ISSEA volleyball

ISSEA is the big sports tournament that is hosted three times a year by one of the schools in east and southern africa. This year volleyball was hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa, and so i had a chance to join into that.

We had about a week after October break that we could use to get our fitness levels back up, and just finess the skills and tactics that we would be needing. Last week was actually probably the best week of practice that i have participated in this year, as we were all very motivated and excited to be going on the trip (as we also had high hopes of getting gold). But i guess it may also be a result of only having two practices instead of the normal four, as we had to leave the school after school on Wednesday to catch our flight. Unfortunately/Fortunately (depending on how you look at it) the flight turned out to be delayed. This did mean that we were able to bond as a team, and i found myself hanging out with people that i would normally never be hanging out with, which i think was a very good experience for me. It also helped us to all get to know each other more - but this was only the start!

We had a good couple days of fun, playing volleyball and socialising. There are seven schools that participate in ISSEA, which meant there was a wide background of students who we had a chance to meet and get to know. Despite going to ISSEA last year, i found that once again there was something new to learn with every person i met. Many people had their own opinions on many subjects, and i found myself in a few situations debating the political policies of various countries with other people who i found were taking similar IB subjects to me.

I learned a lot from my trip to SA, and i would be very happy if i had the possibility of doing something like this again. Unfortunately, this isn't possible, as i am leaving school in May, but i think the trip has inspired me to try new things so as to meet more people around the world who are also doing them. All in all, a very good sport competition!

Oh yeah, and we won gold ;)

Action - Volleyball

This week was the last week of school before October break. This didn't really change much, we still had practice three time in the week, and we still were working on the same sorts of things.

The only thing was that our coach was worried about our fitness levels on how they will be affected during the coming week (during holidays the majority of people don't do any exercise at all). Knowing this, he assigned us a little task. Well, okay it's actually quite a major task. He told us that everyday we must do 40 push ups and 40 sit ups. But that's not all, he also said that every other day at least we should do some form of exercise: running, biking, swimming (though he said preferably not swimming as it's not a weight-based sport).

So i will do that, and i will also bring a ball to the Kenyan coast (where i am going on holiday), so that me and my brother can practice a bit.

Creativity - Cooking lesson

This week i made chilli con carne, a speciality of my mom. I've had this dish countless times and i still love it, so i'm happy that at last i can learn how to make it.

I started off my heating some olive oil in a large saucepan that has a lid (mine is red), and fried two onions and two cloves of garlic (both of which i had already peeled; the onion i had sliced, while the garlic i had crushed). I had to wait until they were softened, which took timing, and my mom helped me notice when they were ready. Once done, i increased the heat a bit, and then added the beef mince (1kg), cooking it quickly until it browned. I had to make sure that all sides

were brown, which meant flipping it all once one

side had sufficiently browned. I also had to make sure there weren't any big chunks (and there were lots at first), meaning i had to cut it all up with a wooden spoon. Once it was all brown, i then added in 250ml of some nice red wine (i have no idea what type) and let it boil for a couple minutes. Then i stirred in some tinned tomatoes

(2x 400g), three tablespoons of tomato purée, three teaspoons of chilli flakes, a teaspoon of ground cumin, a teaspoon of ground coriander, a stick of cinnamon and some Worcestershire sauce, and then i crumbled in a stock cube. On top of this i added some salt and pepper and then mixed all together nicely. I then brought it to a simmer

(i actually had to drop the heat, as for some reason it was too high and bubbling away), covered it with the lid and let it cook for about an hour. I had to come back every ten minutes or so though, just to stir it around to thicken it up.

After it had all been cooked, i added in the kidney beans (2x 400g) and a large bunch of fresh coriander from my mom's herb garden. I then let this cook for another ten minutes, took it off the heat and seasoned it a bit more with salt and pepper. And voilà!

I served the chilli con carne with some rice (which i made in a rice cooker), some sour cream, and a nice salad which my mom wanted to make (she was bored).

And it tasted delicious!

