47 minute read
SCHOOL VIEWS University Destinations
University Destinations 2022
by Jayne Baker
Another year over - and the process of university applications is finally complete!
With Brexit now a reality, I am finding non-UK students, particularly those holding an EU passport, are increasingly considering their university options within the European Union, where fees are substantially reduced, typically in the range of 2,000€-10,000€ per annum (as opposed to £20,000-£35000 in the UK). Last year, for example, approximately 75% of our students selected a UK based university for their hihger education studies, as opposed to less than 50% this year. This change has meant that our students have needed to be much more organised with their time to be able to explore the many options available across continental Europe, whilst being careful to check they fulfil the relevant admissions criteria and submit their applications on time- admissions criteria and deadlines can vary greatly from country to country, and in some cases university to university.
It is also interesting to note that several of our students from the 2022 cohort have opted for a ‘Gap Year’ next year, which is not uncommon in western countries, wishing to gain some life or work experience or simply wishing to enjoy their new found freedom before committing to a programme of higher education. There is no doubt that COVID has had a hand to play in all this, being the first group of post pandemic graduates, aged just 15-16 years old when the pandemic hit three years ago, who did not sit formal examinations in Years 11 or 12, so face the reality that their university applications will be based entirely on their Y13 results. Added to these various difficulties, is the fact that there are also fewer places available in some courses in the UK, due a sizeable number of COVID deferments from last year, resulting in higher entry requirement for certain subjects and universities.
In the following pages you will find a selection of the confirmed university destinations for 2022, reflecting the types of courses and university destinations our students are currently selecting.
As always, we wish all our graduating students the very best with their future endeavours. They have been a pleasure to work with this year.
KS5 Francophonie Week
by Daniela Monirleanu
Our KS5 French students celebrated the International Francophonie Week in a unique way. Imagination and kindness have no limits and our students discovered new ways to offer messages of hope, gratitude, and peace within our community. Delicate spring flowers with letters of encouragement in French were shared with parents and teachers - a beautiful reminder that different languages and cultures can unite us despite our differences.
IBSB students maintain proud WordFest record!
by Peter Ennion
WordFest is a spoken word contest held between international schools in Romania. Due to the pandemic, the fourth edition of this annual event was postponed, finally taking place on Saturday the 19th of March, 2022. The last time it was held in 2020, around 100 students gathered at the RomanianAmerican University to enjoy the performances, workshops, and prize-giving ceremony, and so it was heartening to see so many enthusiastic students from the various participating schools assembling at King’s Oak to take part this year.
IBSB was represented at this event by Priya, Felix and Sever (Y8) along with Sonia, Sandra and Andrei from Y9. The students deserve a lot of credit for the way they approached the competition during such a busy time of year, as several of our contestants also took part in IBSB’s MUN the previous week, so it was the second consecutive weekend that they were devoting to our school’s extensive cross curricular activities. It was also very pleasing to see Felix and Sever, who are members of Ms Rose’s English Ambassadors team, showcase their talents in this English-based event.
One thing that hadn’t changed was the high standard of the competition across all the categories, including speeches, poems, stories, and drama performances, setting the judges an extremely difficult task. In the end, however, Sever and Felix took first place prizes in their respective categories for group acting and impromptu speaking, while Sonia (impromptu speaking) and Sandra (individual acting) achieved second place. This is all the more impressive when you consider that neither Felix or Sonia had any previous experience of impromptu speaking and that Sandra wrote and performed her own monologue against students who were using the scripts of established playwrights! Priya also delivered a fantastic speech about climate change in the most competitive category of all (persuasive speaking) whilst Andrei put in a valiant effort delivering an impromptu speech with a topic that didn’t quite suit him... If you ask him, he’ll tell you all about it!
So, IBSB can be very proud that the six students walked away with four of the top prizes. It just goes to show that even in a field with such high standards, the talent and hard work of our students shines through.
Well done and thank you to Priya, Felix, Sever, Andrei, Sonia and Sandra!
HPL German Milkshakes
by Olivia Opran, Year 7
For one of our lessons, Ms Anghel decided that the best way to learn recipes in German is to actually make something following a recipe in German. With this in mind, the year 7 German class set out to learn how to make a delicious milkshake, and at the end of the lesson got to test that had learnt the recipe correctly.
In preparation for the lesson, the students were each asked to bring items for the milkshake to school, including strawberries, bananas, milk, cream, ice cream, cups, straws, and decorations, to make the milkshake. Ms Anghel brought the blender to mix everything up.
As a part of the lesson we talked about the importance of teamwork, with everyone contributing in some way to the final outcome. We all understood that this would be very important later in life when we are working and need to be a reliable in a team.
Another important aspect of this activity was being generous, because we shared our ice cream with the other German class, and then when the other group had a desert making activity, they brought us cupcakes, teaching us that a good deed is always returned.
In the end, this interactive l milkshake lesson was a huge success, enjoyed by all, especially as we all go to drink our well-deserved milkshakes.
IBSB Work Experience Programme 2022
by Kendall Peet
Working for a renowned international corporation is a dream come true for many of our students, being an opportunity that opens the road towards a successful future career.
