Moving Up Ceremony

 

The school had the 8th grade Moving Up Ceremony at the end of May.  (They do it a while before the end of school, I guess because the last couple of weeks are exams for the eighth graders.)  The boys both won awards:  Matthew won Excellence in Health and Leadership, and James won Excellence in Social Studies, Outstanding Effort and Attitude, and Academic Excellence.  We are very proud of them!  (Matthew was also happy to be nominated for two peer awards -- Most Likely to Participate in Class and Most Likely to be President. He didn't win, but he said the people who did deserved them!)

They also had the eighth grade party. Matthew said the most fun part was the foam room (a huge bubble machine that filled the room with foam).  He said the only downside was that it was hard to see, so it was easy to trip over people!  (And he ended up getting soap in his throat, but said it was worth it.)

Singapore Scenes

 I am teaching in Singapore again this summer, and it's hard to believe that the six-week classes I'm teaching are almost at their halfway point! I haven't been doing too many tourist activities, but here are a few photos.  

A tower of cars!

Little India is crowded on Sundays

The atrium of our Singapore campus

Ramen

Lilies at the apartment complex

Chess Champ

James competed in a two-day chess tournament in Niagara Falls in mid-April, and he ended up winning his section (under 1200 rating).  Very cool!  One of his other friends from his online chess class was there as well. 

 

Yellow Belt

Matthew has been taking krav maga and jujitsu classes, and he did his first belt test yesterday and advanced to yellow belt. Congratulations, Matthew!

Celebrating 14

For their birthday celebrations, Matthew had some friends over -- they played games, ate pizza, and everyone seemed to have a great time.  James wanted to go to Kyoto, a Japanese restaurant where they cook the food right in front of you. Yum!

(On their actual birthday, James, Mike, and I spent most of the day at a soccer tournament, so good thing we celebrated early!)

 

 Apologies for the long pause in postings.  

I made a second trip out to South Dakota in January.  This time I went without family, but took my friend Jake out to see the frozen tundra.  He made the mistake of appearing really interested in all my previous pictures and descriptions of Eden. For a few years we talked about going out there together, so I decided there was never going to be a better time than in January before the Nascar race season started.  The University classes hadn't started yet, so he was free and willing to go.

We flew to Fargo, where we visited the Fargo Air Museum just a mile from the airport. Very convenient, and also a very nice museum.  Those are just some of the airplanes they have indoors. There is a B25 Mitchell outside that is waiting to be restored.  They also had other military collectibles from WWI through the Vietnam War.

https://fargoairmuseum.org/

We drove down Main Street before we took Interstate 29 south to Eden.