Hey y'all! (We have adopted the language of the south).
After a 14 hour drive, a short stay in Knoxville, and a failed trip to the Biltmore Estate (pre-driveway driveway was pretty nice), we finally arrived in Durham, the "City of Champions" and "Tastiest city in America." Down here in North Carolina, we are having a lot of fun (better your twitter feed by following @MAB_Durham and keep up with our daily shenanigans). When we arrived in Durham yesterday, we immediately went to boccia ball practice at Cary, NC through the adaptive sports organization, BridgeIISports. It was really eye-opening to most of us, and the game is harder than it looks, but we had a blast getting our butts kicked by the NATIONAL qualifying athletes we competed with.
Afterwards, we were invited by the Mizzou Triangle Tigers, the alumni group in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area in NC, to a potluck which included some "real" tea - 70% sugar, 20% tea. It was nice to connect with the local alumni and everybody was so friendly to us. Our first night in Durham ended with a spectacular goodbye song from future tigers, Kate (7) and Taylor (5). With our stomachs full and spirits high, we crawled in our sleeping bags excited for our second day.
Whoever decided pre-schoolers need naps more than college students need a little talking to. Today, we headed to Learning Together, an inclusive preschool in Raleigh that has 50 percent of kids with disabilities. The kids were fun and energetic and we learned the only people who truly understand the meaning of "work hard, play hard" is that of the 2-7 year old population. Give a 5 year old kid a toy spatula, and he can turn it into any tool in which he needs to run the world. It was a great, energetic start to our day and in the name of service, we skipped (reluctantly) nap time and headed to our next service site! We headed toward archery practice at BridgeIISports office.
Upon arrival, we thankfully received a crash course in the art of shooting an arrow and while we rotated through shooting, we helped clean and organize years' worth of inventory in their warehouse. We tried our hand at shooting an arrow, many of us for the first time, alongside war veterans living in the Durham area. While we attempted to channel our inner Katniss Everdeen, the seasoned shooters alongside were practicing for the Valor Games, one of the BridgeIISports' biggest yearly events.
We ended our second day with a (driving) self tour of Duke. The campus is like Hogwarts beautiful and we're hoping we have the chance to see it again in some tamer weather. It's still hard to believe that we finally made it, but the start of this week has us so excited for what the rest of the week may bring!
To end, we'll leave you with a line of future tiger Kate's rendition of "So Long, Farwell"
"So long, farewell, a Peter says goodbyee!"
Until next time.
We out,
MAB Durham
After a 14 hour drive, a short stay in Knoxville, and a failed trip to the Biltmore Estate (pre-driveway driveway was pretty nice), we finally arrived in Durham, the "City of Champions" and "Tastiest city in America." Down here in North Carolina, we are having a lot of fun (better your twitter feed by following @MAB_Durham and keep up with our daily shenanigans). When we arrived in Durham yesterday, we immediately went to boccia ball practice at Cary, NC through the adaptive sports organization, BