"Get Busy Living..." OKAY!

Sometimes the reflections are deceivingly clear.
Better watch your step by the shore.

So I will admit it, I've been bad. My promised bi-weekly posts didn't happen. In fact no posting has, my B. I was a tad too optimistic about both my available time and my motivation to type about life in my rare moments of peace. To be honest I am still considering pressing save and snuggling back into my bunk right now before the start of my third class (Today my Bio teacher has taken the day off due to prokaryotic cultivation in her throat, yes, that is how she phrased it in her email). But I suppose I can manage to finish this post, I owe it to you.

Magic Exists

I last left off, oh about five weeks ago, with settling in and discovering the magic of Red Cross Nordic. No news there. It is still magical, I don't think I will ever be less stunned by the flawless reflections of our buildings in the Fjord or become accustomed to the intense nature we coexist with. Though it is changing, within the last month all of the wonderful vibrant greens have morphed into various burnt siennas, banana yellows, and ash greens and reds. The leaves never truly fell, at least not in the way they do at home where you can pile them all up and jump into their crackling skins. Here nothing is ever dry, the leaves don't gather at the base of the trees, and no one wants to stumble into the mess of gook that would exist if you attempted to gather them. Even so they do flutter about in a feather-like fashion as the rain drips endlessly from leaf to leaf, continuously, regardless of the weather. Hypnotic.

Discovering the Great Outdoors. This isnt the stream I fell in,
That one was bigger...



The second game was played with tunnel vision goggles.
Interesting perspective but a lot of bloody players by the end.

I took up an EAC (extra academic commitment) titled Outdoor Discovery briefly, I would have continued it had I not blown out my ankle falling down the Finland House drop-off, and it allowed me to see so much more of the beautiful Norwegian atmosphere. Pair that with the ShutterBug EAC and I had a brilliant excuse to leave campus, take photos, and be dandy. (Its no wonder it took me so long to get back to blogging) Since my bout of clumsiness I have continued photographing,but now spend more time with Amnesty International which has been a brilliant chance to see how the rest of the world reacts individually and becomes one giant machine. With this group I have been a part of a few campaigns, gone to some interestingly impaired football games, and enjoyed some great South African Music with some of their representatives visiting the college.
Within those same two weeks UWC celebrated fifty years of education towards peace (Video Below- 50 Years of Home{I am in Purple}) and held a Peace One Day action, a day laced with both cultural awareness and understanding (I heard Hindi Prayers and witnessed all sorts of martial arts, crafts, and literature) as well as touched on inner piece and the discovery of the "Self" (We had a fire and were each presented a paper with which to burn away a worry). That evening we had a much needed break from every day Kantina food and welcomed the cultural cooking of Sweden House inhabitants.


Burning away my worries.









Academic schedule here never truly settles in and as soon as we recovered from those celebrations and commitments we were greeted with our PBL week (Project Based Learning) and our First Year Show.

My PBL was sustainable living in Heggnes, a cute little house in the middle of the mountains. The hike out was a bit torturous, but I had asked the Nurse to let me rough it out. My stubbornness resulted in getting stuck out there with a UK friend of mine for a day alone, but the relaxation was much needed and the day was used pleasantly for me to read and her to knit (I'm too fidgety to manage an even stitch). The week was spent living with as little "outside" interference as possible. We ate fully vegetarian meals (to my delight) enjoying the great home cooking each of us could offer. It was SO good to be away from the indiscernible concoctions of the Kantina. We even managed a 15 km meal. I think it is safe to say that as pleased as we were to return to showers and music, we were all a little bummed to have to enter the building and find typical RCN food.

To be fair, I had to go discover the Kantina myself. I, along with an Argentinian friend of mine, signed up for a two hour shift cooking supper with the staff. It was an enlightening experience and I would very much advise everyone to try it. The staff is very kind and cooking for two hundred and forty two people from so many cultural and palette backgrounds on restricted time and budget is extraordinarily difficult. I give them props for what they accomplish and a thank you whenever I pass the window. Nonetheless, I prefer my own Dayroom cooking.

First year show went smashingly, quite the success, to our concerned pleasure. Up until the final twenty minutes of rehearsal it had been two months of "high functioning chaos." As with all RCN events, when students are in charge and given free range there tends to be a lot of humor, a lot of national mocking, and a lot of skin. I will never forget the sight of six RCN first year guys dancing on stage to "Call Me Maybe" while wearing bikinis. (The suits were probably more modest on the guys than on the ladies who owned them)
The video on the left is our RCN parody of Gangnam Style entitled "Gustaf Style." Gustaf is one of my Swedish friends.First Year created for the first year show. Enjoy.

