Choosing to board, and afterthoughts

Hey everybody, so today I’m going to be doing a post on why I chose to go to boarding school, and my feelings about it now.

The main reason I chose to go to boarding school was for the qualification I could take. In the British system, in the last two years of school you either do A levels or the International Baccalaureate. With A levels you get to choose the (usually 4) subjects you want to take, and it is much more specific and tailored to your interests if you are certain of what you want to do later on. With IB on the other hand, you have to take 6 subjects, 3 at higher level and 3 at standard level, within specific categories: first language, second language, maths, a science, a humanity and another. This offers a very broad curriculum but doesn’t allow you to focus on what you are best at and really enjoy.

As I want to study medicine, I had realised a while back that A levels were definitely the better option for me, as I could focus on the sciences and have a better chance of getting accepted into university. The problem was that in Geneva where I live almost all of the schools only offer IB. there is one school that offers A levels but it is very new, and was originally a language school so is not very science-oriented. I visited it and was disappointed by the very poor careers system and academic level so we had to rule it out. Which left only one option: boarding school in England.

In year 10 I went to England twice to visit schools, and saw 6 in total. We had chosen them based on academics mainly, as well as location, and they all happened to be single-sex. Two were immediately ruled out, mainly because I didn’t feel like I would thrive and fit in in the environment there, and because they seemed like it was excessively controlling and strict. This left four to choose from and I narrowed them down to two on the basis of academic level, friendliness of the school, etc. Out of the two, my favourite in terms of ‘feeling’ was the one which was slightly more laid back, relaxed but had slightly lower academic results and not as good a career service.

The other school was much more competitive to get into, with better exam results and an excellent careers service. I liked both very much so applied to them and then started the procedure to try to get accepted. The first school only interviewed; there were no written exams, but they had my previous report cards, and predicted grades for my IGCSEs. In fact, I met with the head of the subjects I wanted to study at A level, and talked with them whilst my mum was present, so it was very informal! Then I had a more formal interview with the headmistress, alone, where she just asked me about myself, my plans etc. They all went very well and a few days later I got an email saying I had been accepted! The real challenge was yet to come though…

For the second school I was also applying for a scholarship (as it is very expensive), so I had to take an exam and do an interview in each subject I was taking, as well as doing a general paper and having an interview with the principal. The two days in which all of this was packed in were tiring and stressful, especially as there were hundreds of girls competing for only 20-30 places available. I didn’t think I’d done well in the maths paper, and was disappointed about that because it’s usually my best subject, but felt I had done reasonably well in the rest. The interviews were also challenging, especially maths as there were 3 of us girls in the room with the teacher, but they were bearable.

With the headmistress, she had given us a list of topics beforehand which we could choose from to talk about, so I had a discussion with her about the imminent American elections and something else I can’t remember. She also asked a bit about me, my hobbies, my future plans etc. and overall the conversation went quite well. Months later, I finally received the results and found out that I had been accepted with a 5% scholarship! I was over the moon, and eventually decided to choose that school as it really set me up better for my future, as it had such an excellent careers service, high academic standards and a good reputation.

So that was it, how I decided to go to boarding school. Although it will be my first time living completely away from my parents, I’ve been all over the world for weeks at a time without them – 2 weeks in Canada several times, 2 weeks in India, 4 weeks in the USA etc. I’m generally a very independent person so I’m not overly worried about being alone although of course I’m sure I’ll feel homesick at some point and miss them.

But do I regret my decision? On the whole, definitely not. I’m going to have much better opportunities academically in England than I could ever have in Geneva, and for that I’m delighted. I love the fact that I’ll be in a house with a bunch of girls my age, hopefully making lots of friends and having loads of fun. However, there are a few downsides. Firstly, my main concern are the restrictions that will be placed on me and all of us girls: when we’re allowed out of the house especially, but the dress code (we have a horrible uniform – another downside) and the ‘no make-up’ rule as well.

