This week has been very busy, and time has started to fly by. It was Kate’s (South Africa) birthday on Sunday and Callam (South Africa) and Marnie’s (Australia) on Tuesday. Julia’s (Australia) is this coming Tuesday as well. Hopeman had a brew for Kate in Mrs Sill’s (Hopeman housemistress) apartment, with drinks and cake.

There was also a goodbye brew for Miss Maxwell, one of the winter skills leaders and also one of Hopeman’s tutors (which is the equivalent of an advisor at Athenian). Miss Maxwell is really great. I know everyone at Gordonstoun is sad to see her go, but wishes her the best of luck at her new job in Wales.

If the school yacht (fancy, right?) is available, there will be a trip up to Loch Ness for the exchange students this Thursday. I really hope we get the opportunity to go, but apparently the yacht might still be up in Inverness for maintenance.

The Run to Rio competition has begun, which is an inter-house competition to see which house can run the equivalent distance of Gordonstoun to Rio de Janero (the site of the next summer Olympics) in the fastest time. Hopeman is currently in the lead for the girls and it has motivated a lot of us to run every day.

I made the netball team, which is a surprise, seeing that I’ve never played it before I came to Gordonstoun. For those of you familiar with netball, the position I play is either Goal Shoot or Goal Attack.

After a night run with Lizzie, we had an exchange meeting with the guardians on Friday to talk about the upcoming International Week. The guardians are year 13’s and are like the Head Girl and Head Boy at Gordonstoun. Their names are Ella and Jolly, and we all agreed that Jolly has the coolest name ever. We brainstormed ideas about activities and snacks that would be incorporated into International Week. We also were asked to wear national dress for one of the days during International Week, and I’m trying to figure out what to wear. All of the Hopeman Year 10’s think I should dress up as Captain America, but unfortunately I left my Captain America costume at home.

Saturday was Burns Day, which celebrated the works of the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns. Students read his poetry and sung songs he had written in chapel. For the social Saturday night, we had haggis for dinner (which is not my cup of tea, but I’m definitely glad I tried it) and listened to bagpipes. After dinner we had reels, or traditional Scottish dancing. It was really fun, as the whole school participated in dances such as Strip the Willow, Military Two Step, and Dashing White Sergeant.

Today I played in the inter-house volleyball, and Hopeman got first place amongst the girls’ houses! It is very exciting, especially because we had also just won squash last weekend.

After volleyball, Kate, Laura, and I were invited to dinner over at the Smit’s house. It was amazing to have a home cooked meal, especially after weeks of cafeteria food.

My first few weeks at Abbotsholme have been filled with meeting new people, getting settled in my cabin, and traveling around the area.

I flew out of SFO on British Airway’s daily direct flight to Heathrow Airport.  Because of a late take-off from SFO, I had the misfortune of having 20 minutes to run through the busiest airport in the world (Heathrow) to make my flight to Manchester. I landed in Manchester at around 1:30pm (England time) where I was met by a private hire taxi who drove me about an hour to the countryside, which is where the Abbotsholme School is located. Upon being dropped off, I was taken to the sixth form boarding house (years 11 and 12 in America), Barnfield, commonly known as the cabins. There are a total of five cabins, which are mini-houses equipped with full kitchens. My cabin has five other girls: one exchange from New Brunswick Canada, two gap years, and two Chinese girls.

That night, I was formally introduced all of the boarding sixth formers in our house meeting and was told the basic ins and outs of being a boarder. After the meeting, it was time to go back to our cabins to get ready for bed and for our first day of class. I was very grateful because I was completely exhausted from my day of traveling.

