★。＋。CAS OVERALL EVALUATION＋★＊。

At first, I thought CAS wouldn't affect much in my life although it would affect my grades. However, throughout CAS I found joy, happiness and passion. I am really glad to do the CAS events, which has lead me to commitment in the activities. I would’ve never had the chance to try archery, being a crew in a drama production, dance, teaching and other activities that I did for my CAS. What I liked the best from CAS was that I found what I really like and enjoy. I learned about leadership during dance activity. I talked about it in previous blogs during my dance practices. It was pretty hard to bring everyone together and practice perfectly. However, I was able to keep it up in dance because I found out that I really enjoy dancing. Also in teaching, I thought I would never teach because I had no interest in being a teacher before but I did because these two students asked for my help. I found out that by teaching, I also learn something and it is both efficient and beneficial for both my students and I. I learned how to help others and also learned how hard it is to become a leader. I achieved my learning outcomes, especially having COMMITMENT and continue the activity for a long time without giving up.

November & December

2 December 2010

I taught Jacklyn last Friday, this time in a restaurant instead of cafe. It was very helpful for studying. We went to a Japanese style pasta restaurant called “Pasta de Waraku”. The menu was both written in Japanese and English. So she was able to read them easily. I also taught her how to read numbers and values, for example 10s, 100s, 1000s, 10,000s and so on. Other than this, I also taught her how to read complicated numbers, for example 15,437. At first she struggled, but after I translated her how to read them, she told me that it was way much easier for her to understand. Later on, I taught her how to use the word eat, drink, do, can, go and come in Japanese. Since the words are too complicated, I made her a table for the translation and sent it to her. She said that it is easier to understand and will be a lot faster to learn. For the next lesson, she said that she would like to talk about the Japanese Language test since I did the test last December and passed the test for level 2 (level 4 is the easiest and level 1 is the hardest).

3 December

Last Saturday and the previous Saturday, I’ve been teaching Mr. Nakamichi about office and business vocabularies that may help his everyday life in his office. I taught him words such as office, company, data, information, paper, pen, meeting room and many more. He told me that it was very helpful, although he had to memorize so much new vocabularies.

Evaluation

When I looked back to what I did for my students, I really felt proud of them and also myself. I taught Mr. Nakamichi from the very beginning, where he didn’t even know how to ask for things he needs. I taught Jacklyn how to develop her Japanese and even start a conversation. Now they are starting to improve rapidly and I am very happy to see that. I feel that I am making a change although it is a very small change compared to the world. But I feel the happiness when my students are happy because they gain their language skills.

Dance

I have been starting to have the actual real practice for the last event this year, which is the Christmas celebration, which will occur on 15^th of December. This might be the last time me, as a senior to have a dance performance since I might be too busy next year facing the exams although I still want to do it. This is going be my third performance. For this performance, I am using a choreographer for the first time. The reason is because the crew and I (the 12^th graders) had semester test, so I thought it was better to ask someone to choreograph. Although we used a choreographer, we still made few movements by ourselves to keep our performance how we want it to be. So far the progress is pretty good but still need so much things to brush up. I’ve had three practices so far and this week and next week are going to be the last practice and we’re up next Wednesday for the performance.

Improvement in Japanese lesson

Last week on Friday (12 November 2010), I taught Japanese lesson to Jacklyn. I changed location for her so that it would be more efficient to both of us (since we both come from opposite areas which is quite far from Jakarta). It worked so well that we were able to start the lesson early and with motivation. First, I started to teach Jacklyn more vocabularies in "foods" and how to say "I like" or "My favorite ..... is......". This topic really helped Jacklyn a lot in communicating in Japanese. So I tried speaking with her in Japanese for around 15-20 minutes. And she was able to understand most of my speaking and she was also able to reply in whatever I ask her. It was very amazing. Another thing that really impressed me was that she remembered all Japanese characters I thought last two weeks (there were around 30 characters). She got full mark when I tested her.

Dance Innovation

I am experiencing new innovation in dance right now. In October, I have decided to start a dance crew again, fresh and new. I am changing the members of the crew too (not all though). I am changing the guy member (Ian and Jun Young) because they are struggling in other IB subjects so I don't want to force them. This time, I am searching for those who are willing to dance and are passionate so that it would be motivating for all of us. So far, I found three people who are willing to dance, Theo, Levina and Jin Ju. So far, I have tried dancing last friday with Theo (during PE class) and Levina (after school). They are all in different grades.