It’s really the lack of freedom that bothers me (although in the sixth form students are given more freedom than in the rest of the school), as I fear that everything will be controlled and I won’t be able to make decisions for my own life. Also, I’m worried that as it’s a single-sex school I’ll be bored after 4 years of being in a mixed school, and that socially I won’t really get the whole ‘teenage experience’. I guess this probably sounds superficial but they’re things that worry me – I don’t want to end up at university acting completely socially awkward.

Aside from that though, I’m definitely excited to go, and discover what boarding school is all about. My friends in Geneva tease me that I’m going to ‘finishing school’ and will come back all posh, drinking tea with my pinkie up (I reminded them I don’t like tea) but I’ll do my best to stay the same!

I’m leaving early this Saturday morning, and there’s a two day induction organised for new students on Sunday and Monday, and then lessons start on Tuesday, so I’ll keep you updated as to how it goes!

Weekend in Venice :)

I've just got back from a fantastic 3 days in Venice - my first time in the city of love. Rather unromantically, I was actually with my parents, but aside from occassionally feeling like the third wheel I had an amazing time. We flew in on friday evening, and had a hotel boat escort us straight to where we were staying, a small but central hotel which was very affordable called Ca Arco Antico. That night, I had my first of the four ice-creams I had this weekend, a scoop of delicious tiramisu and a scoop of chocolate (my all-time favourite).

Throughout the whole weekend we did two main things: walk and eat. Then walk and eat some more. On saturday we wandered around the city, over the Rialto Bridge and to St Mark's place which was ridiculously overcrowded. We went into the Basilica, then the Doge's Palace, visiting the museum and going over the bridge of sighs where wrongdoers glimpsed their last view of freedom over the canal before entering the prisons of the palace.

                       Bridge of sighs - the one in the background connecting the two buildings

As we were leaving the palace a man was handing out tickets for a free trip to and from Murano island where they do incredible glass blowing to make vases and jewellry etc. Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity as it was part of our plan for the weekend anyways, and off we went! The boat trips offered a great view of the whole of Venice from the sea and once we were on the island, we were shown around a small factory where a man was working. He made two things in front of us, a colourful small which was really pretty and a superbly intricate little horse.

In both cases he used a fire over 1000 degrees celsuis to make the glass molten enough to shape and sculpt, and the end results was really incredible for such a short time spent making them.

Then we looked around the area where they sold all of their products, and although we didn't buy anything (it was so expensive!) everything was really beautiful.

After that we had a lunch of pizza (we were in Italy after all) and salad (because we had to justify the unhealthiness) before continuing to walk. At this point, my dad -  not being particularly in shape and having slept badly the night before - decided to go back to the hotel and take a nap, whilst mum and I continued our sight-seeing. In the afternoon we walked towards the Accademia Bridge, and crossed it where we noticed that all over the bridge lovers had attached padlocks.

On the other side we did some more wandering, intrigued by the fact that there were churches at literally every street corner. We had another ice-cream (this time tiramisu and wild blueberry) which wasn't as nice as the day before but still very tasty! And then we walked back to the hotel, stopping occasionally to look in some shops where they were selling masks (because I'd decided I wanted to get one as a souvenir). Alas, I found none to my taste and within my price range that day. At the hotel we changed and then went to a lovely restaurant for dinner, and had some delicous fish with tiramisu for desert (I gave myself a break for the weekend :P). Of course, we got lost both going there and back because navigating through the little passages and canals is not as obvious as it seems!

On Sunday, we went took the Vaporetto boat (which was again a nice way to travel and see the city other than by foot) to the Bienale exhibition. It's a very famous modern art exhibition where each country displays one thing. It was overall a very strange experience; art not really being my thing I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I should have. I just found most of it downright odd. Here are some of the things that we saw:

                                                      Germany's offering

                     Russia did something with coins falling from the roof, but only women
                     were allowed to go and pick them up....something about male greed...

