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.