Creativity - Cooking lesson

This week i decided to cook pasta once again, though slightly different. Last time i made pasta it was simple, with a tomato sauce (with a hint of garlic). This time, my mom told me that there is a different way of making pasta, by baking it. So i decided to try it. I would use a sauce of tomatoes and mozzarella, which would melt while baking, and become very, very nice.
First, i preheated the oven to 200*C; this saves time. While that was heating up, i began boiling a large pot of water. Also simultaneously i took a pan and added some olive oil, an onion that i had already sliced up, two cloves of garlic that i had already finely chopped and a red chilly that i had crumbled up. I let these slowly fry (key word = slowly!) for about 10 minutes or so on a low heat, basically until they were all softened up. Once they were done, i added the tinned plum tomatoes (3x 400g). I then brought it to a boil, turned down the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or so. I made sure to stir it every so often, just to get out the inconsistencies, and make it a nice smooth sauce. While it was simmering, i added some salt to the boiling water, and then put in the pasta (400g). It didn't need to be cooked completely until al dente (as it will still be cooked when baking), but i let it chill for a few minutes in the boiling water, just to make sure it was not completely hard. Once i judged it to be done (i used my mom's help a bit, as i didn't want to get it wrong), i drained the pasta and then mixed it with half of the tomato sauce and a bit of Parmesan cheese. As soon as it looked like it had been mixed together enough, i got a nicely sized baking tray, and sprayed a bit of olive oil (with the handy sprayer) onto the surfaces. I then scooped in all the pasta with the mixed in sauce and cheese. On top of this i put some more tomato sauce, a bit more grated Parmesan and a sliced up mozzarella ball, and repeated this until i had used everything i had (i had enough ingredients for three layers). On the very top i grated some more parmesan, to add a nice crust once baked. I then put this into the preheated oven for around 15 minutes (basically until it was golden and crisp, with a bit of bubbling going on.

Action - Volleyball

This week in volleyball we continued working on tactics (as we pretty much have the basic skills down), as well as our fitness levels (though mine isn't really changing). It's good to see the younger plays of the team pushing hard to improve as much as they can. It's also really good to see the older players helping out so much; being the leaders that they should be.

Apart from the practices that we had (monday morning, wednesday morning and thursday after school), we also had a tournament at the school against two Kenyan schools that focus on sports. This posed a bit of a challenge for us, as they were the first proper games that we have played. It was interesting to see how some players reacted. Some people became very nervous, and this lead to one of two consequences. Either that player became too nervous to play, and ended up making many mistakes, or they conquered the nervousness and ended up shining. And even so, there was another group of people who were not nervous at all (i was part of this group), as we were used to playing matches already from previous years.

We didn't do as well as i think we could have, as we played three games and only won one of them, though the two losses were very close. The first game we played was against a team of players where the smallest player was about 6'3''. We were intimidated, as our tallest player is about 6'3''. We are not the biggest team, though we make up for it with clever gameplay, and it became a bit of a challenge for us to not lose focus. Once the game began, however, it became clear quite quickly that we were the better team in terms of skills. They had a few players who could hit, and those were the ones we watched out for, but their setting and defense was definitely not up to scratch. Because of this, we had a chance to capitalise, and we did: we won the first set.

After this, it seemed to all go wrong. We started making mistakes that we really shouldn't have made, giving them many many more points than they actually won. Because of this, they ended up winning the game 3-2 in sets. And our coach wasn't happy, let me tell you.

Next, we had a break, as the two teams wanted to play each other, so we happily gave them that opportunity. Once they were done (the team that beat us having won again), we played the losers of that game. And we won easily with 3-0 in sets. We still gave the other team too many points because of our mistakes, but not enough to let them take the game from us.

Because there were only two teams, we wanted to play the good team again. It was a very tense game, as we were playing well, but they had started to play really well (hit after hit after hit after hit). Each set was very close, and when it came down to the last set, it was 2-2 in sets, and 25-24 where we were losing (games go up to 25, but you must win by two points). The final score ended up being 27-25, with us losing unfortunately, but we learnt much from the tournament. So we weren't too disappointed. 

I think the thing we learnt the most was that we really need to work on getting all the mistakes out of our game. If we had not made any mistakes, we would have easily won every game (we gave away about 14 points on average per game). Over the next couple of weeks, i think this is something that we are going to be working on.

