Wednesday evenings at Concha offer a valuable opportunity for our house to gather and share thoughts on topics that matter most to us. This week’s agenda was filled with pressing issues, requiring the full focus and collaboration of everyone in attendance.

Beyond the discussions, Wednesdays also hold a special place in the CDL boarding community as the night of international dinners. This week, we delighted our taste buds with the rich and flavourful cuisine of the Philippines, adding a delicious highlight to our evening.

Today is special in our house as our very own Eduardo celebrates his 15th birthday. Happy Birthday Eduardo ¡Feliz cumpleaños! Que tengas un día lleno de alegría, amor, y muchas bendiciones.

Thanks for bringing us all together on your birthday, Eduardo!

As every weekend, our Concha boys had early wake-ups to go to the activities they had signed up for. Some of them chose cooking, others went for sports and others even decided to stay in to complete unfinished homework. They love Saturdays as it is normally something different each weekend, either activities in CDL or some nice new place to discover outside.

After an energetic lunch at the Léman Cafeteria, most of the boys went to downtown Geneva, to do some shopping, walk around and have a delicious snack with their friends out of campus. Most of the time, they come back with unforgettable memories and anecdotes to tell us, which we are eager to hear 😊

Edu and João with Scarlett from Portena cooking together! 🧑‍🍳

Daniel and our favourite brothers, Fanbo and Fanyang, also joined today’s cooking lesson!

Hit it hard, Jiarui! 🎾

We can tell Firdavs was really focused 🎾

We know you are going to reach the peak, Samwise! 🧗‍♂️

Say “hi” to the camera, Matthew! 👋🏻

Gotcha, Emir! 😆

Look at this crew having fun in Geneva! 🇨🇭

Sam having a fancy tea in Geneva (We can also see Rodri 👀)

Our favourite francophone duo playing some video games together 🎮

Over the last couple of months, we have realised the Concha living room has had multiple uses: study room, meeting room, office, leisure room… but now it is a movie theatre too!

Mr Tarun had this amazing idea of gathering some of the kids and watch a film together. He chose a classic: The Pirates of the Caribbean! 🏴‍☠️ Fun fact: the kids were not even born when this film first came out! (I was two years old myself, still pretty young tho). Our Concha boys really enjoyed the film and found this moment key to socialise and discover something different together. As they had fun, we came to the conclusion that this was not going to be the only time we arrange something like this.

Any suggestions for the next movie night? 🎥

They were so into it! 🤩

Shh, Mr Víctor! We are watching a film! 🤫

This evening, pretty much all of the Olympus basketball court was occupied by our Concha boys, there to play volleyball, basketball and badminton with Mr. Eleador.

Fanbo and Fanyang vs Gianni and Adrian

Zhengtai and Jiarui studying some racket science

Back in the house, some of our boys attempt todays Fitness Challenge – the Wheelbarrow Hold!

They got 1:45!

These two got 1:02!

As Friday approaches, our boys eagerly anticipate the weekend, but we ensure they have dedicated time for study hall and our biweekly book club. Each boy selects a book of his choice and records notes in his reading journal. This provides a wonderful opportunity for them to come together, reflect, and unwind after a busy, activity-filled day.

Today’s words of the day were:  Smuggled, elongate, hooves, scrubbed, encouraged, and silken to name a few

Sam and Rodrigo went to the library this afternoon to prepare for their upcoming summative.

When three’s a crowd but the story’s too good to put down! 📖

This evening, we enjoyed some delicious food from Ghana!

We had a spiced beef & egg ragout with Waakye (peanut rice) and plantains for our main, and some Boflots (beignets) with a mango coulis for dessert.

Can anyone spot Mr Ronan?

The Readingmoot convened once again this evening.

Sam read through some of Kensuke’s Kingdom, and without knowing the name of the book, his description sounded like Life of Pi to Mr. Jack and the novel version of Castaway to me!

Rodrigo has been reading through the Fellowship of the Ring, which I am quite happy about as it’s one of my favorites! Tolkien loved to make up a bunch of quirky words, so Rodrigo came across words like mathom (an item that Hobbits have no immediate use for, but are unwilling to throw away) or a smial (the name for the hobbit-holes dug into the sides of hills)

Here are some of the new words that the boys wrote down and that we went over:

Ambush, Veranda, Gangway, Concentrate, Shawl, Delighted, Pridefulness, Crescendo, Encyclopedia, and Conflagration.

This month of November, the Fitness Challenge is taking place at CDL. Yesterday’s (November 10th) challenge was all about making fun short videos promoting physical activity. 🏋️

During the day, Concha’s House Parents and House Tutors got some of the kids to volunteer and take part in some of the videos that were sent, in an attempt to win yesterday’s challenge. We tried different sports out, danced and even had time to make some memes out of the short clips we filmed! 😂

Besides the kids, the House Team got really involved, Mr Zach was an outstanding cameraman, Mr Víctor did the editing and Mr Jack, as always, tried to foster that sporty spirit in them and even appeared in one of the videos! Do we have a potential model here? 👀

The first video is called “How to become a Boarding Superstar”, and features some of our Concha Boys playing sports. The second video, however, is a funny one, where Emir boxes as if it were a way to get ready for school after the weekend 😂

We finished off the weekend in style.  It took a gentle bit of encouragement to get the Concha boys up this morning, but once they got into gear, it was hard for them to wind down.  Our middle schoolers went on a hike along the riverbed.  Scroll down to take a glimpse into a weekend in Concha!

Our middle schoolers went for a riverside stroll

Just Firdavs hanging out

Abs of steel 💪

Looking Firdavstatingly good!

A study hall session to wrap up a productive weekend 📚

A work in progress