I had been planning to post this days ago, but my life for the last four has been: Math IA, Geo IA, Extended Essay, German revision-y type stuff. So I apologize.
I had a request last week for a post about the field trip that some of us took to Wengen in the first week of school. It was the IB Year 2 Biology, Environmental Systems and Societies, and Geography classes that took two days off school and retreated up into the mountains. It was three days of fieldwork, so that we could do some independent lab reports in the science classes, and to gather data for the Geo IA.
We left after school on the Wednesday, and took a bus and four trains to get to Wengen. For those who've never made that trip, it takes about 4 hours, sometimes longer if you don't get good connections with your trains. We arrived in Wengen at about 7:00, where we had a short walk up a hill to get to the school's chalet (it sounds really fancy, I know).
Thursday was spent primarily in some grassland areas further up in the mountains above the chalet. We practiced our fieldwork techniques by doing some random quadrat sampling to determine the diversity of the species in that area. And we had to collect samples of bryophytes, coniferophytes, angiospermophytes, and filicinophytes. We then got to pretend that we were doing something highly illegal, and one teacher jokingly treated it like a covert operation - smuggling plants off the mountain. In reality, it was really only something that would be frowned upon. We continued our rule-breaking spree by having a race to see which group could collect the most bryophytes & filicinophytes or angiospermophytes in a wooded area in only five minutes. Always good to add a bit of competition.
Friday was the big day, because this was the day where the Geo class (which I'm in) basically took over the trip and made people help us with our work. For our IA, we're looking at how the distribution and diversity of alpine plants can indicate the rate of glacial retreat. So that meant taking a train higher into the mountains, and then hiking even further up, until we were almost directly under the Eigergletscher. This time, our field technique was an interrupted belt transect - doing random quadrat sampling was really impractical over a 500m area. So we did our data collection in this scree ravine, which took about 2.5 hours. Then the fun stuff started.
I kicked off the party by dropping my camera, which then took a spectacular tumble over a cliff and straight down 100m into a stream. Needless to say, I didn't get that back. Then we had to hike up the face of a hill, which had a lot of loose scree on it. Not much stable footing, every time someone moved, they sent a rockfall down the slope we were on, which was considerably steep, and ended in a cliff. A lot of people freaked out, which was understandable, as the dominant demographic in the group was teenage girls who weren't experienced hikers. Having said that, girls who were experienced hikers and some guys were a bit shaken too. I think that a decision was made that the trip needed more excitement. Well, we got it.
Safe back at the chalet, we had to turn around and plan the next day's work, which was the independent investigation - so come up with your own research question, identify the variables, plan your procedure, etc - basically a lab report.
A bunch of the boys left at the crack of dawn the next day to hike up a mountain to do their investigation - theirs involved the effect of altitude on something. Most other people just went back to the same places we'd been on Thursday, as they had a pretty good idea of what they'd find there, making the design process a little bit easier.
After everyone had collected their data, we packed up, got back on the train, and had another 4 hour trip home. An exhausting, but fun weekend, really.
Sep 11, 2012
Sep 9, 2012
Sep 5, 2012
London Theatre Trip Day 3
All good things have to come to an end.
Such as the London Trip.
We didn't have much to do on the last day, it was really just a trip to the British Museum. Not that I'm saying that it wasn't cool, because it was. They had a whole exhibition devoted to Shakespeare, and in it, I leanred my interesting fact of the week: Europeans used to collect narwahl tusks because they believed them to be the horns of unicorns. Neat, right? I wouldn't mind having a narwahl tusk lying around sometimes, I've gotta tell you. It'd make a much more effective weapon than say, a baseball bat.
The architecture of the British Museum is pretty awesome. Once upon a time, I wanted to be an architect. I've since realised that sitting and drawing while also doing math is not what I'm cut out for, but I still like to look at architecture.
Once we'd all finished in the museum, we had a couple of hours free in Oxford Cricus, so everyone got rid of the last of their British cash. For me, that meant getting a London 2012 shirt and Nike Pro Combat shorts. Sports nut, remember? My payback was that I had to be dragged through Topshop for about 45 minutes. Not my favourite, but I dealt.
Then of course, it was back on the tube, back on the Gatwick Express, back on EasyJet to go home.
And goodness me did we all need the sleep.