After having had enough of the art, we had a late lunch in a small restaurant on a little back street where I had delicious cannelloni (I was yet to have had pasta in that particular trip to Italy and decided it was a must). And then - guess what? Another ice-cream! This time I had chocolate and raspberry, two of my all-time favourites in a cone with chocolate and nuts at the top - yum!

                             My third ice-cream - already partially eaten by the time
                                              I remembered to take a picture :P

Once the ice-cream was gobbled down in a matter of seconds we decided to disover an area we hadn't visited yet - the Jewish Ghetto. It was actually very similar to the rest of Venice, the architecture, small roads, canals and bridges were all the same. The only differences were the occasional Kosher restaurant and hidden synagogue (they weren't obvious at all because when they were persecuted they had to be kept secret). Hence we walked right past most of them without a clue. Then unfortunately my dad had to leave, as he was flying to Asia the next day for work, so it was just me and mum - more walking! This time - hurrah! - I found a mask!

It cost 12 euros which was more expensive than some of the ones at less than 5 euros of crappy quality but decidely less than the top quality ones at 50 euros or more!

On our little walk we were scouring the area for a restaurant for dinner, neither of us were hungry after a big late lunch so we were looking for a place where we could have a light dinner of fish and salad. Miraculously, we found exactly what we wanted, and right on the edge of the canal, so we had a lovely dinner there, hindered only by some rain near the end. Up until then we had had beautiful weather for the weekend so were incredibly lucky about that.

And then the last day was upon us! As we had managed to do everything we had planned to do that weekend in the first two days we were basically free to roam around. First we went to the Rialto Market, which was so colourful and the fruitty smell was mouth-watering!

Then we went over to Accademia again, crossing the bridge and found a lovely restaurant by the side of the river. I was dying to have pizza again, and I ordered a delicous one with tomato, mozarella, aubergine (eggplant) and parmesan. I'd never had one with those toppings before but I loved it! Even though I was so full I still had to have my last ice-cream of the trip, so we found a nice gelateria nearby and I had tiramisu and 'frutti di bosco' (berries of the woods - raspberries, strawberries, blackberries etc.) Mmmm......

We decided to head back to St Mark's square as we hadn't really explored it that much the first day. Once we got there we went around it, discovering to our horror that it was just as crowded as during the weekend!

Then we entered the basilica as we had only been in the main part and wanted to see the museum and the balcony at the top. After climbing a steep set of stairs and paying 5 euros each we were allowed to enter. From the balcony we had an amazing view of the whole L-shaped square.

In the museum saw the famous four horses, which if you read Dan Brown's 'Inferno' you will discover actually had their heads chopped off to transport them from Constantinople to Venice, and then re-attached, which is why they now wear collars to cover the place where they were severed.

(I'll be doing a post later on Dan Brown's books which I discovered this summer).

And then it was time to leave! We headed back to our hotel on a vaporetto to get our luggage, then back on another to go Roma Square, where the bus station is. We hopped on a bus to Marco Polo airport and bye bye Venice! Overall I had an incredible weekend, I'm so glad I discovered the beautiful city and would definitley recommend it as a holiday destination for a long weekend.

Here are some photos of other weird and wonderful things I saw :)

                                    A very odd painting in the art exhibition...

            There were several people dressed up in costumes handing out leaflets around the city

                                           I just thought this was adorable :P

We were walking behind this woman on our way to dinner - imagine our amusement watching the faces of all the people walking past her in the opposite direction. (I must point out that although I wasn't able to take a picture of her from the front - obviously - there was rather a lot of cleavage on show).

                                            A road-side shop selling Italian pasta

                                    There were so many shops like these selling masks

                         At the Rialto market- we're not sure what vegetable it was floating around...

                                 Some ENORMOUS watermelons at the Rialto market!

                                             Painters

                                            Just a cute bridge :)

   A MASSIVE cruise ship, packed with people - so big I couldn't fit it all in my camera screen!

