My life as a Boarding Student

Read the blog from a Boarding Student in Gym 3 at SSB 2013   The purpose of this blog is to show how life as a boarding student is at SSB. If you are interested in studying for a year abroad, or if you are curious about the life of a boarding student, this blog suits you perfectly.

 

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Diary - One week of my life as a Boarding Student at SSB

Day 1- 14th of March Today we had an In service day at school, which means NO SCHOOL! Or to me it was more like ”perfect, one extra day of studying”. Our graduation day is coming closer and closer, only 86 days left (It’s the count down on our graduation collage in the school that helps me keep track, I didn’t just calculate the number), but that also means that the home-stretch begins soon and there’s a lot to do before graduation so I better get started.

 

It’s been quite calm in school the last week and this weekend has been great, the boarding trip to Antwerp was so cosy, we did a guided city tour and of course we then spent the rest of the day shopping.

Anyways, I went up early even though I had no time to mind, didn’t want to miss the breakfast at 8.00 but it would have been nice with a sleep-in since we went to bed quite late yesterday after watching the swedish movie ”Män som hatar kvinnor” in the TV room.

 

After breakfast I went out with Hanna, my neighbour, for a run in the woods. Today I skipped my running jacket, the weather is really getting warmer and it’s such a relief. My family at home then disturbed my thoughts, I think they’re still having some snow outside, poor them, the sun completes my day.

 

After I finished running, I went straight to my computer to do some research about Greece’s view on nuclear weapons. Yes you heard right! I have to prepare for the SSB MUN that’s coming up next week and I feel that my knowledge is a bit insufficient when it comes to this subject...

 

Speaking about getting things done, me and Caroline went to Snug after the snack break in the afternoon. It’s a restaurant where we’re planning on having our graduation reception on the graduation day, so we have to check if it’s available. When we got there, after calling a few times without any answer, they said that the manager wasn’t there and that we should try to call another number so we have to get back to Marie-Laure’s office tomorrow and ask her to call them again. Our lacking skills in french doesn’t make it much easier so - Thanks Marie-Laure!

 

Instead we went to Carrefour to buy a cake, some balloons and candles for Marte’s birthday. Woho, she’s turning 19 tomorrow so we’re going to wake her and sing for her in bed.

 

Don’t think it happened much during the evening, I was so tired from the work-out so I went to bed quite early. But how I love ”in service days”, really needed this extra day off, feel like I’m on track with things now. I’ll probably have a good nights sleep.

 

Day 2 - 15th of March

Went up a bit earlier than usual today to sing for Marte and to put up balloons outside around her door and finish the chocolate cake. She was so surprised when we woke her but she did look a bit tired. We all had some cake before breakfast (not to recommend but damn it was good) and then we all got a bit stressed to make it in time for school. Hope she had a great birthday morning though!

 

First lesson today was P.E and I held my leadership lesson, which is mandatory for all students in gym class. I chose to hold a badminton lesson, I was quite nervous before hand but as soon as I got started it all went smoothly and in the end Agneta, the gym teacher, didn’t have much to complain about so it feels good to have it over with. However I think I might have to hold my lesson once again next week, when they’re one teacher short, but that will probably be alright.

 

Afterwards I was in a bit of a hurry and short on time before the SSB MUN workshop started. Ran up to my room to get a quick shower and then back to the computer room in the sports hall to continue preparing for the SSB mun next week. Found some good pages and a lot of information so now I feel like I’ve got an overlook of my country.

 

After school I went out for a walk with Hanna, the weather has been amazing today! Around 18 degrees celsius and magnificent sunshine, the spring is really coming closer so I just couldn’t stay inside. Then I went straight to the kick-boxing which Agneta is having every tuesday but today Cecilia was having her leadership lesson, she did a really good job.

 

After the training we all had to run up to our rooms, shower, change clothes and put on make-up in half an hour! So much stress! We went to a restaurant in town to celebrate Marte’s birthday, we were about 12 girls and it was very pleasant. I had a pasta bolognese, not a very belgian course but it was really good.

 

Day 3 - 16th of march

First regular school day in a while actually. Started off with English and thank god we got time to work on our opening speeches for the SSB MUN so I finally got somewhere, now I’m almost finished with it and that’s a relief! Then I had a double lesson physics, it was okay, and we got our tests back which went fine.

 

Had some time before my last lesson so I almost fell asleep in my room, I don’t understand how tired one can be and how extremely nice it can be to sleep during day time. Well, hope I can fall asleep tonight anyways.

 

Last lesson was math. Mioara went trough some new things and then we did some calculations on our own. Went back to start a washing machine with clothes, you really have to pick your times to do laundry, most of the washing machines are often occupied.

 

Then I went out for a quick walk, still lovely weather outside, and then after dinner we had volley ball training with Claes. That’s so much fun and he’s such a good player and trainer, that’s really impressing.

