No Pain, No Gain

As mentioned in my plan, I will go to Fitness Club every Wednesday, and it’s been going great, eventhough sometimes, after that, my whole body just went sore. Sometimes, it would be very hard for me to get up from bed because of the soreness. Eventhough my whole body gets sore sometimes, I still love doing it, because I want to achieve my goal of getting fit and after that, stay fit.

In the Fitness Club right now, we have been doing punching and kicking with the guide of a video of course. And probably the next session, we want to try something harder, because we have been doing the same for several weeks. And we definitely want to challenge ourselves with a new one.

What I have achieved by trying to get fit is I’ve shown perseverance and commitment, as I have been going there every week, but sometimes, I can’t go because of my stomach which the only problem that is in the way right now.

Ready? Action!

 Since October, I have been going to Sports Club after school every Monday. This is because I just really want to do any kind of sports that I think I can do. And since, I started, we have always been playing hockey, and the number of students that come sometimes vary. Eventhough I haven’t played hockey for a long time, on the first day of me playing hockey again, I scored 4 times. I felt proud, but at the same time, it was only because of luck, because really, I was the only girl there and I was the worst one ever at the time. Also, at the same time, the other group probably thought that I don’t have the skills, so they were not really defending me and probably they didn’t think of me as an opponent at the time. Well, they thought wrong!

However, lately, I haven’t been going there anymore because I have the problem again with my stomach, the doctor said that something was wrong with my stomach. And they advised me not to do tough sports such as football and other sports with opponents and lots of running and pushing. But now, I’m feeling better and I really want to go there because it’s really fun playing with the students and teachers. However, I also have skills that need to be improved and the to do thing and to not do thing while playing hockey that I need to learn. I definitely need to improve my passing skills, and my skill at scoring a goal with a better skill. A to do thing during hockey that I need to learn is being able to not lose the ball while trying to pass the opponents, trying not to lose it to the opponent that is trying to attack and take the ball. Obviously, the not-to-do thing that I need to learn, is NOT TO KICK THE BALL!

By going to Sports Club, I definitely have worked collaboratively with others, passing the ball and played as a team, and when we had more people, everybody agreed on substitutions. I have also increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth, where I definitely need to learn more on passing and not to kick the ball with my foot and also need to learn how to control the ball, eventhough I sometimes score, but that doesn't me I'm good at it. 

Cross-Stitch-ing

In my plan, I wrote that I would do cross-stitching as part of my creativity. Trust me, it has been a great pleasure doing it. I can do it anytime, anywhere except for certain places. Whenever I’m not doing anything at home, or when I follow my dad to the embassy, I would take all the cross-stitching stuff with me because it’s part of my life right now and I just love doing it.

Cross-stitching is something that I wouldn’t have thought of doing for my creativity. But thanks to my sister, she told me start during summer and continue doing it whenever I have free time, and basically during summer, whenever I’m at home, I would just sit in the living room with everybody watching television, and I would just stay quiet and do my cross-stitch. My siblings would just call me a loner, because I don’t talk to them. But here are the results that I got for being quiet. At least, I had a productive summer! 

To make these, as a beginner, we can buy a packet which can cost 90 to 120 roubles. And then, in the packet, they give you the thread, needle, and the instruction on how to it. Now I know what half-cross stitch is when I had no idea what does it mean before. And then, after doing it for some time, I saw my sister doing it just by looking at, for example, a butterfly picture on the internet, and then zoom in the picture and you can see that it shows the small boxes where you can also so cross-stitch. This is to make it cheaper. Which obviously I tried.

By doing this, I have developed new skills, I thought if I just look at the picture, it would be hard, but actually it's the same, and it's cheaper, I just need to buy the thread. 

And below, is my favourite one out of all my collections. 

CAS Plan

CAS Plan

Creativity

• I will be doing cross-stitching of pictures that I take from the Internet. This is to improve in my sewing skills and also my art skills and I have started this at the end of summer, when my sister encouraged me to start doing it. She encouraged me because she knows how bad I am at sewing. 
• I will perform on International Day on the 19th of October and I will be also taking videos of the activities that will be doing by the students during the day and edit them afterwards. This is the opportunity for me to learn a new song on the guitar and then also perform our version of Breakeven by The Script. 
• I will also bring a Malaysian dish made by me on International Day. This is when I have the opportunity to improve my cooking in every way that I can.

