Weekends

For the younger girls, weekends are forcatching up on TV, fun-filled activities andeven adventurous exploration of theschool grounds. For the older ones,weekends are for catching up onexcessive work, deprived sleep and, ifpossible, social lives. All in all, weekendsare the much-treasured times to pausefrom our hectic school lives.

When I first arrived, our weekends werefilled with organised trips to the cinema,shopping centres, the ice rink ( 溜冰場),Cadbury's chocolate factory, water parks,amongst many others. My friends and Iwould enthusiastically join these trips asthey were often a good deal of fun. As theterm went on and the novelty of going outwore out, we would enjoy staying in andsimply relax, watch a few films, gossipwith friends and let the weekend fly by.

As we got older, we had increasingprivileges and were allowed to go out intotown on the weekendssomethingwhich we looked forwardto as a young student, and deeplycherished when a break from schoolwas needed. However, most of thetime, we would either stay at schoolto finish off any prep that had beenpiling up since the beginning of the week,or replace any sleep we had beenlosing-school trips were simply a littleoverdone by that point as we were "tooold" and independent for that. A lot of uswould also go down to London to seeother friends, or just to distract ourselvesfrom the thought of work.

I've always enjoyed the break from theclasses, challenging work, constantsocialising and extracurricular activities.We never had a moment to spare. In thesummer term when it was much warmerand the sun was in sight, I would oftenhead out and play a good long game oftennis beforebathing in the surroundings in the middleof the lax pitches with a couple of friends.Those weekends were probably some ofthe best times at school as we really hadthe opportunity to stop, think andappreciate our time there, something weespecially savoured in our last year ofschool when sentimentality kicked in.

Writer's Profile

An unconventional boardingschool-educated gap year student who isabout to study at Oxford University.