I am happy that they're motivated. Now I'm planning to find some dance competition and participate to see how much I improved my skill.

Indonesian lesson October

Last month, I taught Jaclyn only twice. She's been busy last month.

However, I don't have to worry much about her because she is a fast learner and also, she can learn by herself too. Although she makes mistakes, but she is very hard working and seems passionate about learning Japanese.

I taught her in uniquely last month. I taught Japanese through an elementary kid comic book. It is a famous modern comic called "Kocchi muite Miiko!". It is a series of short stories and the main character is Miiko. Jacklyn said that she read the comic in Indonesian translation. I taught her how to read comics, each meaning, vocabularies, grammars and more. She said that she learned a lot. So far she only understands formal Japanese, which makes it awkward if one day she makes a Japanese friend. So I am also teac

hing her how to speak casual, informal Japanese to socialize easier with others.

This is the picture of the comic cover that we read:

Japanese Lesson October

Last month on October, I was insanely busy with my school works, also my CAS which I ended up updating my CAS blog only once. So today I am updating whatever I have done last month.

Japanese Lesson:

Last month, I taught Mr. Nakamichi four times (1hour 30 min, once in a week) which I ended up doing 5.2 hours for this CAS activity last month. I saw lots of improvements in Mr. Nakamichi. He is understanding and learning even more vocabularies, grammars and words. I am really proud of him. By the end of the month, we finally finished the first text book!! (It took us around three months to finish the text book). He graduated first grade!

Dance improvement

I have been improving my dance skills during PE time this month every Friday together with Joo Eun. We really enjoy dancing for exercising. We made more movements. Also, I still go to the gym to work out and also join the dance classes. Sometimes I input the movements that I learned and modify them together with Joo Eun. Today, we have successfully covered up to the middle part of the song. 

Japanese and Indonesian lesson

It's been a very busy month, although I had a holiday for a week (Lebaran Holiday). I've been focusing too much on other homeworks. Also, I had difficulties in transportation and going my student's place since it was a Islamic holiday. However I tried my best to approach to my students and teach them.

Indonesian lesson with Mr. Nakamichi:

Saturday September 4th

Mr. Nakamichi couldn't attend to the lesson due to his busy schedule (he had to go to Malaysia for his business) So I was not able to achieve my CAS this day.

Monday September 13th

Finally, I was able to meet Mr. Nakamichi after the Lebaran. The lesson went smooth, indeed, we had so much fun interacting. This day, I did the review for everything what I've been teaching him just to make sure that he understands. It was really fun to a review and see how much he understands. It was very impressive how Mr. Nakamichi is starting to understand and memorize words. He has been practicing a lot. He is also improving in grammar.

Japanese lesson:

Friday August 27th

I have started teaching the Japanese lesson with Jacklyn. It was our first meeting and I've been observing what she could do so far. She was already able to read and write the Japanese alphabet, Katakana and Hiragana. She says that she wants to start learning calligraphy or Kanji, grammar, speaking and listening in Japanese. I tried talking to her in Japanese and seems that she still struggles somehow but understands to concept. So my goal now is to help her with speaking and listening fluently in Japanese. For Kanji I will teach her later on step by step. It took two hours in this meeting. 

Friday September 24

It was our second meeting, since Jacklyn had been busy during the holiday in the mid-September. I made a powerpoint slide show for her and learned from the very basic. I taught her greetings and manners in Japanese such as good morning, good afternoon and so on. I helped her in pronunciation. It was easy to fix her because it seems like she has been trying her best to learn Japanese. I have spent 1 hour and 30 minutes. 

Evaluation

I learned a lot by teaching others. I'm really glad to choose these two activities for my service in this CAS program. It makes me feel very happy because I can finally help others by using my own skills. It is very challenging and hard to teach but it is actually me, myself that is learning more than my students.

Indonesian Lesson

To be honest, I have been very busy lately that I forgot to update my CAS blog each week. This month, the Indonesian Lesson with Mr. Nakamichi (my student which is a president director of a Japanese company) has been continuing until the fifth lesson. 

1st lesson:

The first lesson didn't go well because it was my first time to teach basic Indonesian. Both my student and I were panicking due to the complication and confusion. I wasn't well prepared enough and there were too many things that I taught him. Mr. Nakamichi said that my lesson was way too rapid and that he won't be able to catch up with the current speed.

