Photography Club (trip)

Every year, the photography club usually goes on a trip to a national park in order to take beautiful photographs. Sometimes we have a guest speaker to teach us about different techniques and great ways to set up shots. Unfortunately our trip was cancelled this year because of the Westgate attack and security reasons. We also had several people drop out last minute. The trip was meant to be October 11th, 12th, and 13th. It's unlikely that it will be rescheduled as the seniors in the group are pretty much busy for the rest of the year. I'm really bummed the trip isn't happening because I always learn so much about setting up shots, taking my camera off auto, and just experimenting with cool pictures. It's great having a bunch of people who are dedicated to photography all together for a weekend because we can really learn from one another.

The trips are always wonderful because the club consists of many different grades, and getting to hang out with several different kinds of people is always amazing. We truly learn from each other, whether it be different photography techniques, or ways to handle the IB, it's always a great trip. Hopefully we'll be able to get a few guest speakers in photography club during activity time so that the students can still get that benefit of the trip. We also hope to do several smaller day trips (on Saturdays or Sundays) to Nairobi national park or the Kintangala Glass Factory. I'm positive we'll still have a great year!

Book Club - "The Fault in Our Stars"

Today in book club we discussed our first read, John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars". This book is by far one of my favorites from the past year. I really loved it. I found it emotional, both sad and joyful, and perfectly written. It was definitely not a great classic, but it was a simple, entertaining, capturing book. Several of my favorite quotes are below.

 I wrote a review for this book as I really do love it. Here it is:

The ISK book club’s first read was John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, a book we called “captivating”, “heart-wrenching”, and “intricately beautiful”. The book brought tears to our eyes, and yet managed to have a lot us laughing through most of it. John Green does a marvelous job of turning a story of two teenagers with cancer into an adventure of sorts. He begins by introducing us to his main characters, Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters, and letting the readers into their lives. Hazel is a 16-year-old girl living with cancer; Augustus is a cancer survivor (spoiler alert: they fall in love). Their story takes us to Amsterdam and into the life of Hazel’s favorite author, whose book kept her sane through the months of treatment and depression her cancer caused her. Yes, this book is about cancer, but it is also about love. It is about the most confusing, frustrating, brilliant and beautiful parts of life.  There is disappointment, sadness and unwillingness to live. But there is also laughter, happiness, joy, and hope. Most of all, John Green does an excellent job of keeping his reader entertained, whether it be in laughter or tears.

We, as readers, are meant to feel things while reading. It means that we are intended to become completely invested in the piece of literature before us, and The Fault in Our Stars did exactly that. It made us feel. And just as Hazel describes falling in love, we thought about the book in this way: “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.”

Ultimate Frisbee

I began playing ultimate frisbee as an action alternative. I thought it was going to be simple, turns out it's very complicated. It's also the most exercise I've done for 2 hours in a row. That sport makes you run! What's really great about it though, is that it really promotes team spirit, and you really have to work together. I used to play volleyball, and that sport also required full participation and attention, but you didn't have to move as much. Having to run back and forth and back and forth is extremely tiring, but when someone passes the frisbee to you, it's actually kind of exciting. The thrill of catching a long throw, or a hard throw, is pretty awesome. I was surprised at how hard the game is to understand, but I picked it up quite quickly. There are a bunch of terms that I didn't understand, like "break side", "cut", "blade", "stack", "deep cut", "disc in", "dump", "handler", and "pull". But I figured out that the best way to understand how to play the game was to actually play the game. So I was on a team with Mr. Paul (the coach) and other people who were very good and supportive and great team mates. They really helped me pick it up and directed me where to go and why. Soon enough, I was just doing what everyone told me to do and we ended up winning the game. Later, someone came up to me and said, "Wow Britta, you're really good! You picked it up so quickly!" And I said, "Can I be honest with you? I really had no idea what I was doing - I was just doing it, but I don't know how."

It's great to be participating in a sport that isn't too much about whether you're good or not, but whether you're committed and into the game, which I am. I really enjoy being on the "Ultimate Frisbee" team because the people are really nice, and all tend to be people who aren't really on any other sport team. Because of Bio Tutoring (as I sit my exam this year) I haven't been able to go as often as I'd like, but I've gone to a few practices and plan on attending more regularly after Monday the 13th and Tuesday the 14th. Yay!

Prom

Prom was amazing. Everything went very well. People stayed until around 11pm, which is wonderful considering how early everyone left last year. I think everyone had a great time. Although I wasn't able to get there early to help set up, I was happily surprised. The plastic martini glasses were at everyone's seat filled with poker chips. At every table there was a pack of cards. Dinner was all set up and ready, and the DJ was playing good music. There were "Bond Girls" and "James Bonds" walking around and offering to take pictures. One complaint I had, which I did not know how to plan for in advance, was the fact that we only got one free drink (a soda - no water) and for the rest of the night, we had to pay for drinks. This was unfortunate because the room in which prom was being held was sweltering and water costed 500 a bottle. 

Despite water costing an absolute fortune, the night went off without a hitch. Prom King and Queen were crowned, as well as "Q" and "Bond Girl". We also had lotteries (which I did not win) that everyone seemed to enjoy. Overall, it was an amazing night.

I'm very proud of Prom Committee and how hard we worked to accomplish our goal of throwing an amazing prom. Our hard work really paid off. People stayed late, they enjoyed the food, and there was a lot of dancing. This shows that dedication and commitment really do have phenomenal results.