Action

• I will participate in the after school club on Monday where students and teachers play any sport that we can. Although I have some good basic skills of any sport that I sometimes play, I can for example, improve my skill in passing the ball to other teammates while playing hockey.
• I will participate in the Badminton Club on Tuesdays, where I can work on how to do a very good smash to the opponent. I will be so proud of myself when I've learned it and can do it perfectly. 
• I will also participate in the Fitness Club on Wednesdays. This is definitely for me to get fitter and fitter so that I can achieve my goal that I've been working since last year.

Service

• Teaching Maths to small kids that need improving in their Maths skill. This will then help me in improving my teaching skills which will then can help me in the future because I might be a teacher or a lecturer. The money that I will get then I will donate to a charity called "IWO Charities Group" where they simply help the elderly, the homeless, orphans, the handicapped, foster families, and more.
• Participate in Weather Club, where we take measurements everyday at break. This will help other people to be more aware of the climate change and the effects that it will have in the future. I will also then gain more knowledge in climate change since I am learning Geography and ESS for the IB course.

School 4 Fair!

On Friday, 15th of June, School 4 had a fair and our year had to come up with an activity for the kids. However, me, Matanat and Yein decided to do face painting for the kids. Eventhough I'm not so good at art, can't even draw properly on paper, I practiced a lot of time drawing designs on paper. And they were not good at all! At least, that's what I think. I asked a lot of help from Yein, and of course she helped me a lot in preparing. She sent me some basic designs that I could probably use for practice and it actually helped. The night before the fair, I was drawing on my hands and on my brother's hands and on everywhere that I could possibly draw. It was a lot of fun torturing my brother! 

During the fair, I struggled a bit because the designs that the school provided us were pretty hard, but I still could draw something good on the kids' faces. Some of the kids asked me to draw a flag, fireworks, butterfly and flowers. Some even asked me to draw a dragon and spiderman, which is totally impossible! I really didn't want to ruin the kids' faces. I was really scared, so I told Yein that she could do the hard ones, and I would do the basic ones. And of course Yein did it perfectly. 

I was just hoping that the kids liked my work of art on their face, because I'm not the best artist! At all!

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved with face painting are:

• Developed new skills, as this is the first ever time I ever ever face painted on people
• Increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth, as I have practiced a lot of time and I know what I have to improve and I actually might do this more often so, I can do this activity again 

Istra!

On the 4th of June, Year 12 went to Istra for a week! Everybody was really excited! 

When we get there, the first task that we needed to do is look for 10 flags around the forest, and my group found only 7 flags. It was hard, however, we had a good teamwork and I think that the objective of the task was that, we can know the path of the forest. After that, another task was given which was to draw the map of the Istra reservation. I thought that I wouldn't be good at it, but I was impressed with my Istra map. After dinner, we had something fun to do, which I have no idea what's it called, but it has something to do with blindfolding. It was fun and I think we laughed a lot of time.

The next day, we had an investigation to do, which is about the trans-section line. We had to do the investigation in a group, and my group members were Thibaut, Yein and SangHoon. We distributed the tasks for each person. The hardest thing is that our site was a really steep slope and all of us at least fell once, and we would laughed at each other. After collecting the data, we would go back to the conference room, where we do all the write-ups. Later on the day, we had a competition where we had to design a boat, and my pair was Thibaut. We used a pringles box, 6 cups and a thin stick. At first, we thought that our boat was the worst, but no, we actually won the competition! And I still can't believe it until now! Next, we had to do a trap for the bugs. But, the next day when we came to see who trapped the most bugs, all of the traps have been destroyed but some Russians. 

The third day, we had to do another investigation using quadrats. I was in the same group as before. And we had the same tasks as before, 3 of us would count the number of each species and one of us would do the writing. This investigation took us a really long time, because we really wanted a good result. After having all kinds of tiredness, we had a game, like we always do after dinner. This time, it's a music quiz, where we had to listen to the song, guess the title, the artist, the name of the album and the decade when it was released. My group was Matanat, SangHoon and Yein. We guessed a lot of them, however the answers were really random. We just took some words from the lyrics. 