Huge thank yous to the four teachers who made the trip what it was (AWESOME), and to all the students who went along and made it all the more worthwhile.
NOTE: No pictures in this post are mine. They would be mine, but I have ah, misplaced my camera (more about that later in a request I got today for a post about the recent Wengen trip). Credit goes to the lovely and talented individuals who took the photos (I'd credit them by name, but they're entitled to their privacy, unless I sourced them online, in which case, the source is credited).
Such as the London Trip.
We didn't have much to do on the last day, it was really just a trip to the British Museum. Not that I'm saying that it wasn't cool, because it was. They had a whole exhibition devoted to Shakespeare, and in it, I leanred my interesting fact of the week: Europeans used to collect narwahl tusks because they believed them to be the horns of unicorns. Neat, right? I wouldn't mind having a narwahl tusk lying around sometimes, I've gotta tell you. It'd make a much more effective weapon than say, a baseball bat.
The architecture of the British Museum is pretty awesome. Once upon a time, I wanted to be an architect. I've since realised that sitting and drawing while also doing math is not what I'm cut out for, but I still like to look at architecture.
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| Look at that and tell me it isn't cool |
Then of course, it was back on the tube, back on the Gatwick Express, back on EasyJet to go home.
And goodness me did we all need the sleep.
Huge thank yous to the four teachers who made the trip what it was (AWESOME), and to all the students who went along and made it all the more worthwhile.
NOTE: No pictures in this post are mine. They would be mine, but I have ah, misplaced my camera (more about that later in a request I got today for a post about the recent Wengen trip). Credit goes to the lovely and talented individuals who took the photos (I'd credit them by name, but they're entitled to their privacy, unless I sourced them online, in which case, the source is credited).
London Theatre Trip Day 2
After what felt like no sleep, we were up bright and early on Saturday, ready for a tour of the Globe Theatre. I don't know how many readers out there have been to the Globe, but I'm sure they'll agree that it's pretty neat, even if you're not a huge Shakespeare fan. So if you haven't been, and you get the chance to go, do it. It's also really cool if you're studying Shakespeare's plays in school, because you know what kind of theatre he wrote them all to be performed in. It aids a bit in your understanding of the stage directions used and the scene designs, etc. Of course, we all needed a dose of caffeine before we were ready to appreciate this, so we all hit the nearest Starbucks just before the tour started.
We struck gold with our tour guide - he was rioutously funny, extremely charismatic, quite flamboyant, and I believe he was also an actor. I didn't really hear that part of his commentary. My bad. Anyway, he was a far cry from the stuffy, boring tour guides that you often get on tours of places like the Globe. He had us all interested right from the get go. And I kid you not, he looked like Jim Carrey's long-lost twin.
So, the Globe. The one we toured is not the actual theatre that Shakespeare used, that one is <300 metres away and used as a carpark. The dust of Shakespeare's bones is shifting in his grave at this information. Or he might think that's hilarious, I don't know. The Bard was a weird bloke. The Globe was built over the course of several years in the 1900s, by a Shakespeare enthusiast by the name of Sam Wanamaker, who collected donations from individual people, families and businesses to build the place. It opened in 1997, after Wanamaker's death in 1993, and the names of the people and organisations who donated to the project are engraved on stones surrounding the theatre. That's as much detail as I'm going into, if you want more information, Google is your friend.
After the tour, we loitered for a couple of hours before a 2pm performance of Hamlet. Sticking with our trend for cheap everything, our tickets only bought us standing room, in the peasants' section, i.e. the floor. But that was okay, because we were right up against the stage, which is the best place to be, in part because you can use the stage as support when you feel like your feet are falling off from standing for so long.
I myself am not the biggest fan of Shakespeare, to be honest, and if I had to pick a favourite Shakespeare play, it would not be Hamlet. It's quite depressing, see. I think it's just a very long-winded way of killing off a whole bunch of people. Maybe the Bard was feeling ragey the day he wrote it, I don't know. Anyway, despite my lack of enthusiasm, I was thoroughly impressed by the performance the cast gave. The young guy playing Hamlet was particularly good. He brought a lot of passion to the role, and it made the character extremely engaging. The old school English was hard to follow at times, but we all got the gist of it.