Day 4 - 17th of March

Today was just a regular day at school. A little bit colder than what we’ve had the last days. After school studied a bit and then later on it was body work. Agneta has had her elbow surgery now so she will be abscent for the next 5 weeks or so. She can’t participate in our evening activities either so Bengt, her husband, quickly replaced her and managed to instruct the different exercises. Although he struggled a bit with the warm up since there’s a lot of coordination involved and it’s perhaps not his strongest quality. So me and Emilia volunteered to lead the warm-up. It was harder than I had imagined but it went fine in the end.

 

Today was St.Patrick’s day so the majority of the boarding students went out to the local pubs that were having all these special events (me and my friends did not), they distributed large green hats and everyone was painting their faces in green in some way.

Day 5 - 18 of march

Friday, and finally weekend!! This week has really gone by quickly, as some weeks tend to do for no explainable reason.

 

As it’s friday we dressed up according to our theme fridays, so every friday we have a different theme which every one in gym 3 has to dress up as. Today was emo-friday! Yeah it sounds like so much fun, doesn’t it? Well actually, it was. I don’t think any of us have ever dressed like an emo before so we were all virgins. We trased our stockings, worn almost only black clothes, fixed an exaggerated side-part in our hair, went crazy with the black eye shadow and looked extremely sad and depressed. We got some scared and surprised looks from the smaller kids, some of them really eyeballed us, and our headmaster didn’t look entirely happy as she was showing some possible future students around in school. To be honest I did feel a bit depressed after a while just being dressed up as an emo and I don’t understand how they survive when walking around like that day in and day out.

 

 A few of us felt a bit tired after school, had some homework to focus on the next day and thirdly we need to save some money after the winter vacation because  our trip to StAnton became quite expensive in the end. So we all ended up in the sofas in the tv-room.

 

The company where our food staff works were borrowing the large halls at the ground floor of the castle so during dinner they ran around with all sorts of different food that looked delicious but that we couldn’t enjoy more than smell it. So our friday dinner was quite hysterical but when the party eventually started we didn’t get disturbed by any noise or music at all so we had a nice evening in the tv-room, watching a movie. When we went to the kitchen during the commercial break we found some pastry/dessert, coming from the party downstairs, that we gladly grabbed and feasted on during the rest of the movie.

Day 6 - 19 of march

Saturday! Meaning extra sleep and a kick-ass breakfast to enjoy, but first before breakfast; 9 km running in the woods with Hanna. The best way to start of a day, especially now when the mornings are so bright and warm. So we went out for almost an hour, showered and then went down for breakfast. Today the breakfast was even better than usual because we got loads of left-overs to eat for breakfast. It was all sorts of things; small toasts with ham and cheese, mini-pizzas, meatballs(the swedish students were cheering), lots of vegetables with dip, flatbread rolled with salmon and a lot of other delicious food. We ate till we didn’t have more room in our stomachs and felt ready to literarily role out of the dining room.

 

It was already extremely sunny and warm outside, not a single cloud in the sky, so we decided to walk in to town and just saunter around town, take a look in the shops and enjoy the sun at some café. In addition, Caroline’s friend was visiting from Brussels where she lives and works for the European Parliament for the moment so we wanted to show her around in Waterloo and get to know her better. She was really nice, it’s always fun to get to know a person were you come from as she’s from Stockholm as well and she thought really good of Waterloo after the day.

 

She went back to the castle with us and she and Caroline ordered some food while the rest of us ate in the dining room and afterwards they were getting ready for a night at Knokke Out where Marte was going to work this evening. So they went out and we ended up in the sofas (again) feasting on more pastry or desserts from the party last night, the chocolate mouse was absolutely delicious! We watched Finding Neverland which is a great movie although a little bit touching. We went to bed quite early this night as well and I had a great night’s sleep.

Day 7 - 20th of March

As ordinary as a sunday can be here at the castle. We all took advantage of the late breakfast and slept as long as we could. After breakfast we headed straight back to our rooms to get some homework over with, quite boring yes. That was more or less what we did troughout the day, it’s kind of hard to be creative on sundays since the whole town is sort of shutting down. All clothing stores are closed and so are the supermarkets, meaning that you have to find something else to do at the castle and then we always end up studying in our rooms or just doing nothing in particular. I think we finished our St Anton album by the way, so we finally posted it on facebook. There were loads of photos to go through so it has taken a while but now we’re done.

 

Another thing that people spend a lot of time on during sundays is skype. Skyping with their family and friends back at home and so did I today. I spoke to my mum and sister and we managed to book my flights for the easter break. Looking forward to two weeks of just spending time with family and friends and loads of nice food, candy etc.

 

Oh, almost forgot to mention. I went to the work-out before dinner, man I love those hours. You run like it’s the last thing you’ll ever do, sweating all over and consuming all of your energy. I can assure you that the dinner afterwards tastes ten times better and you’re tired enough to go to bed early in the evening.  

 

Emma, Boarding Student 2011