Elmwood School - Samara Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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SENIOR ART by Gjll Neville

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30 SAMARA Dear Elmwood: A message from la Belle Suisse . In answer to a very nice letter from Mrs. Gra- ham, in which she asked me to give you my impressions of Brillantmont, I am about to produce my first contribution to Samara —here goes! Brillantmont is really three schools, Pierre Grise, the Villa and the Chateau. Pierre Grise is a finishing school for girls over eighteen. The villa is known as Ecole Menage , domes- tic science to you, and I am at the Chateau which is much like Elmwood, in that one studies general subjects with the accent on French. The school is located in Lausanne on Lake Geneva. Lausanne is a beautiful city, which is built on three levels. Brillantmont is situ- ated on the highest and therefore is provided with a magnificent view, right across the lake to the French shore. This view is particu- larly lovely when one sees the coloured lights of the town of Evian shining across the water. Before going further with my description of the school,, I must confess that Switzerland with its good food and French atmosphere has produced a number of changes in me. First, I must admit to having put on 10 kilos mostly in the wrong places! I also consider myself practically bilingual, but I am sure Mme. Krupka would not agree! Now back to the school. There are about one hundred and five girls here with just about the normal number of characters . But all of them are very sweet and I have made many very good friends. As in most of the schools in Switzerland, Brillantmont girls come from almost every country in the world, except Switzerland. In fact they come from more than twenty-five different countries. There is an enormous variety of sports. In the winter term there are naturally both skat- ing and skiing. The school owns a ski chalet up in Villars, where many of the girls go in two v eek relays. There is room in the chalet for only fourteen girls, so life is very free and there are only two hours of study each day. One takes ski lessons in the morning and in the afternoon skates or skis again. While in Lausanne almost once every week the girls are taken up to the mountains by bus for a day ' s skiing, which is great fun! On other after- noons there is skating. In the summer term there are even more sports. There are four tennis courts on which we play every after- noon and there is a tennis professional on the staff. We also have an extremely well trained basketball team and quite a few matches lined up for the summer term. Along with the ten- nis and basket-ball, there is riding, swimming and ping-pong. All these are carried on dur- ing the two hours every afternoon especially put aside for sports. The one thing that has impressed me most with the arrival of spring is the magnificence of the gardens which are filled to capacity with every kind of flower imaginable. At the moment the four huge magnolia trees are all in bud and you have never seen anything more beautiful. In addition to the beautiful flowers, Brillantmont is provided with vegetables from its own gardens. Thus there are always plenty of fresh vegetables. But really Brillantmont on the whole is not so different from Elmwood, and although I adore it and have made many good friends, I am looking forward to returning to Elm- wood next Christmas. Andrea Rowley Writing Poetry I was told to write a verse. With words of enduring kind. But all my lines are far too terse— Besides they can ' t be rhymed! So here I sit with dreams in head, With thoughts once more a-wandering. Oh, dear! I wish that I were dead So I could stop this pondering! V. Brain, V B

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JUNIOR ART by Antonia Wright