This week we attempted once more to jump into classes after finishing PBL, and once more the schedule was changed to fit in a Mental Health Awareness day in the middle. Initially I thought, "Great, a day of my life wasted," and it took me a good 6 hours dozing on the floor, listening to this man ramble about the mental self until I found a message. After a two week low, I have pulled my head outta my butt and am now back on track attempting to reign in the IB. I think I nearly spend more time trying to understand the grade-less structure and necessary criteria for the diploma than I do in my actual classes, but I have been warned that will change *cringe* I intend to change up my courses again. My goal is to drop Biology and squeeze my way into one of the Physics courses. Its in the works.

Light Show

Outside classes, we are all slowly adjusting to the insistent darkness creeping in, 14 more minutes every single day, enjoying magic rainbows across the Fjord when the sun shows up, and standing in awe of the impressive lights show that passes over our heads in the evening. Northern Lights will always be a thrill. The stars here are impressive and the water is clear enough that you can stargaze in the Fjord when your neck is sore from gawking up at the sky. I was pleasantly surprised to find Ursa Major and Minor have both accompanied me to Norway, or rather I accompanied them...? I find a bit of joy thinking that my family and friends look up to the same constellations, and a bit of a playful smirk pulls at the corners of my mouth to think that my view, of course, is a bit better and less polluted.

Sleep doesn't happen much here, everyone needs some time with actual people when they finally pull their noses out of their textbooks, notes, and crooks of their elbow from nodding off in the library. Most of us walk at night in the company of people we enjoy. Substances float around campus of course, as they do on all campuses. Some can be dabbled in intelligently, but most I leave for others to experiment with. When people get bored new hair cuts tend to appear and artwork begins to pop up all over the place, pranks are pulled and clever rebellions happen. In the Kantina above the drinks, about five meters up the wall is a Guy Faux mask. No one can decide how it got there, who managed to get that high, or how the heck to get it down. I prefer it be left there anyways, and we have all welcomed the mystery. Mondays we go to Dale (I buy peanut butter and jelly and bananas). Various other days are blocked in with swimming, fitness, dancing, films, political debates, and the like of college events. Everything is a buzz all of the time. Nothing ever closes or locks down. Many a night is spent in the studio at 3 am jamming to tunes and being creative or in the philosophy classroom cross-legged on the cushions contemplating Descartes.

There was no pot of gold. But being able to see both ends touch down was just as thrilling.

I like freedom. It suits me. Until Next Time,
Onyx



Baked bread with a roomate and a friend. (Sweden)

There's no place like home... and now this is home.

I made it, barely, but it happened, I am here! At Red Cross Nordic United World College that is. Getting here was quite a mess and I went through eight or so boarding passes. In DIA the airplane that was intended to fly me to Reykjavik and then land in Bergen at 12 the next day broke. I was sent to a seperate gate where I was boarded onto a new plane four or so hours later. I arrived in Reykjavik just as late as I left Denver, so by then I had missed my flight to Bergen. They rerouted me to Oslo from there where I wandered around hopelessly lost, was made to reclaim my baggage, recheck it, and then go through security again. By the time I made it through security (my electric toothbrush caused issues) I had missed my flight again and was sent to Bergen and hour later. Finally arriving in Bergen I hoped to death my adventure in the airport was over...Nope... My luggage came on two different airplanes and I sat in baggage claim for an hour and a half or so. Exaughsted I sat and waited four hours for the bus just to ride another four hours to Flekke on tiny roads and a ferry ride.

We were greeted as all RCN students are: Every second year had arrived the day before and they all came running up to the bus clad for the occasion, with signs to find their roomates, and enough enthousiasm that they were literally rocking the bus with their banging against the sides. After wading through the mosh pit of second years they overran the bus isles pulling their chosen first years from their seats and helping them with their luggage back to their rooms.

Once the excitement died down most everyone went to bed, first years and second years alike. My bus had arrived at 12:30 Flekke time and another was expected to arrive at 4:30 am. My second year and I felt badly that they would not be greeted by anyone so the two of us drank tea until four thirty in the morning, greeted the second bus and then returned to our bunks to crash.

