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[lakiceva]

[lakiceva]

Working at a bakery

I guess you never know what you might try out. This summer I decided, at the culmination and proximal escalation of my laziness and laying in bed, to find a job! It must sound out of the blue, however, it was on my bucket list for a while. After I joined a student cooperative I found a job at a local bakery. I must say, it was hard work. Every day, from 9 to 5 I would be at the bakery baking a range of pastries, with sausages, cheese, ham and cheese, chocolate, cherry… I became so tired that I couldn’t do anything but work! I guess I don’t want to do that kind of job my whole life.

Some of the benefits I gained from working there are that I met all these wonderful and welcoming ladies who worked with me and I was welcomed with nothing but kindness and positivity. Secondly, I developed a working habit, and strangely, I’m not as tired as I used to be. Most importantly, I gained new experience and learned how to coordinate myself in the kitchen more quickly and efficiently. A bakery can become hell in the morning when all of the customers are asking for pies and bread!

Some of the work I did while working at the bakery included baking all those pastries as I have mentioned before. Perhaps the most intriguing part of my work was going into the great freezer where the temperature is -18 degrees Celsius. That is where all of the half-baked frozen pastries are stored. They are taken out by demand. Other parts of my work included washing the endless trays, plates, cutlery… I must admit, after some time, my hands were not very thankful.

Even though I have worked at a bakery for only 20 daily wages, this experience has put a very changed perspective I had on bakery-workers and I have much more respect for them now than I did before. Also, earning a bit of your own money as a teenager is quite a lovely feeling. I guess I’ll never get tired of it! So, I hope to write soon. See you.

[lakiceva]

A memoir from summer of ‘21

Hello everyone. I guess I have a desire to keep you updated on my life. I am currently sitting in a café, sipping iced coffee, tired from waiting in two different banks for some formalities. I guess when you become a student some ‘adult’ responsibilities can drain you out at first. I must brag a little or ein bisschen, I have an interview for a job tomorrow! I can really say I am making the most from this summer which is currently a real crossroads in my life.

Also, I have, at this point, read 6 or seven books since my trip to Novi Sad and made it a usual daily routine to read since my language A at IB has not allowed me to read much of the classics. That has become a time for me and only me, meeting various characters created from the ink of the pens from some of the most famous writers in literature. This said, I must also say that I have become a member of the local library and once a week I take 3 or 4 books. Currently I am reading a book from Franz Kafka, an epistular insight into the psyche of the writer himself.

Since the last post which was about my shenanigans at EXIT 2.0 in Novi Sad I have lived my life fully in the summer spirit. Shortly after my little trip from the last post, I have gone with my family to Greece. It was one of the best vacations I ever went on and will stay in my heart. We went to the island Crete with a plane. Actually, there were two flights! A trip of 1800 km was wrapped up in 4 hours. This was my first opportunity to travel to seaside via an airplane.

As we arrived, I could not help but notice that the higher proximity to the equator has brought insanely high temperatures and every day was a fight with temperatures around 38 to 42 deegres celsius. First two days of our stay my skin was already burned because I am fairly pale and am not used to going out in the sun that much. However, it was worth the pain! Since 3 families went, all of which have 4 members, my family along with another has spent 10 days riding across the island in a mini-van, us 8. It was a real adventure - visiting wild beaches, seeing locals camp at these beaches, visiting party beaches, towns on the island… I guess I am lucky since I had a friend which is around my age to keep me company. Every other day we went to the nearby city Chania via public transport along with many other tourists all around the world. I heard many languages - Polish, German, English, Russian, Czech… In this cacophony of languages it was really fun to just observe how one very historic place brings together this diversity of people which have come with the same intention: to enjoy the godly-like nature beauties of beaches.

My favorite place was this wild beach, Hedrodosas, where us 12 were having a picnic underneath this tree with a great shadow. However, despite the shadow, the wind was as if someone had pointed a hair dryer into us. It was all worth it, the Libyan sea at this beach is perfect. It is one of the saltiest waters I have ever been in and it is only 100 km from Africa which explains the desert-like climate. It takes you 10 minutes to dry off when you get out of the water!

