Christmas time: decorating classroom door!

Christmas-like door contest is a tradition in my school. So this year wasn't an exception, either. However, this year, when everyone is so busy with studying, since it's a very important year, nobody wanted to spend their time on decorating our class' door.

I'm not much of an artist, but this time I decided to volunteer in order to maintain the tradition and due to the duty-feeling. Also, two more girls joined into the creative team.

It took a fairly long time to merely come up with an idea for the door; we had many vague ideas but none of them were concrete. Ultimately, after long talks, discussions and negotiations we settled on the Christmas  bulb idea. So we prepared the materials and next day after school we met to implement our project at last. Well, it took much more time than we expected. We spent about 3 hours on making and applying the decorations. First, we needed to cut all the shapes out of the round piece of paper, which was to become Christmas bulb, and then place another round sheet of paper underneath. Well, again, agreeing took the longest, but cutting small shapes also was a meticulous and tedious task.

Finally, we ended up having decorated out class door and feeling satisfied with the good result and fun cooperation, even though we felt tired. Overall, I think this was a great creativity and cooperation demanding activity, which contributed to our school's beauty and our class' honor. :)

P.S. - 3 CAS hours

 

Singing in Jazz pictures/Musical Boxes

In such a dark and cold time of the year, the former Jazz Pictures, now Musical Boxes event is a great way to turn ordinary Friday evening into cozy, warm and artistic musical night. The Musical Boxes took place on 5th December, at 6 pm in Lyceum's main hall. The annual event invites all musicians to perform pieces of music not to compete, but in order to create an enchanting atmosphere where people can come together, enjoy good music and have some tea.

This year, I decided to participate in the Musical Boxes myself, since it's the last year in Lyceum for me and I felt like sharing a wonderful song by Coldplay with the whole school. I also found the concept of the event beautiful and exciting. So, about a month before the event, I started searching for guitar backing. Eventually, I found a great guitarist named Ignas who agreed to play guitar for the performance.

Me and guitarist rehearsed once a week for two weeks and twice a week the last week before the performance, and it took a great deal of time to harmonize and make the song ready. It was fairly difficult to balance between studying and extra-curricular activities, which can steal a lot of time, too. Sometimes it was stressful to manage both rehearsals and homework, but with aid of time planning, I managed to do both quite well. The biggest obstacle for me was stage fright, which was greatest the day before my performance. Anyway, I managed to stand up on the stage alone in front of the whole school and sing "See you soon" by Coldplay quite well, even though not perfectly, for which stress could be blamed...

Overall, I must say I am very happy to have participated in such a great event and I have not only spent a fun time rehearsing, developed my performing and singing skills, but also, more importantly, have overcome my fear of stage. I must say, for that I am very thankful for my friends and their support.

You can see the performance in the video below (sorry for bad quality).

P.S. 5 CAS hours

"Food Bank" action

On 18 October, the "Food Bank" action befell. It is an event when, in various supermarkets, people are invited to donate food for the disadvantaged groups. I volunteered there from 9:45 to 13:30 and it was a nice experience.

At first, my task was to invite the people passing by to contribute to this action: I was handing leaflets and explaining what this event was about. Later, the volunteers switched their responsibilities, and then I was standing at the food receiving spot. There, I received the food being donated, thanked the donors and gave them small presents, as well as registered the food given. This was an active task, and required quick reaction, and communication.

After these four hours, I was rather tired, but happy to be useful. I saw the piles of food donated, therefore I felt like the effort of the volunteers was absolutely worth it! The result was rewarding.

Overall, this activity required endurance, since it lasted for a long time and was rather monotonous; also, communication skills were really important during the volunteering. To add, this action raised food for the poor, therefore I believe this had ethical implications for me as well.

P.S. 4 CAS hours

Taking part in Lyceum initiation event

The initiation event is originally called "Krikštynos", in Lithuanian it literally means "christening". This is a symbolic celebration, during which the first year students get various tasks and challenges to overcome in order to be admitted to the Lyceum's school community. The even was held on 19th September. The theme of this year's initiation was tribes, or African.

I contributed to the event by dancing in the flashmob dance , which was a part of the evening show of "Krikštynos". The flashmob dance was taught during two days, approximately an hour each day. Also, there were rehearsals organised on the day of the show, several hours before the performance. The dance was not the easiest one, it required some practice. To add, we needed to dress as tribals and paint "African" make-up. Dancing with other young people was really fun and entertaining, designing our looks was amusing as well; moreover, it was good for my fitness, since I rarely do any sports. The video of the flashmob dance is in the link below. You will see me on the right in the front.

