Music has always been my easiest class. Stefano, the teacher, doesn't really teach much, and we don't really bother going to class all that often...it's just not worth it. I knew that all our work would be due at the end of March, and I prepared for it, really. We had to do 3 compositions and 3 solo performance pieces and I finished one and a half of the compositions over the summer and I've been working on the solo performance pieces all year. But I wasn't ready when, 2 days before the deadline that none of us were really paying attention to, Stefano told us not only did we HAVE to have everything in, but it had to be recorded by others and formatted correctly before the deadline. We started to worry, but he said no - you can do it until April 5th, don't worry. Even though that was still way too soon, it was better, until we found out (almost by accident) that because Stefano was going to America on Saturday morning (our deadline was Friday) he had to hand in our grades to the administration on Friday. And he did...he handed in grades for work that we hadn't done, that he hadn't seen, and the admin sent it off to the IB. When the admin found out that he'd falsified grades (through a conversation that went, "so when is the final deadline?" "what do you mean? I already have your grades." "what!? but we haven't done them yet!" "what?!" etc.) everything went into an uproar and we music students locked ourselves into the music rooms for literally 12 hours each day for a week to get everything done and recorded by the time Stefano came back so he could sign our papers and send it off (for real, this time). I got it done, and after a night where I didn't go to bed until 6 am, I handed it in. It was so freeing, the feeling of existing in the real world again... and then came long weekend, which was bellissima, made everything much better.
we went to Slovenia to go camping on the beach. There are no beaches in Slovenia, apparently, only slabs of concrete, but we had a wonderful time anyway. 6 girls doing nothing for 4 days, lying in the sun on the grass, on the pier, talking, playing the guitar and making up songs, playing games that we thought we'd outgrown in 5th grade. Easter was wonderful, we bought colorful candies and hid them around the campsite and had an Easter Candy Hunt. After the hell of the previous week, it was incredibly relaxing. I relished every moment of it, like I relished the first taste of chocolate after 40 days (I had been doing Lent as I had done Ramadan last year, and I didn't eat sugar for 40 days. phew! that was HARD!). It was one of my favorite long weekends ever, just for the pure joy of being, and being relaxed.
(by the way, this is called a UWC picture - for some reason they have pictures like this on all the material, and we laugh and give them more material for their brochures)
When I cam back, however, I had to pay for my relaxation. I had an important essay to do in 4 days, and I should have been working on it over the weekend when I was relaxing. So for the next 4 days I sequestered myself in my room, studying books and researching and writing like mad. This hell was much more enjoyable than the last one, however, because I was writing my essay on The Lord of the Rings, and the research of it was what I love to do anyway - read and watch The Lord of the Rings. And yesterday I handed in the final product, of which I am very proud.
And now? I'm free forever. No more work due for the IB, ever. Nothing but the exams, for which I am now studying (3 weeks!). But until they come, I will completely enjoy my beautiful life in Duino, paradise on earth.