Lastly, I would like to say that I have not encountered an impolite Greek! Everyone was very polite and friendly which was only one of the reasons which made my vacation the one to remember. It really will stay in my heart. Since I am not that great with words, I will leave some of the photos I have made with my film camera and my digital one so you can fully understand what I am talking about. I hope everyone goes to this heavenly place at least once in their life.

So long,

Mia

[lakiceva]

Exit time

Hi everyone. Since I adopted the habit of keeping you updated with the shenanigans in my life, thus making that a proclivity, it is of great necessity to write about this most recent mark in my life.

It was perhaps a rash and spontaneous decision, going on this trip.

Namely, for the last 20 years 4 days of each July bring chaos and many new faces to the city of Novi Sad, Serbia. The Exit Festival has set standards for other festivals all across the Balkans and has become somewhat of a must-do for everyone living in the region. Me and my friend have decided to go in the last few weeks before the event itself. Many questions rushed my mind: Is it worth it? What about the pandemic? Is it safe? I was quite concerned. However, since I finished IB with 37 points and got into the Faculty I wanted to, I said, why not? What’s the worst that can happen? I mean, a lot of things have gone along with the pandemic: our excursion, prom, normally going to school….

So I decided to go.

Without doubt, I can say that those four intense, dynamic, chaotic, energetic, sleepless, drinking-water-till-you-dehydrate-from-sweating-and-going-back-to-square-one, eating chineese food and burgers, and least to say FUN days were one of the most well spent ones in the last two years. I guess we all needed a refreshment from all of the unfortunes the infamous virus has brought.

Many performers were at Exit. Some of them I listened to regularly, some I have just discovered. My crew and me spent most of our time at the Dance Arena, where only techno rules the stage. It is an enormous stage with a lot of stairs and looks like a wild arena of people. Perhaps a hive? I’ll include a photo. Some performers like Sheck Wes and the Apollo Showcase really threw me off - in the most positive way. The energy some performers can give out to a mass of couple of thousand people is incomprehensible and impossible to explain. It may just be a consequence from the past two years.

My favorite moments would perhaps be when the sun rises. The morning, around 7 AM, it is as if you can really feel the reborn energy from everyone around you having a good time, dancing. I got sunburned for not carrying sunscreen :). I guess it is not as easy to describe as I thought it would be. Anyways, I wouldn’t write a novel right now since I am a bit tired. I’ll include a video I made from the highlights from the festival. I hope everyone at least once goes to Exit, it is a really refreshing experience.

Until the next post,

XO

Mia

[lakiceva]

Post-CAS era has begun..

Hey everyone! Since I really liked the concept of writing a blog and since the action itself for the purpose of the subject CAS was utterly enjoying, I have decided to continue to occasionally write here and mark some of my activities I do in my free time.

These two last years were turbulent, crazy, adventorous and sometimes even sad. Perhaps I could write a sine function to resemble the amplitudes these two years have brought into my life. The exams have passed! I guess I did okay, after all, we will know on the notorious fifth of July. As an M21 student, I am really glad all of this is over. However, some habits and fondness of those have not left my routine and thinking. Thus, I have reached a resolution: I will keep writing this blog! However, the purpose has altered. Following my period in IB will come a period of posting my regular activities as a part of my portfolio, not only to observe my progress in self-development in the future, but also to show others or perhaps like-minded people some of my interests.

