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Padel

During the summer, I started practicing padel with my family. It was super fun and I enjoyed doing a sport that i hadn't tried before. So i decided to continue attending to clases during the schoolyear. Now I attend every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour.

On Tuesdays I go with a group of girls my age, where I don't really lean new stuff but I practice everything learnt before. On Thursdays I play with my bother and a guy my age, they are better than me but I always learn something and improve my technique (lob, volley, over the fence, the back hand and down the line). At the beginning of September, because of my lack of continuity  during the summer, I had lost a bit of technique that I'm now getting back and improving every week. These classes make me get home super relaxed, because I release the pent up energy of the week.  

I am now improving all the things I learnt during the summer like moving more, and flexing down correctly. I really enjoy this activity and look forward to improve and practice fore the rest of the year. I am working on my hits and positions, because sometimes its really hard to maintain a certain posture at a certain movement.

What I have discovered to be super frustrating is that people can “see” the movement of the ball, and they can kind of “predict” what will it do. I certainly cant do that yet and as everyone in my Thursday class can, I feel sorta left behind. I am working to improve this by paying more attention, but it is still hard to predict what will happen according to the strength or velocity of the ball.

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Paint jewellery box

During quarantine my jewellery box broke, so I decided to make myself something useful to put my jewellery on. In the end i ended up doing a simple decorated jewellery box to keep all my things organised while I decided to buy or not another (more useful) one.

I chose a box that had been used recently. I glued newspaper to make a nicely decorated inside and then glued somo other cardboard pieces (already covered with newspaper) I had cut from another (more strong box). 

At first I drew some ideas with a pencil on the sides, however as I painted on top of it with the dark blue color I used, the drawings couldn't be seen. While the paint died (the process lasted several days) I changed my mind easily, so that made the colouring process different that hat i had planed originally. 

I had a lot of fun and enjoyed a lot making this. It has also helped me take mi mind off thing, so it is a super recomendable experience. It was only me, the paint and music, and this made the whole experience super unique and gratifying.

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IB talks

Our teacher Héctor organizes talks to tell the students of the 4th ESO school what the IB consists of. This year he proposed me and some of my classmates to help him with this.

After Hector gave them a general talk about the IB, its subjects, research papers, commitment…Carmen, Nik, Carlota, and I had to give our personal experience. I spoke about why I was interested in IB, and how was my IB experience. I mentioned the difficulty of mathematics and the need to be completely informed of what would happen in IB. We all tried to make clear the positive and negative aspect of the IB, to inform as much as possible the students. There was some interest in the IB, but not the same as the previous year. WE made sure to underline that no high school method is better, and that everything depends on who is doing it and how you face each situation.

The talks were easy and fun to take part in from the point of view as the older student. I am glad that these kids are informed, so they can make the best decision possible.

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Cleaning the snow

During the weekend on the 8-9-10nth of January, it snowed a lot in my hometown; Madrid. It was imposible to move for several days, and in my family this meant we all had to collaborate to clean the entrance to our home to get out and get back inside.

We had to put on our skiing clothes and this was very nostalgic, because it made me think of the pre-Covid time. We had to clean the entrance for the cars and make a pathway for us to walk through. This made that work super intensive, tiring and boring. Not only did we have to do it once,  but twice as al the snow from the roof fell to the places we had cleaned up. It was very intensive, and as I had never done it before I was left feeling very sore. If this is to happen again i will watch a tutorial or a youtube video to help.

The next day, my neighbours were doing the same on the street but I needed to study so I stayed at home. In the end I did all the work i had to do,  but I felt bad because I couldn’t help. However, we could go outside to buy food, so at least it counted for something.

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Christmas tree made up of recycled materials

For the Christmas festivities, our class decided to do something to decorate and at the same time spread awareness about recoiling. We did this by making a Christmas tree out of cardboard, we based our work on a video that explained how other people made a Christmas tree. However, we decided to do so with recycled cardboard from the school materials. We also, we covered the cardboard with recycled newspapers from a peer and we used those same newspapers to cover the tree with flowers. We decided not to paint the thee for the recoiling message to be more, but we thought of using the bottom part of recycled plastic bottles and use paint that we already had to make them looks like balls for the tree with snowflakes (made with typex).

