Decorating the Christmas Tree

This year and in every other, it is a tradition in Hungary and countries which celebrate Christmas, to decorate a Christmas tree. However the name can be misleading as the decoration is one of the minor parts, the major one being of course the process of choosing and fitting the tree into the house. It is hard work when you are choosing the tree, which I do every year by tradition, as I never remember how big the interior of the house is, and I have to guess. It works every time though. There are a few important facts that you need to take into consideration when you are choosing a tree. Firstly, it needs to be an evergreen as it is the least susceptible to the loss of leaves and I mostly prefer pines from Norway, they are great and do not dry out for at least a month. Secondly, it is important that the trunk of the pine is straight and not kinked as it will look bad after decoration. Thirdly it is important to check whether there are any broken twigs on it as it can ruin its beauty.

Now that the hard step is over, what is left to do is to take it home and decorate it. Look at my tree before the decoration:

And this is after I decorated it with our Christmas tree decorations:

Christmas Help

This year, just like every other my family and I go to the Christmas Mass and help the poor people by donating old clothes, toys and even books. The priest, Father Josef is a very good friend of ours and his wife helped us distribute the gifts to the children in the hospital she works in. Christmas is a good opportunity to help people and give gifts as that is the real Christmas spirit which I have been taught over the years. I have considered the ethical implications of my actions since giving is almost always better than getting, as people nowadays lack selflessness and the heart to help people. 

 By helping these people there are a lot of important aspects that can be learnt, such as awareness, or respecting other people. I found these donations throughout the many years we have done it very useful, not just for the poor children but to myself as well.

Drums

Since last time I have just been practicing since I have not had a lot of time to learn new material due to  coursework and IAs but as soon as I have free time I will start to learn more fills and grooves. Double stroke rolls and stuff like that.

Galaxies and Stars

Since last time I know that these interferences are caused by the intense high frequency EM radiations projected by the galaxies of massive stars. Since last time I have found wonderfully nice spiral galaxies and since then I have also learned about them in my Astrophysics course and the definition is that: the are spiral... Very creative. but they are very nice and I will persevere and continue this task of classification.

Weightlifting and running

Every week, two or three times, depends on how much time I have on my hands I do weightlifting and running at home and around my street. It is very refreshing and it makes me feel fit and I work towards jogging faster and then slower and then faster again but for longer period of time. If the time gets too much I just run faster. I will post on the blog to tell what kind of major improvements I have made and what my plans are for the future. For example, until next time I set a target of 30 minutes of heavy weights. I'll see what I am able to do and post later.

Beats and Grooves

Since last time, I have been practicing my drumming skills a lot because of the frequency of the holidays. I managed to learn a few grooves with ghost notes and I find it quite fun to incorporate them sometimes in my drumming. Furthermore I have been practicing to learn a few songs such as Summer of '69 from Bryan Adams and Thunderstruck by ACDC. For the next time I will keep practicing these and also keep improving my fills maybe with some 16th notes fills or 8th notes ones. 

Galaxy Zoo Continued

Since last time I have researched and classified many stars and galaxies though some I found very interesting. They were interesting because the electromagnetic rays the cameras detect in the Hubble telescope had some sort of interference and on the screen it showed up as a strange pattern. Until next time I will be researching how galaxies and stars can do that. However, I have been looking at other peoples' discussion and I found this very interesting galaxy being discussed:

http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/discussions/DGZ10066dx?object_id=AGZ0002bnf

It is really interesting.

My Tabloid Newspaper

Not so long ago, we had to design a tabloid newspaper for my English class. I decided it to be similr to The Sun, which is a newspaper that is already famous and successful in the UK. It was quite easy to find a suitable template and then to find the name of the newspaper which I chose to be The Star. However getting relevant stories was much harder than I expected. I started to look in similar magazines and after some time I have found some quite interesting stories. I re-wrote them in my way and pasted them around the front page. I made a quite interesting mast head. Here is some of it, if you want to see more, you need to subscribe (I just couldn't take a picture of the full one).

