Creative Exploration

Wednesday 6th of Mai 2009

CAS element: Creativity
Time: 2 hours

In this new activity we want to construct a small guide of the multitude art galleries that can be found in each district of Paris. To do that we will every two weeks visit galleries of one particular district. Everyone in the group have a specific job: photographer, videorecorder, journalist, webdesigner, and like me illustrater. I am not particularly good in drawing, but CAS is about challenging yourself and learning new skills, so I will try my best to fulfill my task.

Today we went to an art gallery in the 11th, which is a place I rarely go to, since it is all across Paris compared to where I live. Therefore it was as well interesting to discoverr this new area. I found the art gallery quite small, but that is maybe because I was use to big museum. Two artist were represented; one an old tattooist who made balck and white graffities and the other an abstract painter who made extremely strict and colorful paintings. Although small I truely enjoyed this gallery and cannot wait for next time to descover more about Paris' artists.

Wednesday 13th of Mai 2009

CAS element: Creativity
Time: 2 hours

As planned the goal of today's session was to create a full page on the blog about what we have seen in the 11th district last week. We divided into small groups depending on the role we each were assigned. I know that in my group, the illustrators, we divided up the work and each was given a different task. My job was to imitate on the computer Dalek's work, which is quite orderly, geometric, colorful and extremely abstract. Although his work looks simple, I quickly realized that it is actually quite complex. My art work is I know a grotesque imitation of his paintings. Nevertheless I tried hard and the result is not too bad.


Wednesday 20th of Mai 2009

CAS element: Creativity
Time: 2 hours


This week we went in the 4th, which is also a region of Paris I do not know much about. The small gallery was untitled "Coup de Grace" and the artist is named Axel Sanson. I found the artist's art work extremely original, in which he takes pictures of old people sited or just standing that he lightly redraws on paper with a pencil and then adds bright colorful tattoos on their arms and chests, adding life to at-first dull pictures.

Wednesday 27th of Mai 2009

CAS element: Creativity
Time: 2 hours

This week's objective was to update the blog on the gallery we visited last week. As one of the illustrators of the team, my job was to add some personal artistic input into the blog. I decided to this time take one of the artist's work and to modify it on photo shop. I am actually a novice at photo shop and had to play around with the program to get a simple but satisficatary result. See for yourself...

Skating

22nd of march
sainy michel, le louvre, grand palais
5th of april
effeil tour, trocadero, invalide
20th of april
bercy, parc de vincennes

1st of september
st germain, grand palais pont des arts

Kayaking and Rafting in Corsica

12th of April to the 18th of April 2009

CAS element: Action
Time: 21 hours

I was very existed in the plane on my way to the vacation center. Firstly because I was going to spend a week in Corsica, which is a place I have only visited once and that I really like and would love to see more of it. Secondly I was going to go kayaking and rafting, which are activities that I truly love, but that I rarely have the occasion to do them.
Everything was well organized and the center, I was in, was very nice. It proposed all kinds of activities like basketball, football, tennis, pingpong and many others. On top of that it had access to its private beach. Although it was sometimes quite windy at times, we spent a lot of time sun baning on the sand, when we were not out kayaking or rafting.
During the first two days, we went kayaking in the sea. We played games and paddled along the coast. I liked it a lot, even though it was not easy to paddle straight, since they were a lot of waves rocking the kayak in all directions. On the second day, we even stopped at and climbed on enormous rocks that came out of the water, and jumped off them in the water. There were three jumps of different heights and I jumped all of them even the highest one that was 8 meters high.
The rest of the week we went rafting in the river. The water was much colder, but we had wet suits that kept us warm. The effort was more intense, we paddled more, so the current would not push us against the rocks. We also tried 'hot dogs' which are rafts that can only contain one or two person and that has the shape of a kayak. I especially liked the one that could only be occupied by one person. It was hard to keep your balance as you shot through the rapids. Consequently I capsized a lot, but it was also much easier to handle and zigzag between the rocks.
I discovered that I really like kayaking, especially in the river. It is a sport that does not damages the already present ecosystem, and that involves risk taking decisions and team work. It really challenged me physically and mentally and I wish I will be able to repeat this experience later in life.

