Banners and painting and some driving on a truck!

Hi!

There is this one thing, that third graders in high school do every year, and now it was my turn. 
We go to celebrate that our school ends on trucks that carry 20 of us each, and all kinds of funny banners of our teachers, and banners that make a joke out of some piece of news that has been discussed a lot lately. There is also usually a theme that we follow and this year it was cartoons from the time when we were little :) 
Examples: 

• The blue house bear
• Teletubbies
• Pocahontas
• Chinese children movies, like Totoro
• Pokemon... etc

I did two banners and I have a few pictures of the truck drive, so I point out what is my making if there are ones.

All the trucks from all of the high schools in Oulu were making a queue, and I was in the first one!

Painted two of my teachers as cats from "The Cat returns" :D and added utterances that the teachers overuse!

Doing these banners showed me how fun it can be to do things in a regular basis. It took many hours of planning to come up with matching characters from cartoon world, and the painting it self taught me to be patient and try again, I am so glad that once the paint is dry, you can just paint it again and no one sees your mistake from underneath. I had my share of the responsibility of doing these on time so even though there were a bit of a rush in the end, I refused to panic and just did what I had planned because it is not beneficial to change plans after such long time from the planning. I learned that having responsibility over something means that you also get rewarded, if the plan proved out to be successful and the end product pleases everyone, and not just the fact that if something would go wrong you'd know who to look with despise in your eyes... just kidding, I would not be so harsh on someone ever :)

The learning outcome of this was: Planned and Initiated activities, which means that I was responsible for planning and doing the banners with two of my schoolmates. I learned to plan well, and design banners that were consistent in quality. I also learned to time my action accordingly.

I thank everyone now, that have supported my increased painting costs at home, which helped me to finish those beautiful banners. This was my last update so, see ya in next life, MAYBE.... :D

Red Cross holiday event!

Hello my CAS-coordinator, you are the only one reading this, but anyways...

This was the fourth time that I have been arranging an event as a volunteer with Red Cross.
I have talked to immigrants and other's that have the need of new friends that are open to all different kinds of backgrounds and religions behind them before, but this event was something special for me.  Yes, I have known for years now that immigrants in Finland tend to keep on their own, because of Finnish people are the kind of slowly warming persons, I am too (, but gladly I like to get to know new people) and it is not the ideal situation, if people avoid you as you are trying to fit in. After the event, when I went to my bed and started thinking back what had happened hours before:

At 5 pm.  

I drove to the event place and there were three people plus me, and we started to prepare our theme room, Easter! :) We made Easter-Egg templates for people to color, and I decorated a glass jar where we put candy and the one who guessed the weight the nearest got it all to his/herself. I also came up with an idea to put garbage bag slices to the walls to make a tree, where to put the colored Easter-Eggs and some feathers if one wanted. Putting the tree up, was a lot harder than you'd think and we had to work in two teams to get all where they should be. Two were taping, and two were holding the slices at place. 

When there were ten minutes to opening of the event, we changed our clothes to ones more matching to the theme:D  I was a pink bunny (pink jumpsuit, bunny-ears, and face colors did the job) and one of my friends was a chick, yellow clothes and all, even her face was yellow, imagine the job to get it off xD

At 6 pm and so on...

People started coming in and we up the room with our smiles and some Easter music, one song especially was liked and it is a Finnish one called "Tiputanssi", and there is a dance to it believe or not :D We taught them it and it was super fun and all the guests were so nice and warmhearted that I don't know how else to describe it. I also visited, when I could, the other rooms. There were a Christmas room, Vappu-room (One day in May, when all that have the white hat can celebrate, originally it is meant though to be the feast of the poor, or the  worker class.), and Valentines Day -room, and one dedicated to Halloween:D 

Learning outcome: Considered the ethical implications of their actions, which means that I have learned, that ethical actions accompanied with bravery to look new people from different perspective than before leads to new great relationships. Finnish people should act ethically more often, it really does have a benefit to your life.