The next day, the investigation that we did is the individual investigation, where we had to come up with a our own plan for the investigation. Since I was really blank, Mr O'Connor helped me with an idea of investigating the relationship between the height and width of pine trees. I really liked doing the experiment. And Matanat also had the same investigation with me, because if I was to do it alone, it will be hard. And I got two cuts at the same time! Eventhough we didn't even started anything yet. It hurts so bad! Can't even imagine! During the night, we had a barbecue because it was the last night we're gonna be there. I ate a lot of chicken since that's the only food I could it! After that, we played a game called Spotlight, I think. And, the exact time that we started playing, it also started to rain. But we still played it like 5 times, because it was a lot of fun. I was holding the torch with Natalia, and we were really good at identifying people, and we're proud of it!
On the last day we're there, we woke up for breakfast, then we packed our stuff, and we came back to Moscow.
Honestly, I want to have the trip again! One is because of the fresh air and another one is that we didn't have to wake up so early like I always do when it's weekdays. However, the thing that I hated the most was were mosquitoes, I even had a huge one and the bites were so obvious, they were really red. But we still had a lot of fun together at Istra!

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved during the trip to Istra are:

• Undertaken new challenges, as I had to draw the map of the Istra reservation, we had to design a boat, and design a trap for the bugs. Dong all the investigations as well, especially the elevation one, where we had to do it on a steep slope. 
• Worked collaboratively with others, as when we were doing the investigations, we distributed the tasks with each other, and sometimes we would take turn counting the species, which is a tiring task, but we still managed to do it. 
• Planned and initiated activities, as for our individual investigation, we needed to come up with our own plan.
• Developed new skills, as I actually had never used some of the equipment before and now I know the names, the uses and obviously now I know how to use them. 
• Considered the ethical implications of my actions, after the barbecue, we cleaned up the mess that we did when we were eating and having fun.

Babysitting!

Baysitting was another service that I have done this term. I didn't plan it, but my dad decided to go to Berlin with a student, and the student had a baby already, so he left his baby at my house for a week, and me and my mom would take turn to babysit her. Her name is Nasha Aleena Nadwah, and let me tell you, babysitting her is not easy at all. 

She is so hyperactive, the hardest challenge is to put her to sleep. It's almost impossible, we actually had to make her really tired, by playing with her and all the things we can do to make her tired. Even at one point, my mom was the one who went to sleep instead of her. Sometimes, we would just lay on the floor next to her and closed our eyes, but then, she would go crying. It's was really hard. 

She's really cute, and thank goodness, she doesn't really cry. Even when she cried, it only lasted for about 10 seconds, then she would stop. I love babysitting her eventhough it was hard. But really, I think babysitting anybody is never easy. 

The day that she went home, I felt pretty sad. Because we bonded a lot with each other. Everyday after school my mom would open the door with her. I miss that a lot. Eventhough I get tired after school, she would make me laugh like a crazy person. She's a lot of fun eventhough she's only 1 year old. She's making a lot of progress with her baby steps and her talking. I'm a bit surprised that she could actually said some words. But sometimes, when I was teaching her some words, she would just scream really loud. That made me laugh. 

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved by babysitting are:

• Undertaken new challenges, I took the challenge to put her to sleep, my mom said that I have to practice so that I would get used to it when I have my own child. What a great advice!

DownSideUp!

DownSideUp is an organisation that helps with kids that are down-syndrome. Since September I have been helping with the organisation. They would send me email every month and tell me what I can do to help the organisation. Helping them is not hard, they only give me simple tasks that I can do from home, such as downloading pictures in order to support the kids, and answer some questions on what to improve about the organisation. It's not that hard at all, it's a pleasure to help them.

After doing all this helping, I decided to go to their premise and see the kids. They were so enthusiastic when they saw me. Eventhough they are Russian, I tried my best to speak Russian with them, when I asked them questions, they would all laughed at me, because the way I speak Russian is funny to them. They were so nice as well. Thank goodness I had Anastasia with me, she works there, and she's the one that always sends me update about DownSideUp. After talking and laughing with them, eventhough most of the time they were actually laughing at me because of my Russian, they told me if I can read a Russian book for them. I read the "Sleeping Beauty" book for them, eventhough the story is for girls, but when they chose the book, the boys also liked it. I have no idea why. Probably because they are used to it. 

When I was reading the story, they would stop me at some point, and asked me why did that happen, or what will happen next. Thank goodness "Sleeping Beauty" is one of my favourite stories from Disney. So, I answered the questions in English, then Anastasia would translate it for me. 

After reading the book, I told them that I had to go because my mom has been calling me for the ten times, and told me that I had to go home because we were going to the embassy as we had an event there.