At Abbotsholme, school starts at 8:20 and normally goes until 5:10. On my first day of class, I was told that I was placed into lower sixth (11^th grade). Every morning we have registration (similar to advisory), where you check in and get told announcements for the day. Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we have chapel after registration where we either practice hymns or hear important notices (similar to Athenian’s morning meeting or symposium). Wednesday chapels are known as formal chapels, so boys and girls in sixth form are required to wear blazers. After chapel (around 9:00) I normally head off to one of my three classes: technology, geography, or chemistry. Similar to Athenian, the school follows a rotating block schedule. It’s a bit more confusing than Athenian’s but I am slowly but surely getting the hang of it. After your first two lessons, they have break where the students have tea and a treat of sorts before heading off to three more lessons. After those three lessons is lunch (12:35 until around 1:45 except for Fridays when lunch ends at 2:00), and then registration to make sure that we are still at school. Following registration are three more lessons, then another break with tea and a treat. After break are two more periods, but depending on the day of the week, there may be special activities planned or class. For example, every Thursday I have a cooking lesson with other sixth formers.

Once the last two lessons are done, this marks the end of “school.” The day pupils go home and the boarders go back to their dorms, change out of their uniform,  and have a required study period. As the name indicates, we are supposed to do homework and assignments, but we are also given the option to go to other people’s dorms to get help with homework. Study period lasts until around 6:10 and dinner (or as they call it ‘tea’) is at 7:00. After tea we have free time to go to other peoples cabins or roam around campus until 10:15 (on the weekends 11:00), before we are required to go back to our cabins.. After going back to our cabins we are allowed to stay up until we feel ready for bed, but we are just required to stay in our respective cabin for the night.

Every weekend we are given the option of going to Uttoxeter or Derby (both are local towns, but Derby is bigger than Uttoxeter) for the morning/afternoon. Normally you go to Tesco’s (similar to WalMart, it sells everything for really cheap) or just wander around town for a few hours. Afterwards, you spend the rest of your weekend hanging out with the other boarders or possibly taking a taxi back into town to go to the movies or bowling.

So far I am really enjoying my time at Abbotsholme and really trying to immerse myself in the community and as many activities as possible. Next weekend, the school organized a trip to Liverpool and I am quite excited to go somewhere new. It has snowed here quite a bit and as I am writing this, there is supposed to be a storm later on today. Everyone here has been very welcoming and I already feel as though I have been here for year.

Lauren writes from Gordonstoun:  On Sunday, instead of going back to the Cairngorms, we drove to a mountain called Ben Rinnes, which can be seen from Gordonstoun on a clear day. The two trail groups split up and my group drove to one side of the mountain while the other group drove to the other side. We then both climbed to the top, and swapped minibus keys at the summit. The weather was a lot nicer than the day before, as there wasn’t very much wind until we were higher up on the mountain. Unfortunately about 20 minutes after we started hiking, Fiona’s injured hip was aggravated and she had to go back to wait at the minibus for the other group to finish.

The temperature was around -5 celsius, but it seemed a lot warmer because there wasn’t much windchill. We took the main footpath up the mountain, and there were clear skies until about halfway up. The path was pretty steep, but overall the climb was enjoyable, especially because the weather was a lot nicer than the previous day and the fact that we weren’t trudging through powder for too much of the time. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the summit. At the top, after taking photos, we had lunch. We all felt really satisfied when we reached the top, and the view was amazing. The other group hadn’t reached the top yet, and after 20 minutes or so, we started down the other side of the peak. Unfortunately, with the way the wind was blowing, all of the powder had piled up on the side we would be taking down the mountain, and the trail was covered. After hiking through the piled snow, we found the other group about 15 minutes later, waiting for us to create footsteps for them to use. It would have been quite a climb for them goin uphill in the fresh snow; it was thigh-deep for a majority of the time.

After talking to the other group for a little bit, we started on again, trying to find the trail in the snow. We ended up trailblazing our way down the mountain, which was much more fun going downhill than up. We travelled through the snow, down giant granite slabs and icy slopes, and over frozen rivers until we ended up on the trail again. We took it all the way back to the distillery where the other group parked their minibus.

Overall, the winter skills trip was so much fun. I really enjoyed all of the new things I did. My trail group made my experience all the better.  I want to thank everyone for such a great time.