Cooking for International Day

This year I have decided to cook Gulash again for International Day. Last year it was quite good and almost all of it was gone by the end of the day. It is always challenging to cook Hungarian dishes since they need to be spiced well so that the spices are even and etc... So this year I undertook this challenge again and I have to say that it was much better than last time. My mother helped me out if there was something but, there is always less and less help I need from her. I am quite certain that this year's Gulash tasted almost like my mother's perfect Gulash. Since it was, quite good, for me, I took it to International Day and let it be served for the parents and students. I was surprised to find only some left on the end of the day.

Learning Grooves and songs

I have started to practice playing the drums about 6 months ago. Since then I have made a lot of progress. I really like playing the drums as it is relaxing and takes my mind off the work which is really good. I have decided to document my progress and my plans each week so that I can keep track but also to show what I can do already.

This week I have learned some 16th notes fills which are quite basic and simple but really useful when it comes to amusing people with simple fills. I have also practices some of my songs which I have played such as You Give Love A Bad Name and It's My Life from Bon Jovi.

Next week I am planning to learn some new grooves to further my improvisation skills. I will post later to fill (haha) you in on what I did. There is an awesome site which teaches this stuff online :

freedrumlessons.com

Awesome try it if you play drums.

Astronomical research

I have been doing my Galaxy Zoo scientific research every weekend. It is a program online which allows you to identify and classify stars and galaxies. I will document my finding and my progress each week.

This week I have found some unusual merging galaxies and even had some which caused interference in the camera. Very interesting. Possibly gamma rays from distant stars colliding and collapsing due to very high mass and gravity.

Being a goalie

This Thursday (and every other) I still play for my team in the school football championship where I practice being a goalkeeper. It is quite hard work. I train my reflexes, my hand-eye coordination. However I also try to get as many clean sheets as possible. But my ultimate goal is to get as least goals (haha) as possible. That's what I am trying to achieve. I will record my improvements and the efforts I made every week.

This week I managed to get 1 clean sheet, which is not my best result, but my team is not in the best form right now and we are missing some players so it is making the defense a lot harder. However I will still try to concentrate and get more saves the next time.

CAS Plan Autumn, 2012

Creativity:

• Playing the drums (learning new fills and grooves)
• Make Hungarian food speciality for International Day
• Christmas Fare gift making

Action:

• Thursday Football
• Monday Sport Club
• Drumming

Service:

• Zoo Science (community science research)
• Aid on international Day
• Aid on parents evening in September

School 4 Fare

Not so long ago my class and I went to the nearby school to provide help with their summer fare. We all had to creatively make and plan our own activities for this event which we would be running. It was really exciting and my group and I thought about doing a activity of throwing beanbags at targets on a table. We had planned it and got all the resources we needed for it.

The day of the fare had come and we were all set to go. When we arrived at the school we set up our stand and started running our fun activity. It went well, we had students in lines of twenty or even more! It was as fun for us as it was for them. If they knocked off many cans (targets) off the table, they could choose a prize. Me and my team worked collaboratively to achieve this great activity and not to disappoint the students in the other school. Furthermore we have developed new skills as well as awareness of our strengths being that we are very good as a team and we can be quite creative when it comes to designing something. I hope we get more chances like this one to prove that.

Aerobe Training ...Continued

I started doing weightlifting and aerobe training about half year ago and was practicing it almost every day so I have perseverance and commitment to my actions as it is healthy to move a bit nowadays since nobody cares about fitness only about food.

This activity really means a lot to me as it made me feel better everyday and I felt and feel fit when I keep practicing it. It also let me develop new skills and undertake new challenges such as types of training I have never tried before.

I learned from these activities what my limitations in strength were and tried to shrink them so that I can achieve more and I only did this by doing these aerobe exercises every week at least 3 times. You might wonder what aerobe might mean, and it is not aerobic but similar but it does not involve music or any type of "dancing". Basically it is when you try to control your heartbeat during you workout sessions so that you can be more efficient in your training. For example in running you can do 10 minutes of fast heartbeat  and then 15 minutes of slow heartbeat. It needs lots of focus to keep it going.

I personally think that this activity can be really hard and demanding especially when you are lifting weights or running and controlling your heartbeat at the same time but it is very healthy to the body and makes you really fit but also tired :).

Thursday and Friday Football ...Continued

I started playing again in the indoors football league in my school as I said in the beginning of the year and I have done it throughout the year so I have shown perseverance and commitment to my actions. However the league has ended and the best team was our team which I really proud about and it is great that we won. Football is a great value to me as it makes me relax and think about something other than school during the year which is a really good feeling, especially if I can play collaboratively with my friends every time. 

Though the league has ended, there is still matches for fun on Thursdays so I will be trying to attend them as much as I can and play. This football greatly improved my skill of reflex as I am one of the goalkeepers and I finished second on the chart which is very good for me as an unprofessional. 

I hope that this football will continue on next year as it is a wonderful event each week which I hate to miss. 

However there is also the Friday football session for which I have the scoreboard and I print and organize the sign up list every week. It is solely dedicated to practice that day and anybody can turn up if they want to sharpen their football skills.

Cooking Chinese Chicken

Last week when I was at Istra reservoir I got the chance to volunteer for making Chinese chicken with one of my teachers and as I like cooking I volunteered and it proved to be a great creativity opportunity.

We started at cutting the vegetables and then moving onto the meat which was chicken and we had to bone it which I have never done in my life so I have undertaken a new challenge and developed a skill of using a knife in the kitchen as it is very important how you use a knife and I have just come to realize that when I was being introduced to it.

After we prepared the ingredients we could start the frying of the chicken which I helped with but I did the side dish instead which was the chinese vegetables and I found it quite easy to make as I was not that bad in the kitchen at all.

Preparing a meal in the kitchen can be tough, but not if you have friends to help you out and that is what happened there as we worked collaboratively with my friend to make that delicious chinese chicken with vegetables. The best part was actually the tasting part. Everybody would have guessed that one. It tasted very nice and it had a real Chinese flavour taste.

Sadly I do not have a picture of it but I have my friend and the teacher as evidence.

Jet-Powered Boat Building

Last week when I was at Istra Reservoir doing the course work, we were given a task to build our own miniature ship and propel it by only using citric acid and bicarbonate of soda. This gave us the opportunity to be really creative. My friends and I formed a group and worked collaboratively to achieve the goal and build the ship which goes the furthest.

I came up with the idea of using jet propulsion and using a flask as our engine which will hold the fuel. We started building it and it was so much fun, and also we gained experience as we have never designed a boat which was going to be propelled by a chemical reaction. Therefore we undertook new challenges and also developed the skills of planing and constructing from anything we found.

It was really exciting and after we succeeded at building the boat, we took it down to the reservoir along with the rest of the boats and started to compete. It was thrilling as we started the "engines" and our design was quite good. It propelled itself forward using only the gas the reaction was releasing rapidly. We were on the first place until the last contestant who just barely beat us with a few centimetres.
However, we were awarded second place and that is also quite glorious and we found out that we were not that bad at building ships from scrap.

Citizen Science

A few weeks ago I have started to do service to a scientific research website which researches Supernovae, Solar storms and even galaxies. It is an amazing experience to me. The site is galaxyzoo.org

I feel like I am really involved in the scientific research. 

This is really important for me, as in the future I am intending to go to a scientific university and also do a job which relates to science. Furthermore, I also learn many scientific terminology from the sites I am using. In addition, it is not hard, for example: there is a site where you have to identify and classify galaxies. It is really easy as you only need to tell its shape and if there is something wrong with it. It might sound as wasting time and you might ask why is it useful, well there are many many galaxies and even more stars in the universe they do not really differ from each other my that much and we are looking for some which do and that would propel physics and chemistry forward.

By doing these activities I have achieved many values along the way for example , I have undertaken new challenges as I have never identified galaxies and solar storms before. Furthermore, I have engaged with issues of global importance by providing this service and also increased my knowledge about my strength in the areas of science.

