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