Our newest boarding student, Gillbert, is from South Korea.  Having him in the dorm during the Pyeong Chang 2018 Winter Olympics added to our conversation and interest in his country.  First of all, Americans clearly cannot say, “Pyeong Chang,” correctly!  By the end of two weeks, we had Gillbert so confused he had to hesitate before replying to the question, “How do you correctly say Pyeong Chang?”  Curling happens to be one of Lucas’s favorite sports of the Winter Olympics.  Interestingly, one of the Korean team members looked a bit like Gillbert; even his family agreed.  That Korean team member soon became known as Gillbert’s “cousin Lee.”  The students were able to watch some of the Olympic events, between basketball and homework: ice skating, snow boarding, curling, hockey, and down hill skiing.

This winter has been long and cold.  We sustained two months of temperatures below 0*F!  One Saturday we decided to spend the afternoon playing some minute-to-win-it games to fight against the cabin fever feeling of a long winter.  The kids were great sports as we played girls against boys.

In the first challenge, each team was given index cards and plastic drinking cups.  The goal was to stack the cups alternately with the index cards.  Then pull out the index card in such a manner that the cups would stack together, one by one.  Brady and Keira had the fastest times for this challenge.

In another challenge each team member was given 6 plastic drinking cups and 6 ping-pong balls.  The goal was to bounce pass the ping-pong ball, one into each cup.  This was not too challenging but a race against time.  Wisly and Gabriella were top players in this challenge, but Wisly was the fastest of the two.

The paper bag challenge was a new one for these students.  This was a game that I learned in college.  My brother-in-law happened to be the best that I knew.  He was so flexible that on one occasion, I remember, he stood on top of two encyclopedias to make the final round more difficult!  The game is simple:  each player is to bend down and grab the paper bag in his/her mouth.  Only feet may touch the floor, no elbows, hands, knees, etc.  If the player loses his/her balance and touches the floor, he/she is disqualified and must sit out.  So the play goes around, each player grabbing the bag and then ripping off the part of the bag that he/she touched.  This continues until the bag is very close to the ground and the play becomes more difficult.  Wisly and Lily played this game well and we had to call a draw.

It was good, positive fun all around.  A perfect PJ day!!