Recording My Music

Activity: Recording my own music using Audacity
Type: Creativity
Supervisor: Jana Gromova
Hours: 1h30 per song X 6 songs: 9 hours

Me playing guitar at home - Same place where I record my music

As this blog shows, I'm an active guitar player and singer that has recently started performing at different events - mainly school-related. Everybody always told me I should take my music more seriously and try to record some of it for others to hear but I never really knew how I could record my music. One night, fellow student Camille Chedburn (who plays both guitar and cello beautifully) showed me a program called Audacity which allows you to easily record your music. Camille and I then got together to record a cover of a song we used to play together back in 8th grade called Nicest Thing (originally by Kate Nash). It takes a while to record a song through Audacity as you need to record each instrument as a separate track and then merge them together at the end. We then posted the song on a website called SoundCloud which allows you to record and post any music you've made online for others to listen and download. Since then, I've been recording all my own different songs that I've either written or covered from an artist and posting them onto the Soundcloud. Apart from the website itself, which shows that I've been posting songs (see link below), the only supervisor to this project would have to be Jana Gromova, who lives at home, as often I have had to ask her to make very little noise in order to record my music.

To listen to my songs, go to :Victoria Caetana's Soundcloud 

2 Christmas Service Activity in Rome

Activity: Organizing/Cleaning clothes for the Needy + Wrapping gifts for needy children
Type: Service
Supervisor: Marco Morrica (Cousin)
Hours: 5 hours a day X 3 days : 15 hours



This Christmas I travelled to Rome to spend Christmas eve with some of my family who lives there. Upon arrival, my cousin Marco - currently doing medicine studies - told me he was going to give a hand to a community who helps the needy. Christmas being a time of giving and receiving, I decided I needed to do a little more giving, especially for those less fortunate, and I therefore asked Marco if I could go along with him. We went to Trastevere (an area of Rome) and arrived in a small building where he introduced me to the community of helpers. Despite the language barrier (my Italian is a bit rusty), I was able to communicate and understand them and I quickly began helping them remove used clothes out of boxes, folding them, and placing them in the right area. Later on, once all the clothes were organized, the needy people of Rome who lacked clothes for themselves or their children could come to this storage unit and take whatever fit them and would help them through the cold winter. I've never been a big fan of folding clothes and am quite terrible at keeping my closet organized at home, but knowing that my efforts would help others made me much more motivated and now I'm more keen on folding and organizing clothes (even my own!) This took approximately 3 hours before we moved on to the next service spot a 5 minute walk away, where we would be wrapping gifts for children who needed them. Organized my a fellow service community, their aim was to create different gift packages for both boys and girls, to wrap them, and then on Christmas day to hand them out to the less fortunate children. I felt this was a really beautiful initiative, especially during Christmas, and we sometimes tend to forget that not every child is as fortunate as we are/were as children and that it's important to give back for all the things we've had the luck to recieve in our lives. This activity took approximately 2.5 hours (rounded off to 2). Once we got home, I asked Marco how often he participated in these activities and he told me that he did them once every two days. Since I was in Rome for a week, I followed Marco two additional times to the communities to help them and would have enjoyed joining them in handing out the gifts on Christmas day but unfortunately I left Rome on that day. Despite this, it was a wonderful experience for the holiday season !

ISP International Day Talent Show

Activity : Participation in ISP International Day Talent Show 2011 (Singing/Guitar) 

Type: Creativity

Supervisor: Mr.Anderson

Hours: (Rehearsal + Performance) : 4

Every year after International Day (which takes place on the last day of the first term of the school year), ISP has organized a talent show for students and even teachers to display their talents and skills ! Last time I had participated in the Talent Show was in 7th/8th grade so I decided since it was my last year at ISP to give it another go this year. Originally I was meant to perform with Kelly, but she unfortunately could not make it. Therefore I performed two songs, Use Somebody by Kings of Leon on my own and House of the Rising Sun by The Animals alongside teachers Mr. Cann and Mr. Anderson. See video above.

