OSC Sportsday!

The OSC Sportsday was on the 16th of September and we had volleyball, football, kickball, basketball and some swimming relays. I took part in the basketball games and the swimming relays which I enjoyed, especially basketball since I havent played in so long. The swimming was fun but our team was short a couple of swimmers. My team was blue house and in the end we came in first place so that was really fun!

Model United Nations (MUN)

This is my third time taking part in the Model United Nations, but I still feel that I have trouble with public speaking, which is why I decided to participate at this school as well. My first conference was held in the UN building in Nairobi, Kenya, when I was a student of Kampala International School Uganda. The topic we discussed was Human Rights and I was the delegate of Australia. It was an amazing experience because I got to see what kind of things the United Nations did and I wrote and talked about a resolution, which I had never done before. My second conference was held at Marist International School in Japan, where I represented Cuba and we discussed the topic of Internet Censorship.

So far we have had two meetings, and we have begun discussing in groups different natural disasters that have occured recently, such as the Pakistan flood, the volcanic eruptions &c. My group is looking at the Si Chuan earthquake of May 2008 where over 70 000 people died. To gather information on this, I will search for articles on it, preferrably also to do with UN involvement, of any organization, like UNESCO, UNICEF, UNHCR and so on.

Swimming at OSC

The school swimming practice began on the 13th of September and I find it very challenging as the level of practice here is more intense than it was in my previous school. My old school was in Japan, and swimming is not such a major part of their culture perhaps because of the climates. However I lived in Uganda, in East Africa, from age 9 to age 12 where the school's major sport was definitely swimming, which is where I really learned how to swim.

I have known from way back that my weakness in swimming is definitely the two strokes, butterfly and backstroke so I always had trouble doing Individual Medleys (IMs). Most of my swimming practice in Japan was focused on improving my stroke for freestyle and improving my time so I never really had the chance to grasp the butterfly and backstroke strokes. But here, with the IM drills, I think I am getting good practice on the two strokes, which is very helpful, but I still find it difficult.

I hope that the more intense and specified practice at OSC helps improve both my strokes and my time.

Getting Startes on CAS

To get started on CAS, it is necessary to define exactly what CAS actually is. The CAS area of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme covers the creactive and active aspects of the academic life as well as Community and Service, hence it stands for Creativity, Action, Service. I will be working on my CAS activities as a student of the Overseas School of Colombo (OSC), which is located in Sri Lanka, currently in Grade 11.



CAS will give me a great opportunity to try out new things, develop new skills and increase awareness of the things around me, international problems, for example, or even learning to work collaboratively with my peers.



I plan on using this blog to keep track of some of the CAS activities I will be doing, which involves setting goals beforehand and reflecting on them whilst working on them. These are some of the activities I plan on taking on during this academic year (2010-2011)

• (Action) The school swimming practice, which has begun on the 13th of August 2010, meeting every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
• (Service)The school library service, which started on the 2nd of September 2010, meeting every Thursday afternoon
• (Creativity) Piano outside school.
• (Creativity)Guitar outside school.
• (Creativity)Model United Nations, which started on the 30th of August, meeting every Monday after school
• (Action)Badminton - I was on the Badminton team at my previous school so I hope to make the team in OSC too
• (Action)Softball - Again, I was on the Softball team at my previous school and I would like to join the team at OSC as well

These are the activities I plan on taking part in this academic year, and I hope to achieve all of them, although it seems to me that it will be a lot of hard work. But taking part in these activities will not only help me develop new skills but also build friendships with my peers, because this is my first year at OSC.