It was a lot of fun meeting them, and I hope that I will have time in the future to go there again. 

The CAS learning outcomes that achieved by meeting with them are:

• Engaged with issues of global importance, I went there and made them smile, it was fun seeing them smile and laughing at me, it's not that easy to make people smile!
• Considered the ethical implications of my actions, I let them tell me what to do instead of me choosing the activity for them, and again to make them smile.

Helping with Drama Club

In my plan, I wrote that I would involve in Drama Club, but since our school doesn't have one, Natalia and I asked Mr Byers if we could help him with drama on anything. So, he told us to set up the stage for the exam that other classes have during lunch sometimes, when he asked for help.

What we helped him was that, we carried the backdrop him, we made the hall looked a bit darker, and we carried some other stuff for him. 

It was actually pretty tiring because we went to the gym to get the stuff and carried them until the hall. and the things that needed to be carried were pretty heavy. But, me and Natalia still managed to get them into the hall. Thanks to our great energy that we still have.

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved by helping with our own Drama Club are:

• Worked collaboratively with others, me and Natalia helped Mr Byers and we told each other on which one we will carry and everybody did their work perfectly.

Cycling & Rollerblading

I love cycling and rollerblading. Eventhough I fell once into a huge drain because of cycling, but that was back when I was only 5. 

In my plan, I wrote that I will cycle and rollerblade each weekend, but actually no, I cycle mostly everyday with a friend of mine at Gorky Park, but on some weekends, we would go to Vorobyovy Gory or Vdknh.

As we only have one bicycle, we would take turn, whenever I rollerblade, he would cycle, and vice versa. Sometimes, we would just go rollerblading and ignore cycling for a little bit. This is because we actually rent the bicycle. We don't have one. I actually haven't rollerblade at all since I came to Moscow, but when I included it in my plan, I went to buy a new pair of rollerblades and rollerblade all day. I fell a lot of time when I first tried it after a long of time not doing it. Cycling for me is not a problem at all. It helps me getting fitter and fitter, and I'm really hoping of a weight loss by doing some types of fitness.

After improving at rollerblading, as I'm getting better at it, me and my friend had a race. And guess what! I thought I was good already, but I fell for a thousand times I think. It was not good. Thanks to a lot of protection. But I had a lot of fun, again!

My friend taught me a lot at improving rollerblading. And now, I fall less than before. Thanks to my friend. 

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved by cycling and rollerblading are:

• Worked collaboratively with others, we take turn on using the bicycle.
• Shown perseverance and commitment in my activities, I'm still doing it mostly everyday, unless if I'm very tired, or I have extra homework to do.
• Developed new skills, I improved a lot in rollerblading, I fall less now!

Bailamos!

Dancing is something I love, something I love to perform in front of a lot of audience, I can never care who they would be. So, that's why I included it in my CAS plan. Something that I'm really into and of course it's something that I'm good at. 

According to my plan, I would participate in a dance class, so I participated the dance class that they have at the Malaysian Embassy. They do it every Friday at 5. So every Friday after school I would go to the Embassy and join them. Eventhough the people are only my mom's friends, I have a lot of fun dancing with them. Sometimes, I would be the teacher for them when they go really blank for a step, because nobody there is actually a professional dancer, everybody is teaching everybody basically. 

So, when first I participated, they were learning more steps for line dance, they really love line dance, I have no idea why, but probably because it's easy for them. Whenever they get stuck, I would have to teach them. I love teaching them, because they are fun. 

Another dance that we have been learning is Zumba. Zumba is a lot of fun because it's when you do the dance, you are also doing fitness. Getting fit is my first priority right now. I'm trying everything so that I can be fit. Thank goodness I love sports and also dancing. Especially when it's 2 in 1. That's Zumba. 

A way that we learn the dance moves are by watching videos on Youtube. It's interesting because we would choose a song that we want to dance Zumba on, and then, we would learn the steps from some videos and then, we would choose which steps we want to use. It's a lot of fun! 

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved by participating in the dance class are:

• Increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth, I still need to learn more steps for Zumba and other types of dancing, probably improving my skills on belly dance.
• Worked collaboratively with others, as I teach them something and they also teach me something that I have no idea on.
• Shown perseverance and commitment in my activities, I go to the embassy every Friday and still go there until now.
• Developed new skills, I learned a lot of new steps in when I was learning Zumba.

