Day 4!

    Today was a really interesting day, with a bunch of really great experiences. Today's plenary was absolutely incredible- it was by a man named Ben Walden, an actor who worked for three years at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre alongisde Mark Rylance and Richard Olivier. His plenary discussed many different topics; among them, elements of intelligence, other than exam scores. He made the point that aas we get older, it gets harder to be confident with ourselves. I learned the idea that the four elements correspond to internal elements:

Fire = Spirit

Air = Mind

Earth = Body

Water = Heart

   Something else that he brought up was that to be a good communicator, you must be alive in your body. People who are overly dynamic communicators, however, are often insecure. Ben Walden taught us that emotional intelligence is a life-long journey, and it is so important to understand and acknowledge our feelings. It was a really incredible plenary, and my favorite point raised was this: it is important that we have the courage to be happy. We are more afraid of being strong, and succeeding, than we are of being weak, and failing.

    Today, we moved onto our second Global Action Team. This time, I was with Theater. Our piece for Friday is based around the motif of a suitcase, and the feelings, thoughts, and actions that come with that. Within that, we're doing a five minute piece about war and peace. In our piece, there is a war, there is a lot of hurt and anger, and at some point (to be figured out exactly when/how tomorrow!), a person comes, the motif of an angel, and brings peace to the people, making them stop their fighting. I'm playing the angel, so tomorrow should be really fun, and a really good learning experience. 

   Another highlight of today was the talent show. The range of talent was so wide, and stretched across so many different sub-genres of the performing arts. There was acting, singing, many kinds of dancing- Irish step dancing, African dance, ballet, contemporary- as well as some acts that were such a unique experience to see, such as traditional Indonesian shadow puppets. Overall, I really enjoyed today, and am looking forward to tomorrow!