I also helped with the tidying after the event. There was a lot of work to be done: posters to take off, sweeping, taking out the rubbish etc. and it was really late (around 10 pm). Of course, I was not alone tidying: there were about 6 of us. It took us nearly an hour to finish.

The activities mentioned involved a lot of group work and required appropriate cooperation skills, as well as flexibility... There were several misunderstandings with the rehearsals, so it was a little difficult to organize ourselves. Also, the evening was really cold be we couldn't put more clothes on since we needed to look like tribals, so that was also a challege. And when the event was finished, everyone was tired and wanted to go home, therefore it was not easy tyding so late after such an event. Nevertheless, in brief, the event succeeded, everyone loved our flashmob dance and other tribal shows, therefore it was worth the effort.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HFKg1AD3uA

P.S. - 4 CAS hours

Volunteering in a camp "Algojimas"

On 27 July- 1 August, one shift of "Algojimas" took place. "Algojimas" is the same organisation I wrote in a previous post, it organises camps for disabled children and their families. This time, I decided to participate in this camp by myself and see the inside of it. I really wanted to contact with the children directly. Camps organised by "Algojimas" occur every week all summer through.

During this shift, autistic children with their families participated. There were about 17 autistic children in the camp, and 14 volunteers. Through the five days of the camp, I had a lot of new experiences and impressions.

Each day, volunteers, as me, helped with food making and cleaning. Also, we communicated and befriended the children, organised various activities. There were two times in a day when volunteers were absolutely responsible for the children, as that time parents and the whole family had some activities or lectures. In total, it was about 5 hours of engagement with the children. And of course, each day, we had some free time to rest and interact with parents, families, kids, and volunteers.

Activities with children required the great bulk of effort and resulted in the biggest tiredness. Of course, it was also the most interesting part. Volunteers needed to befriend each child individually, since they all were very different. It took time to get to know child's needs and character. For this reason we had to talk to parents a lot so that we could understand their children better.

As the activities with each child were individual, so each volunteer had to use his/her own creativity to make  up various occupations and to engage the child during the time. It was often hard, since autistic children get bored easily and do not like many activities. Sometimes it was really stressful, when a child didn't listen to you at all and just cried for his/her parents. Then, I had to cope with my emotions and just try some new things, try to talk the child into something.

Engaging with autistic children was also stressful because of the responsibility for them. Children's actions were hard to predict and sometimes were dangerous e.g. by water or on swings, so this often caused tension for me. Another challenge was weather, which was extremely hot and sunny. I was playing and running with children all day and it was really tiring, as a result, I was all wet by the end of the day.

In short, I am really happy for this experience which allowed me to interact with autistic children and get to know them, to understand their world. It was important for me because it made me realize and value my and my family's health, the things I have... Also, it diminished my opinions, fears and prejudices about disabled children and made me grasp that they are also only children. It felt really happy to make those children happy, to make them laugh and to ease the parents' burden at least a little.

Volunteering in "Maisto bankas"

"Maisto bankas" , in English it is called foodbank, is a charity organisation which fights hunger and food waste problems, it supports people in need by food every day and organises food giving (distribution) actions every month.

On 17 July, I volunteered at a food distribution action, which is a frequent event, occurring each month.  It was the first time for me to work with foodbank.

I started at 9:30, in Vilkpėdė office of "Maisto bankas", and I left only at 16:00. Of course, I had a half-hour lunch break.

So, there was a lot of action (especially in the morning) : at first I was registering people which came for food support (I had to fill the papers, take signatures etc.), later, we changed roles and I was bringing the food to each person, after that, I was "employed" as a questionnaire representative.

All these activities required not only physical work, but also communication with the people in a queue and with volunteers. It took endurance, communication skills, fast reaction and orientation during this activity.

The main struggle was the pace as there was sometimes so many people waiting and we had to hurry, hurry and, of course, watch out for mistakes. Hot weather did not facilitate this...

Even tough I came home extremely tired and sweaty after this activity, I am glad that I was useful and could contribute in such an action. It was also important to understand the shocking scale of poverty in Lithuania, what encouraged to save food more.

