Writer's Club

A friend of mine recently had the idea to start a writer's club at ISK. Since he knows writing is a passion of mine, he asked if I wanted to join, and naturally I said yes. We had our first meeting today, and I'm happy to say I'm surrounded by a great group of people. We're all very passionate about writing and I think we're all excited to share our pieces and try new things. We're planning on meeting once a month, and every meeting we'll get a new 'assignment'. This month's assignment is "Why do you write?" I love to write, and I have very concrete reasons why, so this one should be easy.

We have a lot of ways to express our creativity at ISK, and there are definitely ways to write, but there has never really been a "Writer's Club". There is a journalism club, but creative writing and journalism are very different. I'm taking part in the club in order to improve on my creative writing by getting feedback from my peers. I know they'll be honest and give good constructive criticism without being negative or harsh. I'm also excited to have to opportunity to read my peers' work and help them get better and better. This club should be educational, fun, and make sure I make time to write through all the craziness that is the IB.

Book Club (update)

I'm very excited for book club this year. We are reading so many great books. So far we've read "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, which is absolutely fabulous. I had read it before and suggested we take the time to read it this year. It is a romantic novel with comedic elements and a lot of serious issues, but I think it's a great read for teens. Most people in the club weren't as crazy about this novel as I was, but I think it really allowed people to venture outside of their comfort zone.

What I really enjoy about book club is that there is such a variety of different people, and everyone is so dedicated to reading, we'll try just about anything. We have a huge mix of books this year, including sic-fi, short stories, poetry,WWII novels, and American classics. Being part of a club, that truly allows me to express my interests and thoughts, has been amazing. We've assembled a great group of people this year, and I can't wait to share more reading experiences with them. Next up - Jack Kerouac's "On the Road".

"Our Town" Rehearsal

I've been cast as Mrs. Gibbs in Thorton Wilder's play, "Our Town". It's a phenomenal play, and I truly appreciate his wonderful writing. Being cast as such a big part is extremely challenging, and very rewarding at the same time. I fully enjoy rehearsals and getting to know my fellow cast members. The cast of "Our Town" is relatively small, so it's nice to be able to get to know new people and make new friendships. I work closely with certain people - in particular those playing my husband, good friend (Mrs. Webb), and son. What's been really amazing is experiencing how a new director takes point. Ms. Bingham has worked closely with each of us and made it clear that we can go to her if we need any help character or play wise. As an actress, I find it very important to form a good connection with my director and receive good constructive criticism. I find that I make quite a few mistakes at the beginning of the process, but this only makes me want to improve more and more.

I am so very excited about this production and can't wait to continue learning more about "Our Town" and Mrs. Gibbs. However, learning lines has been a challenge. As I have quite a large role, I have quite a few lines and most of them aren't very problematic, but some of them give me a hard time. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon. I have break to run and memorize every line to perfection.

Marich Crepe Sale

To raise money for "Friends of Marich", we thought it would be a good idea to have a crepe sale. Because of the dietary restrictions ISK has set in place, we began to realize that bake sales are probably going to be making more and more money. However, we didn't want to do the usual bake sale, so we decided on a crepe sale.

Everyone participated by bringing in nutella, bananas, strawberries and peanut butter. We raise quite a bit of money, but unfortunately we ran out of crepes too quickly. We decided to have another sale next week, with more crepes and more advertisement.

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!