After we finished, we made a big paper star and put it out in the hall (which was difficult to transport). After being placed on the hallway, in a place where everyone who goes into that hallway could see and enjoy the tree. Seeing that everyone liked the tree, made me very proud of our work and all the hours spent making the flowers or painting the decorative balls made up of plastic.

It was very fun and surprisingly, not stressful, to do this with all my classmates. We all collaborated, helped, and enjoyed during the process and took our minds out of our work. So, it was a total success.

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Dancing before Christmas

We were going to prepare a mini contest the last day before we left for the Christmas break, during which Carlota and I sang the song “Prisioner”. Before doing this the girls in our class decided to spread some Christmas dance.

We made a dance to the tune of a classic Spanish Christmas song; “Mi burriquito sabaner”. At first, we were just going to dance in front of our class, but after our teacher Gloria saw us, we went all around the Bacchillerato classes and showing them what we had done. It was a very silly and simple dance, but it was worth it once we saw how happy the audiences were. Everyone was confused at first, but we were all able to laugh about it afterwards. It also helped that were interrupting their classes the last hour before going home.

Not only was it a fun and enjoyable dance, but more special because it is very common here in Spain (specially for young children). Creating the dance step by step made the experience and unique. Because of this, with no doubt, I will remember this day while laughing.

We made it up completely that same day, adding step by step with the music. We all collaborated in making the dance and put effort into making cool. It was a very enjoyable experience, and it made me proud because I stepped out of my comfort zone to do something I consider myself to be bad at (dancing).

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Chrismas for Alegría

Now that Residential homes were closed to the public, elderly people are very lonely. So, some people in 1st and 2nd of Baccalaureate wanted to help with the situation to make them feel a little less lonely.

So, we wanted to lighten their spirit and write some Christmas cards for them. For this to be possible we had to take safety regulations for Covid-19 and trying to make the cards specifically directed to the people we were writing to. As we assigned each person to an elderly person. There were more people that volunteered than elderly people, so I had to do this in a pair with my friend Maria.

Firstly, we wrote a cute message wishing our elderly person a very happy Christmas. Editing it (so that the message was not to emotional or not to sad) before writing it down in the Christmas card, then we drew some decorations and glued other ones.

The cards were successfully delivered to the elderly, and we were able to make the a little less lonely and sad. This experience made me feel a little depressed because I got to think about mu grandparents and how we would barely see each other this Christmas. Yet happy because at least I helped another person.

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Clothes based on traditional clothing

One of the most creative aspect of myself, is that I ca see something and then imagine some type of clothing based on it. It mostly works with plants, some birds of the sky, yet his time I tried to be different. I asked some of my friends, teachers and family members to name me a random country, and I obtained 9 countries: Peru, Spain, China, Japan, Jamaica, Canada, Russia, Greece and India. MY idea was to design something based on these countries traditional clothing.

As I started, I decided not to do Australia because I didn’t find an image really attractive and I didn’t have much free time. I decided to base my Canadian outfit in Inuit’s traditional clothing, but it ended up more like clothes for and adventure film than a design based on Inuit’s. Therefore, there were only 7 countries. Some of them are based on a specific outfit (that I found on Pinterest) or a mix of the general ideas of this country. I decide to make shorter skirts and didn’t realise I didn’t include more variety. 

I will admit that some ideas (mostly the Greek one) seemed more interesting in my head, this is mostly due to the colours I had at hand, because it was difficult to represent in paper exactly how I imagined it. The best ones are the ones from Spain and Peru, the pink blouses resulted perfect and the skirts are adorable. This experience was very relaxing and fun, in case I do this again I must take into consideration to broaden my range of possibilities. I should do more shorts or dresses. I think it could also be cool to try this with chokers, earrings or just shoes.