P.S.- 6 CAS hours

 


More about foodbank at: https://lt-lt.facebook.com/maistobankas

Collecting donations for fund "Algojimas"

"Algojimas" is a charity fund which aims is to help disabled children and their families. It organizes camps for disabled children and their families, where volunteers look after the kids and play with them, whereas family members, especially parents, have their own activities where they get psychological support etc.

Two years ago, in Summer, I volunteered in one of their camps for three days and this is how I was added to volunteer database.

A week ago, I got a letter from "Algojimas" asking for volunteers who could help collect donations for the fund. So I decided to join, since I had had a little practice with this activity with the Order of Malta in winter.

The volunteers met in the morning and we were taught what to say, how to communicate with the passerbys in the street; we were also given leaflets with information about the fund and signed voluntary work contracts. After the meeting which lasted for one hour, we went to the streets of Vilnius centre. 

My territory was around the white bridge and near the shopping centre "Europa". I had identification badge, leaflets and a charity box. I was standing in squares and streets, inviting people to donate some money for the disabled children's fund. 

This activity was an extreme for me. We were all walking on our own and it took a lot of bravery to step out of my comfort zone and approach total strangers by myself. At first, I was addressing to certain chosen people. Later, I would dare to address to almost every person who walked by. I was collecting donations for an hour and a half at one spot, then had a 15 minute rest and proceeded for hour and a half in another place. 

I was totally exhausted after all. Constant communication and inconvenience caused my tiredness. However, I felt rewarded because I had collected over a hundred LT during that time. I felt also proud of myself because I had dared to do this and I had done this all by myself. To sum up, this activity required determination, communication, patience, politeness and motivation and was really valuable experience.

P.S.- 3 CAS hours
                                                          

                                                     Me with my volunteer identification badge:

Translating articles for the Order of Malta's page

I got request to help with translating articles in the Order of Malta's webpage from Lithuanian to English. So far, I have translated two articles.

It was not so easy as it may seem: the terms and words were difficult and since the Lithuanian sentence structures are even more complex, turning them into English sentences wasn't such an easy task for me.

This activity required my knowledge and thinking and was a challenge for me. I feel that this activity had ethical implications to me.

P.S.-2 CAS hours

In case you're interested, you can see the Order of Malta's Lithuanian webpage below:
http://maltieciai.lt

The "Sparnai" publication

This was a totally new activity to me: a few months ago, a saw a poster at school which encouraged students to send their creation works to an annual Lyceum's publication called "Sparnai". There all kinds of writing are posted: from prose, essays to poetry.

So, I decided to create some poetry and to improve some old poetry of mine, and to send everything. Actually, I didn't expect that my works would be published, since I am a total amateur. Consequently, I sent my works to the editors of "Sparnai" and after some time I received a reply that one poem of mine was going to be published. I was really excited about that! Then I had to take a picture for the authors' photo page.

What were the outcomes of this activity? First of all, it was a great incentive for me to create more and not to be afraid to publish it. Now, I feel more confident about sharing my poetry with others. This not only involved creativity, but also bravery to stand out, since all school reads this publication. Therefore, this was a great occurrence to me.

P.S.- 3 CAS hours

Below you can read some poetry of mine. :)
*********************************************************************************

Laiko vakuumas

Ak,  kaip norėčiau kartais į laiko vakuumą patekt.

Kad galėčiau nuo to skubančio pasaulio užsidengt.

Bent valandai, savaitei, o gal net mėnesiams keliems,

Jei ne, tai bent momentams neilgiems.

Juk kartais norisi tiesiog pabūti, pagyventi

Tik nieko nedaryti, arba daryti viską, ko nereikia.

Ir nieko nemąstyti, nesistengti,

Ir apmąstyti viską viską, paklausyt savos širdies...

Tegul nė vienas už laiko švaistymą manęs nepeikia

Juk pagyventi žmogui reikia!

Gerai, užteks jau svaičioti, vėlu.

O man dar reikia sėst prie pamokų.

Nors polėkis manasis dar nedingo,

Minčių krūva dar sukas galvoje,

Tikiuos, į laiko vakuumą pateksiu bent sapne.

******************************************************************************** 

Sėdi moksleivis

Abejinga mina,

Spokso pro langą

Jam visko gana.

