Finally, after almost two years, my National Week came.
It was fantastic, the best week I've had in the College, which is saying a lot.
Since I've been waiting for it for so long, I took a very active role in the week - heavily involved in almost everything that happened, which was a lot.
This was our schedule:
Every day, every meal, we had a different genre of music in the cafeteria, which I organized (I have so much music on my laptop now, it's unbelievable). Everything from Reggae to 80s to Indie to Celtic to Jazz to Classic Rock to 90s Pop... now that we don't have music anymore I feel like something's missing, it was really nice, especially the Jazz day - it created such a nice atmosphere...
Monday was the Introductory skit, when we all got up in Assembly and presented the program for the week - Disney style. We made a movie of all of us being Disney characters to introduce a part of the week - Lumier (the candle guy from Beauty and the Beast) introduced the taster session, Pocahontas introduced the poetry session, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd (ok, they're not Disney, I know) introduced Saturday Morning Cartoons, and I, as Cinderella, introduced the Prom - Infomercial style. It was hilarious, the costumes we managed to get together and the acts themselves; we were laughing ourselves senseless.
Tuesday was the Poetry Session, which I organized. It was truly beautiful, it went better than I could have hoped. Coffee House style, we had everyone snapping politely to our poetry rather than clapping, and we read everything from Shakespearean sonnets to e. e. cummings to Green Eggs and Ham. I was very proud - I'd never organized something completely alone and had it come out well before, so it was a personal milestone.
Wednesday was the Taster Session, for which I cooked
5 bowls of Jello (ok, so "cook" is a relative term...)
3 apple pies
50 some-odd veggie burgers
2 bowls of mashed potatoes
2 Hawaiian pizzas
30 PB&J sandwiches
and oversaw the roasting of 4 bags worth of s'mores
and that was only one person's contribution, imagine the whole ensemble...
I'd brought burger king crowns for everyone, so all the Native Speakers wore crowns. We had music playing, and after eating we all danced and danced, playing limbo and jumping on tables...great fun.
Oh, also on Wednesday we had a Hockey Tournament and a presentation on the Group of 7 - the major artists of Canada.
Thursday was our "down day" so we only had two things going on - the Movie (American Beauty - totally depressing. I'd never seen it before.) and a Highland Dance session.
We spent the whole day practising for the show on Friday.
Friday was the show - wow, so cool. We got everyone to dress up as famous Native Speaker Couples...everyone from Superman/Wonder Woman
to Bert/Ernie to Romeo/Juliet to Barbie/Ken to Harry/Ginny. The teachers were all famous villains - Lord Voldemort, Ursula, Jafar, Darth Vader, etc.
Everyone dressed up - I think we got the most people to dress up ever, we were so happy to see them come into the room all excited for our show.
The show was great. I participated in a Formal Apology, where we apologized for Barbie, the SATs, McDonald's, Reality TV, and an illogical measuring system. Britain apologized for the Spice Girls, their spelling system, and their "bastard child, America". Canada apologized for beating everyone at Hockey (which pissed off the nordics, you can be sure), and having too much land and not enough people. We finished with me saying, "On behalf of the USA, I should apologize for... um. that whole ... world domination thing..." and I ran off the stage. The rest of them stayed on, laughing at me, until Canada turned to Britain - "what are YOU laughing at?" :)
I also did "Gee, Officer Krupke" from West Side Story, the Politically Correct Red Riding Hood, and a "Speak Like an English Native Speaker" session, where we taught a volunteer to say "Hey y'all, innit like hella goin man, eh-izzle?" which to any native speaker makes perfect sense. right?
Saturday morning we woke up early to cook pancakes for Saturday Morning Cartoons - we watched Loony Tunes and The Emperor's New Groove while eating huge quantities of pancakes and maple syrup. (thank god I still have some left!)
And Saturday night was Prom - wow! it went so well. We spent all afternoon decorating and getting ready, Palazzina Dayroom has never looked so good. We had chips and punch (which we told everyone was spiked), an Official Photographer, and Prom King and Queen, drawn from a lottery. It was the greatest party UWC has ever seen. Full Stop. (as they say in british english - help! I'm being corrupted!) we had soooooooo much fun.
And that was it. The week was over. it was so sad to leave - it had been like a mini-vacation, none of the school rules applied to us - no curfew, no homework, no activities or social service, nothing but national week. it was so relaxing to be stressing out about something that didn't have anything to do with school.
And everyone said it was the best week ever. (or, if their pride couldn't take it, the best...except theirs) Success!!!
Look at that, I've spent way too much time writing. Now I really must study for the trial exams coming up next week. good bye.
PS Hey look! they've put our videos on YouTube! you can check them out at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x11Nglpvug and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqroN-k3UEY
