Natalia Tapia Moreno, Grade 12
UWC Maastricht
- Being helped by my Residence Mentor and three floormates to carry my immense luggage to the top floor of the King William Alexander building.
- Saying the mission statement every day after dinner around the three while holding hands with all the residentials.
- Learning to bike in the school entrance with the help of a Japanese and Syrian classmate.
- Struggling to find my way into every class because I had never been to a school with an academic building that was this big.
- Being mistakenly considered a DP2 because I hung out with more second years than firsties.
- Exploring the CAS fair and signing up into the club Bookies&Cookies.
- Walking with my friends at the side of the river in the city center while we eat a can of beans and tortilla chips.
- Hanging pictures from my home country in the pinboard and finally decorating my bed with the quite popular fairy lights.
- Going to the art wing every time I had a free period and the teacher giving me hot chocolate fro my compromise with the arts.
- Starting a journal and realizing there is no time to write all the experiences I live here.
- Watching my DP2s peacefully protesting in the school’s cage within the first month of arriving.
- Applying on the day of the deadline to be part of The Flying Dutchman and getting in.
- My Mexican co-years sneaking in my building to cook chilaquiles and frijoles refritos on our Independence day.
- Finding the sketchiest second-hand shop and getting a ton of coats and boots for the winter.
- Making Pan de Muerto past midnight because the dough was not growing as fast as we expected it.
- Staying with three different host families over the winter break and visiting Amsterdam, The Hage, and Utrecht.
- A Jamaican DP2 calling it a pajama day and everyone walking around campus on their sleeping clothes.
- Getting way too invested in YSE and winning the best pitch award for our mental health project.
- My Guatemalan friend making me go for a run on Wednesdays (the rainy and cloudy weather was not an excuse to not exercise).
- Visiting Germany and being the last one to get out of the museum because I was very interested in the Pop-Art.
- Staying up until four in the morning explaining to my friend from Reunion Island why I believe that a revolution might be the last solution to my country’s issues.
- Exploring the alleys in the city and finding an Italian restaurant with the most delicious pizza I have ever tried.
- Giving a chocolate bar to a stranger in exchange for the piece of furniture that he offered for free in Marketplace.
- My friend from Eritrea making pasta when we did not like the food from Mensa.
- Waking up twenty minutes after brunch because I slept a little late while watching Netflix in the common room.
- Cooking memelas in the common room’s kitchen and having my Kenyan roommie asking me to share with her the recipe because she loved them as much as I do.
- Getting founds from the school to do a cultural exploration of the post-revolutionary art in Paris.
- Running back to campus a minute before checking because I got lost in the city and I missed the bus.
- Our art teacher getting excited because she found another very good deal and bought twenty packages of markers for us.
- The patience of my Peruvian-Spanish friend while she tries to explain to me how do Maths work in this system.
- My friends from other floors coming over to mine just to watch movies with the projector from Kizuna.
- Attending to every conference that the students planned and discovering all those new topics.
- Walking up particularly happy every time the sun was shining.
- Going to the city center exclusively to look for planners and agendas that help me to keep up with the UWC life.
- Dancing “La Gozadera” at every party with the Latinos.
- Waking up two hours before brunch to cook pancakes, scrambled eggs, tortillas, and atole.
- Watching tulips randomly bloom in the grass fields in the city.