Creativity - Cooking lesson

Today i made chicken patties with rosemary and pancetta. It's a recipe that is not hard to make, and can make a lot of patties all at once, so it's good for a lunch the next day as well, etc.

First i peeled the onion and chopped it finely (i've finally learnt how to do that from all my salads!), then peeled two garlic cloves and chopped them finely as well. I then heated a non-stick frying pan, and put a thick slice of butter in there (in place of olive oil) and then dropped the onion and garlic in to soften. Once they were all a honey colour, i took the little cubes of pancetta (100g) and stirred them in. I then took the three sprigs of rosemary, and stripped the leaves from the stalks (apparently the stalks have no flavour and therefore contribute nothing to the overall deliciousness of the meal), before adding them into the mixture. I then let this cook for a few minutes until the pancetta is nice and coloured. Next, i mixed the minced chicken (450g) into the mixture, before seasoning quite generously with pepper and a little salt (my mom mentioned that i shouldn't put too much salt, as the pancetta already contributes to the seasoning).

Before doing anything else i had to preheat the oven to 190*C, to save some time. Next, the patties were ready to be made. I took the mixture and shaped it into six nicely sized burgers, depending on how much of the mixture was made (more mixture = more/bigger patties). I then had some time to just relax, as they need to settle for about half an hour. I wrote half of this blog post in that time, just because it was still fresh on my mind.

Next i took the onion pan that was used before and cleaned it a bit, then put it onto the stove to get it hot. I added some olive oil and added the patties. It didn't take long to brown both sides (my mom was watching over me here, as she wanted to make sure i didn't burn it; it really didn't take long at all), only about three minutes per side. Once done, i transferred every patty to an oven dish. Once nicely arranged i poured in the chicken stock (250ml made from chicken bones by my mom on the weekend) and then baked it for about another half an hour. I knew they were done when they were sizzling nicely, and the stock was bubbling.

I also made some rice in a rice cooker at the same time to go with the patties. Once plated up, i poured the stock over the rice to add some flavour to it. My mom helped by making some brussel sprouts to go with it (i didn't really want to learn, as i'm not a big fan, though i did eat them). On top of all of this, i made a nice salad to go with it (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocado from a tree in my garden).

Action - Volleyball

Volleyball was once again the same as it was last year. We have a friendly tournament next week, where we will play a few schools in and around Nairobi, and that will be some good practice for us, but other than that not much is different. We are slowly getting better, and we should be ready by ISSEA (November 2 - November 6).

Action - Football

This week was a bit weird, in terms of football. The first thing i think i should mention is that my school-workload has become a bit overbearing since the end of last week, and i've been finding it a bit hard to cope. And of course this lead me to a few decisions that i have been thinking about for some time; that i've also mentioned before in a previous blog post. Basically, to put it super simply for whoever is reading this, i quit the football team. The first league game of the season is on monday, and there is a huge tournament at my school today. But i have told my coach that i do not feel like i have the time to compete anymore. And for me school work always always ALWAYS comes first. So i guess that's my decision.

I don't think my coach is too happy. I mean, at the beginning of the year we all tried out knowing that we were making a big commitment, and i've just sort of broken that agreement that i would stay with the team until the end. I think he understands, but he's definitely no where near happy. Another thing is that yesterday was my birthday. Yeah, i'm 17 now! Young, i know, but whatever i'm happy, because i'm slowly getting to adulthood. But my birthday was a friday, i went out, and there's a tournament at school today. I think my coach expected me to come at least to the tournament today as it was a bit late for a replacement to be found, but i was out late, and to be honest, i didn't really ever intend to go. Tonight's my party, so i need to go and get ready, but hopefully my team mates won't be too disappointed with me; hopefully they will understand. And if not, oh well, nothing i can do - i still stick by my decision.

Creativity - Cooking lesson

Today i made risotto - which i have actually wanted to learn how to make for a long time - with whatever i could find in the cupboards in my kitchen. So i got to work, looking throughcupboard after cupboard, checking the freezer, fridge,looking for something to use (luckily my mom keeps the kitchen pretty stocked up on food, which made this much easier). In the end i decided on adding frozen peas and asparagus, as those were in my house and i thought would go well with risotto.

