Ruth in Mostar

Sitting in the kitchen with a strong cup of coffee, this seems a good moment to finally round up the account of my time in Mostar. I've been meaning to do this since June but its only recently that I've really felt that my time at UWCiM is truly over. Having spent the summer in the polar universe of home, friends and family, I've been struck by how significantly Mostar has influenced me. I've learnt an enormous amount...about BiH and the Balkans; about war, "democracy" and intervention. I've acquired all sorts of mundane but useful knowledge that you can't avoid once you leave home... how to do laundry, how to unblock sinks and how to survive whilst travelling with no phone/money/ticket. But I've also learnt a lot about myself, both good and bad, and I guess I've grown up a lot since I first left. Finally, I've racked up such an obscene amount of air miles that to make up for it I should probably plant a small forest and stay in England for the next 10 years... yet somehow that seems rather unlikely.

Anyway, here are a few photos from my last days in the Balkans.

Graduation

Prom


The final days in Split

All the best
Ruth

I'm writing in a free block during my last proper week of school ever!! Sorry I haven't written in so long... I've just been incredibly busy!!
Project Week was awesome... A group of students went up to Jajce and then to Sarajevo to carry out a project on a book of short stories called Sarajevo Marlboro. We spent our time finding locations mentioned in certain stories and talking to people about ideas brought up in the book. We even managed to meet with the director of the Sarajevo film festival!
Model United Nation conference was brilliant!! I was part of the brilliant Chinese delegation and I was lucky enough to be in Security Council... not only did we have really good discussions but I got use veto power!!
Then this last weekend was amazing because Emily came to stay! It's been great to see her and we had a really good weekend, mainly sitting in the sun (which is gorgeous at the moment!), eating and drinking coffee! Having her here made me realise that after working and CAS and organising stuff for school, we don't do much besides go out to eat and drink!
Oh, and I heard back from the US universities and was shocked to hear that I got in everywhere... including Harvard and Columbia! I was totally overwhelmed at first but I'm now pretty much sure that I'm going to go to Oxford anyway. I think that the courses at undergraduate level suit me better and going to the US would mean asking my parents to pay ridiculous amounts of money for 4 years!
There's such a nice holiday mood at the moment! In a few days I'm off for Easter to Vis, an island off Croatia. A few of us are going for a few days before we come back for intensive revision!! It seems very surreal that exams will start in a month. I really need to get my head down and study!

I’m sat writing this is in a café near school after getting locked out of class – my economics teacher will have nothing to do with tardiness! I’ll post this some time later.
Everything is going incredibly well at the moment; I’m almost unnerved by how happy I am!
I got in to UCL and I’m waiting to hear how many points they want. I’m tending to think that I’ll accept Oxford first and take UCL as insurance but I’m no way near sure enough to tell UCAS!
Honestly, these days I’m really in no rush to think about life away from Mostar. True, there is a horrible amount of work to do and with assessment deadlines and our play on tonight(!), I haven’t managed to start revision for mocks like I meant to.... yet none of that gets me down in the slightest! I realised over winter break that I like a bit of pressure. Anyway, I wouldn’t be able to stay locked up working alone, even if I wanted to! My room has become tea central and there’s always a friend or two sitting on my bed!
There’s only worries I have at the moment (apart from the obvious sleep shortage) are dreading the end of the year and the unfortunate reality that travel costs money! There are so many I things I want to do in the summer and I’m completely broke even now! I’ll work for as much as possible, try to save while I’m here and I’ll prioritise different bits of my plan for the summer. I know that on the one hand it might be a good idea to save for uni, but I think the opportunity cost is just too great! I’ll only have the summer after UWC once and I’d rather work harder in the future than give up the present!

Abba open mike

I wrote this a few weeks ago and forgot to post it. I'll put something more recent up too.

I'm sitting on the plane from Dubrovnik to London drinking a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc and feeling slightly emotional.
I've only left Mostar for four days but somehow it's making the end of UWC seem horribly real. The next time I fly away from the Balkans will be the end of my time as a UWC student and that kills me. Last night and this morning, so many friends came to wish me luck and give me a hug and I couldn't help but consider how incredibly hard it will be to say goodbye in June.

But enough of that, there's no point dwelling on the end; I'm happy that I've got these 5 months and my future beyond UWC certainly isn't looking too gloomy! Leaving Mostar a week early last term seems to have been worth it as I got offered a place for Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford and right now I'm on my way to an interview for European Social and Political Studies at University College London. If I get offered UCL too I'm not sure what I'll do... I mean Oxford is Oxford but I like the idea of being in London and the course is incredible. Although, as a teacher pointed out, the incredibly far reach of the Oxford name could be useful if I'm going to work internationally and it seems like Oxford would have more of the community feeling which I love in Mostar. Anyway, I don't need to decide yet; I'll see how the next few days go at UCL.

On a less happy note, I realised that I never wrote about the threat to the school's future which has arisen even worse than before. Basically, thanks to the financial crisis, the school board don't think they will be able to raise funds for the next generation so have decided not to recruit them. It's a horrible decision and one I desperately hope will be reversed. Our college embodies the ideals of United World College so strongly and it could really help Bosnia in the long-term. So, if anyone reading has a spare million euros or part of it, please direct it our way!

I'd better make it clear that the school is not exactly closing but beyond 2010 there will be a "new financial model". The nature of this model hasn't been decided yet but hopefully will not mean giving up on United World College to become a faceless private school. I'll do everything I can do to help our UWC survive but I've realised that IB isn't going to make allowances and that the first years are just as capable as me so I'm taking more of a background role. I just hope that there will go on being students who get the chance to share the incredible experience of UWCiM. Haha wow, I sound like a brochure but I actually mean it.

