The Dead Sea -- Zach

3 days and 2 nights at a 5 star hotel at the Dead Sea sounded like a pretty nice get away. The catch? Take 14 students with you! Last week I got to tag along with Lewis and the Robotics team to the annual First Lego League robotics competition at the Dead Sea. The students had been practicing for a couple months to come compete against 58 other teams from Jordan & some neighboring countries. Lewis is the coach for one of the 2 robotics teams at ABS, and I volunteered to help supervise...field trip mom was my official title. We got to spend a lot of time with the small group of students and get to know them a little better. I haven't laughed as much as I did in those three days in awhile. There were definitely frustrating moments too though. The boys found it hillarious to try to teach Lewis & I some new Arabic words, telling us they meant one thing when they meant something totally different (as if Arabic isn't hard enough!), but one of them would always flash a sneaky smirk or let out a giggle, so we knew something was up. It's amazing how you can go to the other side of the world and kids are still kids! We enjoyed the warm hotel room, hot showers, swimming in December, and the beautiful view of the sea, but the best part was spending time with the students. Sometimes they are challenging and they test my patience, but for some reason I always want to come back to them. The good out weighs the bad I guess, or maybe it is because I see in them myself just a few years back...