Getting back into shape

To meet my trainers Max and Tom again has been very good. I made hard punches, but my stamina was not the best in MMA. In taekwondo I needed lots of stretching. I got very stiff over the summer.

Punching and kicking Tom in MMA

Stretching with Max in Taekwondo

Creativity in Kitengela glass

I made a visit to Kitengela glass to get some more inspiration to make jewellery and buy beads. I've wanted to go there for a long time to see how they blow glass. This place is quite far away and hard to get to, but it was worth the long trip. It is a very inspiring place that makes nice things from recycled glass and other material. I got some nice glass beads and rings to use for my projects.

Volleyball tryout

This summer, I played volleyball with a bunch of people in the island where our summerhouse is. All the people were very athletic, and many of them were in the swedish national skiing team. They were all very nice and told me that I was really good. I really enjoyed it, and are now thinking of trying our for the ISK volleyball team. My mom promised me that I could audition for two drama productions this year (last year, she only allowed me to participate in one play), so I'll make a decision later, but I think I'm at least going for the handball tryouts.

Gifts for the children in Oakland

I bought a lot of things for the children in Oakland. This way I will give them some Swedish culture too. The books I got are very famous childrens books in Sweden and written in the 1940 and 1950. My parents read the books for me when I was a baby, and even my grandmothers read it for my parents. One is about a really strong and powerful girl, Pippi Longstocking and one is about Emil, a crazy kid in Sweden a long time ago. The last one is very poetic and rhymes, but still beautiful and very creative (there are wholes in every page so you can see images of how the story is getting more exciting in the next page). It is about the Moomin troll and my brother wanted to name me after a character in that book, "little My". Luckily, my parents went for Ebba. They are very old, but still very good. I also got big lego blocks for smaller kids. Max told me they wanted that for the kids, because they love to build things. I hope that they will enjoy them, and I hope I can personally give my gifts to the kids in Oakland.

Action in Stockholm

To do any training in Stockholm is not easy. We tried to get access to a boxing club, but it was just too expensive. To not do anything did not feel good, so I started jogging in our neighborhood. It is hard to believe, but the images below is from a park just a few blocks away from our apartment. They have lots of old houses and try to keep them for cultural reasons. Only actors and artists are allowed to live in the houses and some does not even have running water. The other good thing with Stockholm is that you can walk a lot and I did. When you get tired you just get on a bus back home. Below you can see where I was jogging.

Community service in Sweden

When I came back to Sweden, I realised that all my old clothes in our house in the Island were to small for me. I packed everything in large plastic bags, because I knew that in the city there was a place called stadsmissionen. They accept old clothes and things, sell them and give the money for shelters for homeless people. They also go to streetcorners and give them food. I like that my old outgrown things can come to use for people less fortunate than me. My mom has told me that their store are considered quite "trendy" and that lots of people go there and shop for vintage. I like that even more! I think I made a good decition, giving them all my old clothes.

Creativity over the summer.

I went to quite a few museums this summer. One that I enjoyed very much was the exhibit in the architect museum about the designer, Jean-Paul Gaultier. I spent a whole day with my grandmother in both The modern museum and the architect museum. One day I spent in The photographic museum (I visit it every summer) and I had to teach my grandmom about surrealism. I was very proud to be able to do that. This is something I know from my brothers Higher level IB class in drama. I helped him a lot during his plays and managed to learn about surrealism.

The Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibit was very creative. Every mannequin had a filmed face displayed on their face. It made it feel like the mannequin was watching you. They were talking too.

Helmut Newton did a lot of advertising and photo shoots. He also took photos of a lot of famous people. 

This is made by a japanese photographer called Motohito Odani. He was the surrealistic photographer and inspired by nature and natural catastrophes. A very strange, but beautiful exhibit. After visiting the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibit, I spent the rest of the day in the Museum of modern art.