PwC Romania and Deloitte are two such companies that welcome IBSB students each year to join their summer internship programme, offering our students valuable insights into the corporate world of finance, along with the chance to simply experience what it feels like to work a 9-5 job, which is equally valuable and important.
For many of our students, Work Experience provides a life-changing opportunity. For some, it confirms their dreams of being a future doctor or engineer, for example, whilst for others it is an opportunity to realise that the dream does not always match the reality, and as such, it provides the inspiration to re-orientate their dreams toward a new career more suited to their specific interests and talents at an age where this is very easily done.
Work experience also provides an important stimulus to mature and adopt a more professional approach to study. Once students have selected their career, they feel more motivated to work towards achieving it. They begin to actively plan out their future, researching higher education opportunities, universities, and technical institutes, or in some case apprenticeships, knowing exactly what courses and grades will be needed to enable them to move on to achieve their dreams. In this way, work experience places the work being done now in class in the clear perspective of very real and measurable goals our students wish to achieve in their future, providing a powerful mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
It is with this in mind that we thank the staff involved in organsing and running this programme, especially Roxana Anghel the IBSB Work Experience Programme Coordinator.
We also take this opportunity to formally thank our Work Experience Partners for 2022 for their ongoing support and commitment to education. Please know that the programmes and opportunities you provide our students have a big impact on their current lives and future career choices and success.
IBSB Work Experience Partners 2022
World Book Week
by Amalia Anicescu, Year 11
In the words of Stephen King, “Books are a uniquely portable magic”. A few pages, heedfully sewn together, can enable any ordinary individual to travel through a myriad of countries, galaxies, and even dimensions - within a few minutes, from anywhere in the world. They can empower the upbeat dreamers to visualise themselves as their best-loved characters, or to join their favourite historical figures on incredible journeys.
In March, we celebrated World Book Week each morning by bringing a book to school to enjoy the little time we had before the lessons would officially kick off, reading. Mr Ennion organised a Book Exchange, encouraging students to swap their books for a voucher, which could then be used on Friday to acquire new ones. Ms Rose and the English Ambassadors also helped enhance the animated atmosphere of these five literary days by working hard to create various quizzes and fun activities for their schoolmates to complete during form time. In this manner, plenty of the eager, knowledgeable readers around campus got the chance to share their excellent recommendations far and wide and discover intriguing volumes which could become their new favourites.
On Monday, our form tutors introduced us to all of the contests prepared for us by our English teachers: the Extreme Reading Challenge; the Cooking the Books Competition; the Emoji Challenge; and the Costume Competition. Each involved an utterly different, entertaining task to complete. The Extreme Reading Challenge dared the venturesome to take a picture of themselves reading in a peculiar location, while the Cooking the Books Competition aimed at the talented Master Chefs of IBSB, ready to test their skills by trying to reproduce craved delicacies from famous stories. The intricate Emoji Challenge commenced immediately on Monday, with each student given a paper sheet to write what book the emojis each teacher had affixed to their badge card represented. The end goal was to identify all of them, and so, throughout the week students comically chased down teachers, trying to match the emojis with a potential title. Finally, there was the Costume Competition, set to take place on Friday, inviting students to dress up as their beloved characters.
As Friday was the official World Book Day, form groups celebrated the occasion by crafting personalised bookmarks in vibrant colours during Life Skills lesson, whilst others prepared their costumes for the competition for the assembly, their faces painted to imitate different mystical characters.
The assembly started with projections of several entries from the Extreme Reading Challenge and the Cooking the Books Competition. Then Ms Gourley, Ms Rose, and Mr Ennion each took turns to congratulate the winners of different challenges, and to thank and
praise the students who helped organise the activities. The audience erupted in rapturous applause each time a winner was announced.
Next up, the Costume Competition, with Ms Gourley cheerfully inviting the children dressed for the occasion to join her on stage, as the team of designated judges, pleasantly surprised by the meticulously assembled attire, scrutinised their appearances, with multiple prizewinners walking off the stage victoriously displaying their rewards. Then, as an unexpected surprise, the teachers were also invited to the front to display their costumes, inspired by their favourite characters. This time the power lay with the students - whoever received the loudest applause was to be declared – the audience crowning Mr Vincent, aka King Arthur, as the rightful winner.
As the assembly drew to a close, Ms Rose took a moment to thank the English Ambassadors for all of their hard work, gathering them on stage to applaud their efforts. World Book Week was officially over, being an enjoyable way to honour books, writers, readers, and language as a whole. It reminded everybody of how fun reading can be, encouraging all to make more time for it! In this respect, the week was a resounding success, to the point that I am already keenly awaiting next year’s World Book Week, curious to learn what fun activities await us!
Happy World Book Week, everybody!
Year 13 Graduation Ceremony 2022
by Matthew Tansley
The Year 13 Graduation Ceremony was once again held at the Central University Library (Biblioteca Centrala Universitara “Carol I”), providing the perfect setting for what is arguably the most important event on the school calendar. And is always the case, in keeping with tradition and the formality of the occasion, our students, parents, family guests, and staff all turned up dressed for the occasion, donning their regal best, with flowing ball gowns, tuxedoes and bow ties, and cameras at the ready; after all, you only graduate high school once, right!
