Amber De Saint-Exupery (Y8 Matthews) writes:
On 20 April, 25 students departed Hong Kong for Penang, Malaysia to take part in the 3-day ISTA festival at The International School of Penang (Uplands).
This year’s theme was the Unknown. In 3 days, we organised a performance expressing different views on the unknown and what we imagined the unknown might bring. During the festival we were split into 4 ensembles, each involving students from Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Working with students from different schools introduced us to different drama techniques and perspectives. The part I found the most enjoyable on this trip was when we worked in different workshops. For example I had the opportunity to learn to street dance.
Throughout the week, we learned new songs based on the Unknown and performed them in the final performance. And during the student social, we sang so loudly that we all lost our voices the next day.
Georgetown introduced us to the most beautiful street art and afterwards we reflected how we felt the street art linked to the Unknown in our performances.
My host family was wonderful and treated us like we were part of their family. When we left Malaysia, everyone was crying that the experience and our time with our host families were over. However we were consoled by the fact that we would continue our new friendships back from home by staying in touch.YouTube video