                                       An accordian player - one of many in Venice

 So many people were selling fake Louis Vuitton and Gucci bags on the street; it was funny to watch them all pack up their stuff and run away within seconds when they saw the police coming

       Selling coconut slices, and keeping them fresh by drizzling them with cold water form above

Trip to Cannes with my friends

So as I mentioned in my summer 2013 post, I went to the Cannes, a town in the south of France with NINE of my friends as an end of exam celebration. I had been planning it for almost two years, the idea came to me in September 2011 and the rest was history!

I had planned everything down to the tiniest detail: the travel, the food, the cost, the daily activities, etc. etc. I had foreseen every single thing that could go wrong (kidnapping and losing the keys to the apartment included :P) and prepared for it. I think I had about 15 documents in my ‘Cannes 2013’ by the end of it. Now this planning may seem excessive but I actually really enjoyed it, I just love planning things!

                                          At the airport before we leave

I was sooo excited to go after all the preparation, and it was supposed to be a real end-of-exams fun time. However, it didn’t go exactly as planned…on the first day one friend got her wallet stolen which really put a downer on the whole trip, and from thereon she decided to stay in the apartment, and quite a few others stayed with her. Near the end another friend got her phone stolen (we really didn’t have much luck) which also dampened the atmosphere. I had warned them about the amount of theft in Cannes but I guess they were just used to how safe it is in Geneva where we live.

Nevertheless, the rest of us had a good time mostly, just chilling at the beach (the weather was luckily perfect – warm and sunny but not too hot) and eating lots of ice-cream! One afternoon there were a group of street-dancers who were SO good-looking so we enjoyed the show even though the level of dance and gymnastics was actually terrible (I say that with my experience as a gymnast). We still enjoyed watching them :P

                      Some street dancers (not the ones we saw but they're a regular occurance)

One day which really stood out was when we persuaded everybody to come out, and we all took a boat to a small island not far away. It was only a short boat ride away, and the island was actually beautiful to see from the distance. We didn’t do much once we were, just wandered around, got lost, had a picnic and played lots of games of Mafia but it was really nice all the same to be altogether having fun. I really enjoyed that day and am glad we convinced everybody to come because it really was the highlight of the trip.

                                                     Island Saint Margheurite near Cannes

The other great thing about the trip was that we had organised that each evening two girls would cook a meal for everybody. Because we're such an international group of friends we have a huge range of meals, from Italian pasta to Mexican to British fish and chips. Each meal was delicious and we had a look of fun preparing huge meals for everybody :)

                                                                  Cooking Mexican!

On the last day was the birthday of one of my friends, so we did a day of surprises for her. We took her to a sushi place in town for lunch as she’d been saying how much she wanted to eat sushi, and paid for her meal.

Then in the evening we threw a surprise birthday party for her. We decorated the apartment with balloons and streamers whilst distracting her elsewhere. Most of us had brought presents that we’d got for her beforehand in Geneva, but for those who hadn’t we secretly bought a dress and some bracelets in Cannes she’d tried on and loved. She was so surprised when she opened them and it was such a sweet moment when she started crying as she saw what was in the bag :)

                                             The birthday girl is in the front with the red dress

From there though everything went downhill. In the evening there was a music festival which a few people wanted to go to, so off they went. One of the rules that my parents had given us was that we had to be back by sunset which was 10pm. I’d reminded them before the left, warning them that it meant they wouldn’t have much time down at the festival. Anyways at 10pm we were watching a film, and we look outside and it’s pitch black outside. Long story short, they had no phone so were using someone else’s, didn’t know the address, were out almost an hour late and we were all terrified.  I was so mad at them when they came back, and so were the others, but they acted as if nothing was wrong and it was perfectly within their rights to be out at that time, despite the rules that my parents had asked us to follow in THEIR apartment. So we had a massive fight, screaming and crying it was a disaster. So the mood was pretty awful on the long train journey back to Geneva.