2nd lesson:

Compared to the first lesson, the lesson went much smoother and clearer. I prepared a proper powerpoint presentation to teach Mr. Nakamichi. First thing I taught him was 5W1H (What, where, when, who, why and how) in Indonesian. I believe these are the main things that he should know because it will help a lot for him as a beginner. He can at least start asking questions to people if he doesn't understand. I also taught him how to say "want" in Indonesian. At the end of the lesson, he said that it is much easier and catch up today's lesson. I was really glad to hear that.

3rd lesson:

After knowing basic greetings, "want" and the 5W1H, I thought Mr.Nakamichi about meals and physical condition. This is very important to know for in case if Mr. Nakamichi needs to communicate about meal and physical conditions for him to stay healthy by communicating. He said that he was worried because he couldn't order his own meals when asking one of his Indonesian staffs. He said the lesson was helpful. 

4th lesson:

Later on, I taught him about objects in room, color, family and friends. I taught him this so that he can make new conversations with others by telling what he likes or his family. Other than these topics, we also continued on the text book. I saw great development with Mr. Nakamichi's reading and understanding skills in the language. He was able to translate what I've been teaching him. I felt proud of him and also myself that I was starting to be successful in teaching.

5th lesson:

This last month, I taught him about people's characteristic and personality. This was quite challenging for him because some of the sentence structure is confusing. But Mr. Nakamichi did his best to understand the concept. I told him to practice a lot and get use to it. After that, we did review for the month to make sure he understands everything that we've learned. My next plan is to review everything until Mr. Nakamichi understands everything because it takes time to memorize and understand language.

SUMMER BREAK

It's been a month that I haven't updated my CAS blog because I'm in my summer break. During this summer break, I stayed in Indonesia and met new people. The greatest news I have so far is that I got two new students, a Japanese man and an Indonesian student. The Japanese man just came from America to Indonesia  for his business and he is stressing out because he can't communicate using Indonesian. He really needs to learn Indonesian for his job and to socialize with others. So he asked my help to teach him Indonesian once a week. The Indonesian girl, she is extremely interested in Japanese culture so she asked me to teach her Japanese, also once a week. I decided to help these two people to gain CAS points because I could gain experience and I will be learning on how to teach people too. I can also develop my own language skills and learn how to teach people fluently. So I am taking this as a chance to help them and also to teach myself. The lesson will start on August. Each of them will be taking two hours of lesson.

Fitness

Last Friday, I had so much fun doing fitness because there was a special dance lesson on that day. So I joined and was able to follow all of the movements. I thought it was really energetic, fun and pretty challenging. Dancing is always motivating for me and I feel really glad joining the class. Also, I don't get tired that easily after going to the gym for five months. I feel more healthy and my stamina is pretty good. 

These days, I go home using a public transportation called "Angkot" after fitness because I don't really like my driver waiting for me when it gets late. Angkot is like a mini bus and the door is opened the whole time. I think it is pretty dangerous because it moves fast too. However, the best part of angkot is that it is really cheap compared to taxi or cab (it only costs around Rp.2,000 to Rp.3,000). So me, as a student feel really great about it and don't have to worry. With angkot, I learn a lot about different perspectives. Usually I ride car but with angkot, I feel and experience as other people feel. In angkot, sometimes it is hard when it is really hot or raining. I also learn how people in Bogor socialize easily with others, they greet each other, they share some snacks if they have some and so on. I learned a lot about difficulties in riding public transportation but I really need these kinds of lesson because I will be graduating next year and in Japan, I would need to ride public transportation the whole time. I am already spoiled enough. I really want to be independent and not relying on others every time. 

Dance performance! and Galaxy performance!

         Last Thursday, there was home concert and my dance group performed. We have successfully performed for the closing session. Most of the audiences liked it. From this performance, I learned a lot how being a leader is not easy and simple. Behind the scene, I had so much trouble controlling the dance group especially in time management and motivation. It was really hard to arrange things since I had seven people in total. Some couldn't join practice much, some were stressing out because of tests and homework, some were not motivated because they were tired, and some were distracted easily. Me myself also had troubles in managing the schedule because I had so much things to do last week (tests, projects and homework). However I am still happy because I have achieved my goal again, which is to dance together with my team, learn how to choreograph and to perform together as a team. I had so much trouble, I even thought of giving up so many times, but I couldn't because I wanted to do it so badly. So now I am satisfied with my result. (In the picture, I'm the one with the grey shirt with blue scarf)

