Signing up for ISTA theatre was probably one of my best decisions. As a theatre student, this experience was beneficial as it gave me new insights into the IB theatre curriculum. Having had previous theatre trips enhanced such as APAC theatre in Manila back when I was a UNIS student I was expecting something quite similar but was far off, instead of having groups and creating a theatre piece in ISTA TAPS we had workshops where we got to work with theatre artists watch other theatre performances and learn for IB theatre teachers. This was helpful in multiple ways as these workshops gave me ideas and importation that I can, later on, apply to my solo theatre piece as well as other theatre works which would be submitted to examiners this year.
One workshop I found particularly interesting was a workshop led to improve on thinking outside of the box (critical thinking) in this workshop we were split into groups and were given a scene in which we would make our own stylistic choices as directors and performers. It was not challenging but more interesting as people had so many different ideas and interpretations of the prompt. My group ended up creating a piece where we would use our bodies to symbolize the lines being spoken by the other two performers while incorporating the audience making them represent the setting (they represented the river needing to be crossed by the two performers). In the evenings we headed out to the nearby mall and sometimes at dinner and brought snacks, as I used to live in Vietnam I acted as the tour guide of our ISTA group people were mostly confused with the currency, I can’t blame them as the currency is in thousands and when converted from US dollars can be quite a stack of cash.
On the
first night, we went to watch a traditional Vietnamese water puppetry performance, which by far was my favourite performance. It told such a wonderful story of the Vietnamese countryside and the interactions between communities and animals, it was not just the first time I saw this show but it was a reminder of how pleasant Vietnamese culture is.
Having joined Voice near the end of last school year, Mr.Kim our supervisor has organized the schedule so that the group particles every Thursday lunches. This excites me as I love singing and being in a choir, having had multiple musical experiences. Since there is no musical this year I thought this was the perfect opportunity to join. As it’s my last school year 2025 is the year I graduate Mr. Kim has assigned all the seniors with solo parts in the concert mine is a song called Broken Vessels I am confident in my singing skills and with Mr.Kim to guide me I believe this will be just like Gecko Factor. Besides coming in every Thursday lunchtime I have had one other session up until now where I was practising breathing techniques. Breath is something I struggle with in singing, so I did some exercises such as squeezing the abdomen and holding a plank position. I will be providing further updates till the performance date!
As the performance date approaches we continue to practice, as more musical pieces are introduced the pressure grows, in one previous rehearsal we discussed adding choreography to a piece sung by another senior (Sofia) the link attached shows the planning process we went through. It was a lot of fun deciding on what worked and what did not and I am stocked to see the outcomes.
Gecko Factor – 2023
Gecko Factor is an X-Factor for students to perform their musical and vocal talent which is precisely what I wanted to do so I signed up with some of my friends. The audience was confused since Mr. Kim the music teacher gave me a list of possible songs that would suit my vocal range and overall voice. He suggested singing a popular song by SZA called Kill Bill as he thinks her voice suited mine. When leaving the audition I thought about singing the song but I was a bit unsure of myself being able to perform it then I stumbled upon this song by an artist called Beabadoobee and Laufey who sang this song called A Night To Remember a beautiful song that I fell in love with so I decided to give it a go. My part-time time was limited to just the daily showers I took, I would sing the song and blast it as I was washing my hair and my sister would get annoyed as she would hear the music from her bathroom as well. It was difficult getting input on how well I was singing since I’ve never had any musical experience or vocal lessons not counting the musicals I have been part of. So learning the song was solely based on previous experience and recording myself hoping I sounded the same as the singers did.
Practice
Naomi
A week or so before the performance a lot of singers and participants dropped out of the competition due to school work which left me feeling kind of alone and nervous as I was the only DP1 student participating in it now and didn’t have any close friends to ask for feedback from. Luckily Naomi from grade 10 a friend whom I got close with due to WWW and Little Shop of Horrors was performing as well so I was less nervous, the day before the performance we did a sound check and a lighting check, and I chose an aquamarine and warm yellow lighting to compliment my song.
Performance Day
The performance day came around and I was excited yet nervous to perform solo in front of an audience, it was not the first time I’ve had to sing a solo since I played Morticia for The Addams Family Play where I had solos but other actors where always on stage with me so I signed up for this to push my boundaries and try something new. As I was waiting my turn behind the stage I was getting more and more nervous luily Naomi who is a great singer and very experienced gave me some tips on how to stay calm and reassured me it would be alright. After my performance, I felt relieved and heard from Noami that I did very well but all I could care about at that moment was her singing as well since I enjoyed her song and voice. I cheered her on from the sidelines as she performed and we were super great. Then after the performances we got called onto stage and the winners were announced, I placed 3d!
