Linnea Grade 10 Personal Project

Linnea also had a big day this week - it was finally time to present all the Grade 10 Personal Projects!
Unfortunately, no parents weren't allowed to come onto campus for this, but at least the Grade 10s got to present to the other students, both younger and older. They spent all morning in the yard, presenting their projects to other students and teachers.
Lucas very kindly made sure Mummy got some pictures of the event!

Linnea's project was about 'Learning to paint portrait', and she had used a photo of Grandma and Grandad as inspiration for the portrait she was producing.
A very personal project indeed!

Very proud of her, she has been working very hard on both the project, and of course the portraits. I'm so glad she got such positive feedback on her work from both her peers and the teachers that she presented it too. Well done Linnea!

Lucas DP Drama Solo performance

Nathan and I were back at the school campus the other day for the very first time since before Covid, so yes, it has been well over two years. The campus had really changed, lots of greenery now, so pretty.
We were invited to the Raha Arts Centre to see the very last performance that Lucas was going to do, for his DP Drama - his Solo Performance.

There was five students performing so the audience consisted of their parents only, and a handful of teachers and students, who were there as part of the technical team. But still - we were a LIVE audience!
We didn't have to see it via a screen this time!

Lucas was the last one out, and he had chosen Jacques Lecoq as his practitioner. He did a performance that balanced between both seriousness and humour, and even us parents were mentioned in his act, ha ha.

Lucas and his friends after the performance, now all done with their DP Drama. Well done! So proud!

Celebrating Swedish Ladies UAE

Frida and I were not done for the day at 7 pm, no no - we had brought a change of clothes which had been waiting all day for us in the lockers at the entrance, and come evening we went to get changed into our party clothes and put on some lippy! It was time to celebrate the first anniversary of the Swedish Ladies UAE network!

This event was held at the lovely rooftop of the Swedish Pavilion, with a great view of the Sustainability district:

There was around 40 ladies that had gathered to celebrate.

Some live entertainment from Lizette & Josefine:

Mingling going on. We got treated to a selection of lovely Swedish nibbles, with meatballs, herring, salmon etc. It was all so very, very delicious, mmm!

And of course, if it's a birthday party, there has to be cake! This one was with meringues and  cloudberries, imported straight from Sweden. Very unique taste - I loved it!

We got a little goodie bag with 'lördagsgodis' (= Swedish pick n' mix candy) when we left, best goodie bag ever!

Of course Frida and I had to pose with the giant Dalahäst on the way out!

A very long day at the Expo2020 - but what a day!

Dodecalis

The Dodecalis Luminarium - this sculpture was so cool that it deserved it's own blog post actually!
This is a pneumatic sculpture, a sort of monumental installation that you enter into. You had to take your shoes off as the translucent material was very fragile.

Inside there was a maze of winding paths, tunnels, rooms and domes and each visit is unique, because it changes due to the weather changes and the daylight, but also due to the amount of visitors that move around inside.

This photo below is one of my favourites of the day, I think Frida gives off an Alice in Wonderland-vibe here!

This Luminarium by Architects of Air, had already traveled through 43 countries before it came to Expo2020.

Quite a surreal experience to be inside this sculpture, and although we were almost alone while visiting, it was slightly nauseous, because it obviously moves ever so slightly with the wind, and our movements. Very unique though, I have never seen anything like it!

The perfect Expo discovery team

Yes, yet another Expo2020 post! Just scroll past if you are not interested, because this will be a proper photo bomb - Frida and I turned out to be the perfect exploration team, we managed to visit around 50 pavilions together! I think we both were rather surprised at the end of the day actually, when we counted the stamps in our passports! We did work hard though, arrived already at 11 am, and had a hefty tempo all day until 7 pm.

Let's have a look at which countries we discovered today, I still had a long list to tick off. I started with Slovenia:

Lithuania, who f.e showed the world's smallest Burj Khalifa!

Czech Republic, a pavilion I really enjoyed:

Seychelles, which presented the Coco-de-Mer, the world's largest seed:

And a painted sculpture of a tortoise, with some "interesting" drawings on it, ha ha!

Benin, another small pavilion which fascinated me. So much art!

Bolivia:

Montenegro:

Cambodia:

I have really tried to learn something new from each pavilion. In the St Kitts & Nevis pavilion I learned for example that Alexander Hamilton was born there:

Republic of Equatorial Guinea:

I loved this sculpture, by Leandro Mbomio Nsue - who understandably is called the 'Black Picasso':

The Central African Republic:

Ivory Coast, I had no idea they were such a large producer of chocolate!

Kosovo:

Grenada, where they grow nutmeg:

Sudan:

Mongolia:

Mexico, stunning pavilion!

Antigua and Barbuda, more art:

Senegal:

Peru, beautiful pavilion, both on the outside and inside:

Haiti, superbly colourful, such a happy pavilion!

The Holy See pavilion, great for selfies!

A really beautiful pavilion, I so enjoyed it! It promotes human fraternity, a theme highlighted by the two historical happenings: the visit of Pope Francis to Abu Dhabi in 2019 and the meeting between Saint Francis and the Sultan of Egypt in 1212.

This sculpture is called Fraternity, and it's by Giuseppe di Nicola. So lovely!

Slovakia:

Bulgaria:

Micronesia:

Kiribati - which we learned is pronounced "kiribash":

Palau:

One pavilion I got really surprised, and impressed by, was Syria. We got to listen to the oldest song in the world here for example:

The pavilion of El Salvador offered free tastings of coffee at the end of the visit:

Vanuatu:

Capo Verde:

Trinidad & Tobago:

Libya:

Eritrea:

Dominica, really confused as to why they had a viking-looking figure?!

Gambia:

Jamaica! Another pavilion full of music, colour and joy!

Tanzania:

Nepal, presented both Buddhas and Yetis!

In Barbados we met Rihanna:

Togo:

Algeria:

Serbia:

Angola:

Kyrgyzstan:

Nicaragua:

Somalia:

South Sudan:

Latvia, who displayed tons of different inventions, amongst them this non-reflective glass for artworks. Can you see the difference between the left and the right side of the glass covering this Rothko?