 

         Last Saturday (May 22nd), I performed with the galaxy big band jazz at Barcode in Kemang. I had so much fun in this last performance. I had to be there at 11am to practice and have last rehearsal with the group, had lunch and changed clothes. At 4.30, the door opened and at 5pm, we started the performance. There were so many audiences watching us (around 300 people). Even the Japanese Ambassador from the Japanese Embassy came to watch us, so we were all nervous. Later on we performed around 21 songs in total (yes, it was tiring). Another new experience for me was that my sister and I was the MC for the third part of the performance. I was nervous at first but looking at people laughing and enjoying with us made me less nervous and gained more confidence. Becoming an MC was my first time and I think I did pretty well because I was able to make the audiences laugh and pay attention with us. However, in the middle of the performance it rained really hard so I had hard times talking loudly. I spoke in both English and Japanese so that everyone would understand.

         Later on, I joined the after party celebration. Everyone said that they really like how we did the MC and I was really grateful about that. Now I’ve gained more confidence in talking in front of many people. I also told them that I wouldn’t be able to join practice often anymore because I want to focus on Aikido. They said that they would be sad but they are supporting me. From here, I learned how working in team is very important and powerful. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to perform, and with their support, I’m able develop. Like what my old music teacher said that band is like a chicken soup. Without the vegetables or chickens or the soup, it won’t become a chicken soup, just like a team.

Also, the galaxy jazz band group was on the Jakarta Shimbun (Japanese Newspaper in Indonesia) on 24th of May, 2010. We were also uploaded on a website of Japanese community in Jakarta.

site: http://www.j-people.net/info&topic/010/0100522galaxy/index.html

After party picture (I'm the one in the middle)

Four Days Holiday

I had four days holiday starting last Thursday to Friday (May 13th - 16th). I still did my CAS activities. I did dance and jazz band practice.

On Wednesday, I slept over at Joo Eun's house (one of my dance group members) and spent one hour to choreograph our new dance which will be performed for the upcoming home concert (a talent show at our school). We were successful in covering 40% of the whole dance.

On Friday, I invited the boys member and taught them the new movements, then we practiced. The boys weren't that successful because they struggled in memorizing the movements. I had to be patient while teaching them. We practiced for two hours. After that, I went to fitness and joined the friday jam hop class again and was able to follow most of the movements (I came 30 minutes late)

On Saturday, I slept over at Samantha's house (also from dance group member) and we were able to cover 80% of the dance performance. So today, I am going to meet my dance group and have rehearsal for the final (we only have four more days left!). I spent one hour this day.

On Sunday, I joined the band rehearsal for four hours. It was my last rehearsal because next week, there will be the concert at barcode cafe. After this concert, I am going to change my CAS activity to Aikido (Japanese martial art) officially.

April 30 - May 2

April 30

On Friday, I went to the gym and worked out again. I did 150 sit ups and then I joined the dance class again. It was a bit different from the previous one (hip hop class) and this one was called jam hop. It is more into street style and I thought this was very very challenging. I struggled since the first step of the dance. It was really hard to follow the steps of the movements. Unlike the hip hop dance, this one was much faster and confusing. Overall, I couldn't follow the steps perfectly. However I had so much fun and didn't feel embarrassed because the dance coach was really nice. He was very patient although he teaches very fast. I thought that I wanted to be a caring person like him. At the end he said that it is only my first time and the first time is always hard and confusing. He told me to keep practicing so that I can do better next week. 

May 1

On the next day, Saturday, I did Tai Chi for one hour in the morning and Aikido for two hours (4-6pm). The teacher was different from the last one. For the last lesson, I had to learn the basic moves such as omote (forward) and ura (back). I had to learn how to fall, how to roll and how to defend. This one was very challenging. I tried many times but I couldn't do it perfectly. So I kept on telling my self how to do the right way but I guess I wasn't brave enough to do it. Sometimes I still struggle and afraid to fall down or break my neck. It looks really easy and simple when the trainer did it. I need to learn how to be brave. In other hand, I thought Tai Chi was easier although it was pretty tiring. My neighbors invited me to do Tai Chi with them and since I like to move my body, I joined them. It was my first time and was a new experience to me. I really enjoyed doing Tai Chi in the morning with the sunlight. 

