how small cells and their parts are and also I learnt that it’s impossible for some cells to have a nucleus as if they did the nucleus would take up most of the space (prokaryotic). In Economics we were introduced to Production Possibilities Curves and how much quantity and quality of factors of production can affect the efficiency of a country’s economy. In History (where Eunice very kindly finished not just without the extended period, but five minutes before the end of the normal lesson) we carried on looking at the causes of WWI, looking at Germany’s position in 1870, with Bismarck at the helm, when Germany wanted to try and make treaties with European powers in order to cement itself as a power and just as importantly isolate France.

I decided to forgo lunch due to the fact that I had only purchased my breakfast sandwich at 11. This led to a relaxed afternoon until 2.30, when I had my taster session for the Amnesty International creative activity session (interestingly enough AI at the college used to be a social service but they had to change due to IB requirements saying that social service must help the local area). This was led by Eunice but seems to be mostly student-led, where each week a student presents a particular case and the group talks about it and thinks of campaigns to run. For example they write a lot of letters and have petitions, but also think of creative ways to raise money and awareness, such as hosting ‘three course meals’ in Fore dayroom, where people are given a presentation on a particular item. Basically whatever you want, really.

Immediately after, leaving the school building, I saw the sign on the door that I had seen that morning, asking for any volunteers on the school’s ‘bio-plot’, in other words an allotment. So I went there and helped the secondi who were there to weed, seed, and talk about the plants. We also saw a very interesting creature which I have included a photo of in the selection below as I hope that someone can identify it (Richard, if you’re reading, your expertise would be most appreciated. Or anyone else). It is about the size of your index finger and has a little horn on it’s head/bum. Instead of legs it has loads of little wart like blobs. The garden’s only been going a year so hopefully over the next two I can insert some of my northern-heritage (don’t mention the fact that I was born in Fiji) green fingers. I’ll have to get some leek seeds. They probably would grow, as since we are so north, the climate isn’t nearly as hot as southern Italy where the citrus fruits are grown. Although I am thinking about bringing my banana plant over (or at least one of its babies) to see how it does.

On the way back to Fore from the bio-pot (which is in Ples garden) I bumped into my roomo Gabriele, Francesco and Davide, who were on thei way to porto. So I went and changed and went to join them. I met Gabriele down there, as Francesco and Davide had swum to the headland where the old castle is situated on. Gabriele and I went to join them but turned swiftly round after Davide explained that he had been stung by one. Henry (as in the teacher, who had just got out the water after a swim) was quite concerned but Davide seemed fine. After Francesco and I jumped in off the tall rock for a bit (disregarding the fence that someone has put there to stop us doing this very thing, and in the process they’ve made it more dangerous as you have to jump from further in to the rock) for Gabriele to take photos and then we just sat in the sun for a bit talking and ended up talking about Italian politics as a newspaper was on another sunbather’s towel. I learnt more about the Italian right and also the Dutch, as Job, from said country, was there, too.

At 6 was the taster session for the sustainability group, which is led by Max, who is the biology teacher and also the one who’s best friend is from Gateshead so he’s been to Newcastle (as obviously there’s not that much to do in Gateshead) many times. The sustainability group seemed really interesting as they really do a lot. For example they run the whole college compost system, and also have done a lot with reducing the college’s carbon footprint, for example with turning off lights. They have also managed to get to the point where solar panels are about to be installed in three of the residences and are trying to initiate a village-wide composting scheme. Even though it is only the second year of the group, you can tell Max is so passionate about it (he’s really committed to the UWC movement – he left being head of biochemistry at Oxbridge) so I think it would be a good activity to do. I personally think the college should buy a pig to eat all the scraps and food waste.

After mensa I managed to get my college email to work on Mac’s ‘Mail’, which is really useful indeed, as I can look at all my emails (obviously I can’t get any new ones) received without having to go downstairs. Although talking about accessing internet, Patrick, my secondo from Canada, reminded me that Macs can give each other wifi (how sad we are, sharing wifi with our macs) so if I am downstairs using my cable for the internet I can give anyone in the rooms above me wifi. As long as they’re using a mac, and not a PC.

After that I went to the taster session for Astronomy, led by Mark, the physics teacher, which was quite interesting. There loads of people there, though, as it is a completely new activity, as the school has had the telescope for a few years but only opened it recently as the student who won it in a competition hasn’t returned to the college and collected it. Anyway, I got to see the moon in really good detail, right close up, which was amazing, and because it was a half moon, the shadows were really large, which apparently makes it nicer to look at.

I think I’ll choose sustainability as my first choice and I’m undecided as to my second and third choices. Annoyingly, I could’ve gone to the taster session for photography, as Max who runs it, said that you don’t have to have a camera to do it, so I may yet take that. Or I can take any of these as additional activities, it just depends on time, really.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the evening relaxing either talking or sitting in my room. Raza and I were joined by Josh doing homework, as his roomo was asleep, where we spent a nice time speaking natively. I’m sure I’m losing my English here. Hopefully I’ll at least gain some Italian in return…

After I’d written this, at about midnight as I was on the way to sleep when I was woken up by a noise. It turned out to be a group of people singing happy birthday to Lorenzo, a primo, and then picking him up and dragging him to a shower. Considering that this hasn’t really happened to anyone else I would be quite angry if this happens to me as I have no wish to be woken up and put in a shower, even if it is supposed to be a tradition. Also, I wonder how many of the people who support this ‘tradition’ (actually it was only about 5 people, so not exactly a majority) have their birthdays when we’re on holiday…