Friday 27 December 2013

Takin' it Eeeaaasy

It's the Third Day of Christmas today. And for all of us students on vacation, here's a little task for our semi-conscious minds... What's the date of the this post? Ahh ahh no cheating by looking at the automatic date attached to this post by blogger. 

Not sure how long it took you but it took me a good minute before I figured out it was the 27th of December. I even had a massive internal debate over whether it was the 27th or 28th. Finally it hit me it had to be the 27th because the first day of Christmas is Christmas Day itself (25th).

Yes I'm definitely in 'holiday' mode, after all I went through all that to say this... I AM ON HOLIDAY as you probably deciphered a long time ago. It's currently my writer break which is a nice whole month. From the 12th of December to the 12th of January. 

Since the start of the holidays I spent a couple of days in London before heading back to the sunny island of Singapore. I can't believe I'll be back in Britain the Great in about a week. Time really does fly (what's the name of this blog???). It's been nice being back. Giving me a little bit of a breather after all that UWC. Not saying that I don't miss it... I do and I guess that's why I have been harassing a number of co-years. If such behaviour was to be translated into any form other than on Facebook, I think I'd potentially have a criminal charge for harassment and perhaps have a restraining order placed on me. 

Unfortunately, the one thing I have not been able to get away from, irregardless of a break or no break is the IB. I have just completed the first draft of my Economics IA and my second English Literature in Translation essay. Sadly I still have a reflective essay for Literature, History notes to complete and much needed revision for Mandarin left on my to-do list... Quite a mood dampener!

But I have been leading quite a 'balanced lifestyle'. I have been having my required 10-11 hours of sleep a day. And though it may seem sloth-like I think my seemingly lazy behaviour can be pardoned when one remembers the number of hours I have yet I catch up on after my time on campus. 

Catching up with friends and family has also been very enjoyable. Genuinely. Personally I think my closest friends are still the ones back here in Singapore. To me it's inevitable. The number of years I hae been lucky enough to get to truly know my local friends tragically can't be matched by the 2 years (despite the 24/7 time I spend with people on campus). Definitely I already have a couple of people who I feel I am really close to on campus and am sure our relationship will last for years to come, if not forever, but for the majority, I don't think that's possible - to have a truly deep and close friendship.

But that's one of the things on my list to try and do when I am back at AC. Getting to know my friends better. It might be a very short 2 years (less really when you think about all the holidays and breaks we have) but you know what they say, don't knock it till you've tried it! In this case how close I might find yourself despite the short time I spend with someone else. Who knows... Maybe many of the people I consider as friends will soon have a best attached in front of friend by the time I graduate!

But for now let's hear it for deep holiday philosophising aka idle procrastination! 'Today I don't feel like doing anything. I just wanna lay in my bed!' - Bruno Mars, The Lazy Song

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Engaging Critically

I admit that I have been posting less and less. If you believe the reason for this is due to me not having as many things in the first 2 months, you are 180 degrees off. Having now entered my third month at AC (I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S ONLY THE THIRD MONTH) I find myself almost twice as busy as I was previously. But having come into the third month also means its time for yet another AC Diploma Period. This time the first years had out Critical Engagement Conference while the 2nd years had their Middle Eastern Conference. 

I was particularly excited for this conference for a number of reasons. First, many 2nd years had told me this had been their favourite conference in their first year. Secondly, I personally feel that the idea of learning how to engage and more broadly, communication, is essential when trying to start projects, etc. Thus I thought this conference would be extremely relevant to arm me with skills and ideas for future projects. Thirdly, the idea of a couple of code-free days is heaven right now. It's the last few weeks of school which also mean that we are having our end of year tests ): a real mood damper. 

Our conference started on Wednesday and lasted till Friday. Unlike our first conference, this one was only three days (as opposed to five), everyone is feeling the 'business' build-up. We had a little introduction before the official start of the conference on a Tuesday night as we needed to be given a few instructions on the when, where's and how's before the start of the Diploma Period. Moreover, I was even more involved with the conference being in the Global Faculty. Because we had gone through some training programs in Global that were similar to the ones that were going to be held, we were also the Faculty in charge of assisting the Conference.

On all three days, we started the mornings with introductions to the areas we would be focusing on for that day. We would all gather in the Tythe Barns and one of the facilitators would talk about the idea for that day. Next we would split into smaller groups and go to the classrooms to discuss the topics for the day and basically let the conversation flow where it will. in the afternoon, we were allowed to sign up for 2 different workshops of our choice that were led by one of the facilitators. 

I really preferred the fact that for the Critical Engagement Conference we could choose our own workshops. As for the Social Justice Conference, we were assigned workshops, and though all of them seemed extremely interesting, there were some I would have really liked to attend just because they dealt with issues that I felt very passionately about. Which is why I liked the fact that for the CE conference, they left it up to us to attend the workshops we were interested in. 

I won't go into the details of the days and the workshops because this blog is already running pretty long and I have to go and revise for a Physics test right after this. But I will say that I really enjoyed this conference and personally found the things we learnt a lot more useful for application in everyday life, and life right now as compared to the Social Justice Conference. It really made me consider the hidden implications of the everyday actions I might be carrying out have. That is not to say that it has made me extremely self-conscious about what I do, rather, that I must always remember that every thing I do has some form of consequence or another and that it is always good to take some time off to carefully consider the possible outcomes, especially when the reason for my carrying out this action is for the purpose of helping someone else. I would not want to ultimately be harming them instead!

"There's nothing wrong with things taking time." - James Dyson