Cooking and Decorating for Christmas Lunch!

For Christmas this year I volunteered for cooking lunch and designing the table and spread. I made turkey for the meat eaters in my family, and made vegetarian substitutes for main meal, along with many different side salads, such as potato salad, pasta salad, greek salad, quinoa salad and other sides like sweet potato mash and roasted vegetables! I went with a red and gold colour scheme for the dinner table and put up a few decorations that fit the theme. It was fun to decorate, very fun to cook the meal and even more fun to eat! I am glad I was able to help my mum out and enjoy myself by being creative with my design skills at the same time! 

Hours gained from activity:
Creativity: 6
Activity: 0
Service: 0

Playing Guitar!

I have recently started to play the guitar again. I first started playing a few years ago, but eventually stopped due to a loss of interest and prioritisation of my IB studies. Within the last two months, I have found two hours each week to spend practising playing some of the songs I used to play when I was going to classes. What I found was that when I was attending guitar classes, I rarely practised which meant that I could not play the songs that I wanted to because I was not skilled enough. During these two months I have found that playing the guitar acts as another good break from doing homework. This is important, because although I exercise often, I need something to do in my time outside of school other than going to the gym and doing homework. Since lately I have been playing the guitar much more than I used to, I have learned a few songs that I used to want to play! I am now quite skilled in the area of playing instruments, with both my guitar playing and drumming. 

Hours gained from activity:
Creativity: 10
Activity: 0 
Service: 0

Basket Brigade!

One of my long-term projects during these two years includes the organisation of the basket brigade in order to support the Salvation Army's Christmas Appeal. This involves donating goods as potential christmas present for children who would otherwise miss out. For this myself and a fellow peer have coordinated a program from which all of the Year 1 students can work from. First we needed to write a letter to the principals of our school confirming that we could send out letters to parents asking for donations, and to email the Salvation army, confirming our participation in the Christmas Appeal the date at which they can pick up the donations. The following week we typed a letter that was to be sent out to the parents of the school, and the following week we labelled them and sent them out. The next few days after that we organised boxes to hand out to the different classrooms, working collaboratively to complete it in time to get the most donations possible. Every day leading up to the 4th of December we collected the boxes, and on that date we donated all goods to the Salvation Army! The experience I had trying to organise the group was tough but eventually everything was completed in time to fill several boxes to donate to those in need. Through this project I have been able to recognise issues of global importance, and the ethical implications associated with it. For this reason, I would say that this fundraiser has been one of the most important project's that I have both organised and participated in during the IB course. It took quite a while to coordinate, but knowing that our hard work was going to ensure that children did not go without presents this christmas made everything worth it. 

Hours gained from activity:

Creativity: 0

Activity: 0

Service: 10

Learning to Play the Drums!

At the start of this year I started to learn how to play the drums! I began lessons because I had previously learned how to play the guitar at the same place, and the teachers were really nice and made learning extremely easy and relaxed. I went into my first few lessons expecting to come out knowing how to play my favourite songs using the instrument, but was surprised to find that playing the drums is much harder than that - you can only learn so much in one lesson. At first, I felt like giving up learning to play the instrument because I aimed to play songs with impressive rolls and complex double beats. As the lessons progressed, and as I persevered despite wanting to quit, I found that trying to play my favourite songs was unrealistic, as I had not yet learned how to maintain a steady meter. Eventually, after months of going back and learning more, I managed to balance my meter and keep in rhythm. Because of my perseverance I am now able to play a few of my favourite songs!

Hours gained from activity:
Creativity: 10
Activity: 0
Service: 0

Prep for the Year 12 IB Visual Arts Exhibition!

The year 1 IB Visual Arts students are always in charge of preparing and catering for the year 2 art exhibition. It is a very long process that involves organising the art hall, location, entertainment and catering for the event. Once the art gallery was confirmed we gathered many different people from the Lower Secondary and organised entertainment and food! On the day of the exhibition, we all were required to set up, so we left school to the gallery and spent a few hours preparing. I am glad we were able to help out the year 2's in this way, because next year we are going to be in their position, needing all the help we can get!

Hours gained from activity:
Creativity: 0
Activity: 0
Service: 10

Cooking Class In Thailand!

On our last day in Thailand, the class took part in a cooking lesson. We learnt how to make Cha Ta Krai (lemongrass tea)  Gaeng Panaeng (Panaeng curry), Tom Yam Gai (spicy and sour soup with chili jam), and Gluay Buad Chee (banana in coconut milk dessert)! One of the most fascinating skills that I acquired was the technique used in order to cream a coconut correctly. It was so much fun and we put in a lot of effort to make every aspect of the meal look appealing! We all worked collaboratively together and undertook a new challenge of presenting a meal that not only looked appealing but tasted good too and we were impressed with the outcome! Cooking in Thailand was a great way to have fun at the same time as developing our cooking skills!

Hours gained from activity:

Creativity: 5

Activity: 0

Service: 0

Rock Climbing In Chiang Mai!

On the Thursday of our one week trip to Thailand we went to an awesome climbing spot, a very popular tourist attraction in Chiang Mai for obvious reasons! There were two activities to participate in at this reserve, so our class split into two groups. My group went rock climbing first, which was very scary for me personally. I have always been afraid of heights and have never really had much practice in rock climbing. With the moral support from my group, I was able to face my fears and climb a few of the huge rock walls! It was so much fun, and one of the instructors was helping me by doing small exercises with me to make me more comfortable with the height. When I reached the top of the first wall I climbed, I felt very satisfied and actually very proud of myself! After we had finished with the rock climbing, the groups met back and had lunch. After that our group made our way to a huge cave and were told that we were able to zip line across a cave and rappel down! After having climbed the rocks that did not sound too bad, but I was still a bit nervous. We arrive in the cave after a steep trek, had to climb a few rocks to get to the zip line and then took turns to zip line across. It was so much fun and one of the most memorable experiences from the trip! 

Hours gained from activity:
Creativity: 0
Activity: 4
Service: 0