I chose to join the running club offered at my school because I had been running on and off for around a year, but never regularly or with any goal in mind.



28th September 2015
This was my first time going to running club, where we ran a circuit near the school grounds which was 3.7km long. Although it wasn't as difficult as I expected due to the others attending the club, it was challenging after having a break from running for around 2 months.

19th October 2015
Running was much harder today having taken a long break (2 weeks for he holidays) and doing a lot of climbing which strengthened different muscles. This has shown me that I need to stretch more often, especially after doing exercise that makes my muscles very sore

26th October 2015
This was our longest run yet and although it didn't feel particularly tiring, I felt much more sore afterwards.

2nd November 2015

16th November 2015
This was the last time I attended the club this year, as it became too cold outside to run at this time of day and there were not enough participants. I intend to resume the club as soon as it becomes slightly warmer outside. This will probably be in February. During the time that I am not going to the running club, I will continue to run whenever possible, usually earlier in the day on weekend, and also to use a treadmill to keep up my running abilities that I have developed.

St. Martin's Day is a religious observance in Germany that is particularly popular with children . Many build their own lanterns in the run-up to 11th November. In the evening on St. Martin's Day there are the lantern processions (Martinsumzüge or Laternenumzüge) in towns and cities all over Germany.


Along with a group of friends, we are helping with preparing a banner for the school and will be assisting the parade. Beforehand, we spent a few evenings creating a banner for St. Georges School Cologne that will be carried by the children from our school during the parade. The parade itself is taking place on Monday 9th November.






For the banner, we decided to include a man on a white horse to represent the story behind the tradition along with the name of our school and the school logo (drawn and coloured by me). This is how it turned out:



On the 9th November, we all gathered at 16:45 to prepare for the parade, which then began at 17:00. We did a three kilometre walk around the local village, wearing bright fluorescent jackets. I was put at the back as the last martial. 







 
 Overall, it was a really fun and new experience for me. I have been part of the parade or watching it in previous years, but I have never helped with organisation or the procession itself. Although it took up quite a bit of time, I would definitely consider taking part in a similar event in the future. 

As my family decided to organise a small halloween party with some of our close friends, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to start practicing some of my baking skills. Although there was a lot to make in very little time, I made sure to try new things and experiment. Something that I had never made before was cake pops, because there was never an occasion and they are not easy to make. The cakes themselves turned out really well, but the icing was very difficult to work with and instead of being smooth, it became very messy. Some of it also didn't stick to the cakes at all. Overall, I am happy with how everything turned out, but there are many things I could improve on too.