First, i took the asparagus, cut the tips off, cut each stalk into two and then cooked them in lightly salted boiling water for a couple minutes. My mom told me that some recipes separate the stalks and the tips, but she seems tothink that it tastes better if you keep it all together, so that's what i did. Once they were done i took them out and drained them. I then left them until they are needed. Next, i put olive oil in a pan, and added onionsand spring onions. I allowed these to saute until they were just about wilted - not too much to be overcooked, but they had to be cooked enough that they weren't all still hard. I immediately added the risotto rice, but gradually, not all at once. I also had to make sure that i continued stirring it while adding it, as otherwise it becomes very easy for the rice to stick to the pan if the oil already in the pan doesn't mix into it. I then added dry white wine into the mixture, for flavour, which had to be absorbed. Once fully absorbed into the rice, i then had to start adding ladlefuls of hot chicken stock (which i heated up before and which my mom made the day before from chicken bones). Even when this was done i had to keep stirring the risotto to keep it from sticking. After about 25 minutes of cooking (once the rice lost its chalky colour and became soft), i added salt and pepper, the peas, and the asparagus and then let it simmer for 10 more minutes. It was very important that i continued to taste the rice at this point, as i had to make sure that i didn't overcook it (that would have sucked after all that effort). Once i decided the risotto was ready i added chopped basil and some Parmesan cheese. My mom then mixed it gently, made sure to cover it and i turned off the heat. It was now ready to eat!

Action - Volleyball

This week i only had volleyball practice on monday morning and wednesday morning, as my football game got in the way of thursday practice. This week, however, were also the final cuts for the ISSEA team as we had 12 and that was cut down to 10 people, as only a maximum of 10 people are allowed to be taken per team. But i wasn't really that worried, particularly because i play such a key role in the team.

But my brother is on the team as well, so i was a little worried about him. He's only in 10th grade, so i wasn't sure whether he'd make it, and he's my bro, i mean i want him to get in. So yeah, a little bit worried...

But it was all good in the end, he got in and he's happy. So i'm happy too.

Apart from that, the practice's were just like last week. Not much change apart from the fact that we are slowly improving - hopefully enough, though i'm not sure we'll be ready for november. Hopefully.

Action - Football

This week we had another friendly. We played RVA (Rift Valley Academy) on thursday after school. It's the game of the year that i dread. Not because they're a difficult team to beat, which they are, but because it takes about an hour and a half to get to their school, and then another 2 hours to get back (more traffic when it's later). And because of this extreme amount of time where we are travelling, i never get any homework done on that day, or if i do it's because i stay up all night doing it. So, being me, i was debating skipping it. I mean, the team could cope without me; they would miss me, but they could cope.

But ahhh, after thinking it through i thought it was probably a better idea to go to the game. I didn't just want to abandon my teammates and lose their trust, so i ended up going.

On monday and tuesday, we had practice and we continued to practice the new style that we wanted to use for the season. To be really honest, i didn't enjoy it that much. I think this week i've begun to realise that i just don't enjoy football as much as i did last year. I think it's a bit to do with my fitness level and my inability to progress it much further than the first couple of weeks. But also, it seems that i don't have much of a part in the team anymore. I mean, there are three other strikers and i get to play about half of each game, where last year i would play the whole of pretty much every game - or at least a great majority. But there's another reason as well. It takes so much energy out of me (coupled with the volleyball) that most days i just don't have the willpower to do my homework, and this is worrying me. I don't want to see my grades job in the final year of school, and - i dunno - i've just been thinking about the possibility of quitting either football or volleyball. At the moment it's only a future possibility if it just completely overloads me, but a sport everyday (sometimes twice a day - before and afterschool) seems to me to be a little much, even though i did the same last year. But as i've said, i've lost the fitness that i had last year.

But back to the game: it was a good game, both sides were matched pretty equally, though we had the upper hand for a lot of the game. The final scored turned out to be 2-1 to them - a loss that was not deserved by us. One of our players (remaining unnamed) missed two penalties after scoring the first goal of the game, which RVA seemed to take as motivation and got the better of us. Next time we'll get them though!