May 2

Yesterday, after I had my piano lesson, I went to the gym again in Jakarta. My purpose was to join the class again and while I was waiting, I did 150 sit ups. I thought using the materials in that gym was very easy. I could feel the muscle ache now and I thought it was very effective. After that I joined the modern dance class. This one wasn't as challenging as the class I did on Friday. This one was very easy I thought. Although the movements were easy, it became my inspiration again for my dance performance. Now, my goal is to be fit by the end of the month because I am helping with my sister's fashion show. I am helping her by becoming her model and wearing the clothes that she designed. Hopefully I will look good and make my sister proud and make feel everyone to be proud of her. 

One thing I am very happy about now is that I found out that I really like energetic activities, especially dance. In my own definition, dance could be called as the mixture or combinations of sports, music and art. Since I like all of these activities, I thought dance is the best thing to do so far. Sometimes it is hard to follow or even embarrassing because I am really bad at it. But I really enjoy it and I would like to continue dance as long as possible. I also enjoy Aikido because once I do it, it makes me sweat a lot and make me feel healthy. After the last galaxy concert on May 22nd, I might want to quit the band and focus more on these activities. Hopefully I could teach someone how to dance for my service next year. During the weekend, I also bought a proper sports pants for fitness/ dance. Overall, I thought being healthy is a very thankful gift. So I wouldn't want to waste it and do everything as active as possible while I'm still young and healthy.

Galaxy practice and Aikido

Last weekend on 22nd of April, I went to Galaxy Jazz band rehersal at 1.30pm. I was having a good day so I wasn't stressing out when I went to practice. However, I couldn't stay until the end of rehearsal (I stayed up until 2.30pm). I only joined the saxophone part practice for one hour. I learned how to play the song "Four brothers" and "In the mood". "In the mood" was already familiar to me since I could play the song on the piano. It is a very moody, happy and a jazzy song, I really like it. "Four brothers" was much harder compared to "In the mood" because it is hard to follow the rhythm. 

 

On the next day, April 23rd I started my new Action activity!!! Which is Aikido, Japanese martial art. The location is in Jakarta, Bulungan.  joined from 4.30pm to 6pm (I was 30 minutes late). I joined together with my mom and younger sister. Long time ago when I was in elementary school I used to join Aikido, however I never improved and I never enjoyed the activity because there were no girls at all and I thought the activity itself was boring. But when I started again last Sunday, I found that Aikido is fun, interesting, energetic activity. Once I went there I was sweating so much. My supervisor, Mr. Herry is a very kind person and helped me with the movements. It was my first time but I felt like an expert already because once I go to the lesson, I learn so much movements and techniques. It is very amazing and I am hoping to become stronger and braver as I join this activity. The best thing I like about Aikido is that differently from Karate, Judo or Taekwondo, it is more friendly and easy to do. It doesn't hurt when the I attack the opponent; it's all about losing the opponent's balance and make them fall. Although sometimes it hurts but the pain doesn't last long (only few seconds or minutes). So doing martial arts is not a violent thing to do. It is cultural, challenging and fun. 

For yesterday's lesson, I mostly learned how to lose people's balance by using wrist. It is very amazing to know that human can lose balance by twisting their wrists and how I can carry a man who's heavier than me. 

Dance in fitness

Yesteday, I had an awesome time during fitness. I saw the schedule and they had hip hop class yesterday from 6pm to 7pm. I thought this would be fun and it could give me inspiration for my next dance performance. So yesterday I had fun dancing in the class and got some inspiration and some new movements that might be able to fit in for the dance performance.

Also, I burned 150 calories yesterday with the running machine. I thought it was tiring but also very motivating at the same time. It is very hard to burn calories. I also learned that by breathing slowly while running could help me prevent cramp or stitches. I felt very energized and hyper yesterday and I learned that being healthy is amazing (because I was sick last week and wasn't able to do sports). I feel very thankful that I'm healthy and I can do what I want physically. So I am not going to waste it and would like to challenge more while I'm still young and healthy.

Galaxy Big Band practice and next plan

Yesterday, I had the Galaxy Jazz band practice at Yamaha building. I started at 2.30pm in the afternoon until 8pm at night. Honestly, I thought yesterday's practice was very frustrating. At first, I thought that the practice was going to end at 6pm. However it was somehow extended to 7pm. Later on I found out that there is a saxophone mini band practice and that I was in it (because I play the saxophone in the band). I was stressing out because I was hungry and exhausted. 