After hearing about our trip, ten of the exchanges went to ask Mr Park when the next trip was going to be. If I can, I hope to go on the next one. I can already tell that the trip will fill up quickly.

The weekend was very fun, and I’m really glad I signed up to do it!

The winter skills weekend began when our group of 12 students and 4 teachers met at the mountain rescue building at Gordonstoun on Friday night. We got our boots, crampons, and ice axes and we did kit checks to make sure we all had everything we would need. Then we drove about 45 minutes to a cabin near the Cairngorm Mountains. Once there, we divided up into our smaller trail groups. Mr Park (Gordonstoun’s outdoor education coordinator) and Mr Hall’s (Geography teacher) group consisted of 6 year 9 boys. My group was me, Fiona (year 13 from Yorkshire in Plewlands House), Naomi (year 12 from Germany in Windmill House), Callam (year 10 exchange from South Africa), Max (year 10 exchange from Australia), and Joe (year 10 from Duffus House), along with our leaders, Dr MacEwan (Biology teacher) and Miss Maxwell (outdoor education). It was really fun meeting the two older girls in my group, who are both in 6th form and from different houses; I wouldn’t have met them otherwise. After we split into the two trail groups, we talked about the route for tomorrow, the weather, and did another kit check. We talked a lot about avalanches and the dangers they pose, because they have become quite a problem in the Cairngorms recently. Our talk about avalanches was even more relevant after we got back to the cabin in the evening and received the news that 6 people got caught in a human-triggered avalanche in the Cairngorms that day, 4 of whom were killed and the other 2 in critical condition.

The next day, after breakfast and the drive to the base of the mountains, we parked and started our trip. It had snowed throughout the night, and the footpath we took was covered in fresh powder. I’ve never experienced hiking through snow before and it is a lot harder than just hiking in Yosemite during the summer. Every step we took we weren’t sure how deep it was going to be. At one point I was trudging through waist-deep powder. It was a toasty -6 degrees celsius, but adding the wind chill–which truly does make a difference–it was -22 degrees. The wind was blowing at about 30 mph, and with our hoods up, we couldn’t really hear each other over the wind. It was a windy and snowy trek on the way up the mountain, but once we got up and over the ridges, we stopped and had a snack at around noon. I really appreciated the hot tea we brought in a thermos, because it really warms you up.

After our snack we started making our way to a small lake or “lochen,” but in order to get there we had to scale some icy slopes, which meant we got to use our crampons and ice axes. About half way up the slope, when I was getting used to the techniques and having spikes attached to my feet, I felt the ice shift and both of my feet dropped about 8 inches into running water. I had hit a soft spot, and we discovered that we had been climbing up a river that had frozen over on top, but still had water running underneath. After we climbed off of the frozen river, we made our way over and down into the lochen, which was frozen enough to walk across. Then we had lunch and practiced building snow caves and other climbing techniques on the slopes near the lochen.

There aren’t really trails on the Cairngorms. After our break at the lochen it was time to start heading back. Our group was given the task of finding our way back based on everything we had learned. We successfully navigated our way back.

Even though the trek out to the slopes was long, once we got there and started climbing, it was really fun.

Today the weather was clear skies and I saw the sun for the first time since I’ve arrived at Gordonstoun. However, when you’re this far north, the sun doesn’t rise higher than a few inches above the horizon. It kind of looks like the sun is constantly setting or rising, depending on the time of day. Even though it wasn’t raining today, it was still freezing cold, or specifically -2 degrees celsius. All of the puddles from previous rains froze, and even the rain drops on the handrails have formed miniature icicles. The top layer of the lake was also frozen. During my free period with the Australians, we walked around and explored with our cameras, taking advantage of the dry weather and sun for some photos of the old buildings here, such as G-House and the Round Square Building. These buildings, which are also boarding houses, are rumored to be haunted…

I still had my hopes up for snow, but according to the girls in my house once the weather gets into the negatives it is officially too cold for snow. Instead, we get really heavy frost. This looks like snow at a distance, but when I walk on it, the frozen grass cracks under my feet. The pebbles on the walkways are frozen into the ground. Though I haven’t fallen myself, I have witnessed a few tumbles onto the ice while walking from class to class.