As a precursor to the evening, Head Girl, Melissa Aydogan, offered a warm welcoming speech, as the opening address to the End of Year Awards Ceremony that took place just prior to the Graduation Ceremony, which you can read about in this issue, so we won’t go into detail about this part of the programme here, jumping straight to the graduation ceremony itself instead.
Doing a great job as MCs for the evening, Maria Sticlea (Y12) and Patrick Tansley (Y12) welcomed all in attendance and then promptly invited Deputy Head Girl, Ana Cristescu, to the podium, as the first speaker for the evening, to offer thoroughly entertaining Valedictorian speech, reviewing her time at IBSB, and on behalf of the entire graduating class, noting how much life at IBSB had changed since she joined the school in Year 1, when the buildings were all painted pink and with an Astroturf football field where
the gymnasium is now located, pointing out some quirky highlights of the students’ experience, spiced up with a few humorous anecdotes, much to the enthusiastic applause of all students present.
It was then on to our Head of Secondary, Mr Tansley, who thanked Ana for her enjoyable speech and the parents for entrusting the education of their children to the staff of IBSB, saying it had been both an honour and a privilege to bear witness to the journey of each and every student, thanking the students for their journey shared and many contributions made to school life across the curriculum, and rather humorously for the additional grey hairs gathered in his maturing years.
Finally, Reverend Nevsky was invited to the podium as our guest speaker for the evening, offering an endearing account of his experiences at Cambridge University, complete with some wise words of wisdom for our graduates, advising them to start their assignments early and to seek out every opportunity available to them whilst at university, as they prepare for the next chapter of their educational journey.
Shifting to the main focus of the evening, each graduate was then invited to the stage to receive their graduation diploma, taking a few moments to thank friends, family, and teaching staff for all the support received during their time at IBSB. They of the future with a sense of optimism and excitement, wishing their peers every success in the next chapter of their lives, and then gathered together on stage one last time age for the official group photo and cap toss, before group and family photos and Mr Tansley’s Champagne toast to the graduating class of 2022.
Hugs and kisses were in abundance and fond farewells heard above the maelstrom of social interaction as the students and all attending filtered out into the night, carrying many warm memories and high hopes for the future.
To the graduating class of 22, we wish you every success for the future. May you always possess the courage to follow your dreams, and the inner strength and self-belief to speak your truth and live life true to your values and convictions.
Year 7 German Cupcakes
by Rodica Ursu
Students in Year 7 enjoyed a special German lesson that involved baking cupcakes. In order to make the cupcakes, the students had to copy the recipe into their books and then carefully follow the instructions to ensure success.
The class teacher, Ms Ioana Anghel, said it’s the type of lesson she really enjoys preparing, and the students all agreed! It was a lesson that moved from the theory of language learning to a real-life situation, providing a clear context and motivation for the students to use German, which the students all clearly enjoyed.
The lesson also provided the perfect opportunity to assess the students’ ability to follow instructions in German, whilst working closely together in groups, building and reinforcing the schemata of vocabulary relating to cooking, baking, using kitchen utensils, and the ingredients needed to bake the cupcakes.
Clementine, Teodora, Sofia, Iulia, Tudor, and David all said they really enjoyed the experience of making the cupcakes, saying the process was extremely fun, but more importantly, they were happy because they got to test out the end product, saying they tasted delicious! Their teacher agreed that the final result was better than expected, apparently even good enough to appear amongst the Starbucks range of special treats! Who knows, maybe a student from Y7 German will end up opening a café in the future and grow it into a worldwide brand name! Only time will tell!
OuR Visit to Europa FM and Virgin Radio
by Diana Lia
On Tuesday, May 17, our French class visited Europa FM (the radio station) and Virgin Radio, where everyone was super nice and welcoming. We were explained how things worked and enjoyed a tour of the studio and got the chance to talk live on radio with thousands of people listening. Later, in small booths, we recorded our news in French to really get a feel for how it would be to work there. It was a fun trip - hopefully we will have more of these as they’re insightful, unique, and memorable, especially now with restrictions lifted, as they provide a nice contrast to being in school each day. Anastasia Iortoman
Virgin Radio was very different to Europa FM; you could sense a noticeable shift in the atmosphere; with a lot more colour and vibrancy, as Virgin Radio is aimed at a younger audience. The main host of the show greeted us with a lively, excited welcome, and there was much more humor integrated into the show. During our visit we got to tune in while the news presenter read her script and immerse ourselves in how the show played out. We then got to record our own news flash in the recording rooms next to the offices, with Ms Dana’s expertise and help in working the intimidating (at first) equipment, taking turns to read the script we had prepared, which I found really intriguing. I was especially touched by how friendly all the staff were and eager to make us feel comfortable. We even got to meet the French Director and his assistant, and ate some delicious food in the building’s café, which was tres chic! Thank you Ms Dana once again for giving us the opportunity. Sonia Marta
I have to admit, the radio station looked totally different to what I was expecting! We had an amazing time and the hosts were truly welcoming! We prepared a news article in French, recording ourselves in a soundproof studio with professional equipment, and at the end of the tour, a very kind member of the staff gave us a bag full of merchandise goodies. Thank you Ms Dana for accompanying us on this trip! Heng Yang – Maria
I really enjoyed this trip. Not only were there educational aspects to it, but it was genuinely a lot of fun to meet new people and see a live session of EUROPA FM. The hosts were very kind and their show was interesting. We also listened to Virgin Radio, who were very cheerful toward us, and got the chance to record ourselves talking in French in the studios, which was an interesting experience. I would definitely recommend going there again, for educational purposes or just for fun. Anushka Laha
Year 9 Humanities Trip to Sinaia
by Mara Mestecaneanu and Marc Paraschiv, Year 9
On the 12th of May, a Y9 Humanities Business Studies Trip was scheduled. The whole purpose of the trip was to obtain information about travel and tourism in Sanaia, one of the busiest tourist towns in Romania.