Helping at a Hospital

Yesterday, as my CAS Service project I have visited a hospital and provided voluntary assistance there. The only task they could let me do was to help the patients to the correct rooms and doctors. Firstly it was quite challenging as I was new at the hospital but after a few errands I got used to it and I could find my way around much more easily. It was a great idea to provide service here as I got to learn a little bit more about the interiors of a hospital and also the forms which are needed to be taken with each of the patient who visits a doctor. I have developed many new skills including the ones above and I gained more experience in providing service. I have never in my life done such a thing so I have undertaken new challenges and also found out my strengths and weaknesses that it isn't a big deal for me to provide a service.

I think this day was a huge opportunity for me as I could take a peek into a career, and I could experience it first hand, which really makes me feel happy. I used to think that people with such jobs have easy everyday tasks but it is not easy at all, in fact it is a very important task and I've come to realise it when I was helping out. By helping I also considered the ethical implications of my actions. I have learned much yesterday, the knowledge will support me for a very long time.

Subbotnik - Weekend Service Festival in Moscow

This weekend for my service part of CAS I decided to volunteer on the Subbotnik day in Moscow. It was a great opportunity for me to develop new skill and undertake new challenges. Subbotnik is a day where people can volunteer to clean up parks and help keep Moscow tidy. I was there with about 80 other volunteers who also helped in the cause.

It was fun and a great opportunity to improve my gardening skill as I cleaned the park. The best was that we didn’t have to bring the tools as they lended us the shovels and rakes. First I cleaned the part next to the road and then I moved onto cleaning the inner parts of the park.

I saw this opportunity to help when I was travelling back from school one day and I saw it on a billboard, so I decided to help. The park I helped at was next to the Kutuzoff Avenue.

I feel really good and proud because I could help and provide a service to the city I currently live in. Not that I only helped in cleaning but I also worked collaboratively with the other volunteers (helped to hold bags and organised which parts we are going to clean) but I also considered the ethical implications of my actions. I also found out one of my strengths, it being that I am quite good at gardening.

Though it was tiring I think it was very worth it and I am ready to do it again any time. It also made me realise how important the environment we live in is. We have to keep it clean in order to live healthily and happily.

CAS Plan Number 3

Creativity
I will cook a Hungarian dish ( with potatoes and salami but hard to explain the name.)
I will try to write a poem.

Action
I will go to math club every Tuesday.
I will go to literature club every Monday

Service
I will go to the Weekend Service 'Festival' which is this week Saturday.
I will help out in a hospital if I get the permission. Probably in the next two weeks.

Easter Egg Painting

This weekend it was Easter so I decided to do something creative for this special occasion. I painted eggs with acrylic paint. In Hungary it is a tradition during Easter to paint eggs which then become Easter Eggs. It is a great way to be creative and it is also very enjoyable.

I took a few eggs and painted different sybols and patterns on them which are connected to Easter. It was fun to paint them and I felt like I was improving my artistic skills. But sadly I have identified that it is still not my strongest skill. So there are still some improvements to be made in my artistic skills. Though I am not very good at art, I still feel that my creations are pretty decent and I like them very much.

This activity meant a lot to me as being creative nowadays is essential to a good career in the future as people always look up on others who have the talent to come up with infinite amount of ideas and never back down. Furthermore from the activity I learned that I should respect artists as what they do is as hard as me doing calculations. Painting is not easy and it requires passion, patience, and discipline.

The Grand Spring Clean

Last weekend I arrived back from Turkey on Saturday. It was fun but I still had some charitable spirit within me. I live in a flat with my family in the centre of Moscow and wouldn’t quite like to say that it is a nice and pleasant and tidy block of flats. We Hungarians quite keen on spring cleaning so I decided to offer my help and provide a service in cleaning up the block to the landlady.

It was a long winter and the cleaners were occupied by the tonnes of snow which fell since    November. So it was a huge mess in the block. The spring break was quite handy as I had the time to do the work and help with the cleaning on Sunday in the end of the break.