The rest of the week was a bit nuts, we learned the ins and outs of functioning in the UWC community (where to take the trash, how to clean your dishes, which doors are unlocked, and the like), we hemmed and hawed over our class choices and attended fairs to finalize our decisions, we visited the town and drove inland to Floro to finish our visa documentation.

After completing all of the random formalities and orientation tours we were given a few days to catch up with life here before classes began. I was SO glad for that time. For a week I had been unable to properly organize my corner and I was going to snap if I had to deal with another random pile with no common categorization. During this time we did a six km fun run, jumped intot the Fjord, dressed super goofy for a RCN theme party and got our house spirit on in any event we could.  After fixing my corner, personalizing my bed, and going on a run to Flekke (campus is actually about 3 km out of the town) I was physically and mentally exaughsted. I remember waking one "morning" to hear a Canadian in my room laugh and say "Does she realized she has missed both breakfast and lunch?" I awoke at 2:25 that day... I also went to bed immediatly after dinner at 6:30 that evening. 

Today classes began, I am scheduled in HL: Biology, Philosophy, and Mathematics CL: English Lit and Art SL: Norwegian AB initio. Today I had my first lessons in Eng Lit, Philosophy, and Math. Math scared the life out of me. I was told to be comfortable with a 66%, I have never been comfortable with anything in the 80-89% range, I have no idea how I will manage this course. In philosophy I decided that there is no "self" merely a projection that we label as an "identity". English Lit turned out to be a small all girls class and we began with a Chick Lit, before I could gag and wish myself dead Larry promised he could not stand it any more than I could and we would not read more than 3 paragraphs of the hyperbolic trash. Oh yes, to add to the great "fun" of that class my teacher happens to be the school Rektor, he is also heavily accented (UK). I fear my English may be in danger of becoming very precise.

Happily, my Day 1 (We have a seven day rotational block schedule) schedule allows me to complete all of my classes by noon, which is convienient. In my free time I run, play music at the boathouse, photograph anything I deem photogenic (everything can be in the right light and angle) or sleep.

Right now I have to head to dinner after which perhaps I will head to the rehab center and bike in the basement and then attempt to find some American TV on the internet (Hulu doesnt work here).



The surreal enviroment hasnt really sunk in yet but somehow I think it never will, thats the beauty of it. Every day I will pass the Cantine Waterful and be enchanted, I will be astonished at the intensity of the green here, and totally mesmerized by the Fjord and all that it offers. I challenge you to find something in nature that captivates you, inspires you. I know I have plenty to fuel my art, writing, and reflective tendencies here and I cannot wait to emply the power of natures enlightening energy.

Couldn't It Be Follow the Butterflies?... "Nearly There" Jitters

It has been a considerable amount of time since my last post, and for that I do apologize. This summer has been quite... quite... well interesting at very least.

Towards the beginning I headed out to Indianapolis, Indiana for a wedding. Personally I am not a huge wedding fan and was much more pleased with my visit to the Indy 500 Speedway and tour with-in. There is much magic to be found standing on the brick start line kissed by 500 winners. I spent my week there and rushed home to unpack, wash, and repack.

With my newly packed luggage, I headed to Lamont School of Music at Denver University for two intense weeks. Never before have I practiced so many hours in one day. Each student had their own practice room! I swear my mouth was nearing some extreme meltdown by the final concert. I was thrilled to have choir first thing in the morning though, being allowed to sing before you can do anything else was almost as fantastic as being able to sing loudly in the shower as I usually do in the morning but was too shy to do in a shared suite with all my roommates to hear. Following was a full day of Lessons, Theory, Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Rehearsals, Personal Practice Time, and every evening was a concert to attend and a specified attire to arrive in. Somewhere in there we shoved in meals and sleeping, but usually I was too exhausted to go to dinner and preferred to chill on the commons couch for an hour napping before performances. After a relievingly shenanigan free final concert I went to dinner with a few cherished people and headed home to unpack, wash and repack.


Between trips I had about two weeks home which I spent with my close friends for my birthday at my favorite spot: Squeaks Soda Shoppe, my sister for her birthday at the Colorado Renaissance Festival in Larkspur, many a doctors appointment, some UWC alumni, and my special someone at Bandimere Speedway where I happened to meet Bob Frey.