08:40, Gara Nordului: we started arriving at the designated time, huddling up with their friends, frantically looking around for the teachers. Well, not so frantically, more like, ‘relaxed, but where are they?’ sort of looking around. Some students had chosen to arrive earlier, in order to place their Starbucks prior to departure. Yes, I said it, 14-year-olds, up earlier than they needed to be that morning to order coffee and breakfast from one of the many coffee shops present at the train station (the only acceptable one in our eyes).
09:00, Gara Nordului, train wagons 2 and 4: with Starbucks in one hand and clipboards in the other, we boarded the train as instructed by our teachers. The train ride itself wasn’t that bad, just a small rumble now and then that didn’t stop us from talking, eating, drinking, blasting music loudly (you know who you are), and other such activities. The level of excitement was slowly building, and as the train neared our final destination, we rose looking out the windows, smiling ear to ear.
10:20, Sinaia Centre: having climbed several flights of rocky stairs, we arrived at the entrance of Sinaia’s main park, with one teacher leading, one at the end, and one in our midst. Several students who had already visited the city recognised a few of the key familiar sights. Once in the park, we grouped together as the teachers explained our tasks and the purpose of our trip. Each group, of 4 to 5 students, was then instructed to walk around the main Sinaia avenue together asking visitors about their stay in the city. And yes, there was a punishment for separating: spending the rest of the trip by the side of one of the teachers, who reassured the students that they too wouldn’t be very happy with the arrangement.
12:30, Sinaia Main Avenue: all the students were required make their way back to the centre to report back to their teachers, having completed most of their printed questionnaires, and eaten lunch.
13:00, Sinaia Centre: All of the students gathered, registered, and were counted twice to ensure we were all back safe and sound. The plan now was to head up to Peles Castle, to visit it both inside and out. However, during the time the students had been walking around the city, the teachers and as well as the students had received an alert about a bear seen around the premises of the castle, so Plan A was cancelled. Plan B was to spend the rest of the time in the park, which we did.
14:40, Sinaia Park: With the train leaving in 20 minutes, the teachers prepared for departure recalling everyone for the homeward journey. Having instructed us not to leave the boundaries of the park, we weren’t too hard to find: some of us we down by the fountain, some were lying on the grass, some playing volleyball in a small clearing, and others were just walking around the park. Gathered, a head count was completed and we all headed off to the train to begin the journey home, having enjoyed a nice day out in one of Romania’s most beautiful mountain resort towns, as the basis for designing our own tourism package holiday experiences.
Year 9 Tourism Projects
by Jayne Baker
Each year we host our own Tourism Fair, to provide an opportunity to our Year 9 students to showcase their exciting projects promoting one or more travel destinations within Romania. As preparation for the Tourism Fair, the students enjoyed a field trip to Sinaia, to gather information about tourism in Romania in order to better understand the needs of their potential future customers. They then developed a concept for their project, carried out research and collected content, designed a website, and put together package offers, which they presented at the showcase Tourism Fair, with a panel of three parents invited to judge the entries, selecting an overall winner.
As you can see from the pictures below, they were in charge of everything from the design to the promotion, exactly as a professional tourism agency would be. Great job everyone!
Thank you so much for the various contributions everyone made in preparing for this event. It was lovely to see so many parents visiting and to receive such kind words of feedback from the three external judges.
When asked, the students all said that they enjoyed the day and the project this term. They especially enjoyed the style of learning this project provided- spearheading HPL, before they even knew what HPL was!
Black Sea schools is an association founded by the British International School of Tbilisi, with a total of more than twenty member schools from the nations that share the coast of the Black Sea and nearby neighbours.
We are extremely fortunate in that there are now a number of BSS competitions organised and run each year by the various members, with the students from IBSB having the opportunity to take part as a part of our growing extracurricular programme.
In this issue, for example, you have the chance to read about two of these competitions, including the Black Sea Schools Art Competitions and the Black Sea Schools Creative Writing Competition.