It was tiring work but I was handling it well and finished in barely over one and a half hours, I developed my skills and increased knowledge in what I am capable of. Though I was tired I knew I did something good and felt quite proud of it. Also the stairwell which was my part of the job looks much cleaner now and better to look at than before. Furthermore this helped the neighbours aswell so I considered the ethical implications of my actions.

Though it was much easier to do the spring cleans in Hungary as we live in a detached house and have a garden which I used to regularly help clean and water. However in Moscow that is not possible, it is a shame I could only help with the stairwell and the halls but I undertook new challenges and now it looks much nicer and I am willing and able to do it next year too.

Conference work in Turkey

In the spring break I got an offer from my father to attend a company conference and provide a service rather than staying at home and not doing anything useful. Well, not as a participant but as a supporter.
The conference was held in Turkey on the Mediterranean coast, not far from Antalya, in Tekirova.
The theme of the conference was about pharmaceutical issues. Mostly doctors and pharmacists participated in it. The conference lasted five days, but I could stay for a week. The deal was that I had to support the conference in the morning hours, with organisational and administrative issues. In the afternoon I was completely free. I could have rest, swim, read books in the fresh air outside in the sunshine. I was very lucky with the weather. The temperature was about 25 C degrees, though it wasn't quite like summer yet. Though it was fairly warm, it was not possible to swim in the sea, the sea water was still cold. I went knee-deep into the sea, but I did not swim in the 14 C degree water. Only the indoor heated swimming pool was good for swimming.
I did not receive any payment just the flights tickets, the accommodation in this very nice hotel with recreation facilities and of course I could gain experience, too. I did not get paid extra for it, but still was worth it as I could undertake new challenges.
I could use my knowledge of Russian language, as the conference participants came from Russia. Approximately 300 participants were there and my job was to work at the information desk to help people adjust them en route. Emerging issues (like lost key, lost way to the conference rooms, etc.) were expected to be settled by me and also help the participants to proceed towards the hotel reception with different issues, because they did not speak English at all.
I never before attended such an event but I was happy that I could aid my father and his company with such actions (showed commitment in my actions). It was interesting to see how it works, what people do there. I had the chance to develop new skills and increase awareness in my areas of growth. If in the future will have the chance again to go to such a conference as a supporter I will be happy to undertake this task. First, take my time usefully and secondly you may meet beautiful new places and new people. And then once I arrive as well as participating in such a conference.

Teaching a Chemistry Lesson

Not so long ago some students and I offered our help to teach a specific section of the Chemistry syllabus including both higher and standard level parts. This part of the syllabus is all about equilibrium and reversible reactions and how they are affected by different changes to the conditions around them.

I had to prepare a lesson and teach my part of the topic to the other students so that they would understand. The days before my lesson I did a lot of reading up on my part of the syllabus and produced a revision sheet which my classmates could use to revise. I also planned out some challenging questions to find out about what they already knew and to test their understanding after I taught them the lesson.

I found out that teaching is fun and it is even better than learning, to show your knowledge to others is a very good feeling. I have never taught a lesson before so I learned some new valuable skills that day and I also provided a service and also I was creative while designing the revision sheet. I also planned and initiated activities and increased the knowledge for my strengths and weaknesses.

Snowboarding and Skiing in Italy

Every year I go to the Alps with my friends and we have a good time skiing and snowboarding. It might sound like it is just resting but actually it is sometimes tough physical exercise, it counts as action. It is the best way to spend the winter holidays. Being with friends and sometimes working co-operatively to improve each others skills is lots of fun and I look forward to it every year.


Being in good condition: good health, fitness, etc. is very important nowadays and as people are lazy (know it by personal experience) it is a good idea to find an activity which is challenging but also fun and this is what snowboarding and skiing is all about.

Every time I go to snowboard I develop new skills and I also try to identify more potential weaknesses and improve on them. I think I can also say that I show perseverance in my actions as this was the 10th year I went snowboarding and skiing. I am really looking forward to the next season. Wonder where we will go next...

