Hockey Tournament - The Vacation Finale

I started my summer holidays with hockey and I shall end it with hockey as well, I was dragged into a tournament "FSO" that lasted for 7 days, from the 24th to the 31st of August. We played 6 games, we won 3, tied one and lost two, we ended up on 5th place, but it is only the beginning, life has its failures and its victories. I played fairly well, although the fact that my left arm was useless due to an injury received back in "Lipki", did not help me at all and at times even diking was painful, but I had to play and I did, at times not showing the standard of hockey that I can, but I did my best. It was the best part of my summer vacation, I do not care what place we took, at least I did what I love most and thats all I needed.

Homecoming

So came the end of my adventures in "Lipki", but a new chapter opened in front of me as a second camp was about to start back in Moscow. Three weeks worth of more athletics, both heavy and light, on-ice training and cross-country runs, then "Lipki" looked like a fairytale compared to this. The most memorable day was when the coach decided to give us 400m times 24, divided into three periods by eight, the 400 metres had to be run by 1 min 05 seconds or else the heat was repeated until everybody "qualified" - as he said; then, of course, we went on ice. I tell you the hybrid of light athletic and ice skates is the best idea he came up with, I mean has anyone jumped over UAZ tires on skates before? I do not think so. This camp had its charm, but had no mercy on us. Now, I want to go again! Everything finished on the 26th of August and by that time I had...
Grown aware of my own strengths and weaknesses
Developed new skills
Undertaken new challenges
Shown perseverance and commitment in my activities
Worked collaboratively with others

Lights, Camera, Action! (Part II)

So we come to the grand finale of our labour, everything had to be filmed in the given 5 hours. Before the show I worked as a visagiste, applying war pain to the 'evil' characters, I was pretty successful, after failing my first attempt. We started at 20:00 and finished at nearly 2 am the next day, but I regretted nothing, it was one hell of an experience, I believe a copy of the movie can be found on the internet. All eight of us got letters of gratitude and miniature Oscars, but that was just to top everything off. Throughout the shooting of the movie I...
Increased awareness for my own strengths and weaknesses
Undertaken new challenges
Developed new skills
Worked collaboratively with others
and possibly Shown commitment in my activities

Lights, Camera, Action! (Part I)

The drama camp needed some extra actors to aid the elder group with a movie, and chose who, well us - the hockey group. There were 8 of us and I'm surprised that everybody survived. The rehearsals were held for 5 days, some not lasting than 1.5 hours, some spilled over 3 hours, but by the end of the week we had to have a full performance up and running. I've got to admit that running around half-naked with a rag rapped around me was somewhat strange, but everyone was forced to wear a tunic-style rags, so why do I complain? Mostly we rehearsed dances, mostly Waltz (an ironic change of scenery, compared to the practices we had earlier on in the day), it was good that it was a silent movie, basing itself on facial expressions and music, at least there wasn't a script to learn. The main part of the preparation for the movie, after the rehearsals, was the stage and props, which needed to be prepared. Naturally the stage was supposed to be a a magical forest, thus three people: Nikita, Ksenia and Me started to assemble the stage, the result of 3 hours worth of work and some imagination can be seen in the photographs below (soon to be added, technical problems at the moment). During the preparation for the movie I...
Increased awareness for my own strengths and weaknesses
Undertook new challenges
Developed new skills (never knew how to waltz, now I do)
Worked collaboratively with others

Posters!

Guess what! Tutoring was not the only thing I did during camp, I helped draw the posters for the small group of children and for the movie premiers they were showing as well. My education has to go into a cause, does it not? Their theme was "Indians and Savages", thats why their main hall was decorated with a totem the kids and I drew. I was happy to see that I had inspired several of my friends to help out  and Vlad Varfolomeev especially. In total we drew 5 posters, four where of A1 size and one of A0, I was not exactly slaking off and they were finished during the course of three days. Quite a pleasing small victory for myself as I...
Increased awareness for my own strengths and weaknesses
Worked collaboratively with others
Developed new skills

Teacher of English

Never really attempted to become a teacher, but I received a chance at Lipki (yes, this happened during hockey camp), in parallel with our sports camp there was a drama camp "Kannikuli" along with us. Part of my job was teaching the youngest groups of the camp, some of my team helped out as well, at one point I was offered a permanent place at the camp, but I refused. The tutoring continued for 2 weeks, everyday at 13:00 to 17:00, the lesson itself was split up into two parts: part one from 13:00 to 14:30, then an hours break and from 15:30 to 17:00 was the second (this was the 'silent hour' for the hockey team). Sometimes it was dialogues, other times it was cartoons in English along with worksheet. I felt the full impact of being a tutor, after all staying up late to plan a lesson is not what I usually do, I have got to admit that it was difficult, especially trying to make the kids sit down, but I got there eventually. Although it was exhausting work I am happy that I was able to provide a service for the children, after all it may impact their future, who knows. This brilliant experience has taught me to:
Undertake new challenges
Develop new skills
Consider the ethical implications of my actions
Work collaboratively with others
Plan and initiate activities
Increase their awareness of my own strengths and weaknesses

Summer Sports Camp

I thought that I would have a break between school and hockey, well... Guess what, I was wrong, school finished on the 6th and on the 8th I was already in sports camp. The place is called "Lipki" we stayed there until the 31st and this 23 day period was action packed as you will hear in other blogs.
Everyday we had 4 practices in total: In the morning, which usually involved a jog, along with various fitness exercises and topped off with some basketball; at 11 o'clock hell always broke loose and if it was not a cross-country run, then most surely sprinting, jumping and weight-lifting was involved, this lasted for over 2 hours; at 17:00 another practice involving more running and, if lucky, some sort of a game, this was another 2 hours; after dinner at 21:00 everyone went to the swimming pool where we had to swim a length of a kilometre and soon this distance doubled. Everything seemed alright, did not really care for the pain in my muscles, I met a lot of new people, but it was ridiculous that I managed to fit in my studies as well. Three weeks passed extremely quickly and I almost wish to return. I did not have any time to spare afterwards as a second camp was about to begin...
During my stay I have:
Grown aware of my own weaknesses and strength
Undertaken new challenges
Shown perseverance and commitment in my activities
Developed new skills
Worked collaboratively with others