After experiencing the wonders of the Red Rocks Amphitheatre for Foster the People, who, by the way, had a wonderful band along with them: Mayer Hawthorne and the County, I took my fresh packed duffel and headed for Pueblo to go to the Rocky Mountain Youth Leadership Conference happening at the CSU Pueblo campus. For five days we sat for up to six hours listening to lectures by the most incredible people: A WW2 pilot and his British war bride, a philosophy professor from the Air Force Academy, many military personnel from Westpoint, and countless thinkers with a resume too long for the host to introduce the with. In our other time we performed leadership tasks like writing blindfolded, silently building forts, untangling string mazes simultaneously yet competitively with other teams and the like. That Friday I returned home drained and quite ready for a meal that did not consist in part of pizza. Upon arriving home I then... unpacked, washed, and repacked (catch a pattern?)

Once again with my suitcases prepared for travel, I boarded a plane and headed to Portland, as did the entire Bergstrom family. Three Generations of Bergstroms, spanning five Bergstrom children and their spouses and children met up at Cape Lookout near Tillamook, Oregon and spent the next ten days in the beach cabins for our family reunion. I spent hours splashing, boarding, crab-catching, and every other beach related activity well after my nose was peeling and my back matched the shells of the very crustaceans I was capturing. Of course you can only spend so long with family and eventually we all headed back to our respective parts of the country but not before a spectacular beach fire, some overdone marshmallows, and a Chinese sky lantern lit farewell on the sand. And home again we rushed as by then my sister had missed her first day of school and would be headed strait to bed in attempts to sit all of her classes without face palming her desk.

That brings us to current time. My sister is at school, I am home (guess what I am doing...) unpacking ready to wash, shop for a few necessities, and (you guessed it) repack for my own schooling in Norway. Currently my mother and myself are attempting to fix some paperwork issues that is causing my visa to be delayed and there is a swirl of constant chaos in the house as everyone settles back into their yearly routine until Christmas. As for my routine, well I would prefer to stay as far away from one as possible, I am so extremely excited to have the opportunity to be set in a world where there is no normal, no expectation or limitation beyond pushing your prejudices and leashing your cynicism.

This week will be a busy week, full of last minute arrangements and friends that I will not see again for an extended period of time. I will be enjoying my chats with my sister, my late night walks with my brother, and all of my time with those I hold dear,

Until Next Time (G**dby* is not a word I would like to have in my vocabulary)
Onyx

Travel Plans, Visas, Registration, Oh My.

So seeing as I have to leave in a few months I decided to do some research on weather and speak to some current students. What have I discovered? Norway in the South is much like Colorado except very wet. If I can stay dry I should be alright. Then again who am I kidding? This from the girl who runs through sprinklers on the regular basis, falls ice skating, and swims in every pool available. I am sure there will be a couple of misadventures in the Fjord and plenty of chilly nights. But that's all part of the experience. My main goal weather wise is to avoid to foretold "Funk" that everyone slips into around November due to light transitions and being kept in by the weather. The people on campus seem very friendly and I can't wait to share in there endless meets to drink tea (its fortunate that I like tea as I was told quite bluntly that I would be drinking it regardless of my preferences).

In the world of visas, well paperwork paperwork paperwork. I've done my fair share of emailing, printing, scanning, and 'snail-mailing' documents to the San Fransisco Consulate as well as the RNC folks. Mom and I booked flight stuff yesterday. I will be spending a long seven and a half hours on an Icelandair plane overnight and landing in Iceland early morning (6:30 am). Lucky for me I get almost two hours to explore that airport after finding my gate, then its off to Bergen airport on a two hour hop. so all in all about ten hours on a plane encompassing two days of travel. The bus for campus meets at Bergen but after checking out the roads a simple 'as-the-crow-flies' transit actually turns out to be rather winding and out of the way before ending up on campus. I guess more sleeping time? more likely I will be happily chattering to fellow students. Then on August 21st the real adventure begins. Super excited.

As of right now I'm idly typing as I just sent my brother back to Alaska and my sister off to Bulgaria from DIA. Everyone is doing a bit of international touring. In two days I depart for Indiana and summer kicks off. Best enjoy the warm weather I suppose. Sunscreen and flip flops here I come.

A Letter From Hogwarts...UWC?

As I am sure you picked up from the title, this is my personal blog for my personal experiences at RCNUWC. If I know you personally then hopefully you can pick up the Onyx-like tone, if not, well you are certainly welcome to stick around, after all I do love people!