Photographing & Editing

According to my plan, I would take photographs and try editing them with the knowledge that I have about editing. To be honest, I am not the best person when it comes to photographing or editing anything. 

Since I don't have the professional camera or I think it is called DSLR, I just use the normal digital camera. Eventhough it's only a digital camera, the quality of the pictures taken are actually very good. That's why I love the camera. It helps me a lot. Some of my friends also has helped me a lot when it comes to photographing an editing. Thanks to them.

To edit the photos that I have taken, I use Picasa, because I think it's simple and interesting to use. Like people always say, 'less is more'. It's not complicated at all. 

These are the favourite photos that I photographed and edited out of all:

The huge Matryoshkas, I went to AfiMall at Vistabochnaya Metro station to get the photos. And the picture with my brother in it, I went to Gorky Park. I had a great time taking these photos, and also editing them, I learned a lot.

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved by photographing and editing are:

• Developed new skills, as I'm actually not very good in editing and photographing, however, I think now, I have improved more than before.
• Increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth, I thought that I would be really bad at this, but, when I asked my friends that are into photography, they said that they are pretty good, and they also gave me more advices on what to improve and what to do and not do when you are editing photos.

CAS Plan

Creativity

• Involve in Drama Club
• Taking photographs and try editing them

Action

• Participate in dance class
• Cycling and rollerblading at the end of each week
• Continue with Fitness Club every Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Service

• Organise an inter-house competition
• Collect clothes, toys, unused stuff but still usable and donate them to the needy
• Continue helping the DownSideUp organisation

Use Somebody Cover

So, according to my plan, I will do some covers with my older brother. But, since my brother now is not here anymore. I have to do it with someone else. So, I decided to do it with a friend of mine, he's one of the medical students here in Moscow. 

To choose a song was very hard because when I know the song, he doesn't know the song, and vice versa. So, since it was our first ever recorded cover, we chose the song Use Somebody by Kings of Leon. We chose this song because it's easy to play on the guitar and also easy to sing. We chose the easy song first, so that we can develop through times.

So, when we have decided we practiced a bit, cutting some parts and try not to copy exactly the way the original singer sang it, it's a cover anyway. We actually took a lot of video because sometimes he forgot some parts and I forgot as well. Then we would just started to laugh. It was really enjoying making this cover. I will absolutely make more covers. And I used the Windows Movie Maker to edit this video a little bit. It was my first time editing a video, to be honest. 

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved by making this cover are :

• Planned and initiated activities, I planned this and ask him whether he has time to make cover with me, and obviously he did and also asked another friend whether he can record us
• Worked collaboratively with others, he asked how I want him to play the chords, different ways or just the same, we put our ideas
• Developed new skills, my first ever time editing a video!

Corn Pudding + Tepung Pelita

Corn pudding is just an ordinary pudding that we usually eat. Since, it is one of my favourite desserts, I decided to learn how to make it from my mum. I thought it was hard, but fortunately, no, it is not that hard at all (if you have all the ingredients). Even the ingredients are very basic ingredients; corn starch, custard, sugar, sweetened corn and milk. I don't know if you can find these ingredients in Moscow, but I have them because we brought them from Malaysia. It is very very easy when you have these ingredients. Corn pudding can be both baked and not baked one, but I only like the not baked one and that's why I learned how to make it. This corn pudding is very simple. You just put all the ingredients in a pot, in order of course, then just cooked it until it becomes thick. Then, you pour it in a container then put it in the refrigerator overnight or if you prefer eating it hot, you can eat right after you cooked it, no need to put it in the refrigerator. Since it is my favourite, it was amazingly delicious.
As for the second dessert, which is tepung pelita, it is a traditional Malay dessert which tastes really delicious and also one of my favourites. It is like pudding but differently. I don't really know how to describe the texture of it. Again, the ingredients are very basic; cornflour, sugar, water, coconut milk and salt. And again, just put all the ingredients in a pot in order and stir it until it has thicken. Then, pour it in a container, then again, put it in the refrigerator overnight, it is so much better eating it while it's cold, so, better to put it in the refrigerator. When I tasted it, it was just so sweet, so like after eating it I have to drink water. But I still liked it since I love sweet desserts. It wasn't a fail, but I just put the wrong amount of sugar I guess. Next time, I hope I won't do it again.