So, alongside all that business and dizziness I realized that the problem is in the attitudes that parents teach to their white children here in Finland, and totally not in the immigrants! It is our responsibility to take care of the ones that are weaker in our society, language as an example of one weakness one can face, and that the attitudes will not change unless acted upon, and I just believe that if all young people like me would have been there and felt what I felt with them, we all could understand and accept each other as we are. 

That was my serious side from today, keep your eyes open and receptive. Adios!

Halloween sweets and salty's!

Hello again! Time flies and keeps teasing me, but now I have finally time to update again! Yey! :D

So, the story behind me baking is that me and my friends decided to throw a Halloween party. First, it was supposed to be potluck, but I decided later that I want to be the host, so it is my duty to make all kinds of delicious deserts. I also had other decorations, but I have lost the pictures :(. 

I must say at this point, that as an introvert I would not have made more friends, deepened my relationship to old ones, or learned to throw parties if I had not gone to IB high school, and weren't "forced" to do creative tasks along with other schoolwork. 

Learning outcome: Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth: I have increased the awareness of my  baking and photographing strengths and my area of growth is hosting a party.

But, we should not let the lack of pictures ruin the story of the day when I felt awesome.

The day before the party:
 I baked all evening: ham/cheese/onion/pepper/garlic -pies, chocolate cake, aunt Anna's cookies, and chocolate and fudge coated cookie squares. Oh boy, the squares were just melting in my mouth... <3 Guests loved them too!

From 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on party day:
I cut garbage bags to slices and hooked them above the doors, put my on make-up and costume on. I also decorated the table, made some bool and put an ice "hand" in the bool bowl to get some edginess to it, I could not add alcohol because there were underage people coming to my party. 

From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.:
 We just had some genuine fun and ate too much, but we didn't care until the next day when nothing seemed to be going down... :D OOPS!

I am adding many posts at once now...  So keep on reading.

Spring timeee!! :)

I didn't really have time to do any considerable amount of CAS at spring.
But I was planning for the summer :)
I planned to swim as much as I can in natural waters and go jogging/running time to time.
I also started to think that maybe photographing could be my thing. And it has become, there is just a small but. I don't have my own camera and so I have to take my parents and they don't like me going with it to the nature and beaches... xd I should get own one.
So I have tried to take pictures during the summer and the fall, that since continues to be. I have to admit, at fall the colours are spectacular. I have learned so many tricks to make the picture better that I didn't even dare to dream. A few of the pictures are down below:

Tiny fish babies in Hailuoto :)

Hailuotobeach

Kiiminkijoki

Just messing around :)

It was a fine day to take photos...

So yeah  I got an hour of CAS from all of these pictures because I had to find the right kind of spot and lights and all the other settings right. I noticed that it took some perseverance in trying to take a good photo from a swinging swing and to keep the picture clear, which was kind of a huge problem. That photo was the best I could take! :)

I will update tomorrow some more of the happenings, like the swimming thing and other photos that I have taken. See ya!

Pictures of Oldie's (late)

Helloouu again. It's been too much time since my last post, but I'll try to remember to post more often.

So here is some pictures from the Oldie's dance:

And later in the evening we had a Oldie's Party at Walhalla and we danced, drank, and talked all night. I was at home half past three am. :D So yeah it was really nice to have this kind of special day, and celebrate being the eldest students :)  (I loved how my hair was done :3)

I have one picture which was taken half an hour before I headed to the Walhalla:

All of my efforts were everyone's to see at Oulu-halli, 14.2.2014 Only happy memories left of that day, but what I am most proud of is that I learned a new skill, that is to waltz! :D It took more then 20 hours, but totally worth it. Dancing as an activity is one of my favorites in any case, so I guess there were no possibility not to like to waltz.

