SWIMMING!

Since i was in Finland earlier this week i decided to use my opportunity to go swimming. The town were I live in Finland has a very nice swimming hall which includes the actual 25 metre long pool divided to several lines, a relaxing pool with water massages etc. and two pools for children and a water slide. 

(not a pic by me)

The first day I was just swimming without keeping a count on the distance, however the next day I decided to pay attention on how much I would swim just to feel more organised and to have a result from what to start improving. Firstly I started with breastsroke swimming for 200 metres, secondly 200 metres freestyle swimming and right after around 100 metres freestyle swimming only by using hands which I tried the day before as well when it felt much more difficult. After the first drill I wanted to relax my muscles in the bubbles and after 5 minutes I swam exactly the same amount as in the first drill. I included backstroke swimming as well but I prefer more the styles previously mentioned. This was the first time i swam since summer.Overall I swam a bit more than a kilometre and next time I would like to do the same drills but maybe lessening the amount of breastsroke swimming and adding more freestyle and backstroke swimming.

INTERNATIONAL DAY

International day is one of the best days of the entire school year! I participated this event also last year. The whole year 12 group was required to organise activities and information of everyones countries for the younger students. Me, Elvijs and Måns were provided the history room for our activities. Since our group included people from two northern countries the group was called 'The Vikings + Latvia'. We all had our little picture emphasised presentations of our countries (Finland, Sweden and Latvia). However, showing few presentations wouldn't be too amusing especially for the youngest students, so we also included draw & guess activities and music from our countries.

Later on when everyone had finished eating all the delicious dishes from different countries and cultures came the time for the legendary International day's music show. I and Mr Grey performed as well. I was doing beatbox and Mr Grey was playing the drums. The combination was great and I would be more than happy trying it again!

READY FOR CANNES?!

This week's best achievement was finishing our group's short/silent movie! We (me, Francesco and Elvijs) spent over all three evenings for doing the movie. We managed to film every seen on the last sunday evening and the start of the movie is filmed in Afi Mall Moscow from where the story starts to develope and finally after many metro journeys we end up at the bridge next to Gorki park. One scene required extreme accuracy because we had only one chance to film it.

On Monday and Tuesday evenings we went straight after school to Francesco's place to edit our movie. Our editing took a lot of time because firstly no-one of us knew how to use Imovie especially the 'how to add audio' part but after many tries and few youtube tutorial videos we discovered the proper method and bit by bit by bit finished our struggled editing scenery. 

In my oppinion our short/silent movie turned out pretty good for an amateur movie but we still need a lot practise. We had scenes which were relatively too long and could've been shortened a bit. For our next movie we should pay more attention on audio inputs in order to make them flow smoothly with the video.

The Other Hand

Today at the basketball club before the match we were practising exercises aimed to improve the usage of the worst hand and the fast movement through the court. Firstly we started with the fast movement drill which was done in groups of three people by passing the ball as fast as you can while changing positions from one side of the court to the other side and at the same time moving quickly towards the other end of the court where the last one receiving a pass will make a layup. This was followed with the worst hand ball dribbling drill which needed to be performed by moving as fast as possible to the other end of the court and straight back, using first the better hand and the worst hand when coming back. This turned out much more difficult than I thought. Finally before the match started we carried out a lyaup drill where i managed to score points with a significant improvement compared to our last weeks training.

Finally we started the game and today i had a better clue where to be positioned during the game, unfortunately I didn't score any points but I will try to do that in the next weeks training. I should still keep concentraiting on my in game tactics especially during our teams attack  where you need the most important coordinating how to manage to be in a free space where the ball can be easily passed.

SERVING SERVICE

Delicious tea & coffee

Today was the parent's evening of our school's youngest students of where I among other IB students stayed after school to help in guiding parent's' way to correct class rooms and help serving refreshments (coffee & tea) for them. Parents started to flow in around four o'clock and continued till around five. last teas and coffees were served at 17.30 for parents about to leave the school. Teachers as well didn't miss the chance to grab a cup of hot refresher during the parents evening. Finally after our Headmaster's order our team was allowed to go home after collecting empty cups around the school and cleaning up our stand. After all, I actually enjoyed this activity because i got to know better some of my class mates and got free coffee and tea ;).

COOKING CLUB

Today I attended the first time the cooking club! We were making pelmenis (dumblings) filled with meat or strawberry jam, both of them were delicious. The dough we used was already prepared but it can be bought from local shops as well if not feeling like making it yourself. Firstly we took small pieces of the dough which we dipped into flour in order to make them easier to be formed into circular shapes. Secondly we added the filling either the meat or the jam. Thirdly we were thought how to form the pelmeni into a shape that the filling will remain securily inside the pastry. And finally we dropped the rare pelmenis into the pot and let them boil for as long as the pelmenis started floathing which meant that they were ready to be eaten! Someday when i will make pelmenis all by myself i will try to make the pastry around the filling more thinner so that it will taste better and boil faster.