Cooking & Serviam at Ursuline High School

Today we are posting our last blog from our Wimbledon delegation as soon they will be (reluctantly) headed home to Dallas. This reflection is from last week and comes from Elizabeth:

Today was a very satisfying and unusual day.  We started off with a cooking lesson.  Cooking is an important part of the curriculum at the Wimbledon Ursuline, and it was interesting to see how the school combines science with the useful skill of cooking.  We made muffins, scones, cheese twists, and tarts which we took to the retirement home at Wimbledon.

The senior citizens at the Wimbledon Retirement Home were very enthusiastic to see and to talk with us, and we learned a great deal from what they shared with us about their life experiences.  One lady told me about how her parents were happy about Pearl Harbor because that meant that the U.S. would join the war.  We also met the oldest senior there who is an active 105 years old.  She is the sister-in-law of a famous English composer, Benjamin Britten.  It felt good performing a service activity, and it was clear that serviam is a value that unites us with our English Ursuline sisters.
 
After visiting the retirement home, we walked to Wimbledon Common for a picnic. While we were there, we played a game of rounders which is similar to baseball, though the bats are much smaller.  The weather was glorious as it has been all week. After the picnic we left the common to spend our last weekend in Wimbledon with out host families.  It's hard to believe our adventure is coming to an end.

Excursion to Southern Peru

Our Peruvian delegation has left Lima for a couple of days and is currently visiting the Ica region in southern Peru. Here is their first report from Ica:

Today we left for Paracas and, after a 5 and a half hour bus ride, we arrived at our wonderful hotel. Soon we were off to learn more about Peru.  First, we went to a museum that walked us through the Peruvian ancient civilizations and showed us the different pottery styles, textiles, and mummification processes that were used by each civilization.  We also heard a lecture on how the fruit flies affect the fruit industry and what the government is doing to decrease the amount of fruit flies that are infecting the different species of fruits.  We were able to look through a microscope at the different developmental stages of the fruit fly. The whole experience was very interesting! 

Adventures in the UK

Our Wimbledon delegate, Mallory M., has written about several of her adventures while in the UK. First, she describes her visit to the Churchill War rooms and touring London:

This morning we visited the Churchill War Rooms.  Because most of these underground rooms had been left untouched, it really made history come alive.  It's one thing to read about Churchill and another to see the tiny room where he actually slept and planned strategy at the height of the Blitz.

My favorite room was the Map Room because I learned from the audio tour that when the war ended the men there simply turned the lights off the first time in six years and walked out.  What an anticlimactic ending to their heroism!

 I learned several interesting factoids about D-Day, my topic for Ms. Ide's class presentation.  Evidently, Churchill originally planned to present in one of the ships at D-Day. The museum was really interesting as well and we learned about De Gaulle's reluctance to allow France to help the Allies cross the channel.

We really enjoyed seeing Buckingham Palace.  The flag told us that the Queen is in residence.  After a long and intellectually stimulating day, Krystal, my host sister, and I went to Harrods.  It was much more fancy and expensive than I had expected, but I still loved it.  I was getting yet another taste of Britain's unique culture and way of life. 

And here Mallory tells us about her excursion to Oxford:

After school on Friday, my host family and I  drove to Oxford. Surprisingly, we only saw a few people dressed up for Alice Day (celebrating Lewis Carroll and the Alice in Wonderland books) and almost no Alice Day related events-probably because of the rain!

Because my host mom attended Oxford, we got to stay in a Keble College dorm. The campus was stunningly beautiful, lush, and old! Then we walked into town and bought some candy at a local sweetshop. We walked around town and visited Bodelian library, the oldest in the world, then ate at a pub. While eating my fish and chips, a group of Americans walked in, set an American flag on the bar, and-I couldn't hear exactly what they said, but I think they declared the bar's independence! Anyway, we laughed for a while.Later that night, we walked to Oxford Castle to watch a dramatization of The Canterbury Tales. Even though we had to move inside because of the rain, I enjoyed it immensely!  Not much Lewis Carroll, but I got to experience Chaucer.