I’m still very mad at two of the girls (of the three who went to the festival, one apologised immediately and I of course forgave her, she didn’t realise before how much she had scared us but she did as soon as she got back and felt terrible). But the other two never actually apologised, which I think is really quite shocking, almost as if they truly don’t realise what they did wrong. If that’s the case then there’s nothing I can do about it. The thing is one of them was my best friend….and the other is her twin sister. So there’s acting now as if everything’s fine between us, and it was two months ago so I’ve let it be to a certain extent. But I don’t think it’ll ever be the same between us, and I don’t really want it to if I’m honest with you. They betrayed me in a way, and ruined what was supposed to be my relaxing fun holiday celebrating the end of exams with my friends.

Also, I got a call from my grandparents a few weeks later saying that the apartment downstairs where some girls had been staying was in a terrible state, there was broken things etc. that nobody had told me about. I was really disappointed that whoever had broken it didn’t come to me and tell me, the least they could have done was own up, so I felt terrible afterwards.

Anyways, the moral of the story is: pick your friends wisely. You may not be able to choose your family but your friends are completely your own decision. So now I want to start over fresh in England and pick my new friends carefully, although of course I still want to stay friends with some of those in Geneva. And the second moral is: no matter how good something seems like it’s going to be, always prepare for the worst; anything could go wrong.

I’m sorry if that was a really pessimistic and negative post, although I didn’t have a very good experience on the trip with my friends, I’m sure many people who have done similar things had a great time and I hope that if you do something like this you will too!

Lili

My Summer 2013 :)

Hey guys so as you’re all aware, we’re approaching the end of summer at a ridiculously fast rate (aaargh!!). I’m so sad that in just over a week the holidays will be over for me, but I thought I’d share with you what I did during my very busy summer!

As I mentioned in my last post, I did my IGCSEs last year. Despite all of the hard work and stress during the exams, there was one good thing about them – the last exam was on the 5^th June. So whilst everybody else was still toiling away at school, my class was on holiday almost a month earlier than usual! This means that I had an almost three month long summer holiday this year which is fantastic!

BUT…it isn’t all fun and games. As I will be talking about later hopefully in my blog, I dream of studying medicine and becoming a doctor in the UK. In the British system, for medical university applications a crucial thing to have is work experience, and lots of it. So I thought: what better time than now when I have three months ahead of me?

I had planned all of it way in advance, but the first thing I started with was a week in a hospital in Geneva. Rather disappointingly they had put me in the physiotherapy department so it wasn’t completely medical, but it was a good experience nonetheless to be able to see the kind of atmosphere there was in a hospital. Of course I was only observing, but I could still interact with the patients and talk to them etc.

Then after that I spent a week with 9 of my friends at my grandparent’s apartment in Cannes, in the south of France. This was a trip that I had been organising for almost two years (!) – I did warn you about my crazy planning! Because it was such an important week of the summer I think I’ll do a separate post about this later so look out for that!

The day after I got back was quite sad for me because it was the last time that I was really a gymnast. There was a solo competition which I took part it (rather last minute because I’d been away for the past week) but I won which was really nice and I got a 30 Swiss franc H&M voucher! Then the coach did a new thing – she gave out awards for things over the year, and I got two: one for highest score of the club at an international competition, and one for doing well in a different partnership. Both prizes were a free pass for a movie at the cinema so I was really excited about that too! After that one of the mums had cooked an ENORMOUS paella (well, two actually) 

for everybody which was delicious and it was nice to just hang out with my gym friends and basically say goodbye. Then I was straight off to the airport for my next bit of work experience, in London!

I was staying with one of my old nannies, who I’d had for many years when I lived in England, and we’re still very close. She lives in Wimbledon and I happened to be there during the two weeks of the tennis tournament which was a coincidence but made the area very busy!

