Basketball

Remember one of the goals I made for this trip? Try new things and don't look back? Well I took that challenge on Tuesday. Tuesday night is basketball with the YSA like I mentioned before. Ok so it wasn't exactly a "new" thing since I've played basketball before but playing at the church with the ysa (especially with some of the big kiwi boys) was something I'd never done. There were lots (heaps) more people there this time around but I still managed to play a few games. Some of the games even got a little more competitive than they probably should have been with a few elbows getting thrown here or there. Truth be told I was not a star player by any means but it was so much fun! There were more girls this time around (even one that I recognized from a class I had at byu- she's leaving for a mission in february small world!) so it was 2 girls 3 guys per team and same rules 5 baskets. You could also only win three games in a row since there were so many people who wanted to play.

I had a blast! I even prided myself in making the winning shot for our team's first game. We went undefeated until our 3 games were up. It's getting to the point where people know not only who we are but our names too (though I'm still working on all of theirs). We didn't get home until after 11 but it was a really fun day plus we didn't have any homework.

Our mathS class is going pretty well. The teacher wanted us to see how hard it is for kids to work with numbers and learn new concepts/vocabulary so we worked in base 8 instead of base 10 (meaning numbers only existed as such 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20 etc and our conversions were different). It definitely got us thinking. Funny how once we learn a concept we forget how hard even the simplest things were at one time. Don't believe me? The next time you see a baby pay attention to how much effort it takes for them to pick something up with their fingers. What is now a routine and simple task used to take lots of effort and concentration. So often teachers are the same way with their students. They see the task as something easy and routine because it is for them and yet the students are learning these concepts for the first time. It's given me a lot (heaps) to think about as I prepare to intern this August.