It's an Adventurous Life

Dear readers,

Apologies for the delay in postings recently: I was waiting for the publication of pictures to include in  this blogpost, but I got too impatient, so I'll post them separately if I can. Until then, you'll just have to use your imagination...

This past Wednesday and Thursday, the Dollar Academy Music Department held its annual spring concerts, with performances ranging from the prep school choir to the senior jazz band. It is quite a popular event, and we've been preparing for it for months, but it also marks the culmination of all our work done this year. It's a bittersweet event, but it was also so satisfying to see all of our hard work in full form.

First up on the orchestra program was the Four Scottish Dances by Malcolm Arnold. The work features four movements, each a prime example of program music: in fact, they are not dissimilar to Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals." You can practically see the tartan kilts, the mountains, people furiously voting "yes" in the 2014 independence referendum, etc. This was by far my favorite piece, but others included the lively "Brasiliera" from Scaramouche, a couple Mozart concertos, and Piazzola's "Libertango." As for choral pieces, the Chamber Choir had a wide variety of songs from a Medieval "Cantate Domino" to a trendy "Hold Back the River," and Mixed Voice Choir sang "Fix You" by Coldplay.

The Chamber Choir, or at least most of it. I'm conveniently cropped out, as usual.

The soloists of the concerts, as usual, were all simply fantastic. Martina Silence, our principle violinist, played Sarasate's "Zigueunerweisen" in the most passionate, beautiful ways I have heard it played (which, I must admit, wasn't many times-- but still). I'm extremely impressed by the level of expertise some of our student musicians have achieved, and it is evident that they all contributed countless hours to making the concert the best that it could have been. I am saddened that my music activities at Dollar have mostly come to an end, but fortunately, it won't be long until the Spring Musical starts and I will be playing in the orchestra pit once more.

Just a few days later, I was on a train to Edinburgh to celebrate my friend Alisha's 18th birthday at Camera Obscura and World of Illusions in Edinburgh. This would actually be my second visit here, the first being with my mother in our first few days in Scotland, and I must say that it was just as entertaining this time around. In fact, it may have been even more fun to know what was coming, and of course, to watch everyone make a fool of themselves. Overall, the party was fantastic, and Alisha's "La La Land" cake was of astonishing quality (both taste-wise and visually).

At the illusion room in Camera Obscura. The birthday girl is on the far right.

My next adventure was a house trip on Sunday to Urban Paintball Edinburgh, an indoor paintball center located just a few minutes off Princes Street. This was my first time participating in such an activity, and honestly, maybe the last. Don't get me wrong-- the atmosphere was great, the adrenaline rushes were invigorating, and it's awesome to get a chance to shoot your friends in a socially acceptable manner, but it hurts. Like, really badly. Like, when you're less than 10 metres away you feel like you're actually shot. I have this huge bullseye-shaped welt on my knee now for a souvenir, but other than that, it was an excellent chance to enjoy the company of some of my house sisters-- Henni, Anna, Una, and Bente.

It's hard to believe, but we have only a few weeks of school left before study leave starts, so it's really important to me to go out and go on these adventures while I still can. How crazy is it that I'm applying for new student orientation at IU right now?? (Well, most of my friends did that a year ago, but still.) And it's less than a week now before I depart on my final overseas trip, which is of course is an unbearable wait. So wish me luck! And for those of you who know a little German, I would definitely not turn down any helpful tips-- the only thing I can say with confidence is "Ich bin ein Berliner." Well, we'll see how it goes...

"I'm Working, I Swear!"

Most people take a gap year to escape from the burdens of school, and not to embrace them-- not that there's anything wrong with that. I'll be as glad as anyone when my high school days are over (again), but that doesn't stop me from working diligently to give my best work where I am right now.
Technically, I could ignore all of the rapidly approaching assignments, deadlines, and exams and watch House of Cards all day. But the thing is, I just don't want to. I've always been the person that's up for a challenge, actively seeking out competition especially in the classroom. Plus, all you type-A's out there will be nodding your heads when I mention how reassuring a steady routine is in daily life. So, here's what's been keeping me academically busy this past term.

