Buckswood Summer School, Georgia, 2010

The year 2010 became really special for me. I don’t know where to start from, but in short, this was a very surprising year that I’ll never forget.

I won in Georgian National Educational Olimpiada in Georgian language and literature, so I was sent to Buckswood Summer School in Tskneti.

- “Sal, do you want to go to London? ”

- "Naah, not really…”

Of course I did, but I lied. I lied because I didn’t want to ruin my summer vacation. I was there in Buckswood Summer School to have fun and make friends, not to fight with everyone. In fact, it was about teachers who would go to England and everything you had to do was studying and joining activities… Well, I wasn’t a teacher there (I was only a student), so I don’t know that exactly if you want to know the truth. In short, that question made me think about different things. Laying on my bed, looking at the ajar door I heard that question. I didn’t want to answer, but… you know, girls wouldn’t just let me stay such “neutral” and silent. And I answered. However the thing was, I had always wanted to visit UK. And If I had a chance to see it, even for two weeks’ time, why wouldn’t I fight for it? Yes, I tried…

We kept something like diaries while living in Buckswood Summer School:

08. Aug. 2010

We had a great day today I think. The best was when we were working on the poster. We were a so united group! It was cool. We worked all together, Billie was also great. He was with a big hat and a stick in his hand. He reminded me of the movie called “Harry Potter”.

18. Aug. 2010

Today we went to Betania. It was a really amazing trip. I’ve never walked that much till today I guess. When we were returning back, it seemed we had run out of water. So Guro went to somewhere to look for a spring… then many minutes later we saw Guro running towards us and screaming: “CIVILIZATION! ” We were very tired when we got in school.

“I voted for Salome on the nomination; the most helpful. She’s been very helpful for these 3 weeks…” yes, that’s me! You know, guys can just pretend like they don’t hear you when they don’t want to help you or something. But I can’t do that! If I hear someone calling me, I can’t just ignore them. It's so awfull to turn around and walk away like nobody has called you… So, I helped guys in Buckswood. And many of them wanted me to make graffiti letters on their notebooks, or arms. Then, all of a sudden, our teacher told us she wanted to perform Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” with tonguetwisters. I played Juliet.

There was a Poetry Night in Buckswood Summer School and I won in it! I read some rhymes written by me in English and one rhyme “We Never Know How High We Are” by Emily Dickinson. So I want you to show you one of my rhymes:

Lilac

I hear a whisper of thousand flowers,

My ears burn in shadows of rain…

I’m walking on the road staring at showers…

Windows opened and closed and opened.

Here comes the sun, its footsteps are painted _

Always wide and shiny and bright!..

Memories full of silence, emptyness,

Sentences fade and never will come back.

I hear a whisper of thousand flowers,

It’s unbearable, noisy and soundless,

My ears burning in flames and showers,

Showers of flowers, thousand flowers.

There were many things that we did there in Buckswood Summer School and I have really good memories about it. It was a great time and I would do it again if I could.

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