Project Week is in the works and it is not easy. We as a team have had our fair share of troubles since the start of planning and it has been a trip…

First things first, CONTEXT. Our group is now planning to go to China (Guangxi to be exact). In China we will be going rock climbing, make a documentary, and learn some hand fan painting in between. However, this was not how it was supposed to be (all though I am kind of happy that it is now).

What did we start with and how did we end up here you ask? Well long story short… We were originally going to visit the NGO behind Smiles of China, and volunteer there. Unfortunately, the NGO was unable to take us in this year so we had to come up with a new plan. In this new plan, our group split up (we were six and two left), and we went to the only place available in China which was Guangxi. Based on what the list of activities given to us by the provider we decided on rock climbing. Since we need to cover 2 strands of CAS, we took inspiration from last year’s project week group that went to China and decided to make a documentary on the life in China. However, the school was not happy with just the documentary so we spoke to the activity provider and they helped us find the hand fan painting class to add onto our plan.

So that is how we ended up with this current plan. But the problem that we faced the whole time is budgeting. Project week has a strict budget of $1000 (and $900 for scholars, of which we have one). And flights to China are expensive, but we managed to get an extension of $100 each. Still it was hard to find a way to make the budget last. However, with a lot of research and bargaining (thanks to Holly and Sophie), we were able to find a cheap place to stay that the school approved of and we managed to get the provider to give us a better deal.

Now  comes my role in all of this. Generally speaking, both Etsub and I are in charge of reporting back to Ms. Toth. Etsub reports back in the boarding house, and I relay information between Ms. Toth and the group over email and so far it has been a really efficient way of getting things done.

On top of that (and more importantly) I am the media coordinator. As media coordinator I am in charge of making the podcast that will be used by the school for future 11th graders. As media coordinator, I have to make sure that everyone gets their recordings finished on time. So far we have finished the pre-trip recordings well in time for the dead-line, and it seems to be going well.

One problem I foresee regarding the recordings, is that during the trip we may be too tired to do a good job. So during the trip, we will have to decide as a team to either do the recordings at the start of the day or at the end. Or maybe we may decide to do it during the layover in our flight… We haven’t really talked about that yet. However, I am worried that I will have to make a decision that may bother the rest of my group, but I may just be worrying about nothing.

One genuine worry I see is that I am an introvert. Now generally speaking this is not a problem, but the thing is I kind of need daily isolation. And mean isolation. I am worried that without this during project week I may get especially irritable and cranky and just ruin the whole experience for everyone. Currently, I am trying to just mentally prepare myself for the trip and a week of 0 isolation. But since my group members are my friends, I hope that if I tell them that I need them to just not talk to me for an hour or so, they will understand where I am coming from.

So far that is all we have for Project Week, more updates will come soon!