We put up the Christmas decorations today. It was so cool when we were putting the toys on the Christmas tree and we felt like Christmas is coming soon. We are dreaming about the snow coming now!

(Ekaterina K, Anna S, Liza P)

Our weekends don’t have the same routine as the week days. Our tutors, Joanne and Beatriz, always find new activities for us to do that unite our house together. These activities are not compulsory but all the girls in the house have fun doing them – this weekend we had sweet hot chocolate and apple crumble baking to our movie night in the Old Portena office on Friday watching ‘The Holiday’ with popcorn and keeping warm under our duvets all together. This weekend we also made decorations for our bedrooms with Hama beads – I made a bowl for my desk which is very colourful. There was also the option to watch Skyfall at the cinema, play golf, go horseriding or play in the rock band as well as our usual shopping trip to Geneva and not to forget our study halls to get all our homework done. Our weekends feel more like a sleepover with all our friends so I really enjoy them. (Sofiya V. G8)

Every Saturday morning we have the option of going to play golf and today was the first day that Yuliya and I went to play.  We have never played golf before but we have already made big improvements. We had a good instructor who showed us how to play golf in the right way and we really liked it. We are already looking forward to playing again next week!

Ornella M & Yuliya Z G8)

Every Saturday morning and Monday after school we have music practice with the rock band. I am the singer and my friends play the electric and bass guitars. This morning I learned a new song called ‘Wild Horses’ by the Rolling Stones and I really liked it. We usually play a lot of different songs or else we play in a concert like the one we did for the school BBQ before the holidays. Our lessons with our music teacher, Mr Nigg, are always very interesting. (SV Grade 8)

All the Old Portena girls were divided into groups of two or three to sit in the sailing boats for our lesson on the lake. It was a very cool activity and our instructor taught us a lot of new things. After we had our sailing lesson, the water was still nice and warm so we went for a swim in the lake before we came back to the boarding house. We love doing this activity with the other girls that we live together with. (Ornella M, Anastasiya S. G8)