Plyšta galva jam

Nuo formulių ir datų

Nebegali jis jau

Suprast savo minčių

Romeo, Kuprelis,

Meistras ir Margarita

O jis sėdi vienas

Ir meilės nėra.

Keeping up with the ecological project

This is the long lasting project, and since me and my classmate have started it- we have established paper recycling boxed at three places in our school- we must maintain it.

There were some problems we needed to cope with. We had to make arrangements with the school's administration, school-keepers and to agree on the time periods the box contents are taken out. This required a lot of communication since the school keepers were unsatisfied with our project and we had to compromise. Moreover, our boxes were trashed a few times by some irresponsible people so we had to replace it with the new ones.

This project made me realize that there is no easy project - everything requires time and effort.

P.S.- about 2 CAS hours 

The Musical Ring

On 29 April, the third day of the arts week in Lyceum, the traditional musical competition- "The Musical Ring" took place.

I didn't miss the chance to participate and share my favorite song with the school community. The song I was performing was "The Scientist" by Coldplay. My accompaniment was my classmate Živilė who played piano for me. We were rehearsing for about three weeks two times a week.

The greatest challenge for me was dealing with stage fright and performance anxiety which I was experiencing the whole day before the performance. However, I think I did really well on the stage even though I didn't win anything.

P.S.- 5 CAS hours

You can see my performance on the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60WclaJxoK4

Organising fashion show in my school

There was a forgotten fashion show tradition in Lyceum which had been abandoned for two years. But this year this tradition was revived. The fashion show was named "Fashion Epidemic".

The fashion show changed its format a little: it was joined with the "Valio!" awards where students are rewarded various nominations. So this event was the final majestic event of the Arts week at my school. It took place on 2nd May, Friday.

I and two of my classmates came up with this idea about two months ago. We organised a committee and invited three more classmates to join. We had a lot of work to do: think of the process of the event, prizes, decorations, information of the event and much more. 

The biggest challenges included installation making in the Lyceum's lobby, informing classes about the event and finding a sponsor for the event so that the prize could be organised. Also, a huge challenge was cooperating with other committee members and school's administration.

Even though organizing such an event was a tremendous stress and responsibility for me, as the main organizer, it was absolutely worth all effort! 

In my opinion, the show went great regardless some technical difficulties. Well, there also could have been more participating classes, but it was good as it was too.

See the photos below!

P.S.- 30 CAS hours

Instalation in the school lobby                                Making the photowall

Building the podium

The photowalll

The main prize: free photo shoot for the whole class!

Joining the church's choir

This is the activity which I should have described a few months ago, since I started singing in the church's choir in February.

I joined the Ignotas church choir. I find it enjoyable and meaningful too. I like singing and I am religious so this is like two in one!

At first, I was hesitating because I had to pledge and to commit myself to it for the rehearsals take place two times a week for approximately 1.5 hour. Finally I decided it is worth it and joined the Ignotas choir!

There were many difficulties to arrange my time so that I manage to do my homework and to go to choir, even when rehearsals are in a very inconvenient time and there is a test the next day! This improved my time-management skills, I believe. Another challenge for me was the Easter time, when our choir was singing for 4 hours in a night time and I was singing a psalm alone. This was truly challenging for me!

However, I am very happy I have joined the choir. We sing every Sunday on 12 a.m. I hope I will manage to go to the choir the next year, in IB2!

P.S.- approximately  40 CAS hours  

Beautifying school wall

Last Tuesday, 29 April, there was arts day in Lyceum. One of the activities that students could participate in was drawing on school walls, at those places where bricks were fallen out and there was blank space left.

I participated in this activity, too, and I absolutely enjoyed it. I started planning my drawing a few days before and I had the vision of my creation when I started. It was a surrealistic view of city life and city people.

This activity required creativity, meticulousness and patience.

It think it turned out into a nice piece of art and it decorated the wall quite well!

P.S.- 2 CAS hours

The cleanness day at school

25 April, on Friday there was was the day of cleaning in our school. Everyone was cleaning the corners of ours school. I contrubuted, also. :) 

My job was to clean one classroom. It sounds kind of easy, but it wasn't so. First, I had to claw the gums from the under side of tables and chairs. I have to admit, that wasn't the most pleasant job I've done. Then I cleaned the walls, the shells, windowsills and other things in the room. 

After that, I went to help others sprucing up the corridors. We were cleaning the walls and windowsills.

