Awards

Last year's awards ceremony was a lot of "This is the group that got Honor Roll," "This is the art teacher's class pet," and "This is the kid who really liked his tech class."

Today's program was changed to recognize the kids who highlight the various parts of the school's Mission Statement as well as the school's student profile.

Mission Statement: "ACS inspires individuals to become self-motivated learners and active citizens who demonstrate respect, act with integrity, and seek intellectual growth in a culture of high expectations."

Student Profile: It highlights Global Awareness, Critical Thinking, Communication, and others.

Becca's three awards from today, Highest Honor Roll, Self-Motivated Learner, and Research and Information Literacy Award.  The most interesting of the three is the last, an honor that recognizes her grasp of technology in both her tech classes and how she uses technology along with other techniques to dig in and find the real answer to questions.

Funny bit, the Research and Information Literacy Award has her name as Rerbecca.

Funnier story, when the HS principal called the Honor Roll kids she completely left out the junior class.  You can bet that at the end of the ceremony Becca blew past us and went right to the stage, along with a dozen other juniors.

This, that, and the other things.

Baseball!

 So far the season is 4 wins for Buffalo's and 3 wins for Champions.  Today's game was the worst for our team.  We lost 15-1 and were mercied out in the 5th inning.  The last 3 games the other team was mercied out.

On their way to Vietnam.

The kids are back from Vietnam and had an AMAZING time.  They said they had a great group of kids who were all positive and fun, and did some wonderful adventures including a 2-day hike in Sapa and a boat ride in Ha Long Bay.  They stayed in longhouses, walked through fields of butterflies, jumped fully-dressed into streams, took overnight trains, and ate loads of awesome foods.

8th grade Integrated Project

The Integrated Project was a task that took all week and involved science, math, and geography.  Their task was to make a travel plan with 8 stops, incorporating both of their home countries, with activities in each stop.  They tried to convince visitors to invest some of their "Scorpion Bucks" in hopes of earning the most and having their trip ideas go towards next year's Week Without Walls planning.  Jonathon's plans involved climbing K2.

Annual Sports Banquet

Becca was part of the first official swim team this year and they traveled to Doha, Qatar in the fall.

Spanish in the World Language Showcase

Nicholas spent a week memorizing a poem for the World Languages day.

Spanish in the World Languages Showcase 2

Jonathon was part of a Spanish skit.

Becca went to prom.

She bought her dress before we even PCSed to Amman and she looked quite regal.

The prom group.

Too bad it's fuzzy, but it still looks nice.

Happy 19 (you heard me... 19!!) Years to Ian and me.

Lots (and by lots, I mean LOTS) of people didn't see us surviving.  Guess what?

NYAH

Childrens Be All Travelin' and Stuff

A hint of Jonathon's Adventure Jordan:

A hint of Rebecca and Nicholas Team Viet Nam:

Katie Rocks.

We got a very fun surprise in the mail this week.

Snacks for Ian.

And an awesome bag for me!

Totally unexpected and totally cool.  Thank you Katie!!  We love our Bangladeshi Paleo surprise.

Dihdis turned 15....

At 1 very cute years old.

From Qasrs to Wetland

After the Qasrs we had lunch at the Azraq Lodge which is run by the Royal Society for the Preservation of Nature (RSCN) just like the castles and the wetland.  The original part of the building was used as a WWII British field hospital.  The establishment is now a restaurant and lodge.  Jonathon stayed overnight there in 6th grade on his class field trip.

One part of the wetland

The wetland is another misnomer. Only 20 years ago, the wetlands were a source of revenue from fishing.   Due to high volume pumping it shrank to a tiny portion of its original size and even with a water infusion a few years ago, it really hasn't recovered. What once covered acres with a wide variety of wild life is now no more than a good sized pond. There is but one kind of fish and far too much stuff growing in there to support more.  If you're quiet by the water, you hear what sounds like poprocks going off.  I don't know enough about these particular fish to know if it's normal, but for -other- fish I know that the gasping sound means there isn't enough oxygen in the water for them.

Water buffalo used to help manage the plant growth in the water.  They were all eaten or something, but a not long ago a few were reintroduced to the preserve in an effort to have them get back to work.

Watching for birds

Watching for water buffalo

Love it!

Unfortunately, the wetland continues to die.  We saw a blue heron.  We saw a white heron.  We saw some form of duck - four of them!  We saw sparrow type birds, and some typical pigeony sorts.

That's it folks.

Dead tree.

Another dead tree on what used to be a flooded area of the reserve.

Kind of was a downer of a way to end the trip.