Playing the Drums

Just over a month ago I decided to play the drums for fun and to gather new skills. I started practicing at school every lunchtime and sometimes after school. I am willing to continue playing and practicing throughout the year. At first it was hard to stay in rhythm and follow the beat but I managed to overcome that and develop new skills. Everyday I am learning more and more drum beats which I am also practicing and by practicing every week I am showing perseverance in my actions.

For me it was always a dream to learn to play the drums. Many people said that I had a good sense of rhythm, so then it is worth a shot and I gave it a try and I liked it very much. It can also count as creativity as I am making up some drum beats. It is also action as I am practicing continuously and it is a physical exercise.

Each time I play I am finding out my strengths and limitations so that I can broaden the strengths region and decrease the limitations so that I can be a better drummer. I have also undertaken new challenges as this is the first time I play the drums.

Winter Activity Day

Today me and all the IB students have organised a Winter Activity day where there were a range of cultural activities in which our schoolmates could compete and win points for their houses. My group decided to organise  a hockey tournament where houses could compete. It was a great success in my view as the students seemed enthusiastic and happy doing this fun sport.

I have planned and initiated this activity with my friends to provide a service for the school and entertain certain groups of students. I feel really good about this activity and I also think that I developed new skills such as how to handle and organise children and also teenagers of almost my age. Furthermore all three of us worked as referees during the activity so we can say that we worked cooperatively to make sure that the game stays fair and that there are no fouls.

I think developing these skills will aid me in the future because if a job requires me to organise or instruct people I will have experience in it. Today was fun and I wish that there could be more days like this but we have to study also so we only get a few shots at these therefore they have to be the best.

CAS Plan Number 2

Creativity:

• Help in decorations for Valentine's Day
• Build a snowman.
• Make a big periodic table of elements.

Action

• Go Snowboarding
• Badminton Club
• Fitness Training (aerob sports etc.)

Service

• If there is winter activities day then I will help there.
• Put up the labels in the art room.
• Organizing the Friday's football club

Christmas Disco

On the last day of school we decided to organize a Christmas Disco for all the kids in the school. It was not only a disco, there was a Lollie guess, hamper, food stall and DJ. Furthermore the whole P.E. hall was decorates. It was very good. Me and my friends were in charge of the lollie guess. I bought the candies and we worked collabratively with each other to advertise and sell the guesses for the lollie guess. Firstly it seemed that we are not going to break even, but after are long and tiring efforts we broke even and started making profit which we would then give to a charity. I think by doing the lollie guess we have planned and initiated activities as well as developed new skills in promoting and advertising.

Later in the disco apart from selling the lollie guesses we also helped out the people at the stall and decorating the hall as well as  taking equipment back to where they belong. I think that on this day we have provided a lot of service to the school community by helping to set up and organize this school disco on one of the last days of school.

Badminton Club

Last term the Badminton club started and I really didn't want to left out of it as it is a very good sport, where you need very good reflexes sometimes but also a good strategy if you want to win the game. It made me realize that I am pretty good at it and I try to develop that skill every time I go there. It is very much fun as we not only play 1 on 1 but 2 on 2 which is requires good teamwork and effort from both team members to win. So when we are in teams we are working cooperatively with each other to achieve the goal, win the match.

Keeping fit is very important nowadays, so I hope that this sport can keep me fit as well as the others I do. There is nothing better than being healthy and fit in school to study.

Literature Club

Since last term I was taking part in studying literature a little further as it is not my strongest point. So I decided to join this wonderful club which helped me to analyze texts and see the implicit messages of them as well. In my view this is a great opportunity for me and I think I have developed and will develop many new skills and as I am going to continue this throughout the year I am showing perseverance too. I think analyzing Literature is a very good way to be creative also, because nobody exactly knows what the poet or writer really wanted to express and this is why we have to rely only on our own creativity and way of thinking to understand the poem or the text better. I hope it will improve my grades as I work hard to achieve good ones.