King’s Academy

(Alex) I had been looking forward to this day for awhile, it was the day we finally got to go to King’s Academy. I wanted to go because I wanted to see what an American-style school in Jordan would look like. And it was way better than I imagined. Big, pristine, new facilities, and it had students from all over the Middle East and America too. It was amazing!

We were first met by our guide Jack, who led us on a mini-tour and to the auditorium where we would be doing our presentation. Luckily we went in early because the sound and computer were not working. We got ready for our presentation by practicing our lines and song. Then it was time for the students to file in for their all-school meeting. Sure, I was a little nervous, because the students were grades 9-12, and there were 500 people staring at us but I was fine. We started our slideshow, Dad started off, and we each told them what we had learned so far on our trip (see below for the list). We showed them our Itinerary video, and the students all cheered when we got to Jordan. Then Dad promised them we would sing. They seemed to really enjoy that. They even gave us a standing ovation!

After our presentation, we walked to lunch with a bunch of students. Each of us were assigned a table. My table was really nice and consisted of two girls, and four boys, including Jordan’s crown prince Hussein!! We played the two truths and one lie game which was fun and I got to know my table better. Unfortunately the 20 minutes of lunch was over, and all of the kids had to go back to class.

I really enjoyed my visit to King’s Academy and hope to return there again– maybe even for school!

**From our presentation, What We Learned So Far:

• Andrew: Kids are kids everywhere
• Alex: A smile goes a long way
• Emma: Water is the next global problem
• Mom: To understand cultural traditions, you need to walk around in the other person’s skin
• Reis: carpe diem- seize the day (then he read a poem he wrote)
• Dad: Music is universal…that was our intro to a song!