The weather today also caused girls’ hair to freeze. Those who were unfortunate enough to have to swim in PE today had to defrost their hair into sinks in the Chemistry room after their PE lesson. Trust me, frozen hair isn’t fun. I’m hoping the weather will warm up by Friday, when I will be swimming (though it is a naive hope).

The days seem longer here. That is probably because the students never leave school, so there is no actual ending. Having 6 days of school sometimes seems very long, but luckily my week was just shortened a little bit when I received an email saying that I had gotten the last spot on the mountain skills trip this weekend. We depart Friday afternoon and come back Sunday afternoon, which means I miss Saturday classes to go climb in the nearby Cairngorm Mountains (score!). I’m really excited to try ice climbing and mountaineering for the first time. I figured, when will I ever have the opportunity to ice climb in Scotland again?

Yesterday was my first experience having school on a Saturday. After breakfast and chapel, I had a free period, and got to know some of the Australian exchange students (Matt, Julia, and Marny). Luckily lessons end at lunchtime on Saturdays, so after Physics and English I was done. After lunch, I played squash with Angela, one of the girls in my house. Squash is a combination of tennis and an elementary school wall-ball game I used to play. It was pretty fun and once I got the hang of it we played an actual match.

After squash I had some free time, and hung out until our social, which was an international night. Year 10’s had dinner in the Aberlour dining room instead of the refectory, and were split up into teams to do some international trivia games and such. The night was meant for the returning Gordonstoun students to get to know the new and exchange students. I thought it was alright, and the girls in my house said that there are more fun socials coming up.

After the social, all of the Hopeman Year 10’s watched Hairspray in the common room. I thought it was interesting, because Hairspray is a musical about the civil rights movement and integration during the 1960’s in the United States, specifically Baltimore. Even though I am the only American at Gordonstoun, I have noticed that American culture is very dominant here in general. Most of the music people listen to is by American artists and bands (except for One Direction) and most of the films and TV shows people watch are from the USA (i.e. Pretty Little Liars marathons on Sundays). People talk about the USA a lot here too; in fact discussions about hurricane Sandy and the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary have come up quite a bit. In Drama the other day, we were supposed to act out something “worldly,” and one group did hurricane Sandy and the other did the shooting at Sandy Hook. Also, in English yesterday, we were reading a poem called Belfast Confetti, which depicted the Belfast riots and violence. We were then talking about the effects of violence and war.  Upon learning that I was from the USA, my English teacher, Mr. Richardson, asked me my opinion about gun control and the 2nd Amendment in relation to the Sandy Hook shooting. Mr. Richardson is from South Africa, where there is a lot of gun violence, and has an interesting viewpoint on the subject. Anyway, I find it interesting that so much American “stuff” is here. I hope to represent my country respectfully, especially when discussing its policies.

I have also noticed that there is a great focus on the performing arts at Gordonstoun. Its drama program is known worldwide. There are  many classes and extra-curricular opportunities regarding dance, drama, art, and music. It is not to say that Athenian doesn’t celebrate the arts, but here they are much more popular and focused on.

It is also much more formal at Gordonstoun. I wear a knee-length skirt, tights, wellies or black flats, a white collared shirt, blue jumper, and usually a warm jacket over it as my weekday uniform. For the Sunday uniform when we go to chapel, we wear a green jumper and a full-length kilt. We call our teachers by their last name, or for short, “sir” or “miss.” It is much more casual at Athenian. I’m trying to remember to add a “sir” or “miss” at the end of each sentence when addressing my teachers.

So far, my first 24 hours at Gordonstoun have been filled with new surprises and excitement (plus a little jet lag). Right now, I am writing to you from the common room (which is full of squashy arm chairs and bean bags) of Hopeman house, the place where I am staying while at Gordonstoun.

