I'm so sorry

Hey everyone,

Here I am again... finally!

I'm SOOOOOOOO sorry it took me this long, I do realize that a lot of people read this and that a lot of people see this as one of the only ways to keep contact with me and to know what is going on with my life (if Im still alive and so on). So to assure you all: Im still alive!!! (:

The thing is that I've been procrastinating so much as I know there is a lot I have to talk about and I don't have a lot of free time...

So what I've desided to do is; I'll post some pictures of Gokarna. (I wont tell too

because otherwise this post will be too long, and anyway it was basically a beach-holiday with a lot of fun so there is not that much to talk about), some pictures of exeat (I know you expect stories and everything, but I can tell them later and maybe in some of my next posts I will tell them, dont worry: the pictures show how much fun we had) and that will basically be it. I will try to be more regular from now on in writing my posts so that this doesn't happen again (;

Today I had my MOCKS (which are trial exams) for Selftaught so that is one of the reasons I didnt post on my blog. 9th of april I have my orals and then somewhere end of april I have my paper 1 and 2 and then Im DONE with selftaught (; So at the moment I have a lot of work with selftaught. I have to admit though that I like to procrastinate by doing things as writing my blog (like now) and so I will try to do this more often (;

When I spoke to my parents today I told them that several people commented on my blog to ask for more posts and they also said I had to start writing it again so that kind of stimulated me to start again (:

So I hope you will enjoy the pictures and I will try to write a lot from now on (I figured that many small posts with funny stories might be more fun then big ones like this with just a lot of pictures..)

XOXO,

Pauline

Gokarna with Melisa (Turkey), Shanina (The Netherlands), Thulani (South-Africa)

Me and Thulani

Melisa and me

Exeat in Agra, Jaipur and New Delhi with Sonia (Poland), Himaansu (Mauritius), Elias (Finland) and Daniyal (Bangladesh)

Elias, Himaansu and me

Me, Sonia, Daniyal, Himaansu and Elias

Elias, me, Himaansu, Sonia and Daniyal

Me, Himaansu, Sonia and Elias

Sonia and me

Me, Sonia and Himaansu

Me, Himaansu, Elias, Sonia and Daniyal

Elias, me, Sonia and Himaansu

Elias, Himaansu, Daniyal, me and Sonia

Elias, me, Sonia, Daniyal and Himaansu

Elias, Sonia, Himaansu, me and Daniyal

Elias, Sonia, Himaansu, me and Daniyal

me, Elias, Daniyal, Himaansu and Sonia

I had a lot of trouble putting up these pictures (it took me more than 1 hour), so I will post the pictures of Valentine soirree later (I hope tomorrow, but I can't promise). 

I hope you kind of enjoyed the pictures! (:

So much to tell!

Hey everyone,

I just had exeat and it was awesome!! I will write a separate post about it as soon as I get the pictures etc. The last weeks so much happened! Ok, so firstly 9-10 february it was Lunar New Year – which you might know as ‘Chinese Newyear’-. Therefore we had a wonderful surprise for Brunch -- our East Asian students were preparing all kinds of delicious food for- pad thai, malaysian chow mein, korean pancakes, vietnamese crepes and vegetarian sushi. They even made fortune cookies for us! These are the moments that you realize how lucky you are to be at a uwc and to share all the different cultures. A Big, big Thank you to you for sharing your culture with all of us! The food was delicious. This year is the year of the snake. 

Secondly I had a French diner with all the French-speaking people. I think we were about 10 people – there are way more people, but we organized it a bit late so not everyone could come- and we had good food. It was nice to hang out with them and to speak French. It made me realize how fast you can lose a language! I really feel that I speak worse than before. But it’s fine because we all understand English as well. It was really nice and we will do it again for sure. That’s something that is also very nice about MUWCI, you just have a lot of opportunities where you come together with a group of people to have fun (for example house dinners, French dinners, dutch dinners, theatre thee,…)

Here is a little video that I liked a lot that represents India to a certain extend. However, I think it uses a lot of stereotypes about India that aren’t always true, but I can show it to give some kind of idea of where I live now (; 

A day in India 

Also, 2 MUWCI-students went to a congress in London where all UWC’s come together to talk about issues in the UWC-movement and what we can do about it and also to represent the different UWC’s and show them to each other. For this congress, we made a little video which gives a good image about MUWCI-students (: 