ELSA: Annual Teacher Development Day

Wednesday 18th of March 2009

CAS element: Service
Time: 8 hours

The school held today the Annual Teacher Development Day and hosted a multitude of teachers from all over France and abroad. School for students was consequently closed, however I volunteered to help the school organize this event. This yearly morning I came to school and puted on my name tap, that was given to me the previous day. Me and two other friends were given the supervision of room 21 to 23, as well as, the coat hanger booth. Our role was to take the host's bags and coats in exchanged of a numbered ticket. We also helped direct people to specific rooms where specific lectures were taking place. Some also asked for more complicated services, like an adapter and a projector. Throughout the day I also participated in other jobs. At lunch time, I helped set up the food and serve the snacks. I also briefely took care of the entrance table. I even in the afternoon caried botttles and drinks to the third floor and finished by moving over 50 tables and chairs from one place to the other. This last task was quit tirering and made me sweat. It had been a long day, however I am glad to have participated in this annual event as it made me feel I helped and made myself useful. It also was nice to see the school under another angle. The only thing I may regret is to not have attended any of the lectured held by the teachers. I guess they were not destined to me.

Skiing in Tignes

15th of February to the 21st of February 2009

CAS element: Action
Time: 35 hours

For my second winter camp of the year, I went for a week at the skiing station of Tignes next to the extremely famous skiing station of Val d'Isere. It was easy to get to the place as the train was almost direct from Paris and all the shuttle bus were free because the skiing World Championship was taking place at this time in Val d'Isere. The only problem was that it was crowded everywhere I went. I made acquaintance with the other teenager and quickly made friends. Everyone was very open and friendly. I believe holidays make people behave that way. Except from the second day, all the others were sunny. The snow was also plentiful and skiing was a real pleasure. In addition, we had access to the skiing slopes of both Tignes and Val d'Isere, which represented about 400km of skiing slopes!! In consequence, we left our place as soon as the slopes opened and stayed until they closed in the evening. I knew that a week would pass by extremely quickly and I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible. At night after a well deserved dinner, my friends and I would play all kind of games until late in the night. Keeping this rhythm for a week was a real challenge. When I got back home my all the muscles in my body were sore and ached from the many bruises. I was exhausted and had to sleep two straight days to recover, however I did not regret any bit of it and I cannot wait for next winter to do the same.

Computer Mentoring

Saturday 24th of January 2009

CAS element: Service
Time: 4 hour

Today I signed up with friends for computer mentoring. It took place outside Paris. We were each assigned an adult to mentor. They were for the great majority housewives who did not or had a lot of trouble to use the computer. The one I had was particularly a novice, nontheless she was very nice. I tought her how to use word and write letters, how to use internet and I even opened an email account for her. At the end, she seemed extremely greatful for the mentoring. I was too very pleased to have helped someone like her.

Soup Kitchen

Friday 2nd of January 2009

CAS element: Service
Time: 4 hours

I went with friends to a soup kitchen as volunteers to serve dinner to homeless people. We were warmly welcomed and our task was explained to us by the supervisors. We set up the tables with water, bread, salt and pepper. We piled up the trays and plats and rolled the knives and forks in tissue papers. As the first shift arrived, we were each given a role in the line. I gave the salad, which was this time lentils. As they passed by I got rejected a few times as some did not like what I was proposing. We then served them tea and coffee. When they left we had to quickly clean up everything, so we would be ready to serve the next shift that came shortly after. We did that till late in the night. When I finally went back home, I was tried, but as well very happy that have helped all those homeless people. I also quit enjoyed it and I would be ready to come back another time.

Thursday 22nd of January 2009

CAS element: Service
Time: 5 hours