Bass Guitar Class

Today we tried something new after we haven't seen each other in a while. I learned a simple chord progression and some variation techniques. We played several chords in a certain pattern which sounds like a typical country song. It goes from A to E to D and back to A. It sounds a bit boring if I play just by the chords, so I added some variations to it that it sounds more abundant and interesting.

Merry Christmas !

Today, 25th of December, Christmas, I went to the orphanage with my Korean friends to help the children there and play with them. It was Sneha Child Development Center which is near House of Fashion in Colombo.
My friends and I have been planning to visit there to help them with cleaning up the room, washing the dirty clothes and curtains, and playing with the children on Christmas which, I thought, would be great to do on Christmas rather than just celebrating ourselves. We volunteered to be the Christmas Santa for this year.
So, from 9 AM in the morning, first we cooked for the children and packed some snacks and toys for them as Christmas presents. Once we got there, we separated ourselves into four groups; one for playing with the children, the other for cleaning the room, another for washing the clothes and for cooking as mentioned.
I was in the 'cleaning the room' group and it was pretty hard job; it seemed that they haven't cleaned up the room in ages.
We finished it at 1:30 PM and it was really fun and I felt proud of myself even though it was just A BIT tiring. This will be unforgettable Christmas ever in my whole life :D

End of the first semester

Creativity.
I was involved in many creative activities this semester and I believe I achieved some parts of my initial goal and I'm getting closer to it.

1. MUN - since we had MUN meeting on Wednesday during the electives in every two week, I did cover at least 10 hours for this first semester. We have learned what to say and basic manner of how to debate. We, at the moment, are working on how to write the resolutions. I learned many things from it this time. I did improve my debating skills throughout working with the others even though we haven't had many debates this time. We haven't got which country we'll be representing on at the actual debate yet. We'll figure that out before the end of the winter break and work on as an actual country delegate from next semester.
   
2. Bass Guitar Class - I had Bass Guitar class every Saturday at 11 to 12 and I have covered at least 7 hours so far. I certainly did improve my skills; I haven't played bass guitar before and now I do know how to play and I'm able to play some songs as well. My personal goal was to improve my skills and I think I did achieve some of it already. As I said, in a long term, I want to do the missionary work by playing guitar and teaching less fortunate children how to play bass guitar. I believe I'm getting closer to my ultimate goal.
   
3. Interhouse Music Competition - We had the Interhouse Music competition which was organized by the SGA and Gee in 12th grade and I performed beatbox for our house, the Yellow House. I have always thought about performing once more since I did my personal project on teaching beatbox to the younger students at OSC and this gave me a chance to do it. Of course, our initial goal was to win the competition, but more than that, have fun with the others. I believe, even though I couldn't fully achieve the first goal since our house came in third overall, I did have fun being on the stage which was more important and in fact the most important thing of this competition. Since Gee has graduated this year, it'd be our first and last performance together for a while and I believe we made a good memory to carry with us forever.
   

Action.
I was also involved in many sports this semester.

1. Sunday Basketball - I played basketball with my Korean friends every Sunday after the Church service. I played 7 times with them for at least 3 hours each; I covered at least 21 hours so far. My initial goal was to develop my personal skills as a guard and to keep me fit all the time. I believe I did improve my skills, especially the defending and as so I think I'm getting closer to my goal achieved. I couldn't play with them for more than a month since we had to prepare for the coming Christmas. Once it's done, I hope we can start playing again very soon.
2. Badminton/Table Tennis/Football/Cricket - I also played many different sorts of sports this semester not only just for fun but also to keep me fit for the SAISA Track and field. I played badminton, football and cricket with my friends in school at lunch or after school. It must be more than 10 hours and I believed it was pretty helpful for me to keep me fit since I neither go work out in the gym nor do extra exercise at home. In a way, I did achieve my first goal of getting involved in many sports. Apart from that, I did improve my skills in each areas as well and that wasn't what I really expected but it was really good and exciting.
   
3. Helping Girls SAISA basketball team - since my brother was in the Middle school football team and the Boys SAISA football team, I had to stay after school from time to time this semester. While boys are playing football, girls are playing basketball for the SAISA competition. Since basketball was one of my favorite sports as mentioned and one of my classmates, Filippo Stopponi, is helping them as a coach, I also helped them twice this semester. It was from after school, which is around 3:00 PM, to %:00 PM; I helped them for at least 4 hours. It wasn't really what I planned to do that I don't have such a goal for this, but it helped me keep fit as well as develop my personal skills.
   