Lastly, and at least as important, there is big news on MUWCI! The people who spent a lot of time watching the nature and diversity on campus found out that there is some kind of jungle cat on campus. We haven’t actually seen it yet, but all the puppies disappeared, 2 big dogs disappeared and we found excreta that shows that it lives here. It could be any kind of jungle cat, but the people who are kind of into animals and know a lot about it (ess teachers etc) say that it could be a leopard. So at night no one can walk around alone and the guards are paired up for their shifts. I don’t think we should be too scared though because it is also very scared of humans and no one saw it yet…

Well, this is it for today, in a few days I will tell you about my exeat (;

XOXO,

Pauline

The end of Theatre season

Hello there,

Theatre season is over for me! There is still 1 week of plays, but I'm not in those.. Although I loved it and it was really nice to see people enjoy our play, I'm happy it's over. It ruined my social life. All I was doing is rehearsing.. 

Our play was really amazing. We performed Information for Foreigners by Griselda Gambarro. It's a really creepy play about the Dirty War in Argentina. A lot of people who came told us they liked our play the best of all the plays from Theatre Season! Every performance we did there was always at least 1 person crying because it was so scary. I'm really happy that our play was such a success.

Something I didn't talk a lot about yet is college meeting. Every monday from 5pm to 6pm we have college meeting. This is a meeting in which we discuss daily issues we face at MUWCI and we make announcements over trivenis etc. I really enjoy it, we all sit together on the MPH steps and we discuss random stuff. I like it because it's a time that you can just relax and you realize in which awesome community you live. 

Even this week while I was really busy, college meeting gave me the opportunity to do nothing without worrying about all the work I have left. 

Also this week Aishwarya and I started to share our languages. I'm teaching her Dutch and she teaches me Hindi. It's really nice to learn another language and it's way easier this way than sitting in a clas and learning it. I just ask her random sentences that I want to know in Hindi and she teaches me them. This way I learn the vocabulary and I start recognizing the grammar. It's really nice and I hope I'll be able to understand Hindi conversations soon. 

This week made me realize that MUWCI is kind of like a family. As you know I was really stressed, tired and busy all the time. In a normal school people probably wouldn't notice, but here at least 10 people asked me if I was ok and hugged me and everything. It's so nice to get so much love from sometimes random people that you don't usually are really close to. Also MUWCI-people give so much compliments. One day I was very tired and I was rushing to school and on the way someone that I hardly know just told me that I looked good that day. It's really nice to hear such things because it just makes your day. I really love muwci (: 

Lastly, Valentine's day is comming up. We can buy roses for each other and there will be a Valentine's soiree. Everyone is buying flowers for their roommates, friends,... The funny thing is that for the Valentine's soiree many people go with their best friend/roommate/... I'm going with Aishwarya. There will be Valentine games and good diner etc. I think it will be a lot of fun. 

That was it for today, I hope that I'll be able to post more messages from now on because Theatre Season is over (:

XOXO,

Pauline

Answer to Namu

"Namu N has left a new comment on your post "Welcome new people (;":

Hii i really needed it ., cause next year im planning to study muwci ! Mbe ... Can u tell me about can i often shop in pune ? Phoenix ?? And do they really has rats , monkeys in wada :0 cause it really scares me !! Help me :) and by the way i love ur blog <3 "

Hey everyone,

I'm sooooo busy right now because we're in the middle of theatre season. This post is just to answer to Namu's questions. I will give an update about MUWCI life right after theatre season is over. I know it's not nice for you guys, but I really have to much work.
First of all Namu,  thank you for reading my blog, it's nice to know some future MUWCI-students read it (;.
Secondly, you can go shop in Pune as often as you want. Every week there are schoolbusses going down to pune and you can rent a jeep whenever you want. So if you come here don't worry about buying stuff. (for example dont bring 10 bottles of soap and shampoo because you're afraid not to have enough). Most people go to SGSmall or Phoenix mall. You are really very free in MUWCI.
Lastly, there are rats and snakes and all those things on campus.. BUT don't worry, even I am scared as hell for insects and all kind of animals like snakes and stuff, and I only saw a snake once, I never saw a monkey and I did see spiders and insects, but almost never in my room. So only if you look for them (photographers are amazing at finding all those animals) you will find them. I wouldn't worry about those animals too much because they are so afraid of you that they stay away. I can asure you: If I can survive this, everyone can (;
If you have any more questions, you can always post them or send me a mail or give me your email address.
I hope this was usefull and I hope I don't dissapoint people by not writing for such a long time.

XOXO,
Pauline

Wake up, wake up, sleepyhead!