 The work experience was in the paediatrics department of a hospital which I was really excited about as that’s an area that really interests me. The whole two weeks were amazing, I spent lots of time in A&E, which was so awesome as I saw really cool cases like a girl with a needle completely stuck in her foot, and a boy who developed a skin infection on his hands making them look like scaly claws (disclaimer: I don’t mean this rudely I’m simply trying to describe what it appeared like). I also spent quite some time in the neonatal area which was really incredible, the babies were so tiny and weak, but you could see their improvement daily. One girl there had been born at 800g! I think the highlight of my time there was getting to watch an actual, live birth of a perfectly healthy little boy. I happened to be in the labour ward that afternoon and had the privilege of getting to watch this woman deliver. I hope she knows how thankful I am that she let me stay in that room, and I dropped by her room the day after to congratulate and thank her. I had a great two weeks, not only at the hospital but with my old nanny, catching up and having fun, and of course doing a bit of shopping – who can’t in London?

Then it was back to Geneva – but not for long! I was back off to Cannes, this time with my au pair who I mentioned in a previous post. She was on her way home to Latvia but wanted a few days at the beach first and so did I! We had a really chill time, just going to the beach, eating WAY too much ice-cream and watching movies at the apartment.

 Half way through, my aunt and cousin arrived so it was really nice to see them for a couple of days, but then I had to go home again.

And once again, with barely 3 days in Geneva I was leaving again! Destination: India! This was actually not my first trip to India, I’d been once 5 years ago with my family, but this time it was completely different. Again, this was a pretty significant part of my holidays, as it was for a whole month, two weeks WE and two weeks travelling with my family, so I’ll do a separate post on this as well.

So once I was back home there were only 3 weeks left before I left semi-permanently for England. I decided to make the most of those few weeks, doing everything that I wanted to in Geneva, eating at my favourite places, seeing my favourite areas, doing my favourite activities, all on top of the necessary things I needed to do (open a bank account, pet-sitting, packing, labelling clothes, schoolwork, dentist appointments etc.) Now two of those weeks are over, and they have been jam-packed! Here are some of the things I did: a massage which we got a deal for from groupon which was so nice, swimming in the pool (a lot), going to the lake, hiking on the Saleve mountain,

 visiting the United Nations and the Red Cross museum, going to the cinema to watch ‘now you see me’ (which was amazing but quite confusing!), shopping for handbags, going to gym training  eating at holy cow a really nice, healthy burger place in town, 

etc. etc.

This evening I’m flying to Venice for a long weekend, and will be back on Monday evening (so no posts until Tuesday – sorry!) but I’m SO excited! I’ll let you know all about it when I’m back in Geneva. And then next week really is my last, but I still have plenty to do, most importantly pack my suitcases which I still haven’t started to do (!). I’m also going to have a leaving party with my friends at my house, and go to gym a couple of times to say goodbye to everybody there. Other things on my plan include eating at my favourite sushi place with my mum and sister, and then going to see an incredible circus with them which we go to almost every year when it comes to Geneva,

 more swimming in the pool etc.

And then, early next Saturday morning is the day! I’ll be off to London with my mum, ready to start the three day induction period for new students at my boarding school! So there you go – that was my summer! Busy and hectic but I loved every minute (almost). Posts on my trip with my friends, and my time in India will follow shortly (although maybe not until next week when I’m back from Venice).

Thanks for reading!

Lili

IGCSEs - my experience

So for those of you who do not follow the British curriculum at school, or who do but have no clue what the IGCSEs are, they are exams which stand for: International General Certificate of Secondary Education. They are equivalent - but supposedly harder than - the GCSEs taken only in England but are taken all over the world. The IGCSEs are a two year course which you take between the ages of 14 and 16 in years 10 and 11 of school, and at the end of year 11 you take exams in all of the subjects you have been studying.

I did 10 subjects in total: English literature, English language, German, Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Physics, Geography, History, and I did French a year early. The final results are given by letters, with A* being the highest grade possible, then A, B etc. until E which is the final 'pass' grade (although is not considerd a good grade at all) and F being a fail.

