Tuesday 27 November 2012

Solal's post: Social Outcast

The other day I read Solal's post, Social Outcast, after Mr. Raisdana had talked about it in class. I think it was very brave of Solal and it would definitely have taken a lot of courage to write something that deep and personal for everyone to see.

I admire Solal's boldness of writing this post as I know that I would never have the nerve to write something from that deep inside myself. I for one know what Solal is talking about, I have lived in 5 different countries and gone to 4 different schools. I find it easy to make friends, only because I have had to do it so many times. I did find it hard in Grade 6 though as there were a lot of drama's, accidentally made by me as I didn't know how people act in UWC. I was used to much different personalities and people in Denmark, where I lived previously. Therefore I sort of know what Solal is going through, maybe not in that exact proportion, though close enough.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

POV. Final

It was a cool breezy afternoon, outside the sky was clear blue, not a cloud in sight. The perfect weather to go outside. Boxes towered over me as I got in through to spotless white door, making a pathway towards the light mahogany coloured stairs.
I could hear my brother and sister upstairs, probably playing hide and seek in the fortress of boxes.

Automatically my feet took me up the newly waxed stairs and slouched me on to the cushiony leather couch, one of the only things that had been unpacked. The boxes, woven tightly around me were making me claustrophobic and I was getting really sick of all the browns constantly blocking my view, I couldn’t wait till all of it was out of the house and far away.

I was extremely tired, it had been my first day of school, the people there had been really nice to me and I had already gotten some friends so I was pretty happy about myself. This was the second time in three years that I had moved, and I thought I had gotten pretty good at the packing, unpacking, saying goodbye to the old and hello to the new. But the usual hassle of starting in a new school was slowly getting to me. We only moved from England a few days ago and there were still a lot moving boxes around the house.

The new house is a two story light grey building and the back garden a whole forest. You can always see the the dark green treetops towering over everything like skyscrapers, and the shadows dancing across the house as a light breeze rustles the many branches on it's body.

I was in the living room looking out the big shiny windows looking out over the fjord, little boats speeding around in the distance making little bursts of white foam on the otherwise flat water. My mom was in the kitchen trying to organize everything, she sounded very stressed as she told my brother not to climb on the boxes.

I reached out for the big grey remote lying on the wooden table, different shades of brown going in random waves and circles, I pressed on the big green button that would switch on the flat screen in front of me. I was so worn out, I barely paid any notice to what was actually playing and the blinding light coming from the window.

A while later when I was nearly asleep “Animal Cops” comes up in big letters with a gold shining police badge in the O of cops, I immediately wondered what that was, it was such a bizarre name. I was very curious to see what it was, so this time I payed much more attention. It fascinated me right from the start, the way these people could save so many helpless animals who have either been abused by their owners, been put on the streets to fend for themselves or have been left alone in an abandoned house because, again, the owners can’t pay for them any longer. This instantly inspired me and made me want to help. Be one of them. And whilst I was sitting there staring at the tv with awe, the sun gleaming in through the window, the sea glistening in the sunlight way below, I realized what my dream job had just become.

Thursday 1 November 2012

What is beautiful?

In our lesson today we talked about what we think is beautiful. The boys talked about what they think a girl should be and the girls talked about what we think a boy should be. I was very absorbed into it and had all these different ideas. When we finished Mr. Raisdana started talking about how we all have this perfect image, and asked us "where does it come from?"We discussed this for a while and in the end came to the conclusion that it was the media that had created this image of perfection. Mr. Raisdana then showed us a picture of a woman and asked us if we found this attractive, most people just said "yea she's ok...". He then showed us a video of how this woman started from that picture, then with several hours of makeup and photoshop became a beautiful face on a billboard advertising makeup products. We also discussed this and the result was that, one, there really is no perfect face and that the media has made it up, and two, that it was very wrong that people who are in an advertisement have to be changed so much that they don't look at all like themselves anymore. Because then there really isn't any point in going on a billboard and being proud, because that isn't the real you up there.
Mr. Raisdana then showed us a picture of a woman, everyone immediately started shouting out stuff that was "abnormal" about her and what could be changed. I am pretty ashamed to say that I was one of those people. We were then told that this picture was put on Reddit, and thousands of people commented both positive and negative things. The woman in the picture found out about a week later and wrote a letter to the boy who had posted it there in the first place. In the letter she explained how she was a baptized Sikh, which ment that she didn't just throw away what she was given and that the body she had wasn't worth making beautiful her whole life as one day it's just going to be ash buried in the ground where as, what she has actually accomplished in life will stay with the people that care forever. She also said how she doesn't care what other people thinks, which made it seem like she is a very strong willed person and I felt very inspired by her.
When we had read this everyone felt ashamed of what they had said and how quickly they had judged her. I think this was a really good lesson learnt and it ties in really well with the single story that I also made a post on and how there is never just the one side or perspective.