My journey began on Wednesday around 4:45 pm (San Francisco time) when my flight to London took off. I arrived in London around 10:40 am (Scotland time) and I just made my flight to Aberdeen which left at 11:40. Mr. Smit, the father of my exchange Hannah Smit (who is now at Athenian) and the Chaplain and ISC teacher at Gordonstoun, picked me up and gave me a ride to the school. I learned that I was “in the sticks” now, because our drive was in the country and filled with rolling hills, trees, farms, and quite a bit of sheep.

I was warmly received by both the Smit family and Hopeman house. When I got there, Mrs. H, the matron, brushed away my handshake and exclaimed that she only gives hugs. I was quickly given a tour by Erinna (for those of you at Athenian, she came from Gordonstoun on exchange to California last year) and was shown my room. I met all of the girls in my year in Hopeman, Year 10, as I unpacked and got settled. There are also two exchange students in Hopeman (Laura from Australia and Kate from South Africa). The Year 10’s were all very welcoming and friendly. I don’t have a roommate, because all of the girls in Hopeman have their own room.

After dinner in the refectory, all of the exchange students (I think there are 17, but more are arriving) at Gordonstoun had a “brew,” or a get together that usually involves some sort of food, in the library which is in the Round Square building. I met all of the other exchanges, which was really fun and interesting because we could all relate to one another. Mr. Reid, the headmaster, Mr. Ince, the Round Square coordinator, Miss Gibson, the Year 10 leader and English teacher, and other Gordonstoun students involved in Round Square came as well.

Lights out for Year 10’s is 9:45 and we are woken up at 6:50 in the morning, so I felt well rested after my travels the next day. After breakfast, the whole school went to chapel, which happens every day and is similar to morning/symposium meetings at Athenian. On Fridays, however, we sing hymns (which is not something we do at Athenian). After chapel, lessons start, but I missed my first one because I had to get my school uniform (pictures to come). I then had ISC, which is kind of like health class at Athenian. We then had a brief break and I tried treacle, which is pretty much just chocolaty goodness in a bar. After break I had Drama, which was very fun and different, and then lunch. After lunch I had Biology, and then for my Activity I did netball. Netball is sort of like a combination between basketball, lacrosse, and ultimate frisbee. I kept getting in trouble for closing out on people, because apparently you are supposed to be one meter away from your opponent when they are shooting (and that is not what you are supposed to do in basketball). However, there is a lot of strategy to the game and I think it will be fun to learn.

It’s supposed to snow this weekend, and I’m hoping I can ski sometime soon.

My last week at The Belgrano Day school went by very fast and I am sad that my exchange has now come to an end. The exchange seemed more like a week than a month to me. I will miss all the wonderful people I’ve met, life in the city, the amazing food, and much more. It’s hard to leave a place like this when everything is just starting to feel normal and familiar. I do miss my family and animals in California, but I am very independent and tend not to get homesick.

During my last week I volunteered with a small group of girls from the school. We first put together bags and presents and then took them to a daycare for low-income families. I loved interacting with the kids who were around 4 and 5 and tried to practice my spanish with them. They were very appreciative and I enjoyed socializing with them.

Last Saturday the Senior 5 class (Junior class) threw a party for the middle school to help raise money for a graduation party at the end of the year. Martina (my host) and I spent the day creating signs and preparing food for the party. Parties in Argentina are held in salons, which are like large ball rooms. I had a good time learning and watching Argentine dances along with taking pictures for the school Facebook site. Life in Argentina is very social and Martina is always accompanied by her wonderful friends.

My favorite classes at The Belgrano Day school are Art, English, and Thinking Skills. In Art, I was given the opportunity to paint what I wanted and to be creative, which I enjoyed a lot. In English, I had fun teaching my friends certain words and helping them with their assignments. Thinking Skills is a very unique class where students debate, participate in lateral thinking, and also prepare for the Cambridge exams. In this class we discussed interesting topics like religion and sexism. I got to add to the conversation by sharing the differences in the US.