I completed the IGCSE qualification in June this year, and got the results back last week. I got excellent grades (9A*s including French and 1A) so was extremely happy with my results. All of the hard work really paid off, because the past two years were seriously hard! There isn't an easy moment when you do the IGCSEs I can tell you! It's a rigorous qualification but I can honestly say it was worth it, because I learnt so much, not only in terms of knowledge, but also acquiring skills.

I have always been a scientific person, so my favourite subjects are biology, chemistry and maths. The subjects I struggle the most with are English (both lit and lang) and the humanities. Out of all of the teachers I had in the past two years, two really stood. out. I had an absolutely amazing chemistry teacher who was from India. At the beginning she was really strict so we were all scared s***less of her but gradually she softened up a bit and I became really close with her. At the end of year 11 she would bring home-made Indian food for us in class which was delicious!  She was really the reason I fell in love with chemistry, she made everything clear and understandable, and really drilled everything into your head!

The second teacher was my history teacher who was fantastic. I have never particularly liked history (actually, I hated it- I never saw the point in learning about dead people!) but he really made it fascinating for me, despite it not being a subject I usually enjoyed. He was enthusiastic about what he was teaching which was what really made a difference, and went above and beyond constantly enforcing how important exam technique was, and teaching us how to answer the different types of questions. I'm sure it's thanks to him that I got such a good grade in that subject, as I think any other teacher would have failed.

I thought I would give a brief overview of each subject I took and my experience and impressions of it at IGCSE level:

French - I took this a year early and it was kind of a walk in the park for me, so there's not much to say about it except that I think it's a well structured exam which covers all the basics of the language

German - ditto, the four exams (reading, writing, listening and oral) really test the main aspects of a foreign language, and although the level was quite basic I feel that if I was stranded in Germany on my own I would be able to survive at least long enough to eat, sleep and get a train or plane out of there!

English Literature - this was probably my least favourite subject of all, I really struggle with interpretation of texts, and writing essays etc. analyzing poetry and whatnot. The books we read were really quite rubbish, but I think the worst part was that we had no concrete guidance as to how to answer questions - instructions were very vague and as a result I didn't really know what to write. This is the subject that I got an A in, and although this is of course a very good grade, I was predicted an A* which goes to show that what the examiner really wanted to see was unclear

English Language - this was generally quite a boring subject for me, it was more based on knowing what the examiner wanted from you than anything else. I don't particularly like writing essays and such so it wasn't very enjoyable for me. The teachers I had were OK but nothing special and I'm glad to be rid of the subject!

History - as I mentioned above, I had a fantastic teacher which really turned things around for me. I thought the content of the subject was actually really interesting and I enjoyed learning about it, and I liked the fact that although there was A LOT of things that you had to learn by heart, there was a big focus on skills and exam technique as well. It was a difficult subject, but definitely worthwhile, and although I'm happy to not have to take it next year I'm definitely glad I did last year.

Geography - this was a pretty pointless subject, it was based largely on common sense and learning "case studies" which could basically be made up. Our teacher was lazy and useless; we basically taught ourselves everything we needed to know. Some of the content was applicable to current society but it was largely dull and boring.

Biology - this is one of my favourite subjects. Although I find the whole plant side of it quite boring, I'm fascinated by the whole aspect of human biology. I had quite a good teacher who was reasonably good at explaining things, although it was a lot of copying notes and self-learning with her. We did quite a few experiments which were fun to do but often quite chaotic and I don't really feel like I learnt a whole lot from them, but that's probably just me. The content is vast and very interesting overall so I was happy with that.

Chemistry - this is another of my favourite subjects, which I mentioned earlier in the context of my amazing teacher. I think she was my favourite teacher of alltime, and I really hope I have an equally good one at my boarding school in England, but she'll be hard to top! I love chemistry, how logical it is and how everything just fits into place. It makes sense to me, and is a subject that I just get.

