Saturday at Peak Academy

On Saturday, our Peruvian guests joined our students from Ursuline's Spanish Honor Society in a day of community service at Peak Academy. Peak Academy is a wonderful school in Dallas which is a college-prep, public, Uplift Education charter school. It is a colorful, cheerful place where the highest of expectations are set for the k-12 students. Because expectations are so high, the school offers many tutoring and learning opportunities on Saturdays. Our Ursuline students go regularly on Saturdays to assist with activities in the primary school.

This past Saturday there were several different tasks for our group. Some students tutored in math, some reviewed last details of science projects and others led the young students in a day of arts and crafts. The arts and crafts were a big hit as you can imagine - one group made paper llamas (in keeping with our South American theme) while others created ocean scenes or personalized puzzles. It's hard to say who had more fun - the young students from Peak or our Ursuline girls!

Many thanks to Peak Academy for welcoming our Peruvian delegation!! And many thanks to Monica, Abby, Marcie and Mrs. Yousfi-Roy from UA for organizing such a wonderful day of service!

Dallas Museum of Nature and Science

Last week, our guests enjoyed a field trip to the fabulous Dallas Museum of Nature and Science. The museum is currently exhibiting Dinosaurs Unearthed, an exciting exhibit which includes life-size representations of dinosaurs and actual dinosaur fossils. As you can see from our photos, the teachers and students enjoyed the interactive displays and the scientific exploration!

Perhaps the most fun was had at the museum's IMAX theater - a "first" for many of our guests. The IMAX theater is different from a traditional movie theater because the screen is curved and the seats are placed at a very steep angle. As a result, the movie images appear to jump off the screen and surround the viewer. Our guests report that they were a bit dizzy at first but then the Sea Monster movie was "really cool."

Mass of St. Angela

On Friday, we celebrated a school-wide Mass in honor of St. Angela, the foundress of the Ursulines. It was an extra special Mass for many reasons. First, we were honored to have our bishop, Bishop Kevin Farrell, as the celebrant. Secondly, our Peruvian Ursuline sisters joined with us and participated in the Mass by presenting the offertory.

Our Peruvian sisters brought a gift for our school which is a beautiful wooden cross with a representation of St. Ursula's ship and the word "Serviam" engraved in glass on the cross. They presented it to us during the Mass and it was blessed by the bishop. It was wonderful Mass and a wonderful celebration of our international Ursuline sisterhood!

New Friends, New Foods, New Experiences

As you can see, our Peruvian sisters are right at home here in Dallas. Their lovely green and blue plaid blends in beautifully with our red and blue (in fact, some of the pairs of girls look so similar that we are calling them "twins.")

Yesterday, the group took advantage of the unusually warm winter weather and spent the afternoon walking around the gardens of the Dallas Arboretum. This adventure occurred after the thrilling discovery of Chick-Fil-A sandwiches, a new favorite American food! Every day brings a new experience and our friends are making the most of this opportnity!

UA Celebrates Chinese New Year

Soon it will be Chinese New Year and the year of the Rabbit will begin! Today at Ursuline, we were honored to have university student performers and artists from Harbin Normal University in China with us. They are skilled in folk music, Chinese songs, dance, lion dance, martial arts and more. First, they performed for our students in the theatre and then they led a variety of interactive lessons for our students during classes and lunch. It was an exciting way to anticipate the New year and even our Peruvian guests joined in the fun and learning! Many thanks to Dr. Yang for a wonderful day!

First moments at UA

Yesterday we formally welcomed our guests from Peru to Ursuline. They began the day by greeting the student body on the PA (Public Address) system and each Peruvian student introduced herself and told the students a bit about herself. e were all impressed with their very excellent English! The group then went on an official tour of the school with Marissa, Ally and Catie, three of our most delightful UA ambassadors. Finally, we had a little presentation where we gave some Ursuline gifts to our guests as souvenirs of their time in with us.

And today the Peruvian students are accompanying their American host sisters to classes so that they can see what life is like for the typical UA Dalas student - we look forward to hearing what our guests think about life at UA Dallas!

USA & Chile & Peru ... Oh my!!!

On Friday we welcomed the delegation from Peru to Ursuline. As the Chileans are still with us, this weekend was the first time that two groups have ever overlapped in their visits to Ursuline Dallas. And WHAT a blast it has been for all of us!! The laughter and fun (and cake) has not stopped for a minute - quite the contrary! On Friday, the Chilean girls shared insights into life at Ursuline Dallas with the Peruvian girls. Among the things mentioned were "There are no bells here, no recess and the girls do a lot of homework!" They also alerted the Peruvians that Ms. Vander Linden controls the food in the hospitality room and that they might think that the snacks are all gone but then more appear magically.

The whole weekend has been filled with cultural encounters not only among the students but the families and teachers as well. In fact, just to make things really multicultural, the teachers spent their day in Dallas together eating Dim Sum and visiting the Crow Collection of Asian art. This joyful time together has given us the opportunity to talk about about more ways that we can connect all of our schools and our students.

In the evening, we all gathered at the home of the Mocio family for a fabulous celebration which included all of our guests and host families. What a happy and beautiful event it was and how grateful we are to the Mocio family for hosting such a lovely and warm event which allowed all of us to be together!!

How we hate to say goodbye ....

We are not looking forward to saying goodbye to our Chilean guests tomorrow.... It has been a joy to host them and to see all of the new friendships formed with all of us at Ursuline Dallas. Yesterday at school we had a farewell party hosted by the Gagas (Girls Assisting Global Awareness) and the DODGE office. You won't be surprised to learn that the students (and the adults) LOVED (and devoured) the delicious Red Velvet Cake commissioned by Ms. Vander Linden in honor of our Chilean guests. Around 100 UA students showed up for the fiesta and to hug and bid farewell to their Chilean Ursuline sisters - It was a bit crazy but lots of fun.

Luckily our fun is not over!! Our Chilean guests will be with us until tomorrow and now things are even more festive since our Peruvian guests have now arrived! More on this visit very soon!!