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved for making these desserts  are :

• Increased the awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth, I need to be more careful with the sugar, not putting too much of it.
• Undertook new challenges, when the mixture is thick at the beginning, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's ready, you have to wait until it's really thicken perfectly, now I know how.
• Planned and initiated activities, I planned to learn this because they are my favourites, so, next time when my mum is not home, I can make it myself and also for my family.

Fitness Club!

I started to go to Fitness Club every Monday and Tuesday in order to get more fit and healthier. So, the first time I came to the Fitness Club, there were only Shaun, Stefan and Mark because nobody wanted to come. And it goes on until for a month. Every single time I go to the Fitness Club, Shaun will help me in improving to do pull-ups. I used to know how to do it properly, but then I forgot since I stopped going to the gym for a while because I have some problems with my stomach and I have to do check-ups every month. As I learn how to do it properly and almost got it, they got the idea on doing workouts that can give you abs, which I can't do because for the whole lunch they just workout non-stop.

I cannot do that because I still have the problem with my stomach that the doctor said it is not good if I exercise non-stop. So, instead of going to the gym during lunch, I just do skipping 100 times everytime I do it and also push-ups in order to keep being fit. I also jog once in a while with a friend of mine whenever I have time. My stomach sometimes really hurts after I do all of these. But I keep doing it because I want to stay fit. 

I really hope that my stomach problem is going to be okay soon, so that I can join the workout that they do everyday during lunchtime.

The CAS learning outcome that I achieved for joining Fitness Club are :

• Increased the awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth as I keep practicing on how to do pull-ups 
• Developed new skills, now I know better at doing pull-ups 

Badminton!

So, according to my plan, I would continue playing badminton. Instead of going to the Badminton Club on Tuesdays after school, I continue playing badminton with the people from different embassies every Saturday. The reason I cannot go to the Badminton Club after school is because I have guitar lesson. Playing with the people from school and people from the embassy is very different. It is so much harder to play with the embassy people because they are all the older people and they are so much experienced than me. At first, when I wanted to join them, I thought there will be a lot of people with the same age as me, but, unfortunately, no. Most of the people are all the working people and only few of the are children and teenagers. And I actually thought that I am already good at playing badminton, but when I was playing with them, I realized that I am not that good. I have a lot more to learn in badminton than just playing it. 

So, someone from the Indonesian Embassy saw how bad I was, and now he's teaching me a lot, like how to smash (getting better at it, eventhough still bad), and also how to tackle when someone smashed at you (still working on it).

Same as in school, everytime we want to play, we pick a partner and change everytime we had won a match. Often, I get a good partner of course, because everybody there is so much better than me. But, I still feel good about it, I have the chance to play with them and it motivates me to be better at playing badminton. 

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved by playing badminton are :

• Increased the awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth, I know what I have to improve with my skills now and I have a lot more to learn in badminton
• Worked collaboratively with others, choosing partner and working collaboratively with them to win the match
• Shown perseverance and commitment in activities, I have never missed going to badminton every Saturday unless I have something more important to do
• Developed new skills, now I know a bit on how to smash and a bit on how to tackle when someone smashed at me 

Winter Activity Day

On Tuesday, 13th March, we had Winter Activity Day. So, in order to make this activity successful, everybody in Year 12 and 13 had to come with an idea of an activity, and the maximum number of people in a group is 3. Me, Shaun and Daniel came up with an idea of having obstacle course and people would have to do it blindfolded. However, Stefan's group also came up with the same idea, instead, without blindfolding. My group then was thinking it would be better if we had different idea, so the students wouldn't be doing same activities in a day. And we came up with the idea of building a snow castle.

The idea of this activity is that, each house team would have to build the best snow castle, of course. So, the first team had to start build the castle, then the next team would have to continue until it is finished. What i saw from this activity is that the younger students in each house teams are much much more imaginative than the older. The result of this activity is that Pushkin was first, then came Tolstoy, then Gogol and then Chekhov. 

I was really happy because I'm in Pushkin. I was also happy to see the outcomes of each castles. And also seeing the kids were really enjoying the activity. Another successful activity!

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved during this activity are :

•  planned and initiated activities as me, Shaun and Daniel came out with some ideas for the activity
•  undertaken new challenges
•  worked collaboratively with others 
•  considered the ethical implications of actions

Valentine's Day + Disco = Creativity + Service

Every year, on Valentine's Day, all Year 12 and 13 would organise a Valentine's Disco. We would also have a Valentine's box where students can send a valentine's card to their friends or their lovers or if they gave a crush on someone. Me, Sabina, Neda and Mark were the ones who took care of the box. For every card, we would charged them with 30roubles and cards + chocolates would be 50roubles. Again, this is all for the guide dog.

Another thing that I planned was selling cupcakes and cookies on this day. So, I told Mrs Grey about it and the Year 11 girls also wanted to participate and the Year 8 girls as well. So, I made mini chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and M&M on top. This was actually my first time making a frosting and frost a cupcake. I was happy with myself after looking at the cupcakes that I have decorated. So, on this day, we used the English room to sell the cupcakes and cookies that we had. The Year 11 and 8 girls helped me to sell them and I was standing and calling everybody to buy them. It was a success and we actually raised about 7000roubles.

One other thing that I did during Valentine's Day was helping selling the sandwiches during the disco. Me and Daniel would take the order and Shaun, Mantas, Thibaut and  Francesco would make the sandwiches. For the first 5minutes, nobody came, but after that, it was a chaos for the rest of the disco. But we were under control, so it was fine. Eventhough it was actually hard to remember the orders, but I tried my best for it. It was funny how I actually said to Thibaut "one sandwich with ham and cheese...without sandwich", when I actually wanted to say without ketchup. I didn't even realised until Matanat told me and when I looked back, everybody was laughing at me. That made our day actually during the chaos.

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved during Valentine's Day are :

• Increase awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth as I have never decorated cupcakes before and never made that much money by selling cupcakes
• Planned and initiated activities as the Year 12 and 13 planned the disco and I planned the cupcake and cookie sale
• Worked collaboratively with others when we were selling the sandwiches as me and Daniel took the order and Mantas, Shaun, Thibaut and Francesco would make the sandwiches
• Considered the ethical implications of my actions 

CAS Plan

CREATIVITY

• I will continue learning how to make more desserts
• I will make covers of songs with my brother

ACTION

• I will join the fitness club during lunch on Tuesdays
• I will continue with Badminton Club

SERVICE

• I will continue working with the DownSideUp Organisation
• I will involve in the organisation of disco
• I will help in fundraising activities

Festive Disco = Fundraising

On Friday, 16th december, we had a Festive Disco. Again, we are doing this to raise fund for the guide dog for blind people. In order to raise the fund, during the break and lunch, we did our best selling raffle tickets for the hamper that have been organised by Shaun and I also helped promoting the Lolly Guess that have been organised by Thibaut, Gregory and Jiwon.

I really thought that by helping Thibaut and Shaun with the Lolly Guess and the hamper, I have built up my confident by shouting around promoting both of them. And I also almost lost my voice after that as always.

But losing my voice was worth it because we raised a lot of money and I am still happy with myself because again, I was being very confident.

Before we started the disco, all of the Year 12 and 13 had to decorate the gym to make it look like a disco and we did our best and again, it was a success decorating it. 

During the disco, we continued selling the raffles ticket for the hamper and promoting the Lolly Guess again. And of course, I was shouting all around the disco and running with the candy jar promoting it. 

In the end, we made a huge success.

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved during this day are :

• I worked collaboratively with others as we were helping each other selling the raffle tickets and promoting the Lolly Guess
• I undertaken new challenges by shouting around the people to promote and to sell

Jumble or Jumbo?

It is Jumble Sale! All of us got confused with the name of the sale. Half of us thought it was a Jumbo Sale and half thought it was a Jumble Sale. The aim of having this Jumble Sale is to raise fund for a guide dog for blind people. 

So, on Friday, 25 November, we had a very successful Jumble Sale eventhough we failed for the first time on Tuesday. Eventhough I really had nothing to bring at first, I begged my mother to give me something that she does not use at all, and she found a lot of things, such as handbags and a lot of accessories. That is why I brought a lot of accessories on the day we had the Jumble Sale.

When we started the sale, I was doing the first half shift and I was selling items that cost 50 roubles I actually made a lot of money by selling all the 50roubles items but I don't really know the exact amount because I didn't count the money I made. Also, the items that were on my table finished. I was super happy with myself because I successfully managed to be a sellperson.

In the end, we raised 4500roubles by selling all the items that we had. 

The CAS learning outcomes that I achieved from this Jumble Sale are :

• I undertaken new challenges for being a sellperson.
• I worked collaboratively with others as everybody knew when was their shift.