Physics - this is my least favourite science, for some reason it just doesn't seem to make sense to me. Not helped by the fact that the two teachers I had were not the based, but that aside it just didn't seem to click for me. Nevertheless, I was able to learn the formulas and basically used that to get me through, along with trying in vain to understand basic concepts and did well in the end.

Maths - this has always been my strong point, I've always been very good at maths, and the lessons are usually a doddle. I had rubbish teachers in year 10 but a good one in year 11 which was nice for a change. Surprisingly one of the final maths exams was extremely difficult, which really shocked me as I was used to finishing in half the given time. People came out of it crying because it was such a difficult paper and such a shock after what we'd been used to. Either ways I still enjoyed the course overall although it could have been a little more challenging.

So that's my take on the IGCSEs. Overall, I think it's an excellent qualification to have, especially if you are on the CIE board which I was. It's challenging but worthwile, and not only about knowledge but also about skills. I definitely recomment it to anybody who has the choice to do them, if you're willing to put in the work.

I'm sorry for how long this post turned out to be, if you managed to get till the end - congratulations!

10 random facts about me

Hello again, after doing my introduction I realised that there are a bunch of other random things about me that you guys should probably know about me. So here you go:

1. I've broken bones in my arm four times: elbow, wrist, shoulder and three fingers and have a ridiculously long list of other injuries :P

2. Technology hates me, especially Macs. Like seriously, electronics never work for me!
3. I'm a devout chocoholic :)
4. I have two middle names (based on an old French tradition so they're my godmother's name and my godfather's name turned into a girl's name)
5. I've been to four continents and 18 countries total
6. I'm bilingual (English and French) and speak a bit of German
7. I'm 5 foot tall and won't grow anymore :S

8. I was born ambidextrous, so my parents chose to teach me to write with my right hand, but I do a lot of sports with my left

9. I am a crazy planner; I love to plan everything in advance down to the tiniest details!

10. I LOVE Starbucks and cannot wait to be back in England where I can actually afford it!

Hello!

Hey everybody!

So after an unsuccessful attempt at starting a blog last year I have decided to try again! This time, I'm committed! It'll basically be just random posts about me and my life, what's going on, my thoughts and opinions (I hope it isn't too boring :/). Without further ado, here's a bit about me:

My name is Aureliane, but my friends call me Lili because it's WAY easier! I'm 16 years old and I was born in London, England before I moved to Geneva, Switzerland where I am currently. In a week and a half though I'm going back to England to go to boarding school for my A levels! My mum is French and my dad is Belgian so I have those two passports - all in all I'm pretty international and don't really consider any one country to be my own!

I live with my parents and my younger sister who is 14 years old. We get on reasonably well...some of the time...but we fight a lot like most siblings I guess :P We've had 3 hamsters in the past few years but recently the third one died. I don't know yet whether or not my sister will get another one when I'm gone but I hope she does! We also live with our au pair (kind of like a part-time nanny) who is studying at university nearby. She's from Latvia and has been with our family for the past 3 years, and we get on really well - she's more like a big sister to me than anything!

Until the beginning of this summer, I did acrobatic gymnastics at a high level. I started when I was 3 or 4 years old so I'd been doing it for over 12 years. I competed at national and international level and one of y proudest moments was becoming British champion in my category in 2009. I was also Swiss champion a couple of times but it wasn't such a big deal as there was nobody against me! One of the highlights of doing acro was the many competitions abroad I did in Germany, Switzerland (when I lived in England), Bulgaria, England (when I was living in Switzerland) and the most recent one in Portugal. Unfotunately, as I'm going to boarding school I won't be able to continue being a gymnast so that's kind of the end of it....I knew it was inevitable but it's sad all the same. I'll hopefully be able to do other similar sports like trampolining over there which should be fun though :)

So that's a bit of an introduction into me and my life, more posts will follow soon about my summer and new life as a boarder amongst other things. I hope you enjoy them!