Here, specifically, you can read a few of our secondary school short story entries for this year.
We are very proud to announce that Nina Culea (Year 10) achieved 3rd place in the Key Stage 4 category, whilst Sofia Peli was awarded 2nd place in the Key Stage 2 category (you can read Sofia’s entry in the Whiteboard section of this magazine).
Congratulations to both students and to all of our young writers who participated in the competition this year.
HYBRID
by Maia Bucura
It’s been twenty years since the last regular human evolved into a hybrid cyborg, or so we thought. We naturally turned into hybrids as technology developed, or so we thought. The monarch of Earth only means well, or so we thought.
Nothing we thought was right.
Every single thing we knew was made up…
Sometimes I wish I hadn’t explored that forest with my friends. I wish I had stayed home and downloaded new software into my brain like my mother told me to do. Whenever I begin to regret, I remind myself that I’m here for a reason. I discovered this place for a reason. Everything that led to me being here has happened for a reason…
I remember that day perfectly. Me and my friends were suspended from school for hacking into the school system and making the school lights become party lights. You couldn’t blame me for it, it was like the school’s system was asking to be hacked. Anyway, my mother told me to stay in my room and download the “Good kid” software into my brain. Of course, I didn’t do that. I had plans.
I took my father’s jet car and headed to the dark woods where I planned to meet up with my friends. I was the last to arrive, so we left as soon as I landed. Curiosity always got the better of us, so we explored the forest, pretending to be researchers. I was casually walking when “Aaaaaaaaaah!” I fell into an enormous, coiled tunnel and slid through it as if it were one of those ancient slides we learned about. As I got to the bottom and opened my eyes, I was greeted by many confused gazes…
They weren’t hybrids. They were… humans? I let out a shriek as I looked up at them once more. I could tell they were as frightened as I was, but too many thoughts were running through my head to care. “Who are you? No, what are you? No, where am I? No, am I dreaming?” I had never been so puzzled in my entire life. Could they even talk? Would they hurt me? There was no way to describe the number of thoughts and questions I had.
There was a moment of silence. The thing that broke it? Not answers, not questions, but my friends screaming as they went through the tunnel. Good, I wasn’t going to be alone with these… people. As all my friends fell to the bottom of the tunnel, I could see the terror and confusion on their faces. That must have been what I looked like too. Another moment of silence… great.
Suddenly, all the humans moved out of the way to reveal a powerful-looking woman. As she walked towards us, I couldn’t help but notice the sizeable scar positioned across her face. That’s where our human faces split into robotic faces.
“I see you’re looking at my scar.”
Shoot, it was too obvious.
“Don’t worry kids, we won’t hurt you. Please, make yourselves at home, you might be here for a while.” the woman told us as she turned towards one of my friends.
She looked as if she was analyzing him, and she was. “I’m sorry, I might look confused, it’s just that we have lived here for so long, we’ve forgotten what you guys look like.” she stated.
What WE look like? This is what everybody looks like, everybody except these people.
She told us to follow her to the main hall, where she would explain everything to us.
We had no choice but to do so, so we complied.
As we entered the main hall, a guard told us to state our names and on whose behalf we were there, but the woman told the guard there was no need for that and led us to a room with
an office table and 5 seats, just enough for all of us. She gestured for us to sit and began to talk. “I am Lady Astra Annora, but you can simply call me Miss Annora. I am the monarch of the last clan of pure homo sapiens there is and this is our bunker. Everything you have ever been told is a lie. We never “naturally” evolved into hybrids, that isn’t even possible,” she told us.
“How are we even meant to trust you? We fall through a tunnel and encounter creatures which we only learn about in history lessons and are suddenly safe?
How do we know you aren’t planning to harm us?” My friend raged. He was right though, we had no way of knowing if she was trustworthy.
“Two things. You have my word. Ask anybody here and you’ll see that I’m serious when it comes to that. The second thing? You see this scar on my face? I escaped from the people who wanted to forcefully turn our species into what you five are. Now, if I may resume, all of the people alive then were built into hybrids and coded to forget. We are the ones who escaped. You guys weren’t born like this, you were turned into robots when you were still newborns. It’s all the monarch’s plan to control you.”
More thoughts were running through my head, I was able to stop all questions but one. “Why are you telling us all of this?”
“I have nothing against becoming a hybrid, but I do have something against being forced to do so. Living in this bunker for 20 years has made me realise that humankind should have liberty of choice. You should be able to choose whether you want to stay a hybrid or become human again. My people and I want to give the above-ground world this freedom. However, to do that we need a hybrid voice, someone who can break the barrier between hybrid and human. We really need your help, all of you!”
HYBRID
by Rita Bartos, Year 9E
On the wall, there is a blue plastic clock that moves slowly. I don’t think it’s even working. I’ve been staring at it intently for what seems like hours, although the clock has barely moved a minute. The more I study it, the more I realize that this isn’t my room, or any other room I’m familiar with, even if it at first glance it appears to be.