All these tasks weren't difficult, but we were all tired after all.

At the end of the group cleaning, the school looked much nicer.

P.S.- 1.5 CAS hours

Planting the trees

This Monday, 31 March, our class was planting trees in the school's area. This was organized by one of my classmates, and I contributed also.There were approximately 30 trees so it took about an hour to plant them all. Yes, we were fast since about 25 people were participating in this process.

First, we had to dig holes in soil, then to pour water. After that we put the trees in and covered them with soil. The biggest difficulty was cold and windy weather and cooperation. But it was really nice to see the results after all!

P.S. 1.5 CAS hour

 

 

Contributing in the "Šimtadienis" feast

The "Šimtadienis" is the biggest event of the year in my school Lyceum. This is the day when there is exactly 100 days left till the exams for the 12th graders.
This celebration lasts all day and includes decorations in the whole school, dance and musical performances and making other interesting and amusing stuff! :)
This year, the theme of "Šimtadienis" was dreams. My contribution to this event was decoration making and hanging all around the school, helping with undecorating and cleaning the school after. To add, I danced in a dance called "Teeth".
Decoration making was a rather difficult task for me since I lack patience and accuracy... Dancing was extremely fun for me but rehearsals were also extremely exhausting. It was a challenge to cooperate with so many people and to manage my time as I spent a part of my Fridays and sometimes Saturdays at school for about two months. All in all, the results were worth our effort!
Below you can see the photos to understand what I was doing there... :D Also, the performance!
P.S. - 30 CAS hours

 

Rehearsal:

Here is the link of our performance video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk57bW-9x5o&list=UUBQ1OtQlv3YdKR-rm999jMg&feature=c4-overview

The February 16th's choir

On the 16th  February, the day of Lithuania's independence is celebrated. For this occasion, a united choir of IB students and 12th graders was formed. 

I joined the choir and that was an enjoyable experience! 

We started rehearsing three weeks before : during the first two weeks, we had rehearsals two times a week for about an hour and we had rehearsals every day the last week. There were many people in the choir, so is was not easy to cooperate, sometimes some people did not come to rehearsals and so on... Therefore, this activity required patience and time. 

The song we were singing is called "Baltas paukštis", which was sung in four voices.

Here you can see moments of our rehearsals and the result of our effort!

P.S. 8 CAS hours

Here is the link of the video of our performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF9nyqWCBKs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUBQ1OtQlv3YdKR-rm999jMg

Birthday Committee :)

This is one of the most unusual CAS activities I have participated in so far; nonetheless, it is one of the most cheerful and rewarding. In the beginning of the school year, me and my classmate Živilė came up with an idea of "Birthday Committee", which would organize common birthday greeting from all the IB students of our course for every person. This was as a joke at first but later we decided to implement our idea.

At first, me and Živilė introduced this idea to our classmates and since everyone supported it, we started to take action. I collected 5 LT from every person in the class (this means that we spend 5 litas for every person to greet what seems very little but since we put out handwork and creativity into action, everything is just fine). :) We also recruited one more member for the birthday committee- that was my classmate Ieva. Then we started our work!

So, our birthday committee consists of three people: me, Živilė and Ieva and we all have our roles. My responsibility is to inform the birthday committee about the upcoming birthday, to bring balloons and candles, while Ieva creates a hand-made birthday card and Živilė buys a small sweet treat such as a bar of chocolate, a cupcake or a pack of lollipops. Then we warn our classmates about our classmate's birthday and give everyone to write their wishes and greetings on the birthday card. Finally, we organize everyone to come and great the person. We usually come unexpectedly singing "Happy birthday" and carrying a flaming candle and balloons. These moments are the best part of birthday committee.

This activity takes about an hour of time for a person, since we have to agree about the greeting details such as time, place, birthday card theme etc. Sometimes it is not easy to agree of one thing... :) This activity requires responsibility, punctuality, creativeness and teamwork. It is essentially important to do your responsibilities so that every person would be congratulated.
PS.- about 30 CAS hours per year.

 

 

Contributing at a little feast for IB2

On January 24th, IB1 prepared a feast for IB2 students as for the 100 days to the final exams's occasion. So we baked a lot of cakes, pies and cookies and treated IB2. They were really happy about that. :)

I prepared a new recipie of cookies with bits of chocolate and my cookies were really popular!

P.S -about 1.5 CAS hour