Learning outcomes: Undertaking new challenges, which means, that I learned many new dances and got to perform them to show that I have truly learned them. I also had another learning outcome from this experience, which is To show persistence and commitment in my activities, because learning a new dance need hours and hours of work, and without persistence and commitment I could not have managed to do that. I could have been doing other schoolwork, but decided to dance instead to take this challenge and conquer it.
:) Soon more about me

One week and two days until Oldies DANCE!

School has been really intense lately. For example yesterday my day started at 9.00 when we had English B HL Projects where we were teachers for an hour ( 60 mins ) and it took 3 hours total  plus lunch. After that we had paper two and since I'm an HL students I had two things to do... in 90 mins! 

At 14.30 Our code 8 assesement started ( Finnish A SL ) and we had to listen some students speaking about 10 minutes each. Topics were fine, but the students seemed to be lacking a good grip of the subject, they seemed somewhat bored. After that at 16.30 Our Oldies Dance course had a meeting and we ended up dancing 3 hours straight..... BUT I GOT CAS HOURS!!! ::DDD  I GOT ALMOST 3 and half hours so I rounded up to that. Oldies dance course is such a good way to get CAS. You get it quickly and in the end, you get to be a princess :)  

The teachers are so friendly and professional and I would like to be, someday, as good at something as they are teaching P.E. 

I really had forgotten how nice dancing is. It burns calories that I got around Christmas and gives me a good feeling and more social interaction with people, without noticing it. My endurance has also increased and I don't sweat so much. ...Usually I would just sit at home doing homework or watching Tv, occasionally walking our family pet, Petu. 

I have learned to respect my body, and to listen my feelings too. IF something feels good, you shouldn't stop doing it. IF there is people reading this, you should think CAS as something fun you wouldn't maybe try otherwise, but that is actually really cool and surprising. At least that is how I think of it. 

At total I must already have around 110 hours of CAS even though I have been in IB1 for only 7 months.

Good evening to all! :) Pictures of Oldies Dances are coming some day  if I get someone good to take the pics. I wish I will.... :D

"Oldies, the stage is yours..."

So it is the time of the year when we second graders in high school dress up nicely and dance in front of thousands of people! :) We have started training for it last week. And I've got 6 hours of Action from it already. And there is more to come since the Dancing event is held in the 14th of February, Valentines Day. How very nice indeed! :D I don't know if my fitness rises because of the dance lessons but at least I can be A PRINCESS for a one day!! Can't wait for it.

My other Action activities have occurred in the fall; I went to swimming and orienteering at night many times. It's been dark at night when I have orienteered so sense of direction is hard to keep up to. I have orienteered for many years so I have it in my bones nowadays. It is also quite chilly out there. Orienteering is not for mommy's boys you need to have some attitude to cope.  I have noticed that part of my personality is straight from the woods that I used to run in. I have the attitude, I have the faith, I have the perseverance to keep on going. I need orienteering time to time just to clear my head empty.
From these together my Activity hours are total of 18. Quite well I'd say.

My Creativity hours are total of 24. I'm much better inventing something to do for Service and Creativity than Action. I'm so lucky I got a partner for the Oldies Dances!

Kind regards,
Aino-Maria

Red Cross and Resthome of Hiironen

Time for the Service part to get some daylight.
So at total I have 24 hours of service.

For Red Cross Finland I have done 17 hours of CAS in forms of

1. EU - food service  5,5 hours
2. Planning an event held by them   2,5 h
3. Helping to held the event of theirs  9 h

We made a dreamcatcher together!

I have also helped my friend to do her own music video which is going to be published to YouTube. She never could have done it without help, as anyone can imagine. I was acting the best friend of the main character - part. From that I got 4 hours of Service.

Learning outcome: Engaged with issues of global importance, that is the treatment of elderly and immigrants.I learned that there are issues that are hard to fix, but individuals can bring comfort being there for them and having good time, and just talk about things.

