pursuit of knowledge

Do you realize it's April? That means that our 3-5 month wait for a match *could* be up NEXT MONTH! Next month will be three months since approval. Wow.

I had an interesting trip to Knowledge Bowl in Warsaw. I did manage to walk in to see the reconstructed Old Town, but most of the trip was spent with our middle schoolers. I love middle schoolers. I was a junior high youth worker and have a minor in youth ministry. When it came time to choose what grade I'd teach, I was going to get my certification in grades 4-8. But, my youth group at the time told me to be their friend and not their teacher. It's advice I took. Now, I'm teach primary grades but play with the big kids.

It was our school's first knowledge bowl. Our kids always make an impression when we gather with other international schools--for being NICE. They're nice kids. They are kind to one another. They have an innocence that the kids from the bigger schools lack.

As far as knowledge went, we didn't do quite as well. The first day we won half of our matches. That means we lost half. And the ones we lost, we lost gloriously. That night we saw the Warsaw school's (900 students) production of Midsummer. I had three cast members from my show with me...and two enthusiastic fans.

I'll just say it (no false modesty here)--ours was soooo much better! Seriously- SOOO much better. I know I'm a good director, (refer to previous parenthetical expression) but this reminded me that I'm a GOOD director. I'm a VERY good director. This was clear not only from the production, but from the comments of my actors. These nice kids weren't ha-ha-ha-ing. They were making comments (when we were on our own) about use of space, understanding the text, handling the verse, physicality... And they were quick to point out the interesting costumes, amazing set and "better mushiness" of the production we saw.

But our production was better. And, seeing that after a rough day of competition lifted spirits.

The second day of competition went much like the first. The kids competed a little better, but didn't steal the show. We faltered in math. There were few questions in our stronger categories of literature, history and geography.

But, we had a nice time.

While there I met a single adoptive mum from another school. It was great to get to talk to her a bit about what lies ahead. And it could be lying ahead next month!