Afterschool Badminton

For the second quarter of the academic year I have decided to participate in Badminton after school on Monday’s. I chose badminton over all the other activities because I’ve always enjoyed it while growing up and I thought that it would be fun to get back into practice. Another reason why I wanted to take Badminton was because it is one of the select sports that I enjoy to participate in. I feel that through these badminton practices I should be able to improve my overall skill. The leaders of the badminton activity is Teru Tamura and Tangmo Saksirevetkul, along with Mr. Dsilva close by chaperoning all of us as well as giving us tips and tricks of the game.

Update in Guitar Lessons

This blog entry is an update of  my CAS activity of guitar lessons to another student. Since our first lesson, today would mark the second month of our practices. I find that having lessons scheduled works out well. (When we were first starting out, there was problems with both of our school/social agendas, but now we’ve found a stable system.) We’ve been meeting once a week, and I can tell since the first lesson my student has made significant strides in her guitar playing ability.

I feel that if we keep up this pace, my student will be a very talented guitarist by the end of this year. I didn’t expect her to grasp concepts as quickly as she does. I’ve had to change the level of songs that I had pre-decided to teach her. For example, Primarily Chord based songs are not trouble for my student; this has caused me to teach her more advanced parts of songs that are not too simple, but not so difficult that it would unmotivate her.

What I have planned for the upcoming guitar lessons are, more songs, more techniques, and reading more guitar tablature.

 

Schecter Damien FR

(This is a guitar that I’ll be receiving over December Break. This addition to my collection will allow both my student and I to practice electric guitar at the same time.) We have been practicing primarily on acoustic guitar.*

UN Day (Taking photos for Year Book)

UN Day was a day that commemorated global diversity. Since OSC is an international school it is a very important to celebrate that nations that compose our student body. Although my fellow students and I are from countless different countries, we share a key commonality that is OSC. The day’s main events were the gathering in the courtyard, the flag parade/march and the food display. I was assigned 1 camera for the day by a yearbook member to photograph the day, which was nice because I wasn’t standing around all day. I was able to walk around talking pictures of each nation and all the different faces. I feel that the act of taking photos would be connected the “Service” portion of my previously set CAS goals.

Halloween Haunted House at American Embassy

On Friday the 29^th of October David Frith and I helped out with the annual Haunted House at the American Embassy. We were asked to help decorate the haunted house, with scary props and backgrounds. There were some pretty interesting props to use such as a chainsaw, a human hand, a syringe, and a bunch of other creepy stuff. After the house was set up all of us were asked to occupy a role of a scary costume, I was a werewolf. When the first groups of people started flowing into the house, the groups consisted of small children. After a few groups, the age groups started to rise and were asked to increase the “scare factor”. One of the things that I felt was particularly annoying was that when some people were within the haunted house, they were listening to their IPod’s or taking pictures of the interior. What is strange is that the groups that were scared the most were the youngest and the oldest; something just wasn’t working with the middle aged kids. IT WAS VERY HOT INSIDE THE HOUSE, under the costume, mask and within the hiding area. Needless to say, I was sweating bucket loads. In conclusion, I feel that the Haunted House at the American Embassy can be regarded as an “Action” aspect of my CAS Goals, it can also be taken “Creativity” since we had to create a horrifying environment for the house.

IB Orientation (Class Trip to MAS Fabric Park)

The IB Orientation was an all class trip that was located at MAS Industrial Fabric Park. The venture was about a week in total, including travelling and such. The general goal of the trip was so that we could become more aware of what the IB Diploma really is. However, there was the sub laying goal of our class of 2012 to get to know each other better. I would say that after the orientation our class was more connected than before. Another large part of the orientation was the action element of it. For example, the infamous “Abseil” which tested our mental security; the other events that we could take part in were rock climbing and high rope climb. I found that rock climbing was the most entertain of the three because I like rocking climbing in general. Another important element of the rock climbing event was belaying. Belaying was quite literally the act of holding a person’s life in your hands. The final component was a theatrical performance that was created, produced, and director by Mrs. Grant. Since I have a strong admiration for performing, I was asked to accompany various people and performance groups by playing the guitar. However, I chose to only perform two songs, which were Little House with Antoni and Good Riddance with Chrisni. There was a certain level of creativity that was required to learn the songs in about a day. For the day before the show, I was practicing each song over and over again. When it comes down to my guitar performances, I really strive for perfection; anything else would be a disappointment. Therefore, I feel that the IB Orientation was both a “Action” component as well as a “Creativity” component.

Practicing Little House with Toni

Performing Good Riddance with Chrisni