A concrete situation which made me think of this is what happened today! As you know, by finishing my fourth year of high school, I am obligated to prepare for an enrollment at a certain university or faculty. I am preparing for an Electrotechnical Faculty in my hometown in Banja Luka so I can study programming. Ultimately, my friends are preparing for their enrollments too. My friend Matija has asked me to help him record a movie since his faculty for movie production requires it as an entry test. I was so excited! Some of you may know that I photograph both analog and digital, but I also enjoy movie-making. I guess it may be one of my never-came-true dreams. I decided to help him and currently I am at home just after we finished the first set of recordings. We recorded a movie in the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Banja Luka, along with some of our friends as actors. It was a really Stanley Kubrick moment! You can see some of the photos in the latter part of the text. Anyways, I will keep you updated when the movie is over and when all of the clips are edited. I am really excited to see how it will turn out! I guess that’s about all. I have to go and prepare for my own entry test in mathematics now. See ya!

[lakiceva]

Skiing!

Name of activity: Skiing

Date: 13.1.2021.-17.1.2021.

Approximate number of hours: 5 hours a day for 3 days/15 hours

Type of activity: activity

Learning outcomes:

Identified own strengths and developed areas for growth. 

Demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

Demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

Showed commitment to and perseverance in CAS experience. 

After a gruesome 3 months of IAs, EE and tests all during tests and online school, finally came the holidays. Not gonna lie, I had my share of leisure during those 3 months, however, it is not the same to have one day for yourself and the whole winter break. I still haven’t finished my IAs, however, the pressure is in a much smaller intensity than for example in December. As the winter break came, my girlfriends and I decided to go skiing to our land’s olympic beauty - Jahorina! I have heard that Bosnia and Serbia were one of the rare countries which allowed skiing (because of the pandemic). That was perhaps a coyly fact to be faced with but ok. That trip to Jahorina really was a certain motivation to finish the third semester - it was really exhausting. The trip itself was really an adventure - we packed food and things for 10 people even though only 4 of us were going, so we looked like hippies travelling with that much luggage. As we got to Sarajevo, which was our first stop, I think it was already around -5 degrees Celsius and it had already been heavily snowing. As we got to Jahorina, we had seen that the snow was around a meter and a half, which is almost as tall as me! I have never seen so much snow. We got to our apartment, relaxed for the day since we have been travelling for about 10 hours. Anyways, for the next 3 days, I have been skiing. At first it was kind of hard since I am not really that much in shape and my legs hurt big time, however, as each day came by it got easier to carry my weight on my skis. It was fun, not gonna lie, even though I fell a considerable number of times. Although, I am proud of myself because I really put an effort into skiing and I developed a new skill. I have written before that I have learned to ski just a year ago and, considering that, I have improved greatly since I have managed to go down the paths alone without falling that frequently. However, one of the most heartwarming moments of skiing is that my best friend brought a cold resistant analog camera while we were skiing thus I even have some 35 mm memories. I certainly enjoyed my stay at the mountain and it certainly was refreshing in these dark times. You can see some of the photos below. 

[lakiceva]

Secret Santa!

Name of activity: Secret Santa

Date: 28.12.2020.

Approximate number of hours: 2 hours

Type of activity: creativity, service

Learning outcomes

Identified own strengths and developed areas for growth.

Demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

Demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience. 

Showed commitment to and perseverance in CAS experience. 

Holiday season has come and after the exhausting period of the notorious third semester of IB, this little event was truly refreshing. Not to mention the whole 2020 year, a little bit of holiday spirit is never of worse. Because of online classes, pandemic and numerous other rules e have to follow, there really has not been any time for socializing. That is why me and my class decided to organize Secret Santa as we did last year. However, this year was a bit different since we knew each other better. 

So what is Secret Santa?

It is a fun way to show a little bit of your attention to someone you usually wouldn’t to - and is there a greater way than within the Christmas spirit? So, Lazar, my classmate, found a program so everyone can draw a name from someone in class. The name you draw is the person you are buying a present for. So, everyone in class would buy or make a present for someone in class within a budget which was compromised. 

We also decided that it’s for the best to give and receive presents behind school in order to avoid any illegal activities (contact in school). So, on the day we all had an exam, we decided to give our presents. I got my friend Nikola a beautiful tiny notepad with leather covers. My friend Matea drew me a Future Hendrix cartoon and framed it. I was so excited! I hung it on my wall as soon as I got home. Future is my favourite rapper. 

