Sport

Working out at home is a type of activity that I’ve been practicing for 3 months by now. In my opinion, keeping fit by doing sport is one of the basic things in humans’ life. Without this it would be impossible to stay healthy.

At the beginning of this process I used to exercise with help of videos on youtube shared by sportspeople. I think that they do a really great job by showing others how to exercise correctly and I often followed their training plans. Nevertheless, after some time I decided to stop working out with the help of the Internet and create something myself. I made a simple list of my favourite exercises for muscles of the whole body and decided to follow it every time when I did sport.

Actually, after this short time of keeping fit I can see the difference in my body and I feel really complaced. I loosen some weight and grew my muscles a little bit and in my opinion it’s a big progress since I would hardly ever do any sport before. My physical condition is getting better and better, even though I still can’t find enough time to do it as often as I want. The thing which I’m the most satisfied with is that I began to run a more healthy, pure diet because of my will to keep the effect which exercising gives me, which cooperates with practicing cooking skills. I hope to keep on going and try something new, what I could add to my list of favourite exercises and boost my physical condition.

Service

The Maratathon of Writing Letters - Amnesty International

The marathon of writing letters held by an organization called Amnesty International was arranged 13 December 2014 in Katowice. Amnesty is a type of organization which fights for human rights all over the world. Marathons are actions consisting of gathering together and writing letters expressing opposition to violation of human rights to heads of state who treat its citizens badly. I’ve written letters defending a person from Norway who changed  sex and was sent for a compulsory psychological treatment, a woman from China, who was arrested for fighting against corruption and many other inequitably sentenced people.

During writing it many thoughts about important issues crossed my mind. I was analyzing the reasons why governments of many countries simply ignore human rights. I realized that there will never be fairness in our world if we don’t change anything. The whole society has to start fighting for being treated with justice. A simple action of writing letters may be helpful and that’s why I’m going to take part in the marathon again.

WOŚP - Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy

“Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy” is a charity campaign I’ve recognized since the stage of my early childhood. I’ve always wanted to take part in it as a volunteer, but I wasn’t allowed to since only people over 16 were allowed to do it. Now, as I’m 16 I was finally permitted to become a volunteer.

It was really easy to apply, because the school helped us to fill all the documents and it was for sure simplier than doing it myself.

I decided to collect money in the Gallery of Katowice as I thought there would be warm and I’d run into many people willing to give some money for charity. In fact it didn’t work out at all, because there was so many volunteers that I didn’t collect as much as I had expected.  Nevertheless, it wasn’t money that was the most important aspect of this action. The magical spirit of WOŚP’s endeavor was the thing which really affected me. Nearly 80% of people in the gallery wore a specific heart-sticker and they were behaving more kindly than usually.

Although all these well-known charity campaigns enable people to help others and people tend to take part in them from time to time, it really brings me down that they do it so rarely. I wish humans would someday become more empathetic and helping one another would be recognized as our habit.

Christmas gifts for children from orphanage

Just before Saint Nicholas’ Day some people from my school announced that they organize a charity action consisting in collecting gifts for children from an orphanage in Katowice among students. When I found out what was going on, a good idea came to my mind. I decided to ask students from my class to bring a small amount of money and I would buy sweets for children with it. How shocked was I when it occurred that nearly everyone brought some money!

After I had collected funds, I decided to go to many shops so as to catch the best bargains and buy as many gifts for children as possible. I bought a tremendous figure of sweets and it gave me a feeling of satisfaction that I had never experienced before. It was just pure happiness.

The campaign ended up as a success, because the whole school collected a great amount of gifts. I had never expected to be rewarded for what I had done, but someday after Saint Nicholas Day I received the best prize I could imagine. These children for whom I had bought sweets gave me and my classmates hand-made Christmas cards with acknowledgments for the presents. It really touched me and I would like to organize such a campaign myself.

Cooking

Cooking is a type of activity I’ve always wanted to be good at. After a long period of trying to begin learning this, I finally started and I’m truly proud I did. Till now I’ve prepared many dishes, which occurred to be successive and tasty. It hit me that cooking isn’t as difficult as I thought it was. Preparing food is one of the most relaxing types of action. During making meals I always turn up the music, sing, think about various things and limit my level of stress. I also conclude that this is one of the most creativity-boosting activities.

At the beginning of my “cooking career” I used to cook meals based on recipes found on the Internet, check all the details of instruction and then strictly follow it. Now, I’ve gained a feature like cooking intuition and I don’t need recipes any more. I just check the basic ingredients of a dish and then add various ingredients that come to my mind, and in fact, they nearly always match the rest, composing a satisfying whole.

My cooking abilities have improved for sure. Instead of simple meals I used to prepare at the very beginning, I started to make more complicated courses as sushi or home-made chocolate.

Not only have I found a new hobby, but also my food-habits have changed. Now, I eat in a more complex way, even when I want to consume something fast. I’ve quitted eating out and replaced it with cooking at home everything I eat. I try to eat in a more healthy way and as a result I figured a recipe for wheat bran pancakes with cottage cheese and home-made black currant jam, which fill in for common fatty pancakes. Additionally, I limited the amount of sweets I eat, and even when I do, I prepare a healthier version of it. For example, I made a chocolate, which recipe for I had got from my friend. I used coconut oil, genuine cocoa, almonds and goji berries which replaced butter, sugar and sweet cocoa.

Since I took up this hobby I’ve lightened my mum’s core of housework and we both are satisfied with this. I got used to preparing food for myself and my close family and it’s become my habit. Since I found out that my relatives adore pancakes, I started to cook various types of it for them regularly and they love it.

I consider cooking as a great way of spending leisure time with friends. Preparing food and consuming it together is far more quaint than ordering it in a restaurant. Once, we met with friends and tried to prepare sushi for the first time ever. It was such fun! We didn’t know all the right techniques and didn’t follow instructions at all, but the final effect still was delicious.

I will to continue to cook and try to create some recipe myself, since I want to check my kitchen skills. I hope that they will develop and I’ll become even more keen on cooking than I’m now.

Here are some photos of the dishes that I've cooked: