This Week In School: I've Found My Subject For HDA's!

UPDATE: Yep I know, I'm two Weeks late on this one. Sorry? 


Yes, I've finally got my act together this Week and found out what I'm doing for Histoire Des Art's. It was genuinely one of those 'EUREKA!' moments actually, and I feel a bit stupid for not finding it earlier. In other news I've finally got my Results for this Trimester (although not the full report yet, that'll be coming shortly) and I wasn't exactly on fine form Wednesday/Thursday thanks to a headache, a cold AND a leaky eye problem! I'm fine now though, really:


Music: This Week we had 50 minutes to find out everything we could about one of Pablo Picasso's masterpieces 'Guernica'. Failure to find anything would result in a big fat 0/20, so naturally everyone had a dogfight over who would get to use the Internet first (there were three computers between the fourteen of us, so those who were left out like me had to use the College's library to find out all the necessary information). For those of you not fimiliar with 'Guernica' here's a helpful picture that I found using Google Images:

   
Despite looking like it was drawn by a bunch of five-year-olds (come on be honest), the message behind it is quite powerful, it's supposed to demonstrate the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. Anyway I managed to find nearly everything in the 50 minute time slot, it was just a case of finding the right encyclopaedia. So do I win a prize for completing the task? Not exactly but I'll probably be seeing a shiny new Result next Week. Overall I found Music this Week to be very interesting, but why we're studying a painting instead of a song I don't know! EDIT: Apparently they're training us for Histoire Des Arts. 


English: It's triple evaluation Week. First one was me reenacting that scene from 'Day After Tomorrow' where the Tornado's basically just rip the crap out of Los Angeles:

The second one was a simple comprehension Test about a rich business guy who has moved from New York to live in the country, so he can 'go green'. Why he was motivated to do so was not explained, I mean you don't see a rich banker living the life in NYC retiring to the country and start recycling every day do you? In the third and final one I had to write a fake email about a woman called Ruth Helen Perry who wanted to apply for a job application (an environmental correspondent for the Washington Post). You had had to detail her job/life experience, why she wants the job ect... Your average easy peasy English Test really. Naturally I'll get 10/10 on everything.


Geography: Still studying America. This Week we've mainly looked at the modern farming techniques that the country uses as well as the high population levels and where the main industrial regions are located. It was interesting I guess, but I still prefer it when we're doing History.  


Sport: More basketball, like THREE hours of it in total! It was an extreme workout I can tell you. My Team didn't lose one match though, and because I haven't really sucked at it so far I think basketball is probably my least-hated form of Sport so far, simply because I'm O.K! My poor legs though, my poor, poor legs...


Technology: One lesson this Week (we was off on Friday you see, another national holiday about something I think) and it was basically EXACTLY the same sh*t as the previous two Weeks. Guh, Technology has gotten really boring recently, and my mediocre Results so far are NOT brightening by mood.


D.V.3: Still working on that Diaporana (although progress is VERY slow now), and thanks to my partners cold (and inability to see reason) I too had had the case of the sniffles by Thursday, as well as a sore left eye that just kept watering in Class like EVERY five minutes! 


S.V.T: This Week we looked at the different types of bacteria/virus'. It was a fun little game where we all split into teams and had to associate a disease with the right type of Microorganism. It should be noted that I got the most answers right out of my group, which admittedly only consisted of three people that were only half awake at the time but that's still some form of achievement. Out of memory I got E. Coli, Streptococci  


Histoire Des Arts: So I was watching this BBC 2 Documentary about Tintin with Dad one night back in October, and seen as the programme was deconstructing the first Tintin comic 'Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets' which detailed the horrible tyranny of the USSR I suddenly thought to myself  'Hey, could that count as a Histoire Des Arts subject?' Hmm let's see:

1. It was made during the 20th Century *CHECK*
2. It's either a film, comic, building, song or painting *CHECK*
3. It applies to the theme 'Art, Country, Power' *CHECK*
4. It demonstrates the time it was set in, and takes a political viewpoint against a certain subject *CHECK*
5. It's something I'm interested in/ have a lot of passion for *CHECK*


So with all the variables covered, I revealed my idea to the Art Teacher during a scheduled Histoire Des Arts lesson this Week and guess what? IT PASSED! So I basically get to showcase a Tintin comic for Histoire Des Arts (and if you're not aware I was an avid fan of Tintin when I was young, and still am in some respects). I'm quite frankly relieved that I didn't have to resort to picking some lesser known French painting that was made in 1943. *PHEW* Well that's one problem sorted, now I've got to sort out what I'm going to do for my internship (GOD HELP ME!).  


Art: Want to know what the objective for this instalment of Arts Plastiques was? Represent your life...In one image the size of a square postage stamp! So I set about creating a nice circle in the centre of my square and divided it into two (each part representing a part of my life), I then drew the Eiffel Tower on one end of my circle and Big Ben on the other (complete opposites, GEDDIT?), and then just filled each half circle with moments from my past. I had several other ideas about what to do as well, like one where it was this big congo line which started with me as a little kid aged 3 and then finished with me aged 15 (the passage of time being marked by the considerably taller versions of me as time went along of course). Other idea's included floating clouds which represented certain memories and the small square being filled to the brim with objects from my past (like a sign which says ROMA and my *SNIFFLES* Snoo-Snoo...WHAT?). As you can see I was clearly having fun with this task, and I'm looking forward to next Week.


French: This Week we finally finished seeing the film 'Un Secret'. The film centres primarily around this sickly boy called François who in 1953 finds out from a neighbour that his family's Jewish. François was brought up like a catholic you see, and his parents (both physically perfect in every way) supposedly came from a catholic family as well so you can see how things were a bit confusing for him can't you? Anyway I should probably tell you that when François was a kid he invented an imaginary brother for himself, a brother who was much stronger and more adult than him, someone he could hide behind and pour all of his emotions into (because he was so frail, and his parents are so physically exceptional he thought he was regarded as a disappointment). Well it turns out that his (Jewish) Dad was previously married to another woman, and they had a kid together called Simon before WWII. But the Dad Maxime was rather attracted to Hannah's sister Tania (who let's face it, were meant to be together) and Hannah (feeling inferior) got a bit suicidal and had herself and her son Simon deported away by the Gestapo to Auschwitz...thus rendering the relationship between Maxime and Tania impossible by being a complete bitch about it. Yeah, it get's quite complicated if you try to explain it. The film then ends with a much older Maxime and Tania committing suicide by jumping off a balcony...lovely. It was definitely a tragedy-fuelled film, and for the most part I thought it was okay (the suicidal urge that the ex-wife Hannah had was a bit out of nowhere though). I mean WTF? Just because he fancies another woman DOESN'T mean you should kill yourself and your 10-year-old kid! 

German: I wish I could just eliminate this subject from my timetable to be honest, it was just SOO boring now, I swear it was the closest I've ever come to just falling asleep in Class. But if you must know, we were studying a document on a Student Exchange/correspondent programme. We then listened to three teenagers give a description of their exchange and had to tick the corresponding box on the questionnaire that the Teacher handed to us. So yes, boring. CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ON NOW!


Maths: I think I'm really hitting a high note now, rarely does anything in Maths pose a problem for me now. The endless string of samey-wamey exercises do get grating after a while though. 


So that's it for this Week then. I probably should add that in ATP my Maths Teacher gave me a slit of paper with all of my Results for this Trimester on it. I won't say anything yet other than the fact that I rank 4th in my Class and my Overall Average for the Trimester is 14,41/20. Of course the full report with all the details on it will be posted shortly - Tim.