Reflection:

This was a really refreshing experience since most of our ”usual” activities are not possible now because of the pandemic. Also, it was a great way to meet each other more and to develop a greater relationship with everyone in class. I think everyone should do a Secret Santa not just for the sake of presents, but because it’s in the little things. Show some love!

[lakiceva]

[lakiceva]

Analog photography vol 2

Name of activity: Analog photography

Date: 14.11.2020.

Approximate number of hours: 5 hours a month

Type of activity: creativity

Learning outcomes: 

Identified own strengths and developed areas for growth.

Demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

Demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience. 

Showed commitment to and persevervance in CAS experience.

As I have already made a post about analog photography, I find it that there is no need to explain the concept of it again. You can read about my first post here. 

I have developed a new roll of film. Why am I so excited about this? I mean, you can see that I’m writing about analog photography for the second time. Well, I purchased another film camera. Yes, haha, I know it might seem like I’m obsesssed, but what can I say, I love me some photography. I bought a Nikon F60, a DSLR film camera (see what DSLR is here). What is s great about this camera? Well, it is compatible with lenses I use for my digital Nikon D7000. That means I only bought the body of the camera for a really cheap price, about 20 $, and got to use the lenses I already have. One day I was just scrolling through the local website for selling and buying goods and I saw this camera. I thought to my self, why not? It’s got an automatic focus and I could adjust the viewfinder to my bad eyesight. Much more practical than the Zenit 11 which is fully manual. 

So, I ordered my camera. It arrived after some time and the guy who sold it to me even put a roll of Kodak film inside as a gift. So nice! I shot on this film for about a month or two and took my film to the photo shop I usually develop my film at. Well, I must say, I was not as satisfied as I expected it to be. 

I usually shoot on the same type of film, Fuji C200 , because it is the only one available in my city to buy. It is average and the colours are not that “special” but as long as you can make good shots it does not matter. The film that I got with my camera was a Kodak, and honestly, I was not satisfied. I had heard before from some of my friends who also shoot film that Kodak films are bad - they do not present the colors in a good way and sometimes even fade making the pictures look washed out. That didn’t stop me from making good photos. 

I also don’t think that I should be that dissapointed since it was my first film with this new camera and shooting on manual mode for the first time on a new camera can be rather tricky because it makes you feel like a blind man - you cannot see the photo immediately and your number of photographs is limited so you must be careful what you shoot. You can see the photographs I made in the previous post, some of them, and a couple of new ones at the end of this post, so scroll down if you are impatient. I bought two new rolls of film and I hope to shoot one roll on Jahorina, since I’m going skiing in January and another one when I have time. 

Reflection:

I genuinely enjoy doing photography and I think it is something everyone can learn since it does not require special skills or talent like drawing for example. But even if you are not that good at art, all it takes you is a bit of imagination and creativity. I hope to post more about photography since I really find it as a great way to escape my stressfull IB reality from time to time. See you soon all!

#analog #film #35mm film #photography #analog photography #fujic200 #nikonf60 #film photography

[lakiceva]

Collecting chestnuts!

Name of activity: Collecting chestnuts

Date: 31.10.2020.

Approximate number of hours: 3 hours

Type of activity: service, activity

Learning outcomes: 

Demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

Showed commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

Demonstrated the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

As you have probably noticed, I have spent my Halloween collecting chestnuts. What can I say, it was in the spirit of Spooktober! My family, that is, my mom, dad and brother decided to go to a forest nearby our weekend home. It is a small forest on a hill in Riječani nearby a small Italian church. We have decided to go collecting because chestnuts in the city are quite expensive and you never know what they use for treating them (chemicals), so an option directly from nature is not such a bad idea. Also - what a way to spend an autumn afternoon! 