Creativity - Cooking lesson

This week i chose to make baked fish and chips, though not in the completely classical english way. My mom has a slight alteration to it, which she picked up in a cookbook somewhere along the way.

Firstly, i preheated theoven to 220*C. I then got the baking tray that i used last week and put it in the oven for about 10 minutes just to heat it up. As this was happening, i took all the potatoes i needed (about 1kg) and sliced them up nice and thinly. At first i found this difficult, as i couldn't get each slice the same width, but eventually i figured out how to do it. It was important to try and get each individual potato slice about the same width, as if one was thicker than another it would take longer to cook, and then by the end each slice would be cooked differently. Once this was done (it actually took quite some time), i placed all of the slices onto a baking paper which was on top of the heated baking tray. I then sprayed the top of the potatoes with olive oil (using the handy sprayer), sprinkled some salt on top and put it all back into the oven. I then let this bake for about 20 minutes. I then took my fish fillets (200g per fillet of some type of white fish) and sprinkled them with lemon zest (which i had to grate) and some salt and pepper. Once the potatoes were done i added the fish to the tray onto the top of the potatoes and put it back into the oven for another 10 minutes or so (basically until the fish was just cooked through). This was the part that i found the hardest, cos i didn't really know when the fish was cooked through, so i had to keep asking my mom whether it was done or not. Over time, if i continue to cook this dish, i will slowly learn when it would be ready; it all comes with experience i guess.

I served it with a nice salad similar to the ones i made on previous weeks, but with a slight twist. In this salad i added a bit of nice cucumber which i found in the fridge and my mom said i could use. The cucumbers i first had to peel, and then i cut it thinly (and to about the same size).

Action - Football

Football this week was tough. We had the Rosslyn friendly on Tuesday, so that took over from the tuesday practice, but apart from that we still had Monday practice thursday practice (the other players usually have wednesday morning practice as well, but our coach cancelled it; though unfortunately because i do volleyball, i had to got to volleyball practice, which was incredibly tiring).

Firstly, the game. We lost. That's all i really need to say but i'll say more anyway. The final score was 5-0, and they just completely outplayed us. They were much fitter, and just seemed to be more alive, with more determination than us. And, they were also home with their own referees who gave some pretty bad decisions, but i'm not blaming that. So yeah, bring on the intense practices of the rest of the week...

Well, thursday wasn't actually as hard as i was expecting it to be. What we did was we worked on a new style of play that our coach wants us to learn so that we can implement it as soon as possible and become a very exciting team to watch. This new gameplay revolved around passing and moving very quickly, finding little gaps, and just trying to keep the passes flowing without holding onto the ball too long. And we were pretty successful, i must admit. We weren't perfect, but we did do a pretty good job of picking up exactly what we needed to do and getting it done.

Okay, i say that it wasn't as hard as i expected, but passing and moving around constantly in a game-situation is still pretty energy-consuming. I mean, try constantly moving for about forty minutes straight. It's HARD.

Creativity - Cooking lesson

This week i made tomato and three cheeses tarts with a nice salad.

In fact, my mom had never made this before either, so it was an important lesson for me to learn how to follow instructionsfrom a cook book, so that the final food still tastes amazing. This recipe came from a cook book called the Instant Cook by Donna Hay, which my mom owns.