Experience a day of Colombo Modle United Nations hosted this year by OSC for the 30th session.
Earlier in the school year, I was approached by Aura the COMUN secretariat of 2023, she asked me if I wanted to be part of the tech team head of publications and media to help promote and advertise the MUN program to schools around Colombo. Of course, I said yes as I have had previous experience being in a Modle United Nations program. After completing The musical “Little Shop Of Horrors” I dedicated all my time to MUN we spent 1 and a half months planning with the tech team on our future posts, timelines, dates, etc. Our first task as a Tech team was to get everyone “hyped” for the conference and get people signed up. As head of Publicity and Media, I set up an Instagram account as well as a Tikok account to get students from all COMIUN participating schools to sign up and be aware of follow-up events. This also made sure our sponsors, the US Embassy, Power Tech Cement, Fonterra, and Lanka IOC were mentioned on our page and were recognized. We also posted videos during the conference as a summary of the event. The first two days of COMUN were hosted at OSC then the last day was hosted at the Taj Hotel where we also held the closing ceremony.
My job as Head of Publicity and Media.
I was in charge of gathering photos and videos as well as one of the editors editing 5 videos. You can imagine this was very stressful and my team went through difficulties and stress while doing this. One of the most major challenges was editing the videos and getting them in on time for the ending ceremony which was a bit delayed due to the secretariat. Me and my teammate Dimath who was another person in charge of editing where put under a lot of stress as we were missing videos and the slides had changed last minute so we were cramped next to the main stage and you could tell the panic on our faces as we had realized we where missing one video completely. Luckily we had found it and had the videos repaired in no time. I was in charge of the slides for the ending ceremony as people such as the secretariat and the ambassador of the US were also there to express their gratitude for the diplomacy shown by the students there. Having had meetings and conversing with the people in charge of the live stream setup and the setup for the presentation in general for Taj was an interesting experience as I could experience what goes on behind the scenes when planning large events and presentations. To put it simply this entire experience felt like a job or an internship. I also found out that I work super well under pressure and stress as I get things done well and also look for the most efficient way to do things.
Takeaways.
I believe that this experience was one that I learned a lot from, and also learned more about my flaws and strengths that I can work on strengthening in the future. I met new people who were significantly older than me and more experienced which also taught me a lot. Having meetings and coming up with creative ideas in the field of marketing and media is something I enjoy doing so this experience has made me realize that this could be enjoyable for me in the future as well.
Helga’s Folley and More …
Waking up at 5 to get ready for school had its challenges but nothing prepared me for the adventure this trip would take me on. I arrived at school at 6 and we got on a bus heading to the train station where we would take a train to Kandy. The ride was bumpy one might even compare it to a rodeo, nevertheless, it was enjoyable as the very was great!
After arriving at the train station we stopped to get a few refreshers and continued to walk to the temple we would be visiting. Once in front of the temple we put our bags in vans and headed inside, it was my first time in a Sri Lankan temple especially such an important one where Buddha’s tooth lies. I would say I was a bit shocked when I had to take my shoes off to enter and there were so many strict rules we had to follow for example the separation of male and female as entering the temple through a security check. Once inside the temple, it was hard to move around as everyone was in the temple, apperiantly we had decided to go at the time when the temple was most busy. Nevertheless, we found an area where my friend Naomi and I could draw some of the interesting architectural structures. After having finished visiting the temple we headed to the vans to a pizza place where we enjoyed 5 big pizzas that Ms. Eagle had paid for (Thank you so much, Ms. Eagle!).
After arriving at Helga’s Folley a hotel with the most unique displays I have ever seen, every inch of this place was covered in paintings art sculptures and broken glass shards it was truly an amazing yet kinda creepy place. We unpacked and headed to the main area to create some art, using acrylic watercolor and crayon we all made some pieces of art. Afterward, we went and changed into our PJs and explored a bit, we ended up watching a movie in the home theater until dinner was served. Afterward, we headed to bed and it was time to call it a day.
For the rest of the trip, we visited interesting historical monuments, such as an ancient city and more. I got to experiment with a lot of different art forms on this trip but ‘Helgas Folley” was my favorite and the place I learned the most. As this was my first and last WWW in this school it was an experience to remember. I made new friends from other grades that I am still close to this day, the other day we reunited for dinner to catch up. I also had a few shocking things happen during the trip such as waking up with a dead bird on our mosquito net. or when we bought ice cream for the students and got robbed by some monkeys who stole an icecream.