When we arrived with our car, we got on foot and started going into the forest. There are many chestnut trees there thus finding chestnuts was not a problem. Each of us got a bag and started searching for them. I have to say, the fact that chestnuts have these “spiky shields” often made it hard to come to a chestnut itself thus I have been hurt a number of times. Also, going up the hill in the river of dry leaves makes you feel like you’re playing Russian roulette: you never know if you’ll step into something! However, all the perks aside, it was fun. I brought my analog Nikon camera to capture my family in this autumn forest Idilla and even got some photos on film. We managed to collect 3-4 kilos of chestnuts which is not bad at all! Since I have been sick at the moment, I was glad I could celebrate Halloween in an autumn and Octobery spirit with my family.

What surprised me the most is the fresh air. Living in the city can make you feel as if you are choked due to all of the smog and gases produced by cars. Also, the amount of mushrooms I have seen made me really wonder how polluted my city really is. However, I was kinda dissapointed when I saw the alarming quantities of trash concentrated at certain areas. People really don’t value their treasures sometimes. 

What did we do with those chestnuts? Some of them were invaded by worms, which we did not know. Those worms ate our baggies when we got home in the city. Our neighbour in Riječani fried the chestnuts for us because he had the equipment for it, thus we spent our Halloween night inside a warm, small house eating fried chestnuts. Oh, what a time to be alive!

Reflection: 

I am really happy I got this kind of experience since I rarely go in the nature due to my obligations. I would do it again, for sure. I am mostly glad because I got some time to spend with my family outside of our home and doing a fun acitivity. And, most importantly, I ate a lot of fried chestnuts, which I a d o r e!!! I sure hope we go to that forest again or even visit that Italian church.

My photos on film, 31.10.2020. , the forest

Me and my brother communicating with the local goats and sheep at the local vineyard of the Italian church

The Italian church at the end of the road and the mushrooms I saw

[lakiceva]

kNOWledge workshop!

Name of activity: participation in the kNOWledge workshop

Date:  started 1st of November

Approximate number of hours: 1-2 hours a week

Type of activity: service, creativity

Learning outcomes: 

 Demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

 Showed commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

 Demonstrated the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

Okay so for the first time since I started going to IB I am participating in something which was organized and run by IB students outside the school. Namely, two of my friends and colleagues, Tibor and Irina, went to America in November of 2019 to Dayton for a student exchange in a youth leadership program. Those 3 weeks prepared them for making their own workshop. The workshop was supposed to be held in an American library here in Banja Luka, however, due to the pandemic, some of our workshops were held online via Google Meet. However, Tibor and Irina managed to get approval for holding the workshops in person. I think their workshops are superb because they are flexible - they don’t focus mainly on one topic but listen to the participants, such as me, and try to make their workshops as interesting as possible by adjusting the topics to the wishes of participants. 

Their main interest is to try and make an workshop where the main aim is to share knowledge (which explains the title). So far, we have done a workshop on psychology and on Visual arts. More has been done on Visual arts: creative workshops including drawing with different tasks: for example, sinesthesia, the merging of different senses or perhaps presenting for example smell as colours or sound as a picture and also a visual presentation of what the quarantine meant to us. We even had to visually present ourselves, through a drawing or anything visual. The next task, at the moment, is to make a series of works of art since the main task is conceptual art. I’m personally thinking taking up photography since I have been attending classes of Visual Arts until recently, because of my own personal reasons, and have made a lot of works of art including techniques in aquarell, acrylic etc. Anyways, I have gone off topic. As you may have, or may have not seen in my previous posts, I am keen on photography in all forms and value my a e s t h e t i c, thus I have decided to make my task about photography. I already have some photographs I could use but maybe I’ll even make some new ones. I am sure happy to see my peers making something which is new and refreshing, especially when the dark time we are in right now is considered. 

