Day 7

And yet another day comes to a close.

Time is going too quickly, and I can't believe 7 days have already passed. I miss everyone already. But why am I getting sad?! Tomorrow, we leave for Philadelphia, and I'm so excited.

This morning was the last day of our first week of classes. We finished up our mock European Union, with a successful treaty for the North, South, East, and West. I'm glad that we could come to such a peaceful compromise.

While this conclusion seems to be quite simple, the discourse that actually went into coming to this conclusion was quite tricky. For example, there seemed to be some clashes between members in their own groups and of course with groups of others. Thankfully, I think we were able to learn from each other, actually--not only about the ideas of democracy and types of government, but also how to handle "internal" and "external" conflicts. In fact, the "world" almost came to war once! Thanks Wouder-Jan... Or "Wes". A new friend from Belgium.

The final resolution and our signatures

After lunch, in which I learned to eat like an European, we broke into investigation labs about certain different topics. There was one about education and child welfare, environmental sustainability, documentary films, radio and journalism, arts and expression, and human and civil rights.

Eating like a European

The human and civil rights group was quite interesting. Our leaders are Ilaha and Aaron, and we discussed in depth what the ideas of morality and ethics were behind the existence of human rights, as well as specific types of human rights violations that we found interesting. Among the few named were organ trafficking, color blindness, and religious and ethnic discrimination.

In our lab--Human and Civil Rights

 Afterwards came dinner. We played an international game of "football", and Molly taught me how to do a cartwheel! In exchange, I sprained my ankle. Gunes from Turkey was unfortunately injured, and had to be rushed to the hospital. Thankfully, he's better, but he still has a cast. People have been getting hurt so often. A few days ago, Anathea fell quite badly, and her face was bloody and bruised. I hope both of them get better soon.

Sleepy Sigvard

Adam from Poland and I also had a heart to heart. I'm so excited to be meeting people from all over the world who are so diverse. He loves art and music, and is so unique and kind. We learned some fun phrases in each other's languages, and discussed French politics.

Afterwards, Wouder-Jan and I listened to some music together. Mumford and Sons, Dave Matthews Band, Avett Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel, Norah Jones, The Civil Wars, Bon Iver. His Apple MacBook's keys are in Dutch! Crazy stuff. Ciao.

As sort of a PS) Joe and Kat say that my British accent is getting better! I think I will only speak English with an accent for the rest of my life. It makes me sound slightly more sophisticated!

Dutch Keyboards? Blows my mind