New Parents Evening - Performing

Activity: Playing/Singing for New Parents Night
Type: Service
Hours : 2 hours playing (approximately 2 hours practice)
Supervisor: Ms. Carrie Levinson=Wall

Every new school year, the International School of Paris organizes a New Parents Evenings so that new parents to the school and city can meet members of the PTA, School Board, and just mingle with other parents ! This year the evening took place at the Serbian embassy (right next door to school) and Director of External Affairs, Ms. Carrie Levinson Wall asked me if I wouldn't mind playing as background music to the Parent's evening. Without hesitation I accepted as I felt it was a nice way for New Parents also to see the different opportunities student have at ISP.

Summer Activities - Brazil 2011

- Surfing in Baia Formosa, Rio Grande do Norte -

- Surfing in Itacare, Bahia - 

-Cannoo-ing in Porto Seguro, BAHIA-

As I do every year for my summer vacation, I am currently travelling in Brazil (as I am half-Brazilian). This beautiful country offers me various opportunities for CAS activities - particularly for Action (which I have been missing out on). I'll be using this blog to record the activities I've done over this month travelling..

BAIA FORMOSA (Week 1) - Baia Formosa is situated in the Northeast of Brazil, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. A very small village with mainly fisherman and surfers as its population, Baia Formosa offers beautiful beaches and natural trips. I had already been there before but for a brief amount of time and going back gave me the opportunity to explore new activities in the town.

- SURFING (Action) - 4 hours - Unfortunately was unable to photograph this experience, but I was able to go surfing with Ze Pretinho (a local surfer/surf teacher) near the Fishermen's port of the village. The spot was ideal for surfing and offered smooth waves. I also learned how to adapt my surfing skills to a smaller surfboard, something I had been unable to do before. 

-FISHING (Action) - 5 hours - An unusual activity that I had never tried before, fishing is one of the main occupations in Baia Formosa as the location is ideal. Along with Jose Maria, a local fisherman who even had the opportunity to appear in a movie made about the village (see Sonhos de Peixe - link below),and other acquaintances we went to sit on some rocks near the ocean and were taught about what life is like as a fisherman. 

-ECOTOURISM (Action- 5 hours approx.) Baia Formosa offers beautiful natural surroundings, giving you the opportunity to explore through hiking and swimming many of the town's nature. With my friend Yasmin (who is Brazilian but not from the same region), we went on ecotouristic activities through the town of Sagi (neighbour to Baia Formosa) in which we got to swim through the rivers, run on the beaches, and go hiking through forests

ITACARE (Week 2) - Itacare is a small town also situated in the Northeast in the beautiful region of Bahia. I was fortunate enough to spend 5 days there in the private area of Sao Jose, which offers beautiful beaches and rivers and gave me the opportunity to do many activities concerning CAS - principarly surfing.

-SURFING (Action - 5 hours) I had the luck to have access to a private beach and I decided to take full advantage of this opportunity to take more surf lessons to improve my surfing skills. I had already taken surf lessons last year with the surf teacher Alessandro

PORTO SEGURO (Week 3)

- PLAYING GUITAR/SINGING (Creativity - 5 hours)
-CANOE-ING (Action - 1 hour)

CAS Activity - Being the voice for an animation

Activity: Voice/Animation
Type: Creativity
Supervisor: Nicolas (my neighbor)
Hours: 2 hours


My neighbor is an art student at Pennighen, an art school in the center of Paris. As a part of his assessment, he was assigned to make a video of any kind on the subject of "La Crise". He chose to base his project on the concept of "Home" and what home really means. He presented this in the form of a short 30 second animation. For his animation to be complete, he needed someone to be the voice of his animation, reading out the script he wrote. He ended up asking me to give it a try, and after I did, we decided that I would be the voice to the animation. It took a while to be able to get the intonation for every phrase right, but it was a new experience I definitely enjoyed !

Watch HOMESICK by Nicolas here

Counceling younger students - Service Activity

Activity: Councelling younger students
Type: Service
Supervisor: Mr.James
Hours (up to now): 3

UPDATE! (October 2011) Hours : 6

As a favor to the ISP P.S.E department, I've been helping Mr. James by talking with some of the younger students at ISP in order to inform them on making safe choices in their personal lives. It's been an experience I've really enjoyed up to now as I am incredibly interested in all that involves social work and activities and this experience has permitted me to gain insight into that, whilst also helping other students talk about how they feel.