Hello there everyone,

This week has been very busy (again). The theatre season starts this weekend so the rehearsals don't stop. I play in 2 plays and I feel the difference between the one of the theatre students (in which I play) and the other play I play in. Everyone is really excited and it's a wonderful time. 
I finished my selftaught essay (finally!) so now I only have to prepare my 4 oral presentations. Something funny I noticed is that in the beginning of the year I used to 'google-translate' dutch words into english all the time to express myself and while writing my Dutch essay I had to translate english words to dutch. It is stunning how fast one can forget it's language. 
Anyway, if 2 weeks ago you would have to me that I would wake up one day at 5am to go for a sport-triveni, I would never have believed you! But now today was that day.. One of my triveni's is Sunday Yoga. The teacher said that it is kind of pointless to do it only once a week so we looked for a day that worked for everyone and now we also have it on wednesdays at 6am. I feel very tired now, but I have 3 free blocks so I can rest during the day. It feels really healthy, but I'm just to much of a "not-morning-person" to do this. However, I'll try do keep doing it (: 
And don't think "what is she saying? Yoga is not a sport.." Yoga here is so different than the ones in Belgium, it is way more sportif and you really sweat. If you don't believe me, try to do this moves (in the right way otherwise it's bad for your body) in the morning before you go to school/work/...

 
Well, 
that's it for now, I guess I'm to tired to remember everything that happened over the last few days (although because of all the work not much happens). 
XOXO,
Pauline

Strawberries with icecream

Hey everyone!

This weekend I went to Pune on Saturday. Sonia and I went for some shopping (necessary stuf like shampoo, washing powder,...). While we were walking around we suddenly saw a stand with strawberries!!! YES, STRAWBERRIES! Sonia and I were both very excited and we bought 1 kg of strawberries. Then we went to the shopping mall and we bought icecream and we had an amazing diner! (; Strawberries in the winter is something you will only have once in a lifetime (;

(it didn't look this great though)

On 14th Jan there was a Hindoe festival. It wasn't celebrated big in MUWCI, but there were Indians who dressed up for it. I don't really know what it's about because they didn't really celebrate it or exlpain it, but basically wikipedia says: "Pongal is one of the most popular harvest festivals of southern India, mainly Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Pongal happens in the middle of January every year and marks the auspicious beginning of Uttarayan (sun's journey northwards). The Pongal festival lasts for four days. Celebrations include a drawing of Kolam, swinging & the cooking of delicious Pongal"
One of the nice things about MUWCI is that at least once a week there is some festival from a certain culture/religion. I learn a lot more from the different cultures and religions than I did in class in Belgium because it gets more personal and you can ask people for their stories and opinions (and those are sometimes so different from what we study).
School started again ofcourse, I'm working hard and I have to admit that I'm a little bit stressed with all the work and the selftaught exams and the theatre season. But thanks to my grandparents, parents and friends on MUWCI I can reassure myself that it will work. It's nice to have them to cheer me up.
Yesterday I slept over at Aishwarya's (in wada 5) and it was very nice. Although I slept on the floor (without matrass) for the first time of my life. She proposed to go because she said: "you're European, you're not used to that" so I wanted to prove that I can do it (;. I slept not bad, but I have to admit that a bed is more comfortable.
I already notice that I lose the courage to write my blog often but I'll try. I remember when I was applying everyone said that you start a blog but you never succeed to keep it for two years. So I'm actually doing a great job.
That was it for today,

XOXO
Pauline

Studying at MUWCI and the Newsletter

Hey everyone, 

As promised I took some pictures of studies :D I didn't only take me, because if we think about it I wouldn't be really studying when I take a picture. 

As you see it's not really interesting to see so I won't do it often in the future. (Except for the last one where we added a nice detail). School started this monday and everything is back to normal. I don't have to much homework yet so that's ok. TOK started this week. TOK stands for Theory Of Knowledge, it is an additional thing in the IB that we have to do. Usually it lasts until next year, but they are going to do it in one term so we don't have it next year. Basically TOK is a course where we question knowledge and everything that has to do with it.We will have it during our free block. Here's a funny meme that relates to TOK.

In February-march I have my selftaught exams so now I focussing on that. In theatre classes we're working very hard to get our play ready for theatre season. I may already have mentioned it, in february there is theatre season. This is 2 weeks full of plays that the whole campus can attent. It's performed by the students and staff. I think it will be very nice. 

If I'm not wrong everyone who wanted to apply had to send their applications two days ago, so good luck to you all and maybe we'll see eachother next year (; 



We have the first newsletter also, check it out: http://issuu.com/uwcmahindracollege/docs/fall_2012_newsletter

XOXO, Pauline