First i preheated the oven to 180*C, so as to make sure that i wouldn't waste any time. I then took some pastrysheets and trimmed them a bit to get a nice square shape of the size of two put together and cut it in half, giving two decent sized sheets of pastry. I did this twice, as there are four in my family,and each could then have one. I then placed the pasty bases on some baking trays lined with baking paper, and let them chill there. I then had to combine ricotta (a type of cheese), basil and parmesan (another type of cheese) in a bowl, making sure it is mixedwell, and spread it out over the pastry. The one problem was that i had to make sure to not put too much of the mixture, as i had to leave enough gap on each border. This would allow the cheese to melt in the oven, while not overflowing the pastry. It just made it nice and clean to eat. Next, i arranged some slices of mozzarella (another type of cheese) over the mixture, again leaving that small gap on the borders. I also had to make sure that i didn't overload the pastry with cheese, as it could have easily turned into a cheese mountain. The recipe didn't actually mention this, but i decided to sprinkle a bit of grated parmesan on top of the whole thing just to add a bit more of a kick to it (and also i love parmesan!). I then topped the mixture with some cherry tomatoes, which i had cut in half. The recipe said to make sure that the cut side was up, which i didn't actually notice at first, meaning i had to waste time flipping all of them to the proper way. Apparently, if the cut sides are up (according to my mom) then the tomatoes become roasted quicker and retain their flavour. I sprayed olive oil over the whole thing with this handy olive oil sprayer that my mom has and then sprinkled it with a bit of salt and pepper.Once all this preparation was done i then put the four tarts in the oven and baked them for 20 minutes (or basically until they were golden).

I also made a salad to go with it, which turned out to be exactly the same as the one i made last week. Except for the fact that this weeki made pretty much all of it by myself. The only thing i messed a bit up on was cutting the onions, as i didn't manage to get them fine enough and my mom had to help out with that a bit.

Action - Volleyball

Well, volleyball has been going well. I'm worried for ISSEA, as our team is definitely not as good as last years at this stage, though hopefully we'll improve by november. Our biggest problem is that we don't have enough tall people, though. I have actually even tried to convince some of the taller people in our grade to come and join, as we seriously need some extra height, but unfortunately it hasn't worked.

Each practice we first warm up, then we work on basic skills. Once a reasonable amount of time has been spent on those skills we move into the tactics and different tactics that can be used to beat opponents. I have to say that our coach (a math teacher called Stevenson) is really good. He was good last year, but this year where we have a number of people who haven't played large amounts of volleyball before (such as some of the younger players) and it is clear to me that they are going to improve drastically under the guidance of our coach. Well, that's what i'm hoping.

In terms of the fitness, it doesn't really bother me as much in volleyball as it does in football, as volleyball is more of a game where you don't run around. You still need to move around, sometimes at pretty crazy speeds, but it's not the kind of sport where you need endless amounts of energy and ridiculous stamina levels. Though, Stevenson makes us do fitness at the end of each practice (usually consisting of a few suicides, push-ups, sit-ups, and various other exercises).

Action - Football

After my initial successes in increasing my fitness during the week of tryouts, it seems as if i can't progress anymore. Over the course of this week i have found training as difficult as it was last friday, on the final day of tryouts. I am a little bit worried, as it either means that i have not been pushing myself hard enough, or that something in my body has happened to stop me from increasing my fitness any further. Another possibility may be that the practices have slowly been becoming more and more strenuous, and that it has meant that i have viewed each practice as been equal to the last in terms of how easy i found it.

I also plan to go cycling for at least a couple hours today and tomorrow so that i continue to gain more and more fitness. If not, it may come to the point where i will have to choose between football and volleyball, though i hope it doesn't, as i wouldn't want to let either of the teams down. For now at least i am hoping to continue as best i can, and once the friendlies start coming up i will be able to see how i can cope with a game situation.

Each practice has been pretty physical, with each player trying to develop both our skills on the pitch, our understanding of the type of game play we will use through the season, and also continue progressing our fitness levels to get us match fit before the season actually starts properly. We have a friendly this coming week against Rosslyn Academy (BIG RIVALS), so hopefully we will be ready for then. If not we will just have to work even harder, which i am not looking forward to, so hopefully we do win.

Creativity - Cooking lessons

Today i had my first ever cooking lesson. I thought it would be a good idea to learn how to cook at least a few dishes as in university i don't want to be one of those people who lives off of either other people's cooking, or junk food. And with my mom being such a good cook and all, i thought i would ask her how to teach me.

My first ever dish was pasta with a simple tomato sauce, plus a nice salad on the side. It's not hard, i know, but let me tell you, i am TERRIBLE at cooking, so i thought i would start with something easy.