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Body Paint

I have always loved painting, and during quarantine I saw in Pinterest (the place to find ideas) really cool images of body paint. After a while I bought myself some bodypainting materials to try to do some landscape or figures. Some of the final results were a bit sore in the eyes (I don't recommend doing landscapes in the body).

After an inspirational day of watching harry potter, I was inspired to draw a Fenix, and my little sister offered to help me. The original Fenix was much more realistic, but in the end, I liked mor the abstract idea than a more realistic image. 

I had to repaint constantly some areas for the colours to be as I wanted them to be, and we lasted approximately 3 hours doing this. My sister got a nap (she wasn't forced to take part in this activity) and time flew by. I think this is by far the best result I have obtained with body paint. 

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Music Jam

I really enjoyed this activity, it made me have fun and relax at the same time. It was something new to me, and starting too combine sounds was very fun. 

I did this with an app called Music Maker Jam and enjoyed mixing sounds that were completely different. The app offers some sets of sound from rock music or electro. This activity was very relaxing, and even if some parts are a bit repetitive, I am really proud of my work. 

Originally, I was only going to make an introduction for a video, but I liked this so much, that I decided to make some mixes’ instead. I mostly used an 80′s music sound set and a grunge one, as they remind me of the type of music I enjoy. But I tried ones that I didn’t get into before such as funky music, jazz or electronic music sets.

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Collecting garbage in playa Rodiles

Collecting garbage in the beach was a totally diferent experience of collecting it from a forest. It was more easy to see certain things such as paper but plastic was a bit more complicated. I followed tha same organization plan in the beach that I used in San Rafael, so i left the beach three times with bags full of garbage.

I found this experience very enriching as it made me think abouth garbage storage and administration, and about how this garbadge (rapidlly produced by humans) impacts habitats and their flora and fauna. It’s a bit depresing to thing of all the coast used in form of beaches that is mostly used for humans in Spain and how they migth all have garbadge in part of their terrytory. 

This expirience was also more relaxing in the beach than in the forest,, as I was less preoqupided about stepping and falling over and I was listening to music. Music tottally made this experience more enjoyable and profitable, as it helped me disconect while collecting the trash.

I did notice that most of the garbadge was close to the bins, but the wind had made the fall over. So making them more stable could reduce the necesity of cleaning the beach as much as it needed.

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Water waste video to raise awareness

A group of friends and I decided to raise awareness about a specific topic. We decided to do this by making a video about water waste. The resulting video is attached.

Due to the quarantine our plans were delayed a long time, but in the end, we managed to organize ourselves. WE had to organise ourselves trougth video calls yet this only made us create more ideas and posibioities. Each of one had to make a short video wasting water, and then record some short phrases to put as sound during the video. Then we had to put it all together. Recording this was a bit tiring, as I had to repeat it continuously to obtain something useful. In the end, the result was quite good, so we might continue to do this as a campaign to raise awareness about water waste.

We had to share this video with our contacts and ask them to share this video too. Despite, not many people told me they were going o continue sharing it, my family assured me they would do so. I decided not to share this video with some people my age, because it was a bit embarrassing. These are some of the groups that were sent the video (i mainly shared this video through WhatsApp).

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Paddle tennis classes

I went to paddle tennis classes for three weeks during summer. I really liked it and I ended super satisfied by the security I have facing the corona virus, as the is no need for contact.

I stated in Mas Padel in Las Rozas and later continued in San Rafael (Segovia). Practicing a sport like this with my brothers made it even more fun and exciting. Because we don’t share many hobbies, and this was liked by everyone. We even decided to continue during this year. 

The first day; was a bit frightening because my siblings knew more and felt like a duck. After a week, we changed trainer and that was a boost for me, as I liked more his form of teaching. During this second week I noticed my improvement, making me feel more confident about this sport. We practiced techniques such as “bandeja” or spikes, and they were fun and easy to do due to the time I had spent in volleyball. 

Despite learning how to do the “vibora” during the third week, the classes where more practice based. Noticing that I got nervous during matches was a bit embarrassing, but this last week made me gain more confidence in my abilities as a player. I liked this sport so much that I have decided to continue going to classes near my home two times a week. I’m looking forward to improving this year!