Reflection:

I would especially like to engage in youth activism because it is my wish for some time now and it was mentioned that youth activism as a topic is possible. What can I say? These workshops are something rare I saw in a while since everyone tends to “get it over with” but Irina and Tibor really engage with everyone and try to truly spread knowledge in a fun and engaging way. The only thing bothering me is that I don’t know if I’ll be able to attend the meetings in person since the second year of IB is hard and demanding thus I don’t have much time. However, I will truly try to attend these workshops because much can be heard from everyone. You can check out Irina and Tibor’s workshop’s instagram page here 🤩🤩🤩

Some of screenshots from the previous workshops:

[lakiceva]

Program Y Education course!

Name of activity: Program Y Education course

Date: 29.11.2020.

Approximate number of hours: 2-3 hours

Type of activity: service

Learning outcomes:

  Demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

  Showed commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

  Demonstrated the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

Recently, our school has given a chance of completing a Program Y Education course to a number of classes, including ours, IB2. This program consists of 11 modules where each model consists of 5 lessons and a quiz. It is a progressive program, meaning that a module cannot be finished if the previous one is uncompleted. Okay, I have said some things about the program and didn’t even mention what it is about! Oh well, my bad. This program is made in order to educate educators, tutors, teachers to educate young people about a number of different “hot and taboo” topics. Some of these include gender and sex identity, mental health, substance and alcohol abuse. Honestly, the program was a bit too long and is a bit hard to generalize among everyone. However, I found it interesting and rather helpful since it does implicate on certain problems in today’s society on which society keeps being quiet. For example, I absolutely agree with the different perspective about male mental health which is abandoned and not talked about and how there are more and more adolescents and young adults falling under the infamous influence of drugs and alcohol and I personally think that these are just some of the topics which need to be discussed among young adults. What I found especially intriguing is the module regarding sex education. A rising problem not only in Bosnia and the Balkans but also the world has become the spread of STDs and unwanted teen pregnancy. Personally, I think that most of the cases of the previously mentioned two problems lies in the lack of education on these problems. This is not something which is optional, but rather a necessity for a normal, healthy life. Also, what is interesting about this course is that every module or topic which is talked about has a quiz regarding the lessons inside that module which means that you can see how much you have learned after the algorithm sends back a percentage of correctly done questions. Each quiz is different: it can be a multiple choice question, a game of connecting the beginning and ending of a sentence and even selecting one or more answers which are true for a given statement. If you are too lazy to read all the lessons, most of them have a Youtube video with a narrator reading the lesson thus it is even easier to get yourself educated. Anywho, it is an efficient and interesting way of learning something about youth, how they think and what problems can arise in their environment. After all, the youth is our future.

Reflection:

This program offers an insight and a possible solution in spreading the awareness among young people because they are in most need of this kind of education. I am glad I finished it since I love taking multiple perspectives when talking about a single problem. Also, it is never of worse to learn something new and prepare yourself for future conversations. I live by that – nothing new learned can limit you in any way. I hope to find some new courses considering civil activism since I really love working with people. I hope this insight into this Program was interesting!

[lakiceva]

Analog photography!

Name of activity: Analog photography

Date: photographing periodically for the past year

Approximate number of hours: 5 hours a month

Type of activity: creativity

Learning outcomes:

Identified own strengths and developed areas for growth.

Demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

Demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

Showed commitment to and perseverance in CAS experience.

One of my favourite hobbies in the past few years is photography. I have been developing my skills in the area of photography for quite some time, to be exact, for 5 years. My father always had some sort of photo camera in the house because he liked to take photos and capture memories and, quite frankly, a lot of members of my family took up photography. I have always admired my aunt who had been doing photography for a really great number of years, just like her father who had even developed film in his youth in the 70s and 80s. Lately, digital photography had just become too easy for me. I take a photo, and ok, what now? Even though I love photography, I had just kind of lost inspiration and energy I had for creating. However, regardless of the creative drought, I have found a way to solve my problem.