31.11.2013 Saturday I was at the Hiironen Resthome baking Christmas pies. We thought that there are many departments that cannot bake themselves and that new people once in a while would be good for them, so we went and helped. There was an old woman who had troubles speaking but it was very clear that she enjoyed our presence and was curious towards us. And then there was a old man who, without permission, took a pie and ate it. The nurses rebuked him but I thought that he did nothing wrong because we didn't say at any point that they couldn't eat them right away. I guess they have some unwritten rules there then, but I must say that even though they have quite everything they need I would not want to live there. There was still smell and the nurses were OK but not as caring as they could be. I lately saw a raw version of a document about prisoners and the elderly where the differences in the institutions had been compared. The elderly may lay down for days without hygiene checks etc. and they don't even have internet connections, unlike the prisoners. I think it is a great injustice that THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE DONE SOMETHING BAD get a better treatment than THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE PAID TAXES ALL THEIR LIFE AND BEEN KIND AND CARING CITIZENS. I just don't...... whatever.... not my decisions to make is it.. :/  I felt ethically right when I was standing on their side and taking the responsibility, even though the act was not one I would have ever considered as something not appreciated. In my family background it has never been wrong to take more food, the opposite... So I really understood, what the man was going through. Small things count, yeah?! :)


I also have had total of half an hour of Service from the infos doing CAS, and doing it for Red Cross.

I've done a lot of stuff lately

Hey!  :))  I've had excellent weeks.
I have thought about doing a surprise project for my school mates and the staff there. I started it last weekend :3
I wanted to give them something abstract and give them a true Christmas feeling. So I planned it with my 3 friends at school to do ginger breads of different shapes, and got to work last Saturday. One of my friends didn't make it there, so I "hired" some help from my little helper Helmi. All of us are doing this voluntarily and we all got a little closer to each others too. I got 2 and half hours Creativity from it and when we finish this on this Sunday I going to mark it as Service since I'm delivering a good message and joy to people all free and just because I wanted to :) I happen to know a family who is not so wealthy so that gave me the idea if giving something material and at the same time share my caring. It is a good deed. I feel I also took me a challenge with this project because, I had never done the dough myself before, so I was really relieved that it was just fine, and tasted good. But also I mean the aspect of amount of the ginger breads I had to do... I counted them in the end, and it added up to 167 ginger breads!!! :D I was exhausted by all the work that night. But now I can say with experience that, it is a hard job to do so many, but after you have done them, there is no one that can doubt your skills on that area. I consider myself ginger bread master now ;)

Learning outcome: Working collaboratively, which in this case meant doing loads and loads of ginger breads and getting them to school together. We bonded and the job was nicer and more quickly done with help. I learned that 1+1=3 this time. :)

I have also taken a lot of pictures of other stuff that I have been doing with my phone and I wanted to share them here. Enjoy!

I made this for my mothers cousins child since he is a newborn baby . Adorable card to a adorable baby eh?! ;)

Autumn Holiday and creativityyyy

So I had a week of from school due Autumn holiday and I don't think it was any good :D I like school and doing stuff. Well... I should get to the point:D

On Friday my friend Minttu and I went to biking. So, it was raining almost all the time and there were max. +5 Celsius and we had planned a 19 km route. Minttu has some pictures from the beach where we stopped but I'm not allowed to put them here. From that trip we got 3 and half hours Activity and it was so much of fun, though my legs got real tired, we even got little spurts in the end as we joked about how "fat" we are and how we are burning it all. :) My brains needed some sugar after that to recover from this task, it was emotionally hard to push myself to bike and bike even more. I was really surprised though that my legs weren't hurting anymore in the morning. I guess I have better fitness than it looks like. It was an wakening experience in every way I would say.

The morning went quite well, we slept late and then started to bake some cakes and other stuff. ( I am not sure what they were....:D ) And my breakfast included silky semolina porridge with raspberry marmalade on top giving the porridge extra texture when combined in the mouth. ( You see what I did there ::))  )