I look around the room as I swivel my head. The room appears strange. The infinite ceiling is lit by gliding lamps, and the chamber has no doors or windows, only plain white walls. I extend my hand, but it is withdrawn by something. I take a quick scan around my body and discover I’m tethered to... nothing. I am practically levitating, since there is nothing underneath me. I begin to shake my body, hoping to get out of whatever this was.
“No need to do that,” a glacial voice echoes behind me. I twist my head, but instead of being relieved to hear another human-like voice, I am horrified. This thing standing behind me was not human or anything near that.
If you imagined extraterrestrial beings as green things with big black eyes and egg-shaped heads, think again. Whatever this is, it has paper white skin and glowing purple hair. Her eyes are cat-like, bright purple. She looks almost human.
Once I am all untied and standing up, my curiosity builds. “You’re not human?”
The tone of her voice is serious, but with a tinge of amusement. “Not really. I mean, we are, but not fully. We’re a combination of Alkinis and humans. We were banished from our planet by our species, or well, half of our species. So we relocated here. We call ourselves Alkis. We pretty much do the same as the Alkinis. Telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, you name it.” Then she turns around.
A door opens out of nowhere, and the hybrid begins moving towards it; I follow without saying anything. We enter a large stone hall with the same gliding lamps and a wide range of tables in the center. The Alki points up toward what appear to be millions of little glass condos stacked on top of one another.
We walk in silence for a while, until we reach an elevator that looks modern. “So, what are you-” The elevator’s ding signaling that we had arrived at the top floor, cuts me off. The doors open, and without a word, she quickly walks past me into the dark lobby.
Someone, I assume the Alki, claps their hands, and the chamber is immediately flooded with light. The room is cramped, with a desk at the far end and a slew of little drawers spread over the walls. A door randomly appears, and now, at the counter, there is another Alki with the same glowing hair as the Alki next to me.
“I see. Rumour has it that a new Alki has come to our planet. That doesn’t happen very often.” Alki says in a deep voice. “Oh, and how impolite of me. I am Keres, the leader of the Alkis.”
Keres takes my hand to shake it, but I quickly tuck it behind my back. What is he saying?
“Good, I’ll let Odalis take you to your apartment,” Keres says, pointing at the girl next to me, and whispering something in her ear. Odalis whispers something back to Keres and then turns to me.
“Follow me.” Odalis waves her hand at me, instructing me to follow her.
The walk back appears longer this time, as we travel through corridors and little rooms interminably. But it doesn’t bother me. Keres and Odalis both mention that I was an Alki, and it stayed with me. I’m not foolish enough to just claim I don’t understand and dismiss the situation as a “mystery.” I understand, but I believe there is a mistake somewhere; after all, I was going to
sleep in my bed yesterday, and now I’m here, in a foreign area that may or may not be on planet Earth.
I am so absorbed in my thoughts that I don’t even notice we have arrived at what appears to be a glass apartment, identical to the ones I saw for the first time in the main hall. Odalis enters the flat through one of those floating portal doors. I quietly follow Alki around the flat, glancing around. It is nicely decorated, much like a human’s.
As I slide my palm over a dark wooden table, Odalis turns to me suddenly. “We need to talk.” A serious tone replaces the sweet and amused one. I look at Alki’s face and the smile is no longer there. Without taking my eyes off her face, I sit down at the table, and so does Odalis.
“We need you. Literally. You’re a powerful Alki soldier, and we need you to finish this war, Silas.” My mouth falls open at the sound of my name. How does she know my name?
“I’m no soldier,” I mumble, shaking my head.
“I’d say otherwise.”
“And what war? What are you talking about? To whom?”
“Let me show you.” Odalis stands up, touches her bracelet, and with that we are teleported into what looks like a balcony. I can see everything, and we are indeed in space.
Odalis points down with one finger. “With them,” she said, following her finger and looking down.
My heart skipped a beat as I saw what was there. I looked back and forth between Odalis and the planet.
“You want to-No you can’t. It’s not true, is it? “ No, no, no. I cannot comprehend this. It is impossible. She can’t declare war on this planet. No, not like this.
Odalis turns to me, an evil grin resting on her face, all sweetness disappearing. As if she is reading my thoughts, she says: “Yes, we’re declaring war on planet Earth.” an office table and 5 seats, just enough for all of us. She gestured for us to sit and began to talk. “I am Lady Astra Annora, but you can simply call me Miss Annora. I am the monarch of the last clan of pure homo sapiens there is and this is our bunker. Everything you have ever been told is a lie. We never “naturally” evolved into hybrids, that isn’t even possible,” she told us.
“How are we even meant to trust you? We fall through a tunnel and encounter creatures which we only learn about in history lessons and are suddenly safe?
How do we know you aren’t planning to harm us?” My friend raged. He was right though, we had no way of knowing if she was trustworthy.
“Two things. You have my word. Ask anybody here and you’ll see that I’m serious when it comes to that. The second thing? You see this scar on my face? I escaped from the people who wanted to forcefully turn our species into what you five are. Now, if I may resume, all of the people alive then were built into hybrids and coded to forget. We are the ones who escaped. You guys weren’t born like this, you were turned into robots when you were still newborns. It’s all the monarch’s plan to control you.”