Sinharaja Forest Reserve – ESS Trip
First day we arrived by bus at our lodge, the trip to the reserve was 2 hours. Once there all the science students came together at the ESS lodge where we would be staying. The lodge was in the middle of the jungle surrounded by mountains. We ate lunch and chatted, then my class got settled in our rooms and we headed out with the rest of the grade to a small section of jungle next to a dirt path. There out instructor explained to us how we would be collecting data using our 2-by-2-meter plots of land. Though this was practice my group sped through the data collection and completed all 3 plots downhill. Some of the data that we had to collect was things such as canopy which we used our phones to measure by taking a picture of the top trees and the app on our phones did our canopy automatically. Other pieces of data included PH of the soil as well as counting how many plants were in our plots below 5cm but above 1cm. Taking into account the different plant species and noting down the different animals present in our plot as well. Usually, there were only insects or no animals at all but during our first trail we found a snake (Blossom Krait) as it crawled over my shoe fast I managed to snap a picture and identify it using an app called I-Naturalist.
As we continued to gather data our time came to a close and we had to head back to eat dinner and rest. As we had our dinner Mr.Lockwood proposed that we take a night walk and go frog hunting. We put on our raincoats and grabbed our flashlights, now headed on a rocky slippery path to find frogs, we saw one or two but everyone was more distracted by the rain load than the actual frogs. We decided to head back as the rain got stronger and this was the aftermath.
(Blossom Krait)
Me drenched in rainwater
🥀Little Shop Little Shop of Horrors 🥀
I started this journey in August, as a new student I wanted to be included in this year’s musical. A great way to get to know people more was presented in front of me and I did not hesitate one bit! Having had previous musical experience from my last school (UNIS) this was a great opportunity for me to share my past knowledge and provide insightful observations and ideas to help make the production even better.
Practice Day!
When I auditioned dates were published I was nervous because I didn’t know either Mr. Kim or Ms. Jackson, I spent the week practicing “Suddenly Seymour” a love song that Audrey and Seymour sing. I went to my audition and told both of them that I didn’t mind what character I got and that I was just hoping to be in the play. I was very nervous when singing and did not do my best but that did not hold me down. Then a week later the roles had been published, I had gotten an ensemble, and I was so happy and ready to start rehearsal the next Monday. If I had to be honest I was very nervous first rehearsal as I didn’t know anyone and I was a bit scared of Ms. Jackson (I am sorry Ms. Jackson if you reading this I truly like you!). Well, that’s beside the point… as rehearsals began I got to know a lot of people better like Akhil, Sofia, and Naomi as well as Anais who I was best friends with by the end of the show! Rehearsals got more cramped and before I knew it it was show time. We had the Wednesday before to go for a full run-through of the show, which took up the entire school day and I was so proud of the entire production team for working their best and hardest to make sure that this would be an amazing show. Our work all paid off, other than having the satisfaction of finally completing all performance days. I wish we would be able to have another production after this one as it was so much fun I would want to do it 100 times again.
Production Team
Gecko Gear – Service
Gecko Gear is a service where we create and design Merch for the OSC community. We gather input and feedback from the students for every item we make encouraging students to come and support the school during SIASAs and representation.
Instagram post updates our community on what we are selling and planning on doing in the future. I set up Instagram as a platform for teenagers and parents to be aware of what is going on with the merch. As a popular platform, it’s easy to spread this type of information, which is why we set it up.
Currently, we are selling Supporter T-shirts for the upcoming SIASA Volleyball for boys. This will show great school spirit and will encourage teams to play their best! We hope that with the profit we make, we can continue to provide merch for the school as well as donate to outside communities that support a cause.
Daily Bulletin
Gecko Merch Retro Sale Posters
We plan to create more merch for all SIASAS and to sell old OSC sports as a Retro Sale! This will help us gain more income and will clear our inventory which will help us gather a better idea of what designs the community enjoys and what we need to do to create better designs. This will also hype up people for the volleyball tournament in November.
The Gecko Gear team selling supporter shirts for the November Boys Volleyball tournament.
Gecko Gear Team
On the 6th of October 2023, I experienced UD day at OSC it was a day where my group and I consisted of two other people (Aniq and Sofia) who were assigned to plan a lesson plan for PYP5. After having a session of planning the Wednesday before we created a slideshow where we would base all our activities on.
Sofia and Hadiya representing Bulgaria and China
Overall the experience was great I loved how the community contributed activities and foods from different cultures. It was great, I had a lot of fun and got to teach PYP5 about the SDG and the one we focus on this year (17). The kids loved the activities we did, they consisted of drawing, debating, and making connections to their current unit “Perspectives”.
Sofia with the Bulgarian flag
On the day of the walk, I represented Bulgaria with Sofia as Romania was not represented and my little sister Sarah was already representing The Netherlands. I figured I would walk with the Bulgarian flag since it’s another Balkan nation. The walk towards the gym was amazing as seeing so many countries represented in the OSC community was wonderful
SDG Slideshow Presentation
