U18 Ventures - Hasta Luego Issue

Volume 1 Issue 1

U18 VENTURES

Hasta Luego!

See you Later!

Photos from top to bottom, left to right.

The night lights of Berlin, the Holocaust Memorial, the view from Mt. Wank, the Galapagos, healthy food, Isaac during the snowball fight, and Alice’s eye.

Photography by Hudson C., Emma G., Alice F., and Yada P.

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Is the end really the end? ‘

The departure of anyone always comes like a slap in the face. It doesn’t matter what form it takes, whether its the death of that dog you had rescued or leaving your family for college.

Things are never the same, and sometimes, you feel like something tragic is lost. However, it is increasingly true that the world is getting smaller. Just look at your Facebook friends and look at your friend’s facebook friends! There’s probably at least one person you both know. We now have Skype, Facebook, and Whats App; the virtual world links each and every one of us. So really, a goodbye isn’t a goodbye. You’ll always see each other again, just, in a different form. You might say it’s different from seeing eye to eye. You might worry that you will drift away from your friend back home. Or maybe you won’t, and everything will be alright.

In this issue, we at Think Global School will be reminiscing about the highlights of last year, remembering our misadventures and “fails,” and much, more more. As we are putting our last belongings onto our suitcases and looking towards the new school year, we officially depart with the last.

So instead of saying “goodbye,” let’s replace our vocabulary with “Hasta Luego!”

-Yada For any inquiries or writing opportunities, feel free to contact Yada at yadap@thinkglobalschool.com.

Hasta Luego - “This story, our story, isn't finished. We still experiences to experience" Contributors: Charis S and Rebecca G. Special Thanks: Hannah C., Maya M., Pema T., Isaac F., Mike Hourahine, Lindsay Clark

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WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF HOME?

By Pema T.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, home is a place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. Here in TGS, you spend 24 hours a day with your fellow classmates for about 3 months.

You eat together, sleep together, share things together, and talk together...So, would you consider TGS your home?

living in for almost three years. By the second week, I had moved into a penthouse. I didn’t quite settle in until a little under a month later. Of course, I got the guest room. I thought to myself, should I be sad that I am a guest in my own house? Now that I think about it, I am hardly home here, in a strange new place in a country which I have barely been in since TGS. Still, I shouldn’t be In order to answer that question, you a guest right? would need to find out what “home” As days passed by and I started means to you. I have thought of this getting used to this new settlement, this question once but I have never tried to question kept on bugging me. However, answer this question with much in the end, I just decided to live by my consideration. I always knew in my own definition of home. heart that whatever I do, wherever I am So here it is. Home to me, is anywhere or whatever I like, my home will always in the world, where you feel accepted, be with my biological family. My answer where there are people who you care has always been Bhutan. about and cares about you. It is where you can do whatever you want, and it’s However, this summer, my answer where you grow and learn. Basically, changed completely. It first started with home is wherever you are. To me, the a little bit of dilemma. world is my home.

On the first week of summer, I was living in my house, which I have been

Photo on the leftÑ Alex trying out the Swing at the Akha tribe, Thailand.

Photography by Charis S. Photo on the rightÑ 2011-2012 cass posing on the equator, Ecuador.

Photography by Lindsay Clark

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A List about Learnings

By Maya I could write an infinite list of what I've learnt this year.

Everything from arithmetic sequences to how much tension a jar of honey can create in a shared kitchen. In TGS you don't only pump your head full with academic knowledge like math and language, but you get experience and references you wouldn't otherwise.

Below is a small list of just a few things I've learnt: - Popcorn is not only a snack, it can be part of an ecuadorian lunch/dinner.

- A book beholds so much more than you think.

- After a while in an international environment you start making fun of your own country.

- A parallel line must have the same slope but a different m.

- You can love people around our solar system a zillion times and sometimes want to kill (or do something really mean, like steal their nutella).

What others have to say: It’s so important it is to be positive, especially when others are having a hard time seeing the bright side.

-Gawa

I will miss the strange and bizarre times that i've had with my advisory, like eating a pickled plum with sweet and sour chili sauce on it!

-Gijs

This year I learnt that in order to get to know

This year I learned how to murder bananas with Willem.

-Hudson

yourself better, you must stray a little from the path from time to time. I learnt that it's okay to change, as long as from your doing- not the pressured doing of others. And I learnt that true friends are the most amazing gift you can ever have- they will stick with you through thick and thin and you must never forget how special that is.

-Bailey

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Feature Story

Bringing it Back The misadventures of 24 kids from Ecuador to Thailand to Germany.

Photography by Hannah C., Maya M., Gijs D., and Yada P.

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Querer es poder. To want is to be able to. To want is power.

Ecuador

Resau, Laura; Farinango, Maria Virginia (2011-03-08). The Queen of Water (p. 264).

Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Photos from left to right. The Cajas mountain range. Photo taken by Charis S. TGS hanging out at Colegio de Aleman, our host school. Photo taken by Yuan Yuan K.

The Galapagos

By Bailey D.

Deep blue water. A silhouette of wings against the equally blue sky. Jump. Cold creeps up on all sides. Head now submerged. Turtles. A shock of green against blue, their bodies flying and drifting and moving effortlessly. Now we are snorkeling. Now we are not. Sand beneath my feet. Soft. Gritty. Ocean pushes and pulls, a slippery figure emerging from it’s depths. Barking. Waddling. The seal collapses in a heap. A pudgy, black, reeking heap. Now we are on the beach.

Now we are not. Leaves. Brown. Green.

Everywhere. The forest towers above.

Coffee Plantation. Rain falls. Mud underfoot. Squelching. We walk shoulder to shoulder, toe to toe. Now we are in the highlands. Now we are not. Road stretches on. Building sandwiched between building.

Almost a concrete jungle. A cat. Two dogs.

I sit, a scooter whizzing by two stories below. Clouds closing the curtain over the day. Now we are in the Galapagos. Now we are not.

Being in the Galapagos, standing on a

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rooftop and looking out over the town, I feel like I could be anywhere else in the

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world right now, not a place home to Darwin’s theory of evolution or thousands of species of unique animals and plants. It is only when you look closer, or dive into the ocean that you see what this place really has to offer. For me this aspect was totally surprising- I had no idea that there were residents on this island, nor a school, nor restaurants, nor dozen of shops where you could stock up on Doritos, milk and Oreos. To be honest, I was expecting to be totally surrounded by green and blue, not to be greeted by cactuses and buildings when I left the airport. Another thing that I wasn’t expecting was the rapid change of environment, going from the coast where there are roadside cactuses, to the highlands where there are flourishing coffee plantations. Taking a trip to the rubbish dump/ recycling plant on our first day was another thing that surprised me- I wasn’t expecting there to be enough rubbish to justify having one here and what utterly shocked me was the amount of rubbish produced each day; two tons to be exact.

supporting environment, but a harsher, destructive one in El Niño.

Coming to these islands has changed my thoughts on how we treat the environment and essentially ourselves, because what we do to the environment can directly and indirectly impact on our lives. It has made me think more about my impacts on the environment and what I can do to live a more sustainable life. Also I have become more aware of events going on around me and how actions affect others. Living in a close environment with 25 other people makes you learn how to deal with your feelings!

Something that I’ve been thinking about, but would like to learn about more are the people of this island. What a typical Galapagaian life consists of, what they think about this diverse place, the tourists and how people are treating the islands.

Perhaps my questions will be answered next week, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see!

I have learnt so much while staying here in the Galapagos. Almost too much to process! Most prominently I have learnt that about 100,000 tourists visit these islands each year, with two tons of rubbish produced each day and that the Galapagos is home to over 1000 species of birds. One thing that really fascinated me was the impacts of the El Niño and La Niña phenomenons. I hadn’t hear about them before and I was really interested in the impacts they have on the entire world, but especially the effects they have on the Galapagos. During La Niña the Galapagos becomes a more thriving and life

Background Photography by Yada P.

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“I loved the day we floated down the Tiputini River. Although I was terrified to jump in, once I had gotten over my fear and was floating peacefully down the river it was amazing to think of how lucky we all were to be there - to be able to be surrounded by the views and the sounds of the Amazon rainforest.�

-Ambika

I had an irrational fear of sharks. At even the slightest mention of the word, I began to imagine all kinds of nightmares like Bruce, the Great White in Finding Nemo.

On this trip, while snorkeling, I learned how wrong I was.

Though sharks can be huge and intimidating creatures, not all are. We found four WhiteTip sharks, each about five or six feet long. Their tails float from side to side, scaring me senseless. But I realized how wrongly they have been portrayed. They are not monsters. They are merely a part of nature, an essential role in life.

-Hannah C.

Bailey D., Rebecca G., and Beny B. on the farewell party.

Photo posted by Rebecca G.

Sunken ships reveal sunken secrets.

Photo taken by Willem B.

Dirty hands mean hard work.

Photo taken by Monique LeFebvre.

A sea lion taking a nap across zig zags, the 8 Galapagos.

Photo taken by Jawed S.

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Thailand

Photos from top to bottom, left to right.

The TGS logo our guide painted on the wall of the bathrooms we built in the hilltribes.

Photo taken by Yuan Yuan K. A group photo on the northernmost point of Thailand. Photo taken by Ambika Dani. An art project that involves using the method of silk screening.

Photo taken by Maya M.