More thoughts were running through my head, I was able to stop all questions but one. “Why are you telling us all of this?”
“I have nothing against becoming a hybrid, but I do have something against being forced to do so. Living in this bunker for 20 years has made me realise that humankind should have liberty of choice. You should be able to choose whether you want to stay a hybrid or become human again. My people and I want to give the above-ground world this freedom. However, to do that we need a hybrid voice, someone who can break the barrier between hybrid and human. We really need your help, all of you!”
HYBRID
by Nina Culea, Year 10R
It should’ve been me.
As I sat on the ledge of the staircase on the narrow hallway, I clenched my fist at the thought of her misfortune. It’s been more than a year since; more than enough time to wail in selfpity and get over what happened.
This wasn’t my first time either, it’s not like I had much of a choice, she just happened to have been born in the wrong place at the wrong time.
God, why even bother to lie at this point, what happened to me? I used to be the best at what I did, ‘professional’ they’d call me ‘separates personal feelings from the job’ they used to speak when recommending me, and I lived up to those expectations for over 10 years.
Am I growing softer with my age? What am I even talking about, I’m not over the hill just yet.
I sighed and rolled my eyes at the conversation I was having.
‘What am I supposed to do now…’ I murmured to myself, lost in thought.
She was born rich, supposedly a spoiled brat, or at least that’s what I had heard. A narcissist who had never worked a second in her life and still got whatever she wanted. She was everything I stood against; her very existence disgusted me to the point where hearing her name made my soul cringe. The daughter of a powerful man in our country. A ‘generous’ man, an ‘honest’ man, and a fine fool to think that he could ever escape his poorly assigned fate.
As much as I hate to say it, I must admit that he was indeed an expert at his job, doing what our nation’s leaders have done best: stealing from the poor to make the rich richer. ‘Sometimes you have to play the role of a fool to fool the fool who thinks they are fooling you. But based on that logic, I’m the biggest fool here. A country controlled by a faulty, unjust government was the least of my concerns when I was forced into a corner and had to start a new life where nobody knew me.
I was barely of age when I was first approached to join a sort of ‘movement’. I immediately declined; my innocent self had other plans for my future at that point. They approached me again a couple of months later, and while flustered and flattered by their attempt to recruit me, I refused their offer again. Another couple of months later, I was approached one final time, and with hesitation and curiosity lingering in my infantile stare, I asked: “Why me?”. Awkward silence floated in the air before I heard a voice announce: “Because you’re like us”.
Hybrid warfare. This is a fancy term used to more or less describe what they were doing, what I was doing. Exploiting our old home country’s vulnerabilities to bring down the remains of any party still standing. There were blind spots everywhere; my job was simple: infiltrate, get the ‘task’ done, and get out. I’ve had so many aliases over the years to the point that I have quite a hard time remembering my name sometimes.
Everything was going just as they had foreseen it; aspects of our society started crumbling to ashes before our very eyes, all except one that is, being that run by her father. As said before, he was well known for being impeccable at his job, leaving no traces whatsoever. We didn’t have a lead on him, no known weakness that we could attack to turn our country’s government upside down. Until I so foolishly suggested the logical sequential step: going after his daughter.
Having been previously injured, I was forced to sit this one out; I sometimes wonder how things would’ve turned out had I gotten to deal with her myself. As it was, they sent somebody else instead, a larger frame and an off-putting aura were only some of the differences between us. And of course, the way we treated our victims. He had been given two weeks to get the job done, ‘I could’ve done it in one week’ I thought to myself at that time. How could I have known what was about to happen?
All I had was a trashy screen showcasing the CCTV footage of an old camera and the blessing of a fool who had been kept in the dark about the ultimate goal of this whole excuse for a movement.
I had to watch her lose herself. She was so young, too young to be pulled into this, but all I could do was watch as she slowly but surely lost her mind. With every word she spoke, she revealed that she was nothing like the image I had of her. She was graceful and sweet and still held onto that innocent childish gleam of hope, I could see it in her eyes. If only I had noticed sooner, before that glimmer of hope went out. Only if I’d have been stronger, I could’ve stopped him…stopped him from destroying her. Stopped the ever-growing voices that she swore would swallow her alive.
“They keep haunting me!”, she used to scream in agony. “Please make them stop!” was one line I had heard once too many times.
Anguish was too faint of a word to describe what I was feeling, and yet I never to action to stop him. I never stopped this, even though I had started forming an image of what I had gotten myself into.
I slowly raised my sore body from the ledge and made my way heavily up the stairs to a poorly lit room.
I turned on a lamp, closing my eyes at the sudden wave of light blinding my face, as I leaned on the doorway looking towards the small figure lying on the old mattress.
I took in a deep breath while staring in the direction of the frail body lying under a thick blanket.
“What have I gotten myself into...?”