About 3 or 4 years ago, I have found an old Russian film camera, Zenit 11. I had asked my father about it since I assumed he knew something given that my mother is not that fond of or interested in technology (not that this camera is that hi-tec hahah). He told me that this camera used to belong to my grandfather, my father’s father, and that it was a gift from his wife, my grandmother back in ‘89 when she went on a business trip to Moscow, Russia. How cool is that? I did not only find a new camera, but also a fragment from the past. My grandfather and father used to take photos with this camera and I have seen some of them. Isn’t it fun just thinking about how much a simple object has been through? It even survived the civil war in the 90s. It’s just crazy when you put it that way. One day, after giving it some thought, I decided to buy  and shoot my first 35 mm film. It took about a year and a half since I was lazy and particularly not very interested in analog photography as I am now. However, there were some nice photos, but today I’m much better.

Anyways, I have gone off the main topic as always. Lately, I have been shooting film more frequently because I love the colours of film and the vibe it gives off. It’s vintage, yet futuristic. Sometimes the colours may be overly or undersaturated, or too cold or too warm. You never know and that’s the beauty of it. The only thing which I would change about it is the number of photos which can be developed in one roll of film which is 36, I would, of course, increase the number.

Every time I shoot my film, I develop it at the local photography shop. In this shop an older man named Risto works and he sometimes even gives me advice about photography and film which I really appreciate. Currently I have a roll to shoot and I hope to finish it ASAP. However, I think I might be positive for covid so no photography for me for some time, sadly. I can’t even see my best friend whom with I love doing photography the most.

For now, I have collected 5 or 6 cameras and all of them differ in the mechanisms and structure thus the photos are different with each one. Lately, I have bought a more advanced film camera and I hope to achieve good results since this is the first time using this camera.

Photography really takes out the creative in me and I really enjoy it. It brings not only joy and relaxation to me but also memories with my friends and family, thus, whenever I capture an interesting shot, I print out the photo and put it in my album or on my wall, which are both full of different projects I have worked on throughout the years. I hope everyone finds a hobby which brings as much joy as photography does to me.

[lakiceva]

Gym time!

 Name of activity: going to the gym

Date: started in February 2020

Approximate number of hours: 6 hours a week

Type of activity: activity

Learning outcomes:

Demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

Showed commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

Demonstrated the skills and recognized the benefits of working collaboratively

Identified own strengths and developed areas for growth.

Demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken.

Recognized and considered the ethics of choices and actions.

As I have mentioned in my previous blog, skiing has made a change in my perception of myself. After the experience with skiing, I decided to take up gym. At first, it was a little bit exhausting because I wasn’t fit at all. But that made me even more determined for my goal. I started going every other day and I must say i can see the difference in my mood, my physical appearance and my emotions. The coaches at my local gym are very nice and polite and will always help if help is needed. 

Reflection:

As I have previously mentioned, going to the gym has tremendously influenced my everyday mood and emotions. I am less stressed than usual and a lot less bad emotions crowd my mind on a daily basis. That has helped me with IB beacuse I have imrproved my sleep schedule and far less stress comes to my mind anyway. i would reccomend everyone a trip to your local gym, regardless of what you’re looking for: a cardio imrpovement, work on that bicep or tricep or even improving your high score in push ups. Go to the gym. Go. Improve yourself!

[lakiceva]

Skiing!

Name of activity: Skiing on Jahorina

Date: 16.-19.1.2020.

Approximate number of hours: 10 hours

Type of activity: activity

Learning outcomes:

Demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

Showed commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

Demonstrated the skills and recognized the benefits of working collaboratively

Identified own strengths and developed areas for growth.

Demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken.

Recognized and considered the ethics of choices and actions.