 This morning, we at breakfast in the University dining hall, also beautiful! At noon we were given a tour of Oxford: I saw many of the places Harry Potter was filmed (Griffindor common room, the ferret scene, Hogwart's infirmary) old city walls and many other wonderful places. At 4 o'clock, in honor of the Mad Hatter, we had afternoon tea and I tried my first scone! After tea, we headed home, content but sad to see the vanishing spires of Oxford..

Wimbledon Tennis

Today we heard from Erin, one of our Wimbledon delegates, who had the good fortune to attend Wimbledon Tennis earlier this week. Here is what she wrote about this awesome experience:

Today, Ellie and I went to the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament. The Center and 1st Court seats were set up like a lottery. Spectators paid for their court tickets after their names were drawn in a lottery. Most people, like Ellie and I, chose to wait in line and purchase Grounds Tickets. We waited in line for nearly 3 hours, one of which was in the pouring rain. Though we were soaking, we decided to wait and pay £5 for the tickets.  And it was well worth it!These tickets enabled us to walk around the courts and watch the free games. Once inside the gates, there were queues (as they call lines here) for 1st and Center Court tickets. This arrangement means that after the people who won the lottery tickets leave, their seats are resold for £10. Unfortunately, these queues are very long, and we decided not to wait. Instead, Ellie had two friends who had been queuing for over 7 hours for Center Court tickets. Once they had spent a few hours in Center Court, they were extremely gracious and gave us their tickets to Center Court. We watched the Djokovic match, and it was the first time the Center Court roof had been used. We made sure to thank Ellie's friends who were so kind to give us their tickets. It is an experience I will never forget.  Apart from getting to watch great tennis, it felt like a uniquely British experience.Here are some photos I took of the Djokovic match:

The Ruins of Huallamarca

Today we heard a little bit about how our Peruvian delegation spent their first day in Lima:

 

On our first day in Peru, we went to see the ruins of Huallamarca which are literally across the street from our sister school, Colegio Santa Ursula.  You can see the yellow school in the background of the picture of the students. There are also many tall buildings in our neighborhood as the school is in a major business district called San Isidro.  One of the teachers from Santa Ursula showed us around and gave explanations of the ruins while showing us traditional art such as gourds and pottery. It was fascinating!  

 

 

 

Day at the British Seaside

Earlier this week, our delegation spent a lovely day on the coast of Great Britain with their teachers and Ursuline sisters from Wimbledon. Delegate Maria sent us the report below:

Today we took a long ride to the coastal town of Brighton.  The first thing we did was visit the Royal Pavilion, an ornate palace built for George IV.  The rooms were very extravagantly decorated with lots of gold and red.  Chinese imagery abounded, and the outside looked like an Indian palace.  We walked through the palace listening to an audio tour and learning fascinating details about British history, like the fact that George IV was so obese that he needed a mechanical lift to get out of the royal bed,  As usual we ended up at the gift shop picking up souvenirs to remember this exciting visit.

After our tour of the Royal Pavilion we made our way to the beach.  We were struck by the pebbles on the beach, instead of the sand that we are used to.  It was very sunny and breezy, a perfect day for the beach.  We ate traditional fish and chips, ducking as we were harassed by dive bombing seagulls.  Afterwards, we spent time on the pier, which had lots of souvenir shops, an arcade, and carnival rides.  I had a .99, a cone of vanilla ice cream.  It was really good, but it cost £2,99 not £0.99.  Go figure!  Then we took the train home, tired and contented.  It was really a nice day at the seaside (as they say here).

Peru Arrival

Last night, after a day of flying, our Peru delegation was greeted at the Lima airport by their host sisters. Despite the late hour, spirits were high and all were excited to finally meet in person. We hear that our students have already had a busy first day at school today so we look forward to hearing more and receiving more photos very soon.

Leaving DFW

Arrival at LIM airport in Peru