HYBRID
by Vlad Nedelcu, Year 11P
The brisk morning breeze rumbled through the air as the ashcoloured sky cast its menacing embrace upon the city down below. Alexander was sitting at his table in his office, filling in all types of paperwork concerning important matters. He ran a hand through his hair and quickly set his glasses down on the table, before averting his gaze from the table. After signing off on the final order (something about increasing productivity quotas), he rose rapidly and strode calmly over to the window, to marvel at his city, his magnificent creation.
From his office, he had an almost perfect view of the entire city and took immense pride in looking over it, watching, observing and basking in the unstoppable march of the machine of collective progress. As he approached the window, the sight of the immaculate buildings appeared. The separate sectors of the city were carefully distinguished by the subtle differences in the structure of the buildings. To the untrained eye, all buildings appeared identical, even to the most minute detail. To Alexander, this symbolised the foundations of a perfect society; there was no way to distinguish the rich and poor from each other, and even if there were, the rich and poor did not exist. The only thing that existed was the collective. There was no “I” no “you”, only “We”.
Ah, the collective, Alexander’s true driving force, the base of his motivation, and the foundation of the new city and state. For too long, society was held back by poverty, class divide, loneliness, hunger, and a host of other reasons. It was true that the countless evolutions of past societies did alleviate some of the pressure holding society back, but only the bare minimum was done. All of the past idealists were the same in his eyes: Socrates, Voltaire, Washington, Hegel, Marx, Lenin, the list goes on and on. Every single one of them would speak or write of great change or do something intended to make things better, but they all stopped short of the final step. Most of their plans and philosophies would only truly benefit a select few. Alexander was determined to benefit the collective. He had done what all of the past great thinkers failed to realise. There was one major obstacle in the way of reaping benefits for everybody: the possibility of choice. The idea of choice inherently went against the collective, therefore to make “we”, choice had to be destroyed.
The obsidian night sky had given way to the slate-hued morning. As the amber tiptoed over the horizon, its majestic golden rays made the city glimmer. The gigantic digital clock displayed the time for all to see. It was time for the workers, the backbone of his society, to rise from their slumber to start the day’s work. Alexander knew that, like the spinal cord of a conventional person, the state’s spinal cord was a critically important segment of a well-ordered system. As such, the backbone of his perfect system had to be treated tenderly and with care; without being exploited and taken advantage of. He thought of the constant, unchanging schedule of a worker in the city: they would all wake up as the sun rose, make their way to the factories, start working, have several breaks throughout the day, and then return to their houses after the eight-hour shift was over. It was a simple, well-coordinated, and, above all, efficient scheme of time management to achieve the maximum output without sacrificing human wellbeing. To that extent, Alexander’s society made extensive use of machinery to assist the workers.
If the workers were the backbone of society, then the machines were the beating heart, the most important organ of the city’s body. Just as a heart beats automatically, so do the machines automatically work day and night, never tiring, always performing at their peak level. Alexander reasoned that machines were an absolute necessity to ensure his city was the happiest it could be. If machines took over routine jobs and, in some cases, worked at factories with a lower priority, then more of the population could contribute to the efficient functioning of society. It was the most important part of his hybrid society; the people would work in the factories and the machines would take care of the necessities to run a city and by extension a state. Gradually, over a lengthy period of time, the machines would take on more and more of the workload starting from the bottom
and building up to the top. This would result in the pinnacle of efficiency and happiness at the same time. Alexander had even had thoughts of the machines running his city at some point in the far distant future.
The creak of the mammoth walnut wooden door to his office snapped Alexander back to the present. He turned around and saw one of his assistants moving to hand him an envelope.
“The report you wanted, sir” the assistant said.
“Thank you, Jordan. You are dismissed”, Alexander replied. With that, Jordan left the office.
Alexander walked back over the pristine basil coloured carpet, sat down at his desk and began to read. He smiled briefly. The report’s contents could be summarised as: “To remove any distinction between people and machines, people must have their names erased, to be replaced with numbers just like the machines.”
Alexander was delighted. It was then that he finally knew that his machine-human hybrid city would stand the test of time and live on for generations to come.
TIV #2 2021-22 List of contributors
Student Editor: Maria Sticlea
IBSB Staff
Kendall Peet Alan Cornish Matthew Tansley Madalina Soare Adelaide Owens Victoria Fay Orla O’Dwyer Alison Tansley Aliviana Sanders Lee Hawkins Robin Morrison Tom Wilson Lucretia Gabroveanu Alexandra Ivascu Andreea Cazacu Daniela Momirleanu Ana Maria Boiangiu Mairead Lonergan David Vincent Mathew Kirk Elizabeth Platt Cristina Marascu James Hudson Jayne Baker Peter Ennion Rodica Ursu Diana Lia
IBSB Students
Melissa Aydogan Medeea Constantinescu Sandra Curtis Luca Pietruschevici Balan Dinu Pietruschevici Balan Radu Nica Robert Airinei Maria Dragomir Octavian Murea Priya Vijaykumar Patrick Tansley Andrei Popescu Mia Opran Felix Daianu Amalia Anicescu Alexia Verdes Olivia Opran Mara Mestecaneanu Marc Paraschiv Maia Bucura Rita Bartos Nina Culea Vlad Nedelcu
