4th place out of 26 teams!

We got 4th PLACE!!!!!!!!
That would mean that our mixed problem must have really good! Because our spontaneous score was really low, we only got 14 points! 10 points for working together and 4 points for showing up.

It was really awesome in Belarus!    Everything there was great except for the food (which happened to be something OK at breakfast,  at lunch usually soggy overcooked noodles and meat - and then again for dinner.) The best part of the trip was when we had our International Trading evening.  Everybody brought small gifts from their own country to trade.  I brought pencils and bookmarks and got a lot of neat things in exchange.

The people in Belarus were very friendly and welcoming.  They thought we were interesting because they had rarely ever seen English-speaking people before.

-Sophia

More pictures!

Our mayor, Ivan from St. Petersburg, playing chess in the common room

The crazy professor, also from St. Petersburg

Dancer Anna, dressed in traditional Belarusian clothing

Yes, Mr. Lowery braids hair.  How cool is that?

Our mixed team from Russia, Belarus and JFK after their performance.

The children learned traditional Belarusian handcrafts, which they were supposed to incorporate into their mixed problem

Why didn't we think of that earlier?

Wood carvings at Zubronok

Results!

(c/p from an email this morning)

"Hey gang, I found out some great news today.  I got a copy of the results from the mixed problem.  First place scored 97 points.  Second scored 86 points, 3rd place (team A's group) scored 85 points and our team scored 4th with 84.7 points.  Great job.

Mr. Lowery"


*note from Leah:  there were about ninety teams altogether.  The mixed problem was not divided into divisions, which means our kids were up against much older kids.

**Team B also won a special award for "Sense of Humor."  We're quite proud of that as well, even if Mr. Parker warned us, "You do know this is the yayhoo award, don't you?"

We're back! Some pictures of the trip in and the first day.

Hi all,

I just wanted to say thank you to Mr. Bakke, Mr. and Mrs. Parker, Mike Lowery, Teri, Paul and Todd for being there for our kids during this trip.  Mr. Bakke did a phenomenal (sorry Kirsten ;)) job organizing the trip and making sure our children were looked after.  We were very lucky to have such dedicated teachers (and parents) along with us.

I hope our translators, Julia and Irina, stop by and say hi at one point.  They were there for us throughout the entire trip and worked tirelessly for our kids.

Our kids were great sports. Every kid was an asset to the team.  They were well behaved, enthusiastic and tougher than I had given them credit for at the beginning of the trip.  Most importantly, they were kind and generous to each other.

Feel free to log in and post your thoughts, pictures, video! 

-Leah

"We're mice, not engineers!"

Warsaw

At Lake Naroch the morning after we arrived

Touring the grounds of Camp Zubronok

Julia, Irina and Mr. Bakke

Food highlights, which shouldn't be taken too literally

I'll post more a bit later!

Pictures from Belarus

Hi All - just found a computer we can access internet with so I thought I'd post a few pictures.  We're all having a great time.  I'll share more pictures once home...
-Teri (Anna's Mom)

On the Sleeper Train to Minsk

We are on the train! a sleeper train! The cabin in the train is very small,and there are only 3 beds. We are under the protection of Doner Man 1 (mr.lowery),
Doner Man 2 (Mr.Parker), Doner Woman 1(Leah), Mrs. Parker (Leah said we are not allowed to call Mrs. Parker Doner Woman- perhaps Doner Lady?), and Professor Dumbledore (Mr.Bakke).
We (Sophia, Zoe, Leah ) share a cabin with 3 beds. Occasionally we have to open the window to let out the heat and just now we did and the air smelled like cow dung,and now our room smells like it.
Paula, Carla hve already knocked on our door FOUR TIMES! It was very entertaining as they alway said upps.
On the side we have a picture of both sophia and zoe in our cabin (in the sleeper train).
Greetings to our families, our classes(5a and 5b) and our school(jfk)
Zoe, Sophia

Lake Naroch

    Lake Naroch is right where we are staying!
  -sophia

Who can tell me....

1.  What's the population of Belarus?

• a) 3.6 million
• b) 7.6 million
• c) 9.6 million

2.  What's the Belarusian President's name?

• a) Alexander Lukashenko
• b) Alaksander Kazulin
• c) Sergei Sidorsky

3.  What colors are found on the Belarusian flag?

• a) white, orange and green
• b) red and green
• c) white, red and green

4.  How do you say "hello" in Belarusian?

• a) Àllo!
• b) Helurusían!
• c) Pryvitańnie!

First Post

We're all excited about our trip to Belarus!  We can post pictures, write messages and add comments here.