CAS blog of L. G.

Before IB one of my hobbies was taking pictures of the surrounding world. I never had a proper camera, so Iphone was my saviour. At the time photography was a way to perpetuate the beauty I saw around me, but the tight schedule of an IB student made me forget about such interest. So, to commemorate long forgotten hobby I decided to jump all the way in and try out 30-day photography challenge. Ar first, I was very excited to take pictures but as there were certain themes for each day as a part of a challenge, I really struggled to find the way to convey the ideas of some days in an artsy and appealing way. As a result, I skipped a few days (not intentionally) because nothing managed to catch my eye fitting the theme on those days. Still, I'm proud of the photos I took. The priority for me was quality and not quantity, so forgive the fact of an incomplete challenge. Next time I wouldn't opt for a month-long photography challenge because I'll admit, it's too much to take ...

It has already become a tradition of IB students to visit Antakalnis cemetary during the leafy period of autumn. Last year it was one of the first CAS activities of mine and also, one of the most enjoyable ones. As an IB student, I spend most of my time sitting by the desk, browsing, typing, reading from the screen etc. All these inactive activities make me crave physical work, so, I guess, that’s why sweeping leaves together with my classmates seems the best way to spend my afternoon. At the cemetery we were met by the same women as last year. She was already familiar with us as lyceum students and even shared some interesting stories about her son, who also studied in our school a long time ago. It was nice to talk to her but we were keen to start working and she quickly explained us what and where to sweep. There were seven or so of us, so together we worked very efficiently and fast. I cannot even imagine how long it would have taken me to sweep all the leaves alone! Aft...

Last month was dedicated for learning spelling, however, this month was all about the syntax. I'll be honest, if spelling is my strong side, syntax is completely opposite. I'm never fully sure about where to put a coma or a dash, or a colon. I go with the flow, as they say - write the way I believe is correct. Yet I'm rapidly approaching the exams and punctuation is the thing I should be confident in. What is more, it's my responsibility as a citizen of Lithuania to be literate in all aspects of the language.  As usual, Aušrinė, other "students" and I met in the lobby of our school on a Thursday morning almost every week this month. Our "teacher" was always prepared to explain the rules and their exceptions. She also always had some check-yourself tasks for us to complete together in the "class". It was much easier to understand and remember the rules as well as do tasks in cooperation with other girls than to do it individually at hom...

Even though I'm not fully Lithuanian by nationality, I've always been a patriot in my heart. Basketball, cepelinai, kūčiukai - I've always been a fan of these and many more with Lithuania associated things of daily life. However, traditional dance never seemed appealing enough to try it out. Nevertheless, when the opportunity appeared on my way, I took it as a challenge I've never had before. With an ex-classmate as a teacher, lessons started in the beginning of September and since then our group have been having two to three rehearsals a week. I'll admit, the dance itself wasn't that hard to learn even though there were some movements that I didn't understand at first and needed a longer time to master. The actual challenge though was to agree on the timing of meetings. It's not an easy task to find the perfect time when ten people are all free of lessons, additional activities etc. However, we managed to somehow find a solution and eventually, learn t...

In the past I have volunteered at the "Food bank" for several times already, but it was always someone else who coordinated the shift. I still remember the time I first participated in the event in the beginning of the first IB year and those from IB2 coordinated my shift. To be honest, I couldn't have imagined to be in their place and to take such a responsibility but here I was, a year later, doing exactly the same as they did.  At first, I doubted myself but not long after I decided to take the challenge and raise the scale a little higher by finally coordinating one of the shifts. The initial task was to gather a team of five people. I underrated the difficulty of this task and didn't give much thought to it until the last minute when there was only one person willing to volunteer. Inactivity of IB1 really surprised me; luckily, there was a lot of first-graders from National program willing to help. The first task was accomplished but many more followed, mainly...

When I was probably 6-7 years old, my mom used to give my sister and me all the leftover veggies, cheese, sausage or any other sandwich-type of meat to cut with little knives and make a salad. I'll admit, the salad itself wasn't usually a masterpiece to enjoy, but the process of cutting (what at the time seemed like cooking) was strangely satisfying. It was one of my most favourite activities of childhood! So, this kind of craving for cooking remained till these days. That's why I decided to take a step further and create my own food blog. One might ask what will be so special about my blog for it to stand out of millions of others? Well, in my food blog I'll be posting only recipes containing no animal products. Why? Because I want to challenge and force myself to try something new and not as familiar as usual stews, cookies, cupcakes etc. After all, it's even healthier to exclude meat, dairy products and eggs. The intention of a blog is not only to show my expe...

Pollution is one of the most severe problems of contemporary world. As population continues to grow, pollution also increases respectively, and as we all know, waste doesn't disappear but is rather collected in dump holes. They require huge areas of land and are very dangerous not even mentioning the awful smell that can be detected from very far away.  Being aware of such information, I try to recycle as mush as possible. However, it's not enough to look after my own actions and decisions only because there are so many people who don't even care about environment and planet's future. Accordingly, in order to ensure the full employment of my awareness, this year together with my sister we decided to collect rubbish around our living area. We did the same thing last year and found quite a lot of rubbish even if it didn't look like a very polluted area at all. To our surprise, this year we collected much more less rubbish, only two garbage bags were almost full aft...