I may sound like a negative student but I actually have reasons to this. I was in this band when I was in 6th grade and I've been playing for one year. After that I took a break because I've been very busy the whole time. So I joined again now in 11th grade for my CAS. Everything changed so much. First, the leader of the band and the community was changed. I can't really get along well with the new people although I tried to socialize with them. The system has changed, we need to download scores and print them by ourselves which is hard for me to do because there are tons of scores to download and I get confused which one is which (there are too many parts such as trumpet, trombone, woodwind, etc.) Also, I think the practice time is too long (4-5 hours every practice). I tried my self to think positively and to motivate my self being in the band but I always fail. I am strongly thinking of changing this activity after one more concert at Barcode in Kemang (May 22). 

I might want to learn Aikido (Japanese Taekwondo) for my action activity. And I would like to focus my service activity after the summer break. I will go to the small elementary school next to my school and teach kids about interesting things such as crafts, global warming, manners and behaviors, little bit of language, music, art and so on. I would do this for three months. 

Quarter 4

 I have been sick last week (I had bad stomach ache). So to be honest, I couldn't do my CAS activity. But I was able to do go to the gym once last week to work out and get healthier. I did it for one hour. 

Also, last Saturday, I was supposed to go and do the galaxy jazz band practice, but since I had my stomach ache, I decided not to go and instead stayed with my mother. She had a meeting with her team. Their plan is to make a Japanese event for this year's summer. My mom told me to join and sit next to hear while listening to their conversation and if possible, give some advices or suggestions as a teenager. So I sat there and listened for two hours. At last, I gave them some suggestions such as what teenagers like, their trends and so on. 

Since I couldn't really do CAS last week, I've been planning what to do next for my new quarter 4 CAS activity. I am planning to do a dance performance again, hopefully for the home concert later on around May or june. I would also like to teach or give a lesson to a student either in language, music or art. Another plan, I would like to draw a painting, sell them and donate some money to orphans with my profit. 

Dance Performance

It's been a long time that I haven't updated my CAS blog because I was busy recently. First of all, I would like to talk about how successful the Dance Performance was. 

We performed on Saturday, 6th of February at around 12-1pm in the basketball court outside the Gym. In the morning, the committee said that our performance was going to be occurred in the morning around 10am. However, most of the performers and judges came late, so it started later after 1oam. So we did our dance performance right after lunch. We practiced until the last minute. At that time, not so many people were in the court. So we did the opening for the second session of the dance performance. We explained the audience that this was for our CAS. The performance went really well, the audience liked it and also more audience came while we were having our performance. So then the second session was filled with so many audiences watching. (I will upload the video later on)

Right after the performance, I had basketball match in the gym. We lost the game but we had so much fun playing. I learned more about teamwork. How friends are important, and how to trust my own team.

On March 13th (Saturday), I performed a piano duet with my sister, Sakura at Goethe Haus in Jakarta for the choir fund raising concert. The choir teacher, Pak Daniel asked us to play the piano for the auction session to entertain the audiences. So we played two songs for the first auction and third auction. The performance went quite well and we were successful in entertaining the audiences. 

Dance + Basketball + FItness

Today, I did everything in one day because I had the opportunity to do them all. First of all, I sacrificed my PE time to do dance because sports festival is coming up soon (three more days to go!) and spent 1 hour 30 minutes. 

Next, I joined the last basketball practice after school.  I decided to make this practice last because starting next week (which is after the sports festival) the other coach will be coaching the rest of the school year for high school basket ball team. Also, it is because I want to explore and find something new to learn other than basketball. Today, I also learned how much it hurts when a ball hits my face (especially on the right eye).

After basketball, I went to the gym because I thought I didn't do enough exercise today. I found out yesterday when I went to the gym and met the personal trainer, he said that my blood pressure is lower than average. It means that my health condition is not so good. He told me to take more vitamins, eat more balanced foods, exercise more and to rest/ sleep more (at least 8 hours). 

Fifth day and sixth day of fitness

On Monday, I joined the fitness club and ran the running machine for 18 minutes. I burnt 140 calories. 

Yesterday, I joined fitness again, but this time, I used a personal trainer. I learned how to use the materials/ objects that can be used in the gym. First, the guide explained how much calories should be burnt in a week by using the running machine (I burnt only around 50 calories yesterday). He said it is good if we can burn 1000 calories in one week. If we can burn 4000 calories, then it could also mean that we lose 1 kg of our weight. After that, we learned how to use the fitness materials for arms, abs and legs. At the end, we ended with stretching. However, we're not done yet with the explanations and so on. So I am going to meet the trainer again next Monday.