Advanced Higher Geography has been given the unfortunate nickname of "Advanced Higher Coloring," because of all the maps and graphs. Well, it's not entirely a false notion. We do get the privilege of tracing, drawing, and coloring, which is (not surprisingly) quite relaxing. But Geography is much more difficult than people might say. Throughout the year, I've spent hundreds of hours gathering and processing data, citing sources, and yes, filling in all those diagrams with colored pencils. A graph you might see in a newspaper or in a magazine looks so simple, but there's so much work that goes into it, and even more so when they are hand-drawn. Even the "coloring" part of the subject can be excruciating: the letters must be exactly the same length, all the lines steady and at the perfect angle, and all the colors a consistent shade.

As I've probably mentioned in the past, I have two main projects in geography that I've been working on for almost the entire year-- a geographical study and a geographical issue. The former involves more primary data, in order to prove our proficiency in data gathering and processing techniques. I've studied the nearby city of Stirling and its environmental quality through both a survey and a questionnaire, both of which took too many hours in the cold and wind looking stupid as I strolled through the city center with a trundle wheel. The questionnaire was especially grueling, and I was almost in tears by the end because nobody wanted to respond. Eventually, I did get enough data to prove the statistical significance of these four hypotheses:

If you're interested, I found the first two to be statistically significant. 

The latter project, the issue, is a much broader undertaking that involves comparing different sources that address varying viewpoints to a certain geographical problem. I chose the topic of food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, mainly because one of my best friends at Culver (hey, Clare!) did a project on it in her senior year, and it greatly piqued my interest. To sum up 3000 words, thirteen sources, and numerous graphs, I am basically arguing that the use of innovative farming science technology will be a better option to counteract food security compared to minimizing food waste or increasing the ability to respond to food emergencies in the developed world (although all, of course, will be helpful in some way). This project was undoubtedly more interesting and engaging than the study: there are only so many times where you can do a Pearson's Product test to find a statistical correlation and still be excited about it. Here's a graph that I'm particularly proud of: 

Those bananas took way too long.

Politics class, while less of a burden than Geography, doesn't quite let me off the hook. We are currently in the process of writing and memorizing our assignments, which we will write in an official exam setting later in March. We are given the fantastic gift of being able to choose the subject of our own assignment; naturally, I chose to discuss the constitutionality of Trump's executive order in January barring the immigration of seven Muslim-majority countries. What's funny, though, was that I went into the project thinking, "I am so going to prove this is illegal. Immigration and Nationality Act. Fourteenth Amendment. So there." But after further consideration, I actually had to switch my position on the issue. Eye-opening, but annoying when you've already written two pages on it. I still don't agree that the executive order was the best way to keep the US's national security intact, but I found some provisions in the law that were simply too significant to ignore. For example, I used US Code 1182 as one of my arguments, which states, "he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate" in the event of national security. He is the Commander-in-Chief, so he technically has the ability to say who can come and who can't. Interesting stuff, huh? It's a complicated issue, though, and now I have the ability to argue both ways.

The project has really caused me to look past my biases and focus on what the law actually says, instead of what I want it to be. Being a lawyer wouldn't be my first choice as a profession, but it sure was enthralling to pretend I was for a few weeks. The actually writing is done now, so now I just have to memorize all the facts... from Sally Yate's resignation date (30 Jan) to the number of Somalis that have attempted terror attacks in the US since 1975 (six). Fun stuff.

So that's the bulk of my current work. Modern Studies had its assignment back in the fall, and now the focus is primarily on democracy and voting behavior... which would be my third class on it in two years. In other words, not a problem at all. 

On another note, I was able to get away from the books on Wednesday to participate in Dollar Academy's Cross Country Championships. We followed a wonderfully muddy route up through the Ochil Hills in only a little rain-- much to my surprise, I found myself able to run for the majority of the way! Dollar's page has a story on it, if you'd like to read more about it. It was definitely a great way to take a break and see the beautiful Scottish countryside.

After the run-- note the disheveled hair and dirt on my nose.