The only negative thing I have to say is that we stood for three hours. Three hours. Three hours at a concert is not as much of a big deal, because you're full of adrenaline and jumping around all over the place. Concentrating on Shakepeare and standing still for three hours is foot homicide. A cute distraction was watching a very popular English teacher get excited about Shakespeare. You don't often see teachers having fangirl moments, so it was pretty neat.
So after we killed our feet, it was somehow decided that the best cure was a half hour walk. Nuh uh. Not cool. It gave us an opportunity to see more of the London skyline, but ohmygoodness it was tiring. The light at the end of the tunnel was dinner and a show.
I haven't talked about being in the land of amazing food yet, but I will tell you about this Japanese restaurant we went to. It's called Toku, it's on Regent Street (just a five minute walk from Piccadilly Circus station), and it's AMAZING. Easily one of the best dining experiences of my life. Brilliant food, exceptional service, and the staff are SO NICE. No joke. As we were leaving, every single employee said goodbye, and thank you. I was staggered. So if you're near Piccadilly Circus and you're hungry, go to Toku. You won't regret it.
Back to the education-enriching part of the trip. That night's show was The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre. Last year's school production was The 39 Steps, and many people on the trip were involved in it, so it was so cool to watch it done by the pros and compare it to how we'd done it. We all agreed that our characterization was better, but that's probably because we knew all the actors, and we could see little bits of them showing through. One thing that bugged everyone though, was the accent of Annabella Schmidt. She's supposed to have a German accent. The actress playing her somehow mixed French and Russian in there too. Very confusing. I'm still not sure if it was deliberate or not.
But despite that, it was still an excellent production. Four people playing I-don't-even-know-how-many roles. A lot, basically. Very entertaining.
Day 3 up next!
NOTE: No pictures in this post are mine. They would be mine, but I have ah, misplaced my camera (more about that later in a request I got today for a post about the recent Wengen trip). Credit goes to the lovely and talented individuals who took the photos (I'd credit them by name, but they're entitled to their privacy, unless I sourced them online, in which case, the source is credited).
We struck gold with our tour guide - he was rioutously funny, extremely charismatic, quite flamboyant, and I believe he was also an actor. I didn't really hear that part of his commentary. My bad. Anyway, he was a far cry from the stuffy, boring tour guides that you often get on tours of places like the Globe. He had us all interested right from the get go. And I kid you not, he looked like Jim Carrey's long-lost twin.
So, the Globe. The one we toured is not the actual theatre that Shakespeare used, that one is <300 metres away and used as a carpark. The dust of Shakespeare's bones is shifting in his grave at this information. Or he might think that's hilarious, I don't know. The Bard was a weird bloke. The Globe was built over the course of several years in the 1900s, by a Shakespeare enthusiast by the name of Sam Wanamaker, who collected donations from individual people, families and businesses to build the place. It opened in 1997, after Wanamaker's death in 1993, and the names of the people and organisations who donated to the project are engraved on stones surrounding the theatre. That's as much detail as I'm going into, if you want more information, Google is your friend.
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| Just an idea of what the interior looks like |
I myself am not the biggest fan of Shakespeare, to be honest, and if I had to pick a favourite Shakespeare play, it would not be Hamlet. It's quite depressing, see. I think it's just a very long-winded way of killing off a whole bunch of people. Maybe the Bard was feeling ragey the day he wrote it, I don't know. Anyway, despite my lack of enthusiasm, I was thoroughly impressed by the performance the cast gave. The young guy playing Hamlet was particularly good. He brought a lot of passion to the role, and it made the character extremely engaging. The old school English was hard to follow at times, but we all got the gist of it.
The only negative thing I have to say is that we stood for three hours. Three hours. Three hours at a concert is not as much of a big deal, because you're full of adrenaline and jumping around all over the place. Concentrating on Shakepeare and standing still for three hours is foot homicide. A cute distraction was watching a very popular English teacher get excited about Shakespeare. You don't often see teachers having fangirl moments, so it was pretty neat.
So after we killed our feet, it was somehow decided that the best cure was a half hour walk. Nuh uh. Not cool. It gave us an opportunity to see more of the London skyline, but ohmygoodness it was tiring. The light at the end of the tunnel was dinner and a show.
