20.02 & 26.02

Here's a few CAS activities that I've forgotten to write about.

20.02 - On Thursday we had a student council meeting. I missed the first hour of the meeting, because I was still in class when they started. I asked a lot of questions, because I didn't really understand what they had been talking about. The meeting lasted for a whole other hour. We were making an outline of our student council's plans for the future. I think that it's really good that we did that, because we made an outline of what we want to achieve and how we are going to achieve it. We didn't have specific plans for everything, but for those goals we just put down ideas. We can't do everything at once. I'm in charge of organising 'Stiilinädal' (or style week) with another member of the student council. I really like to organise those kinds of activities, especially because I have a lot of inspiration from my previous schools! It will be great!

26.02 - I spent two hours helping one of my classmates catch up with psychology material. She came to our school in the middle of the year, so she missed a big part of theory that we learned in our psychology lessons. Our teacher asked if I could help her catch up with the material, and help her understand what she's going to need to know for the exams. We both agreed that two hours was the maximum we could concentrate. I don't think the two hours were as successful as they could have been, but now we know what we'll need for next time to be more productive. I'll need to take more of my notes with me, and she will need to do some work at home so that she'll have specific questions to ask me. 

Bellydance

I was 15 minutes late to belly dance this Monday, because we went to see a movie with my psychology class. The movie was '12 Years a Slave', so it was pretty weird to go from such an intense movie, straight to belly dance without having much time to process the movie. I think that really distracted me from the class, and therefore I couldn't really concentrate. I ran in, right in the middle of class so they were practising a new move. I did my best to join in and just go with the flow. I kind of had to do that throughout the whole lesson. We also practiced the choreography, which I was so confused by. It's really weird how sometimes I find that the choreography is really easy and I get everything spot on, but then during other classes I feel like I'm seeing it for the first time and I have no idea what I'm doing. 

Ms. Pea Soup

Went to the soup kitchen again today!
There were a lot of new people today, which means that things weren't as under control as they usually are. When there's new people, then they don't know how things work; but, I guess that's the only way you're going to learn. Also, we haven't had a chance to bond with the new people yet. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't like the usual soup kitchen Sundays. I was pretty tired too, so I wasn't in the mood for joking around like I usually am.
I served soup in the kitchen again, as usual. Luckily, there were a lot of people so I didn't have to do it alone. That always makes it easier and a lot more fun.
Oh! I almost forgot to explain the name.. Ms. Pea Soup was what we named one of the soup bowls. I drew a face and hair on it, and then we named it Ms. Pea Soup (we were serving pea soup today). 

Wonderful Wednesday

I was so tired before belly dance today that I felt like I couldn't even lift a foot, but luckily once I arrive at the dance studio I always forget all those feelings and get excited about class. I always arrive a bit early, so I get to watch the class before mine (tribal fusion) practice their choreography. They're doing it to a song I really love, Same Love - Macklemore; and the dance is really cool!
Anyways, our lesson started pretty calm today, but it warmed me up really fast. It was super freezing in the studio today. The things we do and practice flow really smoothly and the order that we do them in is really logical. I'm always really concentrated on the dancing, which is great!
We practiced different techniques for a while and then the teacher turned on the disco lights and turned off the lights in the ceiling. We were all quite confused, but she then explained that she was going to turn on a song and let us improvise. This time I really tried to get into the music and did the different moves that I know that went along with the music. The song was over before I knew it! It was great!! Then, we practiced choreography, which is getting better each class and that makes me really happy! It's so great to see myself making progress :)

Oh, how fun!

It's really amazing what sports can do to you! All you have to do is let the positive energy and positive vibes flow into and throughout you, and in no time you will be feeling amazing! Today's belly dance was super duper amazing and I felt so great afterwards. When I was walking to the studio, I already decided that I would let belly dance make me feel great today. It worked like a charm!