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Surfing

When I was 11, I tried surfing for the first time. I didn’t enjoy it a lot, so I thought that it was something not for me. However, during this summer, due to coronavirus we tried a sport that had distance among people and was fun. 

My parents decided to try out surfing again, the plan was to have classes for 2 weeks and a half during our stay in Asturias. In the end I enjoyed the sport much more than the first time and went back home with the feeling of having learned something useful.

During our classes we had intense days, other days with horrible waves and days with a unmoving sea.

The 1st day was very tiring, surprisingly I wasn’t as bad as I imagined, making me really enjoy it and with hopes to improve. By the 3rd day, I hadn’t improved much. The waves were inexistent, and that didn’t help with the frustration. Despite the enormous waves on the 4rt day I didn’t completely get up. However, it was really fun and enjoyable. It even rained making the experience more unique.

The second week the waves were more or less the same as the first week. I did learn more and felt better about my skills as a surfer. In the end we only surfed for two weeks but enjoyed it and learned immensely. I’m totally looking forward to repeat again next year.

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Collecting trash in San Rafael

While i was staying in San rafael (segivia), me and my my father decided to collect trash from the forest surounding San Rafael. The main reason why we did this is because it was simple, with little risk and easy to do. Now, in 2020, there are large acumulations of garbage that impact our dialy life and most importantly the acosystems and the life within. To do this we bougth some grippers that would halp us collect the garbage without directlu touching it.

We did this for three weeks, and if we saw a lot of garbage that week we would visit twice. It was very satisfiying as people who lived there thanked us while working.

The first daday we found more suprising stuff like doll shoes, and each day we went, made finding more strange objects a normal occurence. In most of our walks to collect garbage we always found party stuff, drinks and even condoms.

This activiry was very satisfiying because I felt usefull and locals thanked us every time they saw us.

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Escape room

I went with my family to an escape room in Madrid. The escape room, called kraken, was based in emotions and how they affected people. There even was a “kraken” that chased us and made us loose time. I am a bit ashamed to say that I ran for my life, faster than ever, because of the instantaneous fear I felt when the monster chased us. I was so immersed in the music and the activity that I almost left my brother behind.

The problem I usually have with escape room Is that I get frustrated if somebody thinks or acts faster, as I don’t get informed. My major discovery in this activity was (reviewing the memories from previous similar activities) how my attitude and role in the group changed dramatically when in family compared to when with my friends, With my friends I’m am more of a leader and relaxed, with my family I feel a bit useless and not as calm.

The activity was super fun and enjoyable even though it was also very intense. As the clues where based on emotions and what they cause and how we react, it made me think of what I do or not with them. I also noticed that the clues were easier to solve or manage because of my previous experience in other escape rooms.

This is the confirmation of the escape room

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Support classes

Thanks to the brilliant idea of an IB classmate, students from bachelorette (1st) had the opportunity to help those who are struggling to keep up with their classes from primary and secondary. Originally, we were only gong to help primary kids, but due to recent changes in the schooling method used during the quarantine (via technology) we decided to extend the help to kids in secondary

We were going to help them with the subjects they need not only reviewing their doubts but by also helping them organize themselves. The idea was to practice with the kids and question them for their exams. 

I helped a boy in 1st of ESO once a week for four weeks. He had difficulties with math, history and French, so me and the mother of this student decided to divide the work. Ending with me to help him with math and French and his mother would help him with history.

The classes where a bit stressful, as we had them through our computers. Math was tiring and difficult to explain but we managed with paper and some apps of the computer. French was easier, and I insisted on the basics for him to do the best in his exams. I dot think I was as good as any other professional teacher, yet we had fun and at least reviewed the basics he needed to control.

Knowing this was my first-time giving classes I am proud of myself, although I’m mostly proud of this student because he worked really hard. Not only am I satisfied, but I’m looking forward to giving it another try to.

The classes were done through google meet with an account the school set up for all of the volunteers.