I haven't talked about being in the land of amazing food yet, but I will tell you about this Japanese restaurant we went to. It's called Toku, it's on Regent Street (just a five minute walk from Piccadilly Circus station), and it's AMAZING. Easily one of the best dining experiences of my life. Brilliant food, exceptional service, and the staff are SO NICE. No joke. As we were leaving, every single employee said goodbye, and thank you. I was staggered. So if you're near Piccadilly Circus and you're hungry, go to Toku. You won't regret it.
Back to the education-enriching part of the trip. That night's show was The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre. Last year's school production was The 39 Steps, and many people on the trip were involved in it, so it was so cool to watch it done by the pros and compare it to how we'd done it. We all agreed that our characterization was better, but that's probably because we knew all the actors, and we could see little bits of them showing through. One thing that bugged everyone though, was the accent of Annabella Schmidt. She's supposed to have a German accent. The actress playing her somehow mixed French and Russian in there too. Very confusing. I'm still not sure if it was deliberate or not.
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| The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre |
Day 3 up next!
NOTE: No pictures in this post are mine. They would be mine, but I have ah, misplaced my camera (more about that later in a request I got today for a post about the recent Wengen trip). Credit goes to the lovely and talented individuals who took the photos (I'd credit them by name, but they're entitled to their privacy, unless I sourced them online, in which case, the source is credited).
London Theatre Trip Day 1
Sorry this took a while to post, I know it's Wednesday and I said I'd try to post on Monday...my excuse is that I've been sick since Sunday, so lay down the torches and pitchforks.
Anyway, last Friday, my sister and I woke up at the unflattering hour of 5:30 AM. We met up with the other 36 people (including four teachers) at the Bahnhof, where we caught a train to Zürich Flughafen. Us seniors were outnumbered, there were only eight of us (supposed to be nine, but one had a fever and didn't go), as opposed to a squillion juniors (I have math next period, don't ask me to do any extra).
Being glamorous and Swiss and all the rest of it, we flew EasyJet (such splendor), thankfully into Gatwick, not Heathrow. Heathrow would have been a dog's breakfast what with the Paralympics going on. We took the Gatwick Express (ooh sounds fancy) to London Victoria, and then the super-clean Underground. It was entertaining seeing all the judgemental looks we were getting from Londoners as nearly forty people with luggage commandeered their public transport system. I swear, the staff monitoring the ticket gates must get so sick of holding gates open for tourists. Poor souls.
Once we all managed to get off at the right tube stop, it was a short walk to our extremely high-end hotel (if you want to Google it, it's the King's Hotel). I won't go into the gory details, but the advantage of staying in cheap accommodation meant we got to do more stuff while keeping the cost of the trip down. So once we'd rid ourselves of our luggage, off we were to the British Library.
Let me tell you, as we walked through the front gate, many of us bookworms (myself included) were full on fangirling over what might be inside. Needless to say, we all raced inside, first destination on the map being theHoly Grail original handwritten manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It was like my entire childhood in a glass case. It was amazing. JK's handwriting is as shocking as mine, which made it difficult to read what had been crossed out, but anyway. And there were lots of doodles of hearts in the margins. Super cool. I think about a dozen of us just stood there for about ten minutes just fawning over it. You could almost feel the legacy radiating off it.
Also in the British Library: The Magna Carta, manuscripts from all over the world, plus some from some awesome authors such as Dickens, Chaucer, Tolkein, and more. There were also a lot of reading rooms which were more like your everyday library, but those required a pass, and we didn't have a pass, so I couldn't go drool over all the medical textbooks. Next time, perhaps.
Another cool thing at the library: a little shack out the front where you can take a picture with a genuine London 2012 Olympic torch, completely free of charge! Can you imagine, something Olympics-realted that's free? I had to pinch myself. So of course, we all pretended we were torchbearers for thirty seconds. It was a highlight for me, being a sports nut and all.
Next stop after the library was dinner, and then the Haymarket Theatre Royal to see the superb comedy, One Man Two Guvnors. Now, if you're in London and you have a few hours spare, I highly recommend going to see this. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. A big part of the performance was the skiffle band The Craze, who were very charismatic and wonderful performers.
As for the play itself, it's set in 1963 in Brighton, and it's more or less about this guy, Francis Henshall (Owain Arthur), who is separately employed under two different people who have no idea that their employee has a second job. Francis' motivation here is to earn more money because he hasn't eaten for 16 hours and can't afford some chips and a pint. So to keep his two jobs, he attempts to prevent his two employers from meeting each other, but in the end, it turns out they already know each other (quite well in fact) and will eventually see each other anyway.