We danced to a lot of new songs today and I really liked them. We spent most of the class working on technique, but it was really great. I really improved on some of my moves today and I even showed my mom when I got home! All of a sudden our teacher told us that now we would start working on choreography, even though it felt like I had already been there for ages (not in a bad way). Choreography did not even seem impossible today and it came out pretty well. Even when I messed up, I didn't feel very bad. 

Ahh, such a great class today!! 

Weekend full of CAS!!

Wow! I've done so many things this weekend and I think I got like 10 hours of CAS. Honestly, I don't do them for the CAS, because they are so (so so so so) much fun!!
On Saturday, there was the Serve the City event. It was my second one. This one was called 'Südamest Südamesse' - or, From Heart to Heart. Adorable!
I chose the Butterfly Project this time, and I think I made a great choice! It was so much fun! We didn't get to actually meet with people and see smiles on their faces, but we did a different kind of helping. The Butterfly Project is about rehabilitation for prostitutes. It's actually the last step of rehabilitation. The prostitutes come to them and the Butterfly Project gives them a makeover: new clothes, new hair and new make up. It's the sweetest thing! Sadly, Butterfly Project comes with a lot of sad and scary stories, and it opens your eyes to some things I wouldn't usually think about. For example, we found out about how common prostitution and human trafficking is in Estonia.. No more thinking, "oh, it doesn't happen here.." But helping made me feel better about it. We started with organising some of the new clothes that had been donated. There are different racks for S, M and L so we just put as many clothes away as we could. Then, we started making these little tags with positive and encouraging messages on them. The idea is that the tag is attached to the clothing and then before the woman puts on her new clothes to go to a job interview, she sees the little tag and it gives her courage and brings a smile to her face. That is just the cutest thing! We even made some for each other :)

Yayy!! I even have loads of pictures to show off this time! I really love Serve the City!

On Sunday, we had another CAS activity, which turns out is actually mandatory (volunteer work) which is absurd (not the point). This was our group project that the whole class took part it. Everyone had their own specific job to do in making this event happen. I'd actually been preparing for this event throughout the whole week, so I couldn't say that I didn't put any effort. We all had to pick jobs for ourselves and I was in charge of making a power point presentation and making sure that everyone in my group would be prepared to present. We had to make 6 little entertainment pieces that we showed in between the little kids who were modelling. Oh.. I haven't actually said much about the event. Well, it was a fashion show with the theme of saving paper, so the kids ages 3-13 all had dresses and costumes made out of paper. They were really cool! Anyways, so our 6 presentations included: How is paper made? Why is saving paper important? How can we save paper? My classmate playing guitar - he wrote his own words to the melody of I'm Yours, and it was so awesome! Showing how to make your own paper and how to wrap a present with newspaper. I think that the event was a success, at least from our part. I had a lot of fun and it gave me more experience with public speaking! Yay! 

De-stress Belly dance

We had a substitute teacher for the beginning of class today. She seemed to be a student who was just filling in for our teacher until she arrived (from Finland). I definitely prefer our teacher to the substitute we had, because she didn't really know how to teach; but I guess you have to learn some how. With the substitute we practiced different moves, and then once our teacher came we got started on choreography. It was definitely better for me this time..the whole dance was a bit easier - not easy, it's still hard - but, at least it didn't seem impossible. Things are looking up..

A lot of people at the soup kitchen today!

There were 22 volunteers at the soup kitchen today and it was a really busy day! We almost ran out of soup and the people serving tea came running into the kitchen many times complaining that we ran out of tea. I didn't think it would be a terribly busy day, considering that it was the beginning of the month, but we had over 200 customers.
I was pretty tired so time seemed to be passing super slow, but I still tried to have fun and stay in a positive attitude. My mood got better and things lightened up after a while.
There were a lot of new people today, and also some people who hadn't been in a while, but everything flowed smoothly and there weren't any problems.
One of the things I've noticed though, is that people seem to be getting more aggressive; for example they will come up to the soup counter and ask for soup themselves (which they are not allowed to do) and they'll complain more about the quality of the soup or tea.