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 Having visited a Scottish boarding school for almost four terms now, I have to say that since I came here in the first place, I have never looked back. Nevertheless it seems difficult to recall my first impressions of school and country, as so many things have changed around me in that single year.
I will start with my reasons for coming to Merchiston. Apart from the obvious reason (that is, to improve my English) I hoped to benefit from living in a different culture in many other ways. On the one hand I hoped that I could make a lot of new friends in a different society and therefore gain experience and enjoy my time in Merchiston. On the other hand, I thought that being taught in a different language would not just improve my ability to use this language, but would also present me with a beneficially different approach and viewpoint in certain subjects. This did in fact happen, and I do therefore think that the culturally different approach to issues and problems in air kinds of subjects does enrich one's understanding. As an example, in History I studied the German unification under Bismarck at AS-Level. There, quite a different approach to 'my' own country's history was opened to me and it was very interesting to see the events from an external view. However, this is only one example, and I have been fascinated by the enthusiasm and the academic quality of the teachers, the equipment of all departments and the ffiendliness of all the people around me. In other words: I was not only impressed by the benefits I got from a different system, also the quality within this system exceeded everything I could have expected.
The friendliness of the people around me is a point that needs to be stressed, as I found everyone from my classmates to the teachers very supportive and they all made me feel welcome and looked after. This was very important because it allowed me to settle in very quickly. However, it does not mean that the school is not demanding, which wouldn't be of any help to us 'visitors' anyway. As Merchiston is a boarding school, many people might worry how they are going to spend their free time, if they decide to come for a year, or even just a term. Here I have to say that, at least according to my experience, this won't be a problem. I found that there are probably even too many opportunities to participate in all sorts of activities, and that the only problem that might arise is how to manage one's time. However, here again I was impressed by the support you get if there are any problems with time management, as teachers and housemasters really try to find the best solution for you. So both in terms of free time activities and in terms of your "academic" classroom experience, a year abroad will provide everyone with loads of opportunities to benefit from.
I have enjoyed playing Basketball in the school team, as well as Squash and Badminton. It also has to be said that there is a wide range of sports everybody can choose from, although Rugby is definitely 'the' school sport. As for my subjects, I am doing Maths, Further Maths, Physics, History and Greek, which is certainly a strange combination. But my wish to do Greek was actually one of the main reasons why I came to Merchiston, as it was one of the few schools in the EIB which offered the course within Britain. Throughout the past year I have successfully pursued all of these subjects and I even managed to win a few prizes, such as coming first in Scotland in the Senior Maths Challenge 2002 (similar to the 'Mathematik Olympiade'in Germany). All of this has led me into a position where I am now even applying for a place in Oxford University next year. Furthermore I have got a lot of new ffiends, who also come from all over the world. In that sense it has to be said that I certainly did benefit from my time here in Scotland in every respect.
I am absolutely convinced that everybody will benefit from a year abroad, whatever your aims are, and I do therefore thoroughly recommend a year in Scotland to anyone who is interested. |