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The Barge

By Russell C. Imagine this: The night is warm, the sun is gone, but it's left behind it's heat, still conserved in the dust and metals of the boat. The barge is still moving, and the shores Thailand drift by, lights glittering. Eight teenagers are barefoot, standing in a line. We hum a country tune; they start dancing all in step. Soon, we mess up, and through laughter, we continue dancing.

When we branched off at the train-station, I realized how much the grade 10's had become a part of my life. However, living with the grade 9's was a fun experience, and it was so nice to be with our own little class. Â The resort made me think about my friends, the badge made me think about who we were as a class. The first night on the barge, we taught each other "cotton eyed Joe" and we were dancing and laughing. It was almost a scene that would be worthwhile of a movie with a billion dollar project. Â Isn't that fantastic?

Offering alms to the monk in exchange for prayers.

Photo taken by Liam A.

An incredible view over the river.

Photo taken by Charis S.

Background photography by Ambika Dani

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Initial Impressions Alex McPike Thailand, like many others, is not a country where I now find myself making first impressions. My godfather lives here, and we’ve come to visit him in Bangkok often enough for me to have quite a large repertoire of stories from this country. Though all of these trips have been to Bangkok, or to the neighboring countries Cambodia, or Vietnam. All of my experiences here have been positive, and I know they’re going to stay that way here in Chiang Mai from what i’ve gathered so far.

Photo taken by Ambika Dani

Though we are not actually in Chiang Mai, and a good forty-five minute drive out of town, I know from yesterdays experiences and the kindness of all the people here that this is going to be a fantastic trimester. From the excellent food, full of tastes and spices that seem to be lacking in the west to the people who always greet you kindly, and seem to always have a smile on their face. I have received almost a purely positive experience here thus far, making me incredibly excited for the next three months or so that we are going to spend here in Chiang Mai.

Ah....Thai food.....

Photo taken by Isaac F.

Background photo taken by Yada P.

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Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.

Berlin

Wiesel, Elie Night .

Photo on the right. People walking along Dachau.

Photo taken by Willem B. Photo on the left. A view of the Berlin TV tower.

Photo taken by Hudson C.

Welcome Home

By Bailey D.

“Hallo, anyone home?!”

“Sheiße! Who is that?!”

Mark leapt up from his couch in surprise- what was this stranger doing in his house?

He swept his shaggy hair back from his face, pushed the empty beer cans out of his way and strode through the apartment. Standing in his doorway was a man dressed in a pea green suit, pepper gray hair framing his temples and the unripe smell of cologne clinging to his shirt. Mark’s eyes swept the man up an down, widening as he noticed the suitcase clutched in his left hand.

“Excuse me, but who the bloody hell are you and what the heck are you doing in my apartment?!” He was talking with the tone only a drunken twenty year old could manage.

The stranger looked a little taken aback, surprise showing in the whites of his eyes.

“Well this is my house, you see,” he stammered.

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“And who are you?” The tone in Mark’s voice was becoming dangerously hostile, flecks of spittle forming on his lips.

“I’m Arthur Schmidt.”

Mark pointed at the door, “GET OUT. GET OUUUT!” Arthur ran out the door, his work shoes click clacking down the hallway before halting.

A few seconds later Mark heard the steps coming back, a loud knocking again pulling him out of his chair. He paused at the door, flecks of realization dawning on him. "This man said that this was his house. His house.! I’ve lived here for my whole life! Who does he think he is to say such a thing? Maybe he lived here before... Is it just coincidence he has the same last name?! I better open the door."

Arthur breathed out a sigh of relief as the door swung open, the man inside motioning him in. “Do you want a beer?”

They settled into arm chairs, eyeing each other over the froth of their drinks. “So what brings you here, Arthur? I’ve lived here for twenty years and I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

“Before the wall went up I used to live here, I had a successful job, a girlfriend, everything! And then that fateful day the city was divided I was on the other side visiting friends. I was stuck. Trapped in a cage for years. My girlfriend visited a couple times, but she couldn’t handle the desolation of the East. She told me I had a son, but after that we never talked again. I came back so I could maybe track her down, track my son down.”

The young mans eyes widened in surprise, before Arthur continued, “You said you’ve lived here for twenty years, do you know who lived here before then?”

Mark struggled to comprehend what was happening, answering the question in a rush, “Yeah, my mum, she lived here before I was born and lived with me all my life, well, that is until two years ago when she ah, she um, she, she died of cancer. But that’s not important, I haven’t introduced myself. Sorry. I’m Mark,” and he hung his head.

“And your last name?”

“It’s Schmidt. I’m Mark Schmidt.”

Arthur fell to his knees, rocking backwards and forwards in between newspapers and beer cans. “My Agnes, my Agnes, my Agnes,” he whispered, tears rolling down his face.

