Most people like weekends, the Boarders do as well. What we do on Saturdays is kind of special to me. Maybe it is because I am quite new to the country so there are a lot of places in this country I haven’t visited before. To me, living in a totally different country with a totally different culture is quite exciting.

On Saturdays, we don’t stay in bed until noon and we are fine with that, this is because we get to go on outings organized by our Housemistresses. We get to go to lots of different places, for example, cathedrals, castles & museums. You might think, how boring would that be to go to a museum! For us visiting a museum is a chance for us to learn about the culture in this country therefore we totally appreciate it. We don’t only go to museums we also go to a lot of fun places like shopping malls, the theatre, the ice skating rink and Thorpe Park! With this variety of places to go, we will definitely not be bored.

Apart from going on outings there is also a lot going on. If we got back early from the trip, we might go in to town or, when the nights are lighter, go out on the field and play games. The most memorable time is when we bought water pistols and had a water fight! Although we all got very wet, we still enjoyed it a lot.

Saturday night is the time we gather in the kitchen and cook together. It’s my first year at Burgess Hill School for Girls, I was homesick a lot when I first came, cooking in the kitchen together made me feel more at home. The food we make is so much like food that we have back at home. After cooking we usually eat in our common room on the big table. We eat and we chat. It is like a big party. We talk about a lot of things, we talk about home, our dreams, and our school life, and there are a lot of things that we talk about. This is how we get to know each other so well.

Also, on Saturday nights Miss P lets us stay up much later than a normal night. So after cooking, we would watch movies together in our common room all piled on the sofas with our duvets. It is like a family movie night. We rent them, bring them from home or borrow Miss P’s DVD’s. We watch all sorts of movies. We laugh together if we watch a comedy; we hold on to each other and scream if we are watching a scary movie, we even cry together if the movie is so touching. I think how living together like a big family, with Miss P watching over us, and having so many big sisters makes Avondale, our boarding house, like our second home, with so many Saturdays to look forward to.

Written by Bridgette Chan Year 10 Avondale Boarder

30/06/08