So currently I am not in Norway, I am sitting comfortably on my average couch at my average home with my average family in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. This adventure started right here, though, on my average couch. One afternoon my sister and I went to fetch the mail (it's kind of our thing, going and getting the mail together) upon returning I plopped down on the "average couch" and began flipping through mail. Anyone who has taken the SATs or ACTs knows for sure that an obnoxious amount of college mail drifts your way, in fact I am currently the holder of a nearly two foot stack of such mail, and that most of it is useless. On this particular day while tossing aside college mail my sister muttered something along the lines of "That one says 'world' on it, perhaps you should open it." The envelope was indeed labels 'United World College.' Thank you so much for that comment! It literally changed my life.

Following opening that average looking envelope, I spent a good three months on an online application that has to have been one of the most in depth, brain teasing tasks ever. What should I say? What do they actually care about? So, in search of some help, I spoke to my teachers and administrative councilor at school and slowly pieced together an application to reflect myself, at least as well as anyone can when filling out fields within an online site. This was followed by a month or so of waiting, during which you have to force admittance out of your mind and constantly remind yourself that the chances of getting in are slim and not to get your hopes up. January rolled around and so did the date of information. On January 10th I opened an email reading something along the lines of "This year was a difficult year as more applicants have submitted a form than ever before" while reading I slowly began talking myself down, "Its alright, Onyx, there are more opportunities out there, you knew the chances were low..." I continued reading what I was certain was the email confirming my continual enrollment at my current high school. After finishing the generic opening I encountered this sentence, "I am delighted to report that you have advanced to the interview stage of the Davis Scholar application process!  The U.S. Selection Committee is very impressed with your academic record, commitment to community service and interest in global issues, and our admission team looks forward to meeting you in person."

Two months later, March 31st, I was in New Mexico sitting in a room along with eighteen other applicants from across the United States, including one of my classmates. It was a strange day, consisting of a personal interview, group leadership activities like trying to put down a pole (that sounds so much easier than it is, ten people and twenty minutes later we managed to put it on the floor, it wasn't heavy, it was a fiber glass tent pole, the kind you could balance on your index finger), a random shopping trip to Costco (forty people, fifteen minutes, ninety-nine dollars, GO!), and a taste of UWC life with some current students. Afterwords I don't think anyone felt comfortable that we were to par. The entire group headed to a restaurant, and after a few hours of bonding wished each other a "See you on campus soon!" and headed back to our respective parts of the country.

Once again the dreadful waiting began along with the brain comments "It's alright, most of you are going to be turned down, you made it far be proud of that." On April 23th, I, along with 119 other phase two Americans, repetitively refreshed my email until one popped up, "On behalf of the U.S. Selection Committee, I am pleased to nominate you for a Davis Scholarship to attend UWC Red Cross Norway." There was no lead up on that one, just BAM! and my life changed.

Since then I have done some research on Norway, added some friends on FaceBook from my future home at RCNUWC, and spent a good amount of time contemplating my situation. Of course I am extremely excited to be one of fifty Americans joining the UWC movement and moreover one of two Americans studying at Red Cross Nordic UWC but I will be completely honest, the excitement such an incredible opportunity is equally paired with a bottom of your stomach back of your throat sort of fear. The anticipation to spread peace and expand my insight is matched with a longing to keep the people I love and a itch not to disappoint. My responsibilities where I am now are large enough that passing them off to someone I cannot certainly trust will be very difficult and saying goodbye to my team mates, friends, family, and everyone I have come to love and respect is going to be a challenge.

None the less, I will be leaving in less than four months and attempting to find a happy balance between the world of UWC and the outside world. It is possible and I will manage. So coming full circle, I have now landed at the creation of my blog. It's serving a bit like a tie down: Allowing me to float at one end, discovering the world, culture, and probably quite a bit of myself along the way, all while keeping some sort of connection to my..."roots" I guess you would have to call them.

As I mentioned in my introductory statement, I find the unplanned tends to be the most memorable and enjoyable, so for now I will continue to sit on my "average couch", enjoy my family, and eat lasagna. Tomorrow I will keep laughing with my friends and enjoying the goofy dog who scrambles around the house like a hyper spaz when I come home, just waiting for my sister and I to open the front door and invite him to come get the mail with us. Adventure can be found everywhere.