#1 PSA - Teach!

Last fall Daisy convinced her friends Sophia and Sam to enter a project as a group into the Texas Association of Future Educators (TAFE) competition. Last year Daisy competed and advanced to the state competition. The State conference is held outside of Austin in a really nice hotel. Daisy was planning ahead and wanted to bring friends with her this year. 

Her plan worked. The girls created a PSA that was aimed at recruiting teachers. After qualifying in regionals, they headed to the state competition in Austin for a fun weekend together, which just happed to include the competition. They were pleasantly surprised when they qualified to attend nationals in Washington D.C.! The most fun part about that for Abe and I was that the trip was totally paid for—airfare, hotel and some spending cash!

In late June, the TAFE team flew to D.C. Two individuals and Daisy's team were the reps from Hills that qualified.

In between their competitions, the girls toured the capital city, viewing all of the iconic elements, including

the White House

the National Archives,

the US Marine Corps Memorial,

the Lincoln Memorial,

the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial,

the Reflecting Pool,

the Jefferson Memorial,

WWII Memorial,

The Washington Monument,

 and National Harbor.

The winners of each category were announced in the final ceremony. Daisy's team earned a spot in the Top Ten! They were feeling pretty accomplished. To their utter shock and extreme delight their name was called for first place!!

I love Daisy's desire to try new things and her ambition to get others lined up with her.

[June 27-July 1]

Cinderella Dressed In Yella

Fort Worth ISD Visual and Performing Arts hosted Cinderella this summer. Auditions were held in May, when Zeke was finishing up his finals and starting a 'Maymester' (where you cram a whole semester of class into three weeks). That boy could barely function, let alone think of adding another obligation to his overflowing plate. So he blew it off. 

One of Zeke's good friends and fellow thespian Izzy landed the part of Cinderella, and another of member of Hills' theatre troupe Karma was a member of the tech team. She convinced Zeke and Kai to join the tech team. I was OK with that, until I learned that practices were from 9:00-5:00, Monday through Thursday, for the entire month of June. On top of that, they were at the school near downtown, where 5:00 pickup time is smack dab in the middle of high traffic. Then I wasn't so OK with it.

Thankfully Karma can drive. When I learned she was giving Kai a ride, I took advantage of the fact that all high school kids need money and I paid her to drive Zeke, too. It was a huge bonus when she volunteered to drive him in the morning as well as the afternoon.

 

The technical team moved props on and off the stage throughout the show, so they dressed as peasants to not stand out. At one point during the month of rehearsals, the director asked Zeke if he had plans to cut his hair before the show. He was pleased that Zekers said no, responding with, "Good. That looks like peasant hair," or something along those lines. 😂 During the opening scene, Zeke was a peddler selling bread.

The tech crew created this double sided structure. Zeke and the other techies moved it on and off the stage throughout the show.

After the show the cast made a grand entrance down the stairs to the foyer.

He was not happy with the hat that the costume designer gave him. He said he looked like a pirate.

Grannie came with us to watch our boy. 

Mata (the Hills theatre teacher) came to support his kids in the show.

Five other staff members showed up. That made me happy that they would take time out of their summer to support our kiddos. I love that.

[June 29]

Guten Tag!

When we were first enrolling the kids in high school, the post-secondary success specialist suggested that Daisy should join Fort Worth Sister Cities International. She was part of the group and thought Daisy might enjoy it. FWSCI is an international network of citizen diplomats, both adults and students, that currently includes nine sister cities. There are events throughout the year celebrating each of these cities, and during spring break and the summer, students participate in exchanges between them.

Not long after that conversation, Ms. Card invited Daisy to be part of the board as an at-large member. Daisy took her up on it. She began attending board meetings and activities hosted by Sister Cities. Fast forward, and Daisy interviewed to be an exchange student in Trier, Germany with 10 other students from Fort Worth.

