Piano Lessons and Concert

Taking piano lessons is a great challenge as a grade 12 student. I have to balance my studying schedule with my piano practicing as both of them take away a lot of time.

In the past month I practiced a lot as I on the 9^th of November I had my first piano concert. I am really happy about it because it gave me an input to improve and do better but it also challenged me as for the first time I had to play in front of an audience of people I did not know. I am really happy of the final result even if I made some mistakes due to the high pressure I felt.

Also the fact of taking lessons in German is turning to be really useful as I am in direct contact with the new language that I really want to learn. I really do feel like I have improved since the start of this year, not only music wise but also regarding to the language.

Now I am looking forward my next concert, which will probably be in February, but for the moment I am planning on practicing a lot to improve my skills even more and to learn new pieces.

Volleyball Season 2013

This short video is meant to quickly summarize my last experience in my volleyball team. The last tournament took place in Leysin, CH and this was the last important tournament of the season.

After this experience I noticed how much our team grew up as a whole during these 3 or 4 months together. I saw these changes during this time as I noticed how the team played better during all matches, how we were more a really united team instead of a random group of people “forced” to play together. We had fun dancing, talking, eating, and especially playing together. I am really proud of what the team became at the end of this season. I consider this the best team I have ever had in the past 3 years.

Being the captain this year made me experience volleyball under a different perspective, I was the leader and the team was always turning to me in the moments of happiness, difficulties, and struggles. Definitely it was nice to hear the team being happy, it was very easy to deal with such a situation. It was instead harder to deal with disputes and bad moments as I had to show team leading, moral support, and enthusiasm.

Personally I did not find this job too hard after I gained a bit of experience, in this case my energetic personality really came out and I felt really like carrying the team. This definitely gave me a lot of satisfactions, along with the great improvement seen in the end tournament as we conquered 10^th place whereas the previous year we only got last. 

RED CROSS

On the 4^th of Novemeber I started my new service activity where I will be involved with the “red cross” association to help kids that just joined the country and that do not have a house but leave in a family house. Here many families are living together and the kids are sharing all the spaces together.

I was surprised to see how different families became a big single one, but especially I was astonished by the kindness and the desire of making new friends that the kids showed me.

The actual plan is to frequent this place for 6 months going there twice a month every Monday. For now I have only been there once but I have already noticed how my personal skills are stimulated and how I am already starting to improve them.

For the example I had to show initiative as I contacted the association my self, I had an interview with the organizer and then I also had to keep contacting whoever was in charge to get information. Then I also had to show leadership, as I had to lead games with the kids and keep the calm if there was some problem. The hardest thing for the moment is the language, as the kids do not speak English, they only speak German. I never learnt German neither in school nor outside. I only have a chance to practice it during my piano lessons and now also at the “red cross”. This is a challenge for me but at the same time a great opportunity.