This may have been one of the most demanding challenges in the past few years. Me, I’m not a person who’s very keen on being fit and going on these adrenaline junkie trips, but my family decided to break the ice and go ski for the first time. Ever. I mean, it was funny to even think about it since none of my family members have skied before. So there we were: four of us, who have absolutely no idea of what we’re about to experience, in a car full of luggage. The only thing you can smell in the car is the sarma my dear mother packed in the trunk (she wanted the full winter in the Balkans experience with the sarma detail). When we got to Jahorina, the winter beauty, my brother and I stepped on the skis for the first time in our lives. We spent about an hour or two with and experienced friend who showed us the basics of skiing. I picked it up pretty fast but what i didn’t realize before I bought my ski pass and went to the absolutely too steep and too high track is that I don’t know how to stop. Damn. The first going-down-the-track went a little bit disasterous. I spent more time rolling on the snow while my slides deattached than skiing. I mean ok, it’s my first time but damn. 

As I got down (barely), I decided to give it one more try and head back to the place we stayed at. I instantly fell asleep and woke up with a lot of bruises on my body. For most people this would be a sign to not and I mean NOT continue skiing, but I continued. In the meantime, I learned how to stop and actually went down a really high track a couple of times. 

The funniest moment was definitely when me and my brother went down to this café and my parents just burst with laughter. I didn’t know why they were laughing, but soon after i realised that my hair had been out the whole time and that it froze solid. I looked like a crazy old ice witch (just like Ice King from Adventure Time-I don’t have a love life either).

Reflection:

This experience has actually been a cathalyst for my ambition of being-fit-and-all-that. I have started going to the gym. Also, I almost broke my leg, my arm, my hip, survived 7 days of my whole body hurting without taking medicine and walked proudly with a swollen leg. Just by experiencing this, I have realized that I am capable of much more than I thought and that I can do it. I can do everything. I even got better grades while going to the gym. Isn’t that awesome? I would warmly reccomend everyone to find a challenge for themselves. It’s really worth it.

[lakiceva]

Christmas Fair!

Name of activity: Christmas fair

Date: 23.12.2019.

Approximate number of hours: 12 hours

Type of activity: creativity, service

Learning outcomes:

Demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

Showed commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

Demonstrated the skills and recognized the benefits of working collaboratively

Identified own strengths and developed areas for growth.

Demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken.

Recognized and considered the ethics of choices and actions.

Hello everyone. i haven’t written in a while. In the last week of December last year IB2 class organized Christmas fair. What is Christmas fair? Well, glad you asked. Christmas fair is a charity event organized every year at my school by the students at my school. The main goal of the fair is to gather money for charity purposes. Students have shown high creativity in the process of preparations for the Christmas fair: they have made soaps with the chemistry teacher, cakes and bakery goodies at home, Christmas cards which could be given to your loved ones and so on. My particular task and participation was preparing the desks for the fair and assembling the photo booth where people could have their picture taken. we have gathered for the Christmas fair at 7 am and have stayed there until 4 PM. Since the fair’s duration was only one day, we can proudly say that we collected a good amount of money for charity purposes. 

Reflection:

It was a rather fun experience for all of us. I was taking pictures the whole time and I will put them in this post. They really did capture the good and positive spirit of that day. I love working with people but I also love working for people. It was a really rewarding emotion to know that you are doing something for someone else with a good cause. Especially on Christmas, even though it shouldn’t be just on Christmas. 

SPREAD THE LOVE MY PEEPS!

[lakiceva]

Thanksgiving day!

29.11.2019.

Hello everyone! Today I will be writing about this Friday. In our school we have a few exchange students from the US and this year we decided(our IB class) to make a Thanksgiving celebration for them. We made a mini-celebration: everyone cooked something or made something edible (ha-ha). All together we made a big dinner (or lunch) for everyone, and by everyone I mean both of the IB classes and our teachers (and the exchange students of course!).

It was quite interesting, our food ranged from our homemade pies to lasagnas to brownies. Quite an amplitude of the selection of food! Our exchange friends enjoyed the food: both our traditional and non-traditional.

It was a really good experience since all of us got involved in the organization and all of us did something for eachother. I must say, I love food more than anything, and I was really satisfied with the food.