The flight there was quite an adventure. First they caught a connecting flight to Detroit, which took them to the Netherlands. From there the landed in Luxembourg, where they boarded a bus to the train stop, and then a rode a train to Trier. They crossed the Moselle River, which is the boundary between Luxembourg and Germany.

Trier is Germany's oldest city, with its origins dating back to 16BC.  Located in southwest Germany with a current population around 110,000, it was founded by the Romans and has many Roman structures remaining. 

Hauptmarkt Square bustles with pedestrians and shops as the center of the city.

Marktbrunnen, or Market Fountain, proudly sits in the market square. It was built in 1595 and depicts St. Peter surrounded by the four virtues of justice, strength, temperance and wisdom.  

The kids attended the local school in the morning with their hosts and then they went on outings in the afternoon.  Here is the group in front of Port Nigra, one of the best preserved city gates from the ancient world. 

Kaiserthermen is the 1600-year-old Roman bathhouse with a huge hot water bath, underground tunnels and ancient ruins.

Daisy's host sister was named Emelie. She was a skateboard girl. They hung out at the skate park with her friends a lot.

This is the outdoor part of the skate park. Emelie said a few of her friends painted some of the graffiti on the walls. There was an indoor part that had another skate park and other rooms with games. Daisy thought it was free and skater kids and even skater adults hung out there.

One day they had spaghetti ice cream.

Daisy walked across the Geierlay Bridge, which is considered one of Germany's most beautiful suspension bridges. 

The group toured Burg Eltz Castle, which has been in the same family for 33 generations and is one of the best preserved castles in Europe. In its 855 year history, it has only had one siege attempt.

This is the inside courtyard looking out.

 The Karl Marx Haus was located not far from the apartment that Daisy stayed.  The little plaque on the left under the window identifies the house that Marx was born in.

This is a statue of him.

One day the group went to watch an armored knight fight. 

Afterwards they got to wear the helmets.

This was one of the most famous German meals called doner kabab. It is actually Turkish, but the Germans have claimed it as their own.

One of the outings was to the High Cathedral Church of St. Peter.

With construction dating back 1700 years, this is not only the oldest church in Germany, but also the oldest building still serving its original purpose.

Over the weekend the group took a break from organized activities and the kids were free to explore with their host families. Friday night at 10:30, "the mom" as Daisy called her, picked her and Emelie up from the skate park and they drove to Paris. That's right, they left at 10:30pm! They arrived in Paris around 3:00am. They parked in a public 'camping' space and slept in the pop-up van. Daisy called me after they arrived and right before they went to bed; she informed me that she just peed by a tree in the middle of Paris because the bathrooms were locked for the night. 😂 Not many people can say that.

The Eiffel Tower has been on Daisy's bucket list, and now she can check that off.

You can see the Olympic rings on the tower from this side.

They also took a city tour and saw the Louvre.

Construction from that fire several years ago is still on-going for Norte Dame.

And finally, a trip to Paris is not complete without the Arc de Triumph.

One afternoon our time, Daisy started texting that she and Emelie had plans to go to Emelie's DJ gig that evening, but Emelie was not feeling well so Daisy didn't think they were going to be able to go. Then she said Emelie vomited. About an hour later she said she was feeling sick. She tried to FaceTime, but the boys and I had bought tickets to a movie and it was getting ready to start, so I waited to call her back. I mean, what could I do from here? She had vomited; it was a one bathroom apartment, and Emelie was being sick in the toilet and Daisy just got sick on the floor. Then we spoke around 2:00 am her time.  She had vomited a second time and made the toilet, but hit the bathroom floor this time. Since it was the middle of the night, I told her to go to the kitchen sink to look for cleaner. She said she had no idea what was the right product to use, so I had her take a photo and I used Google translate to find an all-purpose cleaner.

She ended up vomiting two more times. Daisy had to miss the next day's activities, but she rallied after that. They had a few more days of touring. She was a bit homesick at the start, but by the end she was not ready to come back home.

[June 5-14]