Day 3 - SUCH A SMALL WORLD

Sorry for not updating last night - was way too tired but here it is..

So yesterday morning it was a DEBATE with the motion - "This House would reshape the world map" and I was opposing! It was fun but the main part was the speaking style training which was quite useful as we were taught how we should stand; how much should we lean back/forward; how to make eye-contact; how NOT to look over-confident while giving a sound argument etc. etc.

More interestingly, after lunch, we were transported to London! Due to the large amount of requests from participants - we had a sightseeing tour on the bus before coming to the Parliament. It was interesting how we entered through the MPs building (WHERE I SAW DAVID CAMERON!) on the road opposite of the actual Parliament and then went into a committee room in the Parliament through a "secret" underground passage! Unfortunately, camera was not allowed to be used apart from our official photographer so hopefully he took some great photos!

Anyway - so we had three speakers coming in, 2 MPs (one is from the Labour party and the other is a shadow minister) and a special adviser to another MP. Most interesting was the shadow minister (due to what I'm about to write, it's probably not a good idea to say exactly who he was here but feel free to ask me privately if you want to find out!) because when he came in - he basically turned into a robot and started talking about how great his party (the Conservative) was - how Margaret Thatcher ghosted the UN about climate change etc. etc. It was a total comedy as it seems like he came in to make a live commercial for his party in front of an audience who won't/can't even vote for him! (Should've told David Cameron how useless yet loyal some of his ministers were).

Ok - after the speeches we walked to the nearby Commonwealth and Foreign Office where we were invited to a reception held by the British Council. Now this is why I titled this post as "Such a small world". First of all - a member of the RBS (the Royal Bank of Scotland) lived in Hong Kong for a few years and he actually lived in Bowen Road, thus knowing our school. What's more was that an author present there - Mr. Romesh Gunesekera - happened to be a friend of Mr. A - yes, our Mr. A, Mr. Alexander - and apparently, he had been to Island School quite a few times! How cool is that! In addition, I also met the Main Presenter of the BBC World news as well as Ruhana Ali - the Education and Welfare Officer of the LSE Student Union. It was an amazing evening talking to all these great people - not to mention all the food and wine that were served. Unfortunately again cameras weren't allowed so fingers crossed that the camera man - point of interest, who is actually a professor of linguistics at KCL - took some great photos.

Anyway ya we went back to the hotel and it was about 11pm so I didn't really have the ability to write another blog but here we are!