Violin Lesson

Today, because the Christmas time is upon us I learned a new song entitled Greensleeves. This song was a nice way to feel the Christmas spirit and forget about pandemic that surrounds us everywhere. I really liked playing it, as it has a great melody, that is familiar but not quite.

What I also liked about it is that the rhythm is not monotonous and gets the music going as well as makes the song really enjoyable. 

Tennis

 Today, as this is the last training before Christmas and probably one in the really long time thanks to the upcoming lockdown in Poland we spend most of it on playing matches.

My sister and I, along with two other (more advanced) players played a bunch of them, both doubles (two players on both sides) and singles (one on one). I, with my partner, managed to win the first double one, but the girls soon had their revenge with beating us in the second match.  

Double matches really help to improve teamwork skills and quick reaction. One must also realise where the ball will land to decide whether they should take it, or leave it to the teammate. This is a thing and skill that is not required in single player matches as there the player must just answer to all balls, otherwise they lose points. 

Tennis

 This week my sister went with me for the lesson as she came back home for holiday break. She is who I started tennis training with so it was much fun to play with her again.

We started by passing the ball to each other which felt like going back in time, except of course we both improved since our last game like that.

Later, not to stop this progress we practiced hits, in series of 3 - 3 hits made by me, 3 by my sister then 3 by me again. It's a really good practise as the balls come in fast one after the other so one has to really focus on them. 

CAS Project

 Today was the last day of Maraton Pisania Listów this year. Although spend the day at online lessons I managed to write additional 9 letters, which brings me to total of 23 letters. 

I am very proud of the number of letters I was able to write and send. Although I know much more can be done in the field of human rights, and there are many more ongoing fights right now, I am certain the Maraton will make a difference. I hope many people, not only from our school, took part in it and decided to help people whose rights were being broken all around the world. 

Later I went to the post to pick up the stamps, after putting them on the envelopes the letters were ready to send them away.

CAS Project

Today is the second day of Maraton Pisania Listów. I decided to met up with two of my friends, who also take part in this CAS Project to write letters and make a difference together.

Collectively we wrote 32 letters, 14 of which were written by me. The letters were in favour of 10 cases, all around the world. I wrote one for each of them and then additional 4 in favour of Nassima from South Arabia, who was imprisoned for fighting for women's rights. This case spoke to me on personal level, as I'm a feminist and fighting for women's rights and gender equality is very important for me. 

 

Violin Lesson

The piece of folk music was quite easy so I did not spend a lot of time on it, although I think my teacher will want to come back to it on other lessons.

Today we started working on the sailing song entitled "What shall we do with a drunken sailor". It is one of most well-known sailing songs, at least in Poland. I had so much fun playing it, as it is the song that I, myself know really well.

Although the song itself is long, thanks to repeated parts of it the notes, which I had to learn are itself very short, which allowed me to cover them pretty quickly. Then I mostly focused on improving speed and articulation during that song.

Amnesty International Meeting

Today at Amnesty International Meeting along talking about protests and updating on human rights cases around the world we made final decisions concerning Maraton Pisania Listów 2020.

The marathon will take place this weekend, but it will be different than all previous marathons due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Everyone will write the letters on their own, and we will add up the number of letters at the end. I will write more about it in a CAS Project post. 

CAS Project Update

At the last few Amnesty International Meetings besides talking about most current situations concerning the violation of human rights around the world we were discussing and making final decisions concerning our Amnesty CAS Project.

The CAS Project by Amnesty will be Maraton Pisania Listów. The marathon happens annually and is usually similar to one the year before. However, this year must be different because of the Covid-19 restrictions. 

The goal and purpose of Maraton Pisania Listów is to write as many letters as possible. The letters are written in favour of people hurt due to the violation of human rights during the span of 3 days (from Saturday to Monday). 

Usually the marathon happens at school. For two days people interested in supporting those, whose rights are being broken come to the school and write and address the letters together. The letters are later stamped by people from Amnesty International Raszyńska, while the money for the stamps is raised during multiple bake sales happening through the first semester.

This year, however, everyone will write their letters at home and send them themselves. The atmosphere will be surely different than that a year ago, but the goal of the marathon stays unchanged - to help innocent people to get justice that they deserve.