The craziness that was the 16th…

It was completely and utterly not what we had expected but before we get to that lets start with our arrival at the AND offices. The whole crew were almost reunited except for Johnny and Steve (Gene). We quickly settled and finally got to watch the film, which just made me really sad because i really do miss Vancouver but also very proud, i thought it turned out quite good and i know that my parents have been itching to get a copy for a while now. It really captured the fast-paced but fun essence of the trip. We were briefed on some of the other upcoming dates like the View Tube screening on the 17th which is being organized by two people we met, Erica and Michael who are a little bit older than us and seem to be doing what we do but on a bigger scale. Now, the Create10 launch was definitely  not what i was expected. The venue was the renovated Bethnal Green town hall which looked amazing. The event itself was very crowded and hot but full of important people. We were reissued our FlipCam’s and set off to interview people who were closely related to the Olympic games. We also asked quite a few of them about the volunteering age and i remember a very interesting point being made saying that if you can sign up for the army and fight in a war at 16, why can’t you volunteer at the 2012 games? I hope that the few people we spoke to will think carefully about that.

Just as quickly as it had started, it was over again and we were left with the few thoughts of our blogs and a excited buzz very reminiscent of our time in Vancouver. I can’t wait to update soon.

‘London to Vancouver – A Tale of Five Friends’ by Kim

more about “‘London to Vancouver – A Tale of Five…“, posted with vodpod

I wrote this poem on the long 10 hour flight back to London. At that time, i was feeling very reflective about the trip and wanted to write about what we did. However, the more i wrote and the way my words were gelling together made the poem feel more about us five and the friendship that formed between us.

Posting it today, which is exactly a month since we first left for Vancouver and also the first major reunion for most of us (Hank, Johnny and Joe aren’t here) we reminisced about good old times and discussed where we wanted to go from here. Jake made the point of saying that he didn’t want it to end with a final post after the trip finished and we all agreed. I don’t know what we’re going to do next but i do know that Vancouver was an amazing experience shaped that way by the wonderful people i went with and met.

I hope this poem really shows that.

‘Rain’ performance review

Going in I didn’t know what it would be about…

The only word I knew was Circus.

I expected horses and tight-rope walkers with clowns at each end of the stage, blowing up balloons.

I cringed as they performed such physically demanding moves – it made our walk up the Alpine Ski look like a funfair ride. The languages spoken were varied, and showcased the culture of Canada, and I felt entranced as I listened to the translations whispered around me.

And I cringed and screamed in fear of their lives, as they twirled and jumped on each other.

When asked to say something about ‘Rain’ by Cirque Eloize, I could only say ‘Amazing!’ because it was unexpected, and embraced the Cultural diversity of Canada.

Bravo!

‘Whistler’ – a poem by Kim

more about "‘Whistler’ – a poem by Kim", posted with vodpod

Day 4 – Kim’s Video Diary

more about "Day 4 – Kim’s Video Diary", posted with vodpod

Today, OhMaGiddyGawd!

Okay so today started so early at like 7am so that we could go to an ‘Inner City school’ which is just like our school. We met some Canadian students who were a couple years older than us. Together we talked about how their area initially voted against having the Winter Games in their city because they thought that the city could be using the money to improve their area but they also said that Vancouver as a city, including the suburbs came together as the games approached and welcomed everyone. The two people i interviewed, Cleve and Jessica said that they were able to attend the opening games for the Paralympics (Parallel Games, as we learnt from Sarah Hunter, a Paralympic Wheelchair tennis player we interviewed today) and i learnt that parents of a national hero called Terry Fox who died in 1981 of cancer and ran a 5,300 kilometres in 143 days with a prosthetic leg. We also talked about what slang we used and i taught them “Alie”, “Peng” and some others that i can’t remember while they taught me, “LG and LB” which stands for little girl and little boy, basically people who wear designer brands and act bigger than they are. Joe on the other hand taught them, “mans on a hype ting” and we tried to start the word “shrimping” but failed.

Afterwards, we went to the Harbour Centre or Lookout Tower and met people roughly our age who do exactly the same thing we do but on a bigger scale and we tried to teach each other our cultures too and finally interviewed someone from the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and did interviews with each other around the themes of our historic culture and how we can incorporate it into the games. During our talks with the people of Britannia Secondary School we were filmed by the national TV network called CTV or Canadian TV and we rushed back, running half way across downtown Vancouver to make it back at 17.13 our time and 12.13am London time to see ourselves on TV and claim our 15 minutes of fame.

I had to give an interview in front of three cameras and roughly 10 people in a room, which is one of my fears so i am still recovering from actually doing it and  so now we are going to see some Circus thing and eat Thai food so i’m heading out. BYE

First post from Vancouver

Hey everyone! This being our second day in Vancouver, we are all still quite jetlagged but enjoying it. We’ve been around the city a bit and to the look out centre, which was scary because i’m afraid of heights but it was really nice. We saw the mountains in the distance and got a guided tour. The city is so nice, its a lot cleaner and calmer than London and the people here are so friendly, haha Jake got his arse slapped when getting off of the plane in Canada. The hotel room is so big and the bed is comfy and after 22 hours of travelling, i just collapsed. Upon arrival we saw Winter Olympics posters EVERYWHERE so London definitely needs to up their game. We also visited the BC Centre which held the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics and i think that London needs a hall of fame type thing there and mini versions of the events there. We saw the zip-wire that i previously blogged about and i thought it was gonna be bigger but i still really want to go. We’re going to see Wheelchair Curling in a bit so, i’ve got to go bye

Counting the days

I heard about this amazing zipwire that i really want to go on. It’s 170 metre’s wide. Woo…

Work Experience

This is my second day experiencing the world of work. I’m learning skills that will be very useful when we go to Canada and i can’t wait to put them to use. The skills I’m learning are more in the social media range (twitter, Audioboo, Skype, etc) so i know I’ll be able to use them all when I’m reporting from Vancouver. I’m really excited to go. Only 13 more days to go. Woo….

Our Rap/Poem Lesson

Today we came in at 9.30 for a quick lesson on how to use writing to make our words flow and sound good. We worked in partners to find out personal information about each other and use it to create a rap or poem. Mine was about Fabian and his life so far and in the future. It was okay but maybe not as funny or clever as Joe’s and Jake’s. However, i loved Fabian’s rap about me, MC Breis taught us how to make our words flow and really likened us up from the morning when we were still tired. I really enjoyed the lesson. .
We also video blogged about our day too but we haven’t uploaded them from our Flipcams yet but when we do. I’ll embed it straight into my blog.