Visit to United World College Duino Trieste Italy

Plaque on the wall in the village , Duino

Plaque explaining what the colleges are about . Robin applied to various colleges in different countries, as do many students.

View from the Day Room in the college. Its a far cry from the view at my daughter's High School !

Another view from a different window of the Day Room . I took this by opening the shutters and leaning out . A steep cliff face is below leading straight down to the sea. Amazing .

The town square in Trieste .

Across the road from the college in Duino village .

Trieste

Trieste

This weekend one of my longstanding friends was making the trip via Stansted to Trieste and then on to the village of Duino in Italy to visit her son at boarding school at the United World College of the Adriatic , an international college for students aged sixteen to eighteen year olds who want a different experience of studying from A levels and who prefer to study away from home and to have the chance to study for the International Baccalaureat .
Robin heard about the college from a friend and applied and was accepted after an interview in Wales , and started in Italy in September . This was to be Liz's first trip to visit him .
The college is home for two years to around two hundred international students , and it felt like we met them all on Friday evening , being introduced to them shortly after our arrival ! Not really , it just felt like that ! What was fascinating was how intrigued they all were to meet Liz , Robin's mother  and I suppose that's how it works . Sixteen is very young to be leaving home and some of these young people are very far from home indeed, and must be desperate for contact with home and keen for any reminders of home and family . Indeed at our arrival everyone stopped what they were doing immediately ( watching a dvd on a huge plasma screen ) and came over to watch Robin making us a cup of tea) and chat to us about where we had come from , what our plans were , and whch countries each of them were from . East Timor , Bangldesh , Italy -of course-, Vietnam - Albania, Afghanistan , Bosnia , Pakistan , Venezuela, Poland, Brazil and Canada spring to mind . Mind blowing opportunities. International School UK,Boarding School WalesUWC AdriaticUnited World College of the Adriatic Duino in Trieste - Italy Community of stuUnited World College of the Adriatic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


It was a great adventure as ever to be able to travel and to think about things from a different viewpoint . Its easy to assume that after GCSE s you have to just follow the crowd and do A levels but Robin is proof that you can apply and live abroad and study in a whole different way and although the fees at the college are very high all the students at this college are supported by full scholarships so it isnt costing his parents any more than the flights to get him there and using the cheap flights which we used it really isnt that expensive .
Nat and I had the opportunity to take off to Trieste - we had planned to do a train journey to Venice but this wasnt possible- we were told that the sea had flooded St Marks Square so we had a lovely afternoon taking photographs and pottering around .

Today , Monday I'm back to CatMinding which is a lovely way back into the working week.....and a pile of paperwork to do ....