Mark picked his way over to the man on his floor, tissues box clutched in one hand, salty tears in the other. He dropped the box onto the floor, the two men locking eyes as he did so. Arthur pushed himself onto his feet, slowly wiping his eyes before throwing his arms around Mark in a warm embrace.

“Welcome home Dad,” Mark said, “welcome home.”

Background Photography by Willlem B.

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Type to enter text Type to enter text

Videos Galore!!

Night

Ecuador

http:// www.youtube.com/ watch? v=zkbV3fwGMC0&feat ure=plcp

Thailand Barge Trip http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=gd6OQsId35k&list=UU5jCYp GG4zqlOs_cPgoayNg&index=16& feature=plcp

Germany Baltic MUN http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Mtx5HDqHu_0&list=UU5jCYp GG4zqlOs_cPgoayNg&index=11&f eature=plcp 14

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Parent’s Say Par$r est mourir un peu, say the French: to leave is to die a li2le. And every 5me over the past two years when my child leaves for another TGS des5na5on, a mixed emo5on comes over me. On the one hand there is this enormous privilege to be the parent of a child that gets to experience an unprecedented global educa5on in an environment of likeminded people of such different geographical and ethnic backgrounds; on the other hand there is the pain that I feel of leGng him go and of losing the daily interac5on with my adolescent while watching him grow into adulthood.

That feeling can be par5cularly confron5ng on special days like birthdays, family celebra5ons and Thanksgiving. But thank heavens for modern technology: due to Spot, Facebook, Skype and other apps I can keep up with his daily adventures and oIen even par5cipate in those virtually. And thanks to the same technology, we can “have” our child with us at the table on those special moments!

His leaving no longer means my dying a li2le; his leaving means growing a lot; not only for him but also for me. I probably would not have visited Sydney, Beijing or Berlin if it wasn’t for the fact that my son was there at the 5me of my visit. And the best part is: with every goodbye, his hugs get a li2le stronger, my sadness a li2le weaker. Because every 5me I see him go through the security gates, I feel prouder of him, and proud to be part of the TGS family.

Paulien B.

Pictures by Paulien B.

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Wrists4Rights Let’s zoom in on some rights.

Not For Sale: This is a bright purple wristband and it’s talking about well, how children are NOT FOR SALE! There are some twisted people in this world who would pay money to buy young children from poor families and use them for anything they want. We were fortunate enough to get the chance to spend some time with the girls in Chiangmai, Thailand who were rescued from this business.

I Know My Rights: In other developed countries like Germany, we promoted for the knowledge of these rights and of the state of other less developed countries. Some of us went to teach a class in primary school about these rights and gave them the “Education for All” bracelets. Kids should know their rights. Yellow woohoo.

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McPhails The McPhails section in this issue is just going to have some funny moments captured by video throughout the year. Hope you enjoy!

David and the Balloon: The Benson Mud Slide: No Eating in Andy’s Class: Who Stole the Phone?: Mr. President: TGS Hikes Mt. Wank:

Photos taken by Ambika Dani, Yada P., and Rebecca G.

Background by rbsstock.com

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Travel Tips: How to keep in touch with people when traveling

By Charis S. 1. First of all, try not to set expectations that they’re going to miss you as much as your parents will or that they will want to hear about your adventures.

2. Ask about them!

3. A postcard is always nice. It could just be a little “Hello from ____!” or anything simple. Thought that counts!

4. Don’t forget their birthdays!

5. Don’t let go - David’s hilarious! (David) 6. Make an effort to talk to people- send them messages, say hi, like their status on FB, send them a picture that reminds you of them.... (Bailey) 7. Talk to your friends before you leave on break and talk to them about talking to each other about skyping or emailing or any other ways of staying in touch. (Cash) 8. Remember that sometimes, not talking for a year doesn’t mean that you’re not friends anymore.

9. Be brave to try again!

10. Don’t let pride be a wall between you. Not worth it.

11. What’s the worst that could happen? Rejection?

Embarrassment? It won’t last too long and think of what if it turn out right!

12. Sometimes, just randomly say hi to people. Who knows?

Maybe someone is feeling lonely that night. Or, even better, you might find out that they’re visiting your home country or the place you’re at.

13. Tell secrets - a good way to get people to open up to you.

(Piran) Reminders: 1. Keeping in touch doesn’t exactly mean stalking them on Facebook or staying up til 2 AM looking at old photos and texts (perhaps you don’t do it, but there’s someone who does).

2. Although it is great to update your life on Facebook, be careful not to look over what your friends are doing for too long - that might end in loneliness and a “look at what I’m missing out on” monologue (which could annoy your friends or roommate).

3.

People come, people go.

Photography by Ambika Dani, Willem B. Maya M., and Emma G.

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Pictures by Isaac F.

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