4. SAISA Track and Field - Track season hasn't come yet. But I'm preparing for it by playing many sports and keeping me fit all the time so that it won't be so hard to practice when the season comes.
   

Service.
I did participate in many service activities as well.

1. Mama Papa Home Orphanage - During the IB orientation, we visited the orphanage in Kalutara and played with the children there; we played cricket with them and painted with them.
   
2. Prison Babies - this semester, I, as a leader of this Community & Service project, did organize several activities to do with the children from the prison and plan to visit the prison and bring them out of the prison. We had 9 weeks with the children and each was about 2 hours that I covered about 18 hours so far. I believe I did achieve some of my initial goal of this program. Since I am leading this, my goal was to improve my leadership. I didn't really lead the others and tell them exactly what to do, but while I was organizing things and preparing for every week, I could learn what aspect a leader should have such as tolerance, organizing ability and so on. I don't think I'm really good leader type person, but still I learned something throughout this semester. I wish I can do better next semester.
   
3. Math Tuition - I also tutored Alex Panduro in 9th grade with math. We had 6 classes so far since we had no class for last four weeks before the winter break as he is also trying out for SAISA boys football team. Each was 30 minutes long that I covered 3 hours with him by now. I did factorizing and expanding with him and he's now doing the probability in class. My initial goal was to help him have a better understanding of each chapters and get a higher grade; yet we are still far away to get there. He's improving a lot day by day as he does understand the concepts. I believe we will get there soon, maybe next semester. Who knows :P
   
4. Christmas Santa - I have been planning to go visit the orphanage with my friends at Christmas as if we become a daily Santa Claus. I thought it would be better to do something like this than just celebrating it ourselves. So I wanted to give them some gifts as normal Santa does and help them clean their room and wash their clothes. It must be a hard job for the guardians there since they have too many to take care of. So I went there at 9:30 and cleaned up their rooms. We also played with them and painted with them. The children were under 5 years old and they were adorable. It was really a happy Christmas.
   

Bass Guitar Class

My father learned classic guitar while I'm learning bass guitar, however, today my father lied ill and we couldn't have guitar class today. Instead, I practiced what I learned last week at home by myself. During the weekday, I didn't have much time for practice and I couldn't spend so much time for it. Since the first semester is over now, I've got more free time. I will manage my time well and will try to practice it everyday.

Math Tutoring (canceled)

I completely forgot about our tuition class with Alex and came home. This was the last week before the holidays since he had SAISA boys football practice. I'll check with him whether or not he has time on Friday. (Tomorrow, he has football. Wednesday, we all have Swimming Gala and I have an appointment on Thursday. So Friday is the only option we got at the moment.)

SAISA Girls Basketball

Since my little brother is trying out for SAISA boys football, I had to stay afterschool yesterday. Then, I saw the Girls Basketball team was practicing and Filippo in my grade and Umeshan were coaching them. I helped them coaching and had a match with girls to teach them some team tactic or simple skills. It was fun. :P

Math Tutoring (canceled)

Yesterday, Alex and I were supposed to have a math class after school, however, Alex is trying out for SAISA boys football practice that we couldn't have class this week again.
I thought we won't be able to have class on Tuesday till the SAISA football season is over. So we changed the time to Monday after school.

I also talked to Ms.Huijnen who's current my math teacher as well as Alex's and she told me that Grade 9 which Alex is in, has just started a new chapter, probability, and Alex is doing fine yet. This week is the second last week before the break, which means that we have only one class left. I hope we won't miss that class.

By the way, instead of tutoring math, I helped the SAISA Girls basketball team after school with Filippo since I had to stay after school anyway.

Prison Babies

We had the Prison Babies coming at OSC. However, I was sick (I got a flu) that I couldn't play with them. I might make them sick as well! So I had to come home after saying Hi and Bye to the children. Because of the SAISA boys football team arrived at school today, everywhere was crowded. So the children played at the gym.
I think we have got only one more week before the December break. I wish I'll get better soon and can play with them at last week.

Inter-house Music Competition

We had the Inter-house Music competition today after school. I was involved in one of the acts this time with Gee in 12th grade. We performed the beatbox for 3-4 minutes. It was a bit disappointing since we couldn't really practice much for the actual performance. I think we could have done better if we had more time.
Still, it was fun. Yellow house where Gee and I are in, came in the third place which I think we did pretty well.