Palm Sunday

                Arms outstretched, the wind at my back, standing on the edge of the outcropping, the sunset sinking in glowing splendor, as the moon rises over the opposite horizon, shining silvery white in the midnight black sky, only the brightest stars barely visible, yet there hangs Orion’s belt.  The lights of Mostar begin to flicker on, and streets are outlined by the pinpricks of light.  The school stands like a stripped fortress in the middle, Susac’s blue roof off on black hill, the futbal stadium, the park, the old bank, the train station off on the other side, and the turquoise Neretva flowing beneath the bridges.  This is Mostar, this is my home.

                I walked to the cross with Mirwais this evening, quite spontaneously, which made it even more of an adventure.  As soon as I arrived home from MUN he yelled out the window, “Hilary we’re going to the cross” and I couldn’t argue with that.  We spend so much time looking up at the cross each day, yet the moments are rare to reverse the situation and stare down at the city.  Each time I try to memorize the winding river, the buildings, and communist bloc apartment buildings, and the streets as they intersect networking across the town. 

                The feeling as we walked up there, and then stood gazing out at the city in the foreground and the mountains surrounding the basin, the smell of the wind and the occasional faint aroma of flowers, combined reminded me of so many places and times throughout life.  It was as if all my wonderful memories like this, a combination of walking, wind, and sunset were compounded upon each other and the smiles on our faces could not go away.

          Flinging my arms wide, the wind almost swept me off my feet, and I couldn't help but sing praise.

Songs of the Night:

Shaked’s playing “Hey Juliet” right now J

Fireflies

I’m Yours – Jason Mraz

Wonderwall – Oasis

Sweet Home Alabama

(the last three performed by Schirin, Misha, and Dino with the school band at Coco Loco)

                After walking down in the dark, talking the whole way of course, we went to Coco Loco where the school band was performing.  The music was wonderful, the trio Schirin (Austria) Misha (Russia) and Dino (BiH) performed an amazing selection of music, and everybody was singing along, clapping, dancing, all of us swaying with our arms wrapped around each other.  Smiling faces of many friends, Shaked, Anita, Dorontine, Verena, Simone, Mirwais, Nicolai, Anja, Masha, Yuli, Dani and so many others.  It was the best party, quality fun, and a wonderful atmosphere.  Encore!       

               

                This morning the final general assembly debates, resolution voting, and closing ceremony for the MostMUN conference occurred.  MUN is an abbreviate for Model United Nations, an international program that simulates United Nation delegate meetings.  Since Friday, over sixty students from UWCiM and schools throughout BiH, Turkey, and the UK, have been debating resolutions within four separate councils as representatives of countries from all over the world.  I was in the Historical Council (not actually existent in the UN) as a representative of the Russian Federation and the USSR (depending on the date.)  We discussed two situations and created several  interesting resolutions:

                Insitutionalized Racism in South Africa under the system of Apartheid

                The Situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1993 

As well as in the other councils:

                Security Council

                                Piracy Off of Somalia’s Coast

                                Regulations on a Nuclear Free World  and the creation of  Nuclear Free Zone in the US

                Environmental Council

                                Protection of the Global Climate for Present and Future Generations

                                Global Plan to Solve the Issue of Water Shortages

                Human Rights Council

                                Combating Defamation of Religion

                                Promotion and Protection of Freedom of Speech in China                

On Friday evening our school hosted the annual traditional Global Vision contest.  Here in Europe there is a competition similar to American Idol called Euro Vision – where delegates, one from each European country, compete for the title of the best singer throughout Europe.  Our school modified the concept a bit, to include candidates from all around the world.

Representing the country of Austria I performed a medley from the Sound of Music with Leah, Isa Belle, Shaked, Schirin, Rikka, Laura, Michelle, and Ardi.  We had a lot of fun putting together the choreography, and singing along to all the classic songs – “Rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens, A few of my favorite things, Yodel-le-yodel-loo, I am 16 going on 17, Do-Ray-Mi, the hills are alive with the sound of music, and finally So long farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, good night.”  I was the part of Gretel (of course) and it was really fun.  Some other acts included Amitai, Selmir, and Miran representing Sweden who won, Clement singing “My African Queen”, Mirwais, Nicolai, and Niv doing a medley of music ending with “Don’t Worry Be Happy” and wishing all of us first years good luck with the upcoming months of hard work doing IAs, EEs, and ToK.  To translate from IB language – IAs are Internal Assessments, EEs are Extended Essays, and ToK is theory of Knowledge presentations and essays.  Whoo sounds like a lot of fun right? J

These next few months are going to be filled with a lot of hard work, many decisions and opportunities are riding on the results of my predicted grades and the quickly approaching exams and SATs.  But I’m ready, work hard, play hard.  I just need to hone my focus, but still enjoy balance and all the friends and new family that I am lucky to have here.  One of Shaked’s crazy metaphors really applies: when hiking on a trail it is necessary to look down quite a bit so that you don’t trip, and so that you follow the right path, but it is also good to look towards the horizon, towards your goal, because the mountain is waiting looming ahead.  And if your shoe gets untied, or life throws you a challenge, stop and take the time to tie it, so it doesn’t trip you up in the future.

Now, we have two more days of school, then Shaked and I are leaving for Easter Break!  It’s a SURPRISE!  And we are incredibly excited!

And, maybe something semi-important to add, I turned 18 years old last Wednesday, the 24^th of March, 2010.  I am a legal adult – wow.  But that is a whole other blog entry.  For my birthday I collected advice from everybody for the next years of my life, and it resulted in some interesting and pleasant results.

A shout out to all those Portlanders finishing up their Spring Breaks and heading back to school, I send my love to you!

Good Night!