The danger of a single story


Today we watched a video of a Nigerian women who is a story teller. She talked about how there is never just a single story, never just one perspective or side to it. 
I felt very inspired and moved by this, as I have never really thought about it in that way before. 
She talked about her personal experiences and how she had come to realize this, and that it isn't ever anybodies fault. And if someone has been exposed to something their whole life, which a lot of people have, then its not because they are mean or racist  it's just that single view and perspective that has portrayed people like this to them for their whole life. She also talked about how stereo types are not incorrect as they are often based on facts, they are just incomplete.
Her talk was pretty long but not at all boring as she made it very interesting and attention grabbing by telling stories of this single story idea by giving real life scenarios that have happened to her.
This has really made me stop and think every time i judge someone by something I have heard.

Sunday 28 October 2012

What is considered "Normal"

I think everyone kind of makes an image of celebrities to be perfect and having no flaws. And that it is 'Normal' for a celeb to be like this. Well it's not true, several famous people have disabilities or weird physical quirks. One of these is Adam Lambert, he's famous for his singing and song writing, but people still respect him even though he is gay. Because people can look past that and see that he has talent. This tells us that someone who people respect so much will keep liking and respecting them even though you maybe aren't considered 'Normal' anymore.
I especially think that if a society view you as 'Abnormal' the most important thing is that you have someone to be with you, even if that is only one person. I think the term 'normal' is an overrated and overly used word and if you actually ask someone, most people they wouldn't know what to say.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Tomorrow when the war began

Today we went to the library and borrowed a few books, I chose three books, The perks of being a wallflower, Black heart blue and Tomorrow when the war began.

I am going to talk about Tomorrow when the war began as that is the book that I have started.

I chose Tomorrow when the war began because I know that a lot of people have read it and they all said it was amazing, so I thought it might be worth a try. The blurb also sounded very interesting and already made me want to read it. I expect it to be very good and attention grabbing, because it has had so many good reviews. I haven't read a lot so far, but til now I think it is pretty good. You can feel that everything is leading up to something big but it is all very quiet and calm though you can feel the tension. I think the one thing that might throw me of and stop reading the book, would be that it takes a long time to get to the point, the author keeps swerving and talking about other things right when you know something important is supposed to happen.


Sunday 7 October 2012

Perspective Change

"Point of view enables us to gain perspective in order to create and negotiate meaning."
I understand this because it started off as my point of view but then there was a sudden change to another characters point of view. Writing from someone else's point of view helps you really get in to the story and the characters shoes.
The setting didn't really change but the mood was very different. We didn't come to the same conclusion but they both crossed paths. At first I thought it was a bit hard to grasp the concept and what the outcome was supposed to be, but gradually with the pace of my story, my understanding grew. Though I still don't think that it has reached it's maximum potential. I think I could have made it better if I had thought about what I wanted the conclusion to be before I started writing. Not everyone has the same point of view or understanding thats why we are all different.





Tuesday 18 September 2012

Olympics


Hey,

Did you watch the Olympics over the summer? 

I always love watching the olympics, it is always so inspiring to see people doing what they are passionate about, knowing how much time and work they put in to it. I heard you went to see the tennis and you brother the men's gymnastics, is that true? If it is you guys are so lucky, please tell me more about it soon. 
I think it remarkable how so many people from every country join each other in one place to compete in almost every aspect of sport. Even though there is a lot of competition with other countries, I admire how most of them are still friends with each other and always shake hands after a game. Did the tennis players have a good game spirit? 
My favorite events are gymnastics diving and synchronized swimming. Gymnastics in the olympics fascinates me, since I know how hard it is to do just the basics of it and also knowing that, that is exactly what my sister is aiming for and your brother as well. 
Even though I have no interest in doing them myself both diving and synchronized swimming grab my attention because they looks so amazing, how they can be so agile and strong at the same time in the water and air.

Bye miss you so much! Please reply back on email telling me all about it :) 

- Eline 

Monday 17 September 2012

UWC Scholarship Activity


If I got a scholarship to any UWC in the world I would want to go to UWC Red Cross Nordic, because it has a lot of service programs most of them specifically focusing on Red Cross as there is a Red Cross rehabilitation centre on the same road. The location makes it possible for a lot of fascinating outdoor activities that would give me a lot of experiences that I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else. They also focus a lot on scandinavian traditions which would be very interesting to learn more about. As I am also scandinavian and have only lived in Scandinavia for one year it would give me a lot of knowledge and background on my home country.  UWC Red Cross


Sunday 9 September 2012

My thoughts on English


One thing that I have learned in my English class is the gold mine metaphor, which has helped me a lot with my writing. Also showing and not telling when explaining something in your work. I have learnt to participate more freely in class and feeling comfortable to express my ideas and opinions to the class.
I like that we don’t need to raise our hands and can just express our ideas and opinions right when they come to us. I like the way Mr. Raisdana makes the lesson fun by doing different things every lesson. The way he teaches us is different to other teachers who just write everything up on the board, Mr. Raisdana makes activities for us and metaphors so we understand everything better.
I don’t think there is anything that I want to change about our lessons. They are fun and interesting, and I learn something new almost every lesson.