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