Junior Team - Update from Mr. Martin Harrison
Today saw the first full World Scholars Day for our young Einsteins! We had the students up at the crack of dawn for breakfast. I was impressed with the boys who were first down and all dressed and ready, although only slightly in front of the girls. The boys had managed to stay awake for the Grand Prix, whilst the girls travel weary had battled to get through 'Maleficent' that was on the movie channel last night. We left the hotel together, as a group, and headed over to the Petronas Towers were we parted company.
The WSC is being held in conference centre at the base of the Petronas Towers and both I and the students were, and will probably remain so throughout out stay, in awe at the immense scale of them (please see the accompanying photo).
Our Junior team ( George Bourne, Jeremy Cao, Alex Kroepfl, Claire Shannon-Vermillion, Konnor Wallis and Banu Zand) gathered in the Plenary Hall, which is roughly four times the size of our Theatre, which was packed with hundreds of students from every corner of the globe ( please also refer to the accompanying photo ).
The students have a very curious way of greeting each other with a "Pwaa!", please don't ask, a WSC ritualistic way of saying "hello" I think! I also got to witness a very unnerving bout of mass hysteria when the students, and I mean all 900+ of them, were shown a stuffed alpaca toy....all called 'Jerry'! The students listened to a fantastic speech by William Cathers, who was the Keynote Speaker, who discussed Plato, Aristotle and Beethoven, particularly focusing on Beethoven's Symphony No.5 in C minor. Well, it had me engrossed!
Later the students, after lunch in the Banquet Hall, were divided up and put in groups with students from other schools and then spent the afternoon on a 'Scavenger Hunt'.
The day concluded at 18:45 when the students met for the Junior Scholars Dinner. We finally made it back to the hotel for 20:00, absolutely shattered! A tiring but very enjoyable day!
Senior Team - Update from Ms. Colleen Usher
Please see 2 photos above