Alexandra Thompson, Grade 11
UWC Mostar
Last summer, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the ‘UWC experience’. Before moving away from Ireland to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I had only imagined and mentally prepared for about two of the first weeks. When I arrived, things were so hectic that I didn’t quite have time to envision the future; instead, it was vital to live in the present. In addition, I very quickly found that it was important not to go into things with expectations. You aren’t used to traditions, and despite settling in a bit, things still feel a bit out of your depth.
For me, UWC day marked a point of change. That day, amongst the buzz, there was a sense of belonging, pride, and union in diversity and difference. It created an opportunity to socialise more with those who I already hadn’t, and discover more faces that somehow I hadn’t yet seen, as impossible as it felt.
The Northern Irish and British students had been grouped together- all eight of us- and decided on baking the traditional Victoria Sponge cake and scones. As I hadn’t really conversed much with my ‘co-years’, the preparation of baking such goods in a teacher’s house was an unusual experience, to say the least, as I came from somewhere where teacher-student contact was confined to the classroom.
On the morning of the 21st of September, the day was drawn with incredible heat, shown even in the early hours. The sponge cake and scones had survived the night and had as much of an idea as I about the day ahead. Of the eight of us, six lived in the same residence and powerwalked together in an attempt to make it on time for the set up of the event, carrying with us the precious cargo of food.
Various distinctive scents, flavours, and experience lined the marble-cobbled streets in partial shade just a stone’s throw from the school. These same streets we had started to associate with lived collective experience, diving for shade under the trees, epitomising the smell of summer and finally feeling more free from the anxious but wild ride of the past month. Maybe the heat was a catalyst as everything sped at a fever-like pace during the first-year paradigm shift and the pressure of the third term.
We became a sea of flags and colours, and for the first time, I didn’t feel like I was drowning. I felt overcome with feeling like I had a place to comfortably exist, even though at times, I did feel uncomfortable. So much beauty was woven into the life of the street, meticulously documented in photographs. Many group photos of, for example, the Balkan nations, or single nationalities were taken on the steps of the dilapidated ‘Old Library’- a locale to which many are emotionally connected for a multitude of reasons, such as exploring there at night or being shown it with your second years. In retrospect, it seems fitting: the backdrop to an event which celebrates diversity in one school, engulfed by the passive presence of the Old Library.
The sun relentlessly threw itself at us, dancing in a circle and listening to the playlist of music from our countries that had been collated over the previous week. I hadn’t been exposed to such a variety of music before, which added to the excitement of the day. There was a fire lit in my heart then that continues to burn today.
For me, UWC day marked a point of change. That day, amongst the buzz, there was a sense of belonging, pride, and union in diversity and difference. It created an opportunity to socialise more with those who I already hadn’t, and discover more faces that somehow I hadn’t yet seen, as impossible as it felt.
The Northern Irish and British students had been grouped together- all eight of us- and decided on baking the traditional Victoria Sponge cake and scones. As I hadn’t really conversed much with my ‘co-years’, the preparation of baking such goods in a teacher’s house was an unusual experience, to say the least, as I came from somewhere where teacher-student contact was confined to the classroom.
On the morning of the 21st of September, the day was drawn with incredible heat, shown even in the early hours. The sponge cake and scones had survived the night and had as much of an idea as I about the day ahead. Of the eight of us, six lived in the same residence and powerwalked together in an attempt to make it on time for the set up of the event, carrying with us the precious cargo of food.
Various distinctive scents, flavours, and experience lined the marble-cobbled streets in partial shade just a stone’s throw from the school. These same streets we had started to associate with lived collective experience, diving for shade under the trees, epitomising the smell of summer and finally feeling more free from the anxious but wild ride of the past month. Maybe the heat was a catalyst as everything sped at a fever-like pace during the first-year paradigm shift and the pressure of the third term.
We became a sea of flags and colours, and for the first time, I didn’t feel like I was drowning. I felt overcome with feeling like I had a place to comfortably exist, even though at times, I did feel uncomfortable. So much beauty was woven into the life of the street, meticulously documented in photographs. Many group photos of, for example, the Balkan nations, or single nationalities were taken on the steps of the dilapidated ‘Old Library’- a locale to which many are emotionally connected for a multitude of reasons, such as exploring there at night or being shown it with your second years. In retrospect, it seems fitting: the backdrop to an event which celebrates diversity in one school, engulfed by the passive presence of the Old Library.
The sun relentlessly threw itself at us, dancing in a circle and listening to the playlist of music from our countries that had been collated over the previous week. I hadn’t been exposed to such a variety of music before, which added to the excitement of the day. There was a fire lit in my heart then that continues to burn today.
www.unitedworldwide.co