Galaxy practice, making demo tape for Java Jazz

Last Sunday, after doing the fitness activity, I went to the Yamaha building and had the jazz band practice. For the beginning part of the practice, we were making a demo tape for a big jazz festival in Jakarta called Java Jazz. It is like a tape for the audition. So if the Java Jazz committee accept us or like our performance, then we could perform for the festival, which is going to occur on March 5, 6 & 7. 

Fourth day of fitness

Last Sunday, I joined one of the dance classes in the fitness club. I spent one hour in the class and finally got the idea of the movements for our dance performance for the upcoming sports festival.

Third day of fitness

On January 22nd, I went to Jakarta to join one of the dance classes with my friends (also to help the dance performance for this up coming sports festival). However, we didn't have much fun with the class, so we decided to run using the running machine. I burned around 70 calories in 15 minutes. I learned that it is actually a hard work to burn fats, compared to eating/ getting fat. 

Basketball with Middle School students part II

Today after school, I joined the basketball practice to continue helping my coach. I didn't have to do much such as running and playing today. So it was more relaxing than usual. I spent 1 hour of CAS today. 

Second day of fitness

Today, I had to go to Jakarta. Since my fitness membership card is available to use for different places, I went to Pondok Indah Mall and joined two classes today. The first class was called "STEP". I used a black board to dance and step on it. It was really hard to follow the movements because I am a beginner. I thought this class wasn't suitable for me because I didn't enjoy it. However, I think if I join maybe two or three more times, I could get use to it and maybe I can have fun. Since I wasn't tired during the "STEP" class (1 hour), I joined the next class too, which was called "Body Balance" (1 hour). I really enjoyed the second one because it was very relaxing and nice. Mostly we did stretching. I thought this was really helpful for me since I want to do modern dance later on, it is better for me to have flexible body. Overall, I enjoyed exercising today. 

Basketball with Middle School students

Today after school, there was a try-outs for the middle school kids to join the sports festival next month (February 4, 5 & 6). My friends and I were helping our coach which student to choose. Around 15 kids signed up but only 12 can get in. The final result will be announced on Thursday. So basically, I helped my coach by joining the practice together with the students (because they had odd number of students) and giving them examples. Also, we had to observe each students' skills and techniques in basketball to help the coach choose the 12 members. I spent one and a half hour of CAS today. Overall, it was a tiring day. 

First day of fitness

Yesterday night, I went to do fitness and joined a class that starts at 6pm. The class was called "Body Combat". What we did was basically doing basic karate and capoeira movements and repeat it over and over for one hour. It was very challenging because we had to keep jumping and moving every parts of the body for one hour. It was my first time to join aerobic dance class and I really enjoyed it.

Galaxy practice

Yesterday, I had the Galaxy jazz band practice at Yamaha building in Jakarta. I spent two hours practicing in the studio playing the saxophone. We played new songs called "MANTECA" and "Love for Sale". These were very hard songs to play because it is upbeat and fast. But we all practiced together as a band. I had to be really patient because I had to wait for each others' turn to practice. So the conductor would tell the trombone & trumpet players to play their parts first and later on, the saxophone and then percussion. The practice was actually very helpful because by the end of the rehearsal time, we were all able to play the song at least up to half. 

Dance practice

I didn't go to school today because it was a report card day. So I went to Joo Eun's house and danced for an hour. We created some movements. However, overall, today was a casual practice for us. We need to find some more ideas to create a creative movements.

Fitness

Today, I signed up for celebrity fitness. This is going to be one of my new CAS activities for this semester. This is for my "action" activity (like basketball or archery) because I will be physically moving around while challenging myself. I might start the fitness on Thursday. 

Also, I didn't have tennis yesterday and also archery today because it was raining again. This is one of the reasons why I chose to join fitness in the gym so that I still can exercise indoor and continue my CAS.

Winter Break

During the break, I couldn't do my CAS because most of my CAS activities are usually done at school. So, I decided to do something that I can do at home or anywhere else. This vacation, I went to Japan. I found some great inspiration. First, I found great music. I got new songs that might be able to be used for our dance performance. I also found some ideas for our movements. I would like to put some traditional cultural dances in our performance. Other than that, I also got some ideas for our props and costumes.