The start of travelling.. Belgium!

So this weekend I went to Belgium (and Brussels) for the first time. I went with a crew of Maastrichters - T'kia from Trinidad, Jose from Peru, our host Nelson from Belgium and the ever faithful roomie Thato. So we stayed at Nelsons house at Mechelen which is about a 40 minute train ride to Brussels. After finally arriving to nelsons house after missing 2 trains and having a mishap with train ticket prices his mother made one of my favourite dishes ever - Macaroni Cheese! So we setteled down early and watched a movie! On Saturday we visited the capital. What a City Brussels is! It is so beautiful...the architecture is absolutely incredible. We saw many of the sites including the Palace and the Manneken Pis (which is tiny). Oh and the best part...the waffles! The liege are my favourite, the brussels waffels taste like air, but the Liege are just so delicious. Our host family - The Hensmans were so lovely and Nelsons mum's food was so much better than boarding house food...but there's hardly any competition really. We also visited Antwerp on Sunday, our visit was very rushed as we had to get back to school by a certain time, but I will definitely visit again! There are just so many shops and cool places to hang out. We visited a tiny funky cafe and Thato and I had bubble tea for the first time (Pineapple and yoghurt flavour). We also visited a small market, where I had the shock of my life when you could buy a rabbit or a tortoise for less than an umbrella. The weekend was awesome, just expensive and stressful!

In other news I've swapped my history to geography because the course looks far more interesting. And....I've decided (after my parents) agreeing that for my project week I'm going to Kosovo! 

Arrival of the final roomie and starting classes

  Okay so I haven't posted in a while but life here is so hectic. So last week Victorija (from Lithuania) arrived...finally! We're now a full room and the difference that just ne person makes to a room is huge, totally not what I expected. But it's so much better being in a room with 3 as the duties are shared. But, not only that, you have a third sister, plus the bunk bed felt empty without her! So she arrived late at night Sundos, Thato and I stayed up for her. Thato and I thought it would be a better introduction if we were wearing onesies! So when Elvis brought Victorija to our floor we probably gave her the shock of her life by running, screaming and shouting at her and towards her! We wanted her to feel instantly at home so I made her bed and made a little welcome home sign. Last night we hsd our first roomies night. Me and Thato cooked Tuna pasta and we sat (in the traditional Omanie way) on the floor and ate!

A snap from our first complete roomies night in

Okay so the other news is...I've started IB classes...dun dun dun!! But so far they're not too bad (I will definitely regret saying that!) But my subject package (at the moment) is Higher Level Biology, Chemistry and English Language/Literature and then Standard Level Maths, History and Spanish ab. The size of the text books surprised me the most, the teachers even advise not to bring them to class even from the boarding house as they are too heavy. So school life in general is going really well at the moment. I'm now starting my CAS activites, for my creativity I'm part of the gender commission, for my action I'm doing African dance which is so much fun even though I'm really bad and for my service (you have to do in college and out of college), I'm doing service learning ambassador for year 8 and my out of college service is yet to be decided.  So my plans for autumn break are still up in the air at the moment but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

With the people and the UWC  I'm loving every minute! The people here are all so lovely and so interesting in different ways. My roommates are awesome! I'm very very close to Thato and she's now like a sister which is crazy because I've only known her a couple of weeks but the socialising here is so intense, you are constantly surrounded by people which is a totally new concept for me. My bath mates are also crazy! But, I love them. One of my other really close friends, Maria, is my bath mate. My floor is the perfect floor for me, we're like a little family within the boarders (even though we don't always keep our kitchen clean).

That's all I have time for as I have chemistry homework,
Selina 

Intro Week

So today is Saturday the 14th of September, I have been here 9 days and the intro week is now over. I think I'm finally starting to realise and get used to the fact that at UWC you're constantly surrounded by people. It's so different to my life back in Wales. The socialising over the last week has been non-stop but seeing the strong bonds that I already have with some people is weird considering I've only known them a week. One of the biggest things I was anxious about before coming is my roommates - whether I'd get on with them or not. But, I've got to know them the last week and I absolutely love them. Our third roommate Victorija from Lithuania (who will be my bunk bed buddy) is set to arrive on Wednesday, so finally we will be a full room. I am sleeping on the bottom of a bunk bed - its cosy. I have one notice board that I have started to cover with gifts from friends and family and photos from home. Until now I haven't experienced home sickness which I am very surprised about.

The Intro week was a pretty chilled one with activities and presentations. For the academic side of things we had the academic fair which consisted of having presentations from the teachers of all 6 of the IB requirement subjects letting us know what the IB in their subject is like. Then once we had time to think about or subject package we had our academic interviews which just consisted a head of a department going through our subject package for us and checking it met the IB criteria.

But the more important part of Intro week (at least for me) was the socialising and the second years planned many activities and games in order for us to get to know our co years and second years. Some of the activities that were planned were a talent show, sports morning, speed socialising, roomies night (where Sundos cooked Pizza) and trips to the city and the supermarket.

The campus and the city are so beautiful. The school has already picked up the name of the Island as it is indeed a tiny island as its surrounded by a small moat. Already rumours have started about throwing people in on their birthdays but its not the cleanest of moats. The only problem with the campus that has been highlighted so far is the fact that the boarding students live in two separate buildings with half the students in each, and after check-in we are not allowed to the other building which is creating a divide between the students, but along with the residence mentors we are all trying to figure out some kind of solution.

I've got to dash for brunch now, Selina x

Touching down in The Netherlands

I'm sorry that I didn't put up a post straight away when I got here but they didn't have any Internet until today. So it's now the 7th September so I have been here 2 days. I really like it here its a beautiful campus and the city is great. I'm roommates with Sundos from Oman and Thto from South Africa. I was met at the airport by a bunch of second years and some of my co years! I flew for the first time on my own, but I actually enjoyed it, it was quite easy. I went to Maastricht city for the first time today, it's a really long walk but it was so worth it.