A major theme in the performance is the continuous breakdown of the fourth wall (for those who don't know what that is, Google it). The characters frequently speak in asides to the audience, and there are several instances where Francis interacts directly with the audience, even calling up "audience" members on stage to aid in the performance. Hysterically funny. The showing that we watched involved an unscripted part where Francis asked the audience if anyone had a sandwich, and some random guy yelled back that he had a hommus sandwich. Being Brighton in '63, they didn't have hommus, so this was very befuddling to poor Francis who is easily confused anyway. The actor lost composure for a while and had a laugh, improvised a bit, and then told the guy who'd replied that they weren't real questions and he wasn't supposed to have answered. Whoops.
By the time the play finished, it was about 10pm, so it was a tube ride home and bedtime for little people.
Day 2 coming up soon!
NOTE: No pictures in this post are mine. They would be mine, but I have ah, misplaced my camera (more about that later in a request I got today for a post about the recent Wengen trip). Credit goes to the lovely and talented individuals who took the photos (I'd credit them by name, but they're entitled to their privacy, unless I sourced them online, in which case, the source is credited).
Anyway, last Friday, my sister and I woke up at the unflattering hour of 5:30 AM. We met up with the other 36 people (including four teachers) at the Bahnhof, where we caught a train to Zürich Flughafen. Us seniors were outnumbered, there were only eight of us (supposed to be nine, but one had a fever and didn't go), as opposed to a squillion juniors (I have math next period, don't ask me to do any extra).
Being glamorous and Swiss and all the rest of it, we flew EasyJet (such splendor), thankfully into Gatwick, not Heathrow. Heathrow would have been a dog's breakfast what with the Paralympics going on. We took the Gatwick Express (ooh sounds fancy) to London Victoria, and then the super-clean Underground. It was entertaining seeing all the judgemental looks we were getting from Londoners as nearly forty people with luggage commandeered their public transport system. I swear, the staff monitoring the ticket gates must get so sick of holding gates open for tourists. Poor souls.
Once we all managed to get off at the right tube stop, it was a short walk to our extremely high-end hotel (if you want to Google it, it's the King's Hotel). I won't go into the gory details, but the advantage of staying in cheap accommodation meant we got to do more stuff while keeping the cost of the trip down. So once we'd rid ourselves of our luggage, off we were to the British Library.
Let me tell you, as we walked through the front gate, many of us bookworms (myself included) were full on fangirling over what might be inside. Needless to say, we all raced inside, first destination on the map being the
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| We ate afternoon tea in the Library café right next to this wall of books. So much knowlege in one place! |
Another cool thing at the library: a little shack out the front where you can take a picture with a genuine London 2012 Olympic torch, completely free of charge! Can you imagine, something Olympics-realted that's free? I had to pinch myself. So of course, we all pretended we were torchbearers for thirty seconds. It was a highlight for me, being a sports nut and all.
Next stop after the library was dinner, and then the Haymarket Theatre Royal to see the superb comedy, One Man Two Guvnors. Now, if you're in London and you have a few hours spare, I highly recommend going to see this. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. A big part of the performance was the skiffle band The Craze, who were very charismatic and wonderful performers.
As for the play itself, it's set in 1963 in Brighton, and it's more or less about this guy, Francis Henshall (Owain Arthur), who is separately employed under two different people who have no idea that their employee has a second job. Francis' motivation here is to earn more money because he hasn't eaten for 16 hours and can't afford some chips and a pint. So to keep his two jobs, he attempts to prevent his two employers from meeting each other, but in the end, it turns out they already know each other (quite well in fact) and will eventually see each other anyway.
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| Owain Arthur (Francis Henshall) and Jodie Prenger (Dolly) in One Man Two Guvnors. Image source: http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/industry-insight/article/getting-started-in-acting |
By the time the play finished, it was about 10pm, so it was a tube ride home and bedtime for little people.
Day 2 coming up soon!
NOTE: No pictures in this post are mine. They would be mine, but I have ah, misplaced my camera (more about that later in a request I got today for a post about the recent Wengen trip). Credit goes to the lovely and talented individuals who took the photos (I'd credit them by name, but they're entitled to their privacy, unless I sourced them online, in which case, the source is credited).
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