Inspector Hound Update

Getting the costumes organized and finalized was no easy task, but it was fun and doable. Finding Sydney a costume was difficult. She was playing Felicity and she needed to be in a white tennis skirt and a white shirt the whole time. Lydia and I decided to add a sweater tied around her neck to make her look more "preppy". This is her finalized look:

Working with most of the cast was fun, but it's also hard to please everyone at the same time. So, we bumped heads a couple times, and had to change things per request of Ms. Hargreaves, which almost always improved the costumes. Working with someone else while designing costumes or set or even makeup, is always challenging because of differences of opinion. For example, I may have wanted to have Sydney wear a green sweater when Lydia wanter her to wear a red one. But eventually, we must all work together and coincide - therefore Sydney wore a grey sweater.

Beatrice had only one problem to fix and that was her cleavage, which I nearly forgot about until about five minutes until she needed to be on for opening night. I just pinned the inside of her dress so that the safety pin wasn't showing and it still covered her cleavage while still having the desired effect of a seductive woman. Here is her final look:

Mei was easy because all she needed was a LOT of makeup to complete her look:

Xan had to wear A LOT of clothes. He wore a dress shirt, a sweater, a cravat, a jacket, dress pants, and dress shoes. His character was meant to be very smartly dressed and also be the "romantic interest" of the play, so we wanted to give him a romantic feel.

Luke and Jared (playing Moon and Birdboot - theatre critics) were dressed similarly, with Jared dressed a little fancier than Luke, who was a less dignified, serious character. Jared wore a suit, with an older jacket to make him look a little stuffy, and Luke work a dress shirt, a tie, a jacket, jeans and dress shoes. They both looked great (in my opinion).

Garage had to look like an old man in a wheelchair, so we dressed him in dress pants and shoes, a dress shirt, an older grey sweater, and a scarf. He was very convincing.

Nandi's costume was a bit more complicated (she was Inspector Hound). She wore brown pants, a brown belt, rain boots, pool floaties, a tie, a jacket as similar as possible to a trench coat, a slightly baggy dress shirt and a construction helmet. It turned out well though.

I was very grateful to have a backstage experience instead of being on stage. Although I love acting, I think it's important to explore every aspect of theatre as to get a getter understanding of how everything works. Now, every time I go to a production, I'll be thinking of how much hard work gets put into costumes, makeup, set and lighting as I experienced it all during rehearsals and finally, performance night.

Photography Club Update

Like last year, the photography club has decided to make another calendar. As one of the heads of photography, I think that it's such a great project and it's worth doing it again. Last year we made a calendar for the 2012/2013 school year. This year I'd like to make a 2014 calendar, I think it will be more successful. Making a calendar is always a very challenging task when working with a lot of people. Our main priority is to reserve months for the seniors who are not going to be here next year as this is their last chance for such a large project in the ISK Photography Club. However, it's always important to try and make everyone happy by assigning months that they are partial to.
As one of the heads of photography club, the most important job is sorting through all the images and making appropriate suggestions to the artist. Many of the images submitted by the photography club members won't be up to par to appear in a calendar. Editing will most likely be needed and if the image simply isn't salvageable, then the photographer will need to select another one of their images. It's very exciting to be working on this project again - especially as one of the co-heads because I get to make decisions and give advice, which I always love. It's great working with several committed people on this project because seeing everyone get involved is awesome. Photography Club isn't ALWAYS the most exciting club to be a part of because of the fact that some people don't take as much responsibility in the club as they should. However, when people get involved, it's really great. Seeing the amazing work people at a high school level can produce it breathtaking. It's a little sad when it's simply someone's hobby, when it's clear they could be a professional photographer one day. I've very excited to see how the calendars turn out and I can't wait to sell them at the PTO picnic next year. Hopefully they'll be worth buying!

Prom Update

Although Prom planning hasn't been the most exciting thing in the universe, it's getting there. We're almost finished receiving all the decorations and we're getting a sign up sheet ready for Grade 11s to begin signing up to set up on the day of Prom. Because of personal reasons ( I have some special people coming into town on that day) I won't be able to set up, but I really hope people start to get involved. We've actually sold quite a few tickets, which is fantastic. I was really starting to worry because it didn't seem as though any of the seniors were very interested in going to Prom this year. It may have something to do with that fact that it's a week before IB exams begin, but I though that that was the whole point of Prom - to let loose right before exams and stop studying for one night. However, it seems as though they've begun to see the light and we're making quite a headway on sales. Last year there was an issue with people leaving really early and it made Prom committee very sad as they had worked very hard to put the whole thing on and then have everyone leave right after dinner. Prom Committee this year has decided that the reason was most likely that after Prom King and Queen were announced, people left. So, we've decided that this year, we're going to announce King and Queen later in the evening and not right after dinner. Hopefully our plan works! I'm very excited about Prom this year, because I think it'll be very fulfilling to see all our hard work pay off. I've posted some pictures of what decorations are going to look like.

The prom is 007 Casino Royale themed, so we've used posters like this one for our advertising campaign.

We'll have cardboard cutouts such as these at Prom.

Each table will have a pack of cards.

We will also have poker chips at each table.

We'll also have plastic martini glasses at each place setting. (there will be no alcohol of course!)