Just a quick update... I have waaaaay too much to do and a severe lack of time... my looming extended essay deadline is just one of many!
But my insane method of shift sleeping is working really well and I'm actually really happy despite so much work!! Plus... I've had a lot of good news recently... I got interviews with both Oxford and UCL!! Cue lots of loony running round the house! I'm sad to have to miss the last week here but it's still very very cool.
Haha we had a bit of excitement last week.... a bomb scare at school!! It's exactly the kind of thing people expect when I tell them I'm in Bosnia! Except of course it turned out to be a student from gimnazija wanting to escape a test... turns out that bomb scares are the local equivalent of setting off a fire alarm.
Better go... I'm making a mass batch of tea for everyone and the kettle just boiled. xxxxxxx

Ooof!! I got up in a rush this morning and somehow couldn't find my TOK class. I checked the timetable, checked the other classrooms, then gave up and went to drink a coffee and learn a scene for theatre... only, 45 minutes later, Tijana and Joyce appear holding sandwiches and tell me that it's 10am and I realise that I've been running an hour late! Then I find out that I have no money to pay for the coffee I just drank. Tijana pays for me and I run out of the café... straight into a lamppost. Cue a cut and a big shiny bump on my forehead.

Hahahaaaa I've been laughing ever since. What a morning!

And I even managed to explain the whole story in French when I appeared an hour late for class!

It's Roma Awareness week so I've been wayyy too busy! Made a short documentary for Monday assembly about Roma in Mostar... hard work but it turned out pretty good. Yesterday we held in exhibition in Kosaca of photos taken by Roma kids. So I was there from 4, when school finished, to 10ish, when the exhibition finished... It actually went really well - the photos were amazing and, once we'd set up, everything went smoothly... had a decent number of people, even quite a lot from outside college! Then Neus and I went to Namal's place for cake before getting home at 11! Of course then I had a lab report and a few stupid homework sheets! So I wasn't so surprised when I woke up 5 hours late for school this morning and decided to take a day off! I'll cook something nice then spend the rest of the day taking rocks from the mountain of work I need to do!

Snapshots of the last few weeks:

Boom Boom Room in Banja Luka! I had SUCH a good weekend at Tijana's place... incredible food, no check-in and just enjoying home, even if it wasn't mine!

Disney open mike... Me, being Jane, with the Spanish queridas.

Halloween party! (In mid november!) Vera and I weren't in the mood and almost didn't go until we found a tube of green paint... really good night! :)

Pfffff I didn't write anything for ages!
It's been a bit of a rollercoaster recently. I got rather ill last week; nothing serious and I'm fine now... just aching from judo! I've started training twice a week and it's brilliant - made me realise how much I miss karate!
As I predicted earlier, I've been lying a bit low after the high of the last few weeks. UK uni application has been sent off and it wasn't exactly an enjoyable process; almost made me long for a cushy private school with an Oxbridge admissions tutor! Haha maybe not. Agh but today was a bit merde... Turns out two guys copied my SAT last month. It isn't worth reporting though; it would jeopardize the entire school's results and uni applications. Instead I'm putting my faith in karma!!
And anyway, things are looking better now... I just had a great evening, leaving all the stuff I needed to do to have a nice coffee with suchka and spend wayyy too long planning what to be at Open Mike tomorrow... it's Disney themed, which initially horrified me until we came up with Jane from Tarzan - English rose who goes exploring, gets a life and runs around the jungle! Seems somehow relevant!
Even better, Emily is arriving tomorrow!! She'll only be here for a few days but it will be amazing! Unfortunately the school are being ridiculous by not letting her sleep in my room-mate's empty bed so we'll stay together in a pansion next to the residence. Rationality, schmationality. I love this place. Really.
Edit: Em can't come after all... it's really a shame but I'm just hoping she gets better!

Oh dear... I'm sitting in my room pathetically attempting to finish my Theory of Knowledge essay. Actually I've been struggling with it for a day or two and I'm doing anything except write.
It's bajram break now but since some unforeseeable family stuff got in the way of our previous plans, we ended up staying in Mostar. Also, Iggy and the Stooges cancelled!! They were meant to be playing last night in Sarajevo but it got called off... they're publicly blaming it on violence and tension following Sarajevo's first gay parade but I think that the low number of tickets sold was a more serious factor!!
I'm actually having a great time in Mostar anyway... there's quite a lot of us here and we've been cooking, partying and sleeping a lot... what more could you want? I mean, of course there's piles of work I should be doing, but there always is! I'm finally feeling like a real second year and I love our firsties!
By the way, municipal elections are approaching here and the campaigns are really something!! Today there was a Croatian party on the street handing out freebies as a band played nationist songs... a bit different from home!
Edit: And the next day a plane was circling the city with a HDZ banner!!

It's friday and I'm in school later than I meant to! I was just sending some history and though I'd put something up here before I go... there's some american theatre company in Mostar which we may go to or we may just go out.

Anyway, last weekend was awesome!! The variety show went really well, as you can see here...

Then the next day we went on an overnight hike which was brilliant too! Obviously it was different to last year and the weather was crazy but it was still so so good to get out of Mostar, ramble around a bit, inhale too much bonfire smoke and get to know some first years.

Oh, and we narrowly escaped death... kind of.

It's been a crazy week of work - this term is really going to be intense - but I'm managing everything pretty well. Should have my UK uni stuff all sorted by monday... woah that's scary!! And there's a load of US people coming next week... time for some interview practice!!