So first i had to make the pasta sauce. I started off by heating up some olive oil in a saucepan. At the same time i finely chopped some garlic, and once the oil was hot enough i added them in. I had to make sure that it was on a low heat, though, as the thing my mom told me was that the secret to cooking garlic is that it must be cooked slowly. If not, it apparently gets all bitter and nasty, and of course i didn't want that. Alright, so i had to wait about 10-15 minutes until the garlic was golden brown, and then i added in two tins of peeled tomatoes (that's the way my mom does it and to be honest, i was thankful for not having to peel all those tomatoes). I then added some salt and pepper, and a tiny amount of sugar, as my mom said that the sugar makes the sauce very nice. I turned the heat slightly up until the sauce started bubbling, after which i turned it down very slightly so that it was only bubbling a small, small amount. I let this cook for about 20 minutes. While this was cooking, i put some water into a big pot (enough water so that all the pasta could be covered) and turned the heat up to the fullest. Once it has started boiling, i put some salt in and then put all the pasta into the pot. This i let cook at a high heat (so that the water is constantly bubbling) until the pasta was al dente. This took about 10-12 minutes. Once the pasta was done, i drained it using a sieve and then combined the pasta and the sauce together in the big pot. At the very last minute i added in 7 basil leaves, which i tore up by hand and then mixed in. And voila!

I also made a salad at the same time, which had lettuce leaves, tomato, half a large onion and a nice dressing of vinegar and olive oil. My mom helped me quite a lot on this, as i have never done it before and was not sure about much of the processes. For example, i had no idea how to cut an onion properly, so she showed me how to do that. And also, i wasn't quite sure on how much of the vinegar and olive oil to add in, so she mixed the dressing for me. Though, i have made sure to take it all to memory, and hopefully next week i will be able to do the salad by myself!

Action - Volleyball tryouts

I am definitely a lover of sports. The two that i played in my junior year were varsity football and varsity volleyball. The football season is at the beginning of the year, while the volleyball season is at the very end. However, there are still volleyball tryouts at the beginning of the year because there is this tournament called the ISSEA (International Schools of Southern and Eastern Africa) tournament. It is a large tournament with seven schools that is hosted in a different country each year. ISSEA is split into three sports: football, volleyball and basketball. Football and volleyball are the same week, at the beginning of november (but in different countries), while basketball is sometime in february.

Well, because of this tournament i needed to play both football and volleyball simultaneously up until the ISSEA tournament. This is because i have already decided that i am going to do volleyball, and not football (both cannot be done, as they are held on the same week, as i have already said) for ISSEA.

The week of tryouts just didnt seem to be as hard as the week of football tryouts. This is probably because i was already getting used to playing sport again, though i found it difficult to juggle volleyball and football for that first week of doing both at the same time.

I made the team as a setter, the position i played in my junior year as well, and hope to continue to progress my skills as a setter over the coming months.

Action - Football tryouts

I tried out for the football team at the beginning of the year, as i really enjoy the sport. It is also able to be a part of my CAS program under the action part. I played in my junior year as well, playing striker on the varsity team.

The first day of tryouts was HARD. No joke. Over the course of the summer i did only a minimal amount of exercise, which had reduced my fitness to a level where i was definitely not ready for heavy sports again. Because of this, on that first day of tryouts i really struggled. I could not run for as long, as my lungs just seized up and i couldn't breathe, and i just had much, much less energy.

This lack of fitness continued over the course of the week. It was a difficult time. Thankfully, my school work had not yet exploded, so the tiredness that i was constantly feeling did not affect my academics. Even so, i could see that if i did not get fit as soon as possible, then there could have been consequences.

Tryouts started on the monday, and by thursday i was actually feeling a bit better. I wasn't as constantly tired, and i could play a full game without becoming too over-exerted. It seemed that the more i played, the fitter i became, so of course i tried to play as much as possible. I even committed myself to going cycling in the forest next to my house on weekends to try and improve my fitness level. It did pay off, but i realised that i was never really reaching my previous level of fitness (from before the summer holidays).

After the week of grueling physical exertion, i did manage to make the team. It wasn't a surprise; i definitely expected it, having been on the team the year previously. But i was a little worried that i may not be able to be as big a part of the team as in my junior year because of my fitness.