On Sunday we left to go to Martina’s country house again, which is located in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. At the country house the family always has an Asado (barbecue) with all types of delicious meat. After the Asado all we eat for several days after is the leftover meat. At the country house we played board games a lot. My favorite was a game called mexican dominos, which is a game based on luck and strategy.

On my last night Martina organized a dinner with around 15 of her friends. It was very nice to get to talk to everyone over dinner before I left. Dinner in Argentina is twice as long as dinner in the US and people sometimes talk for hours after eating. After dinner we went to her friend’s flat and took his dog for a walk around the city. In Buenos Aires few people have animals because it is hard to exercise them in the city. The ones who do hire professional dog walkers or paseaperros, who can be spotted walking through the streets, sometimes with up to 15 dogs.

The last day of school was bittersweet. I took lots of pictures and said my goodbyes. I was sad to leave because I was becoming close to many people and everything was starting to feel routine and normal. I got home yesterday and am already starting to miss Argentina, but I am keeping in touch with the friends I made. Going on exchange to Argentina has made me think in a more global way and allowed me to fully immerse myself in another culture. I feel lucky to have had this unforgettable experience and am looking forward to hosting Martina in February.

Last blog today. I look back on this trip–from the plane ride, to going to school the second day in Australia, to the little trips we took to everywhere in South Australia, to today. I landed almost four weeks ago and was apprehensive of everything. Literally I could not stand to think of anything other than what some of my friends and family members told me that they thought they knew about Australia. Like, “deadly spiders are everywhere,” or “all the kids ride kangaroos to school,” or “all that they ever eat is barbecue shrimp,” and many many other stereotypes about Australia. I thought ‘I want to ride a kangaroo to school’ but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I’m scared of spiders, but I didn’t expect them to be everywhere, especially because it’s winter here. Barbecue shrimp sounds cool. I didn’t have any while I was over here, but it sounds good. I was met with many surprises in my time here. I made a lot of great friends at school.

I found the whole trip pretty relaxing, but at the same time it went by way too fast. I feel like the whole trip started about a week ago. But a week ago we were on Kangaroo Island, staying in a house that belongs on a horror movie, fishing, kicking the footy (football), and seeing a bunch of animals on a farm owned by a crazy guy, who is also really funny, named Paul.  We also saw little penguins that don’t exist anywhere else. They are really tiny and cute, but don’t like people so they hide.

Schooling in Australia is a lot different than at Athenian. Everyone has a uniform, first of all.  Secondly, there are big differences in the way people act around each other in Australia than they do in Danville. A lot of things we call “rude” or “offensive” are just normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill language over here. It was a little strange at first, but I got used to it. Now it’s normal for me to hear things that we call “offensive.” I got used to life here in Australia, a little too much I think. I caught myself say “g’day mate” at some point. A lot of people say no one says that, but Matt does and it’s really funny to hear that that stereotype actually exists.

Anyway it’s time to get going. Flight leaves in a few hours.

I’m having an amazing time here in South Australia. During the week I injured myself a little bit playing basketball, but it’s not a big thing. I wasn’t able to really use my left arm for much for about 3 days, but it’s pretty much healed now.

Over the weekend we went to Kangaroo Island. We arrived on Friday and stayed through to Sunday. Matt and I got the room with the broken heater, so it was pretty cold the whole time. On Friday, we went fishing and caught quite a few fish that no one seemed to know what they were called. On Saturday, we visited the other half of the island and went for some very long walks that most of us complained all the way through. It’s winter over here and there’s hardly any wildlife out doing anything. On Sunday, we visited a farm that was pretty cool. We saw a bunch of kangaroos and Emus and a koala and a few snakes. Not much else happened, but still the trip was fun and the experience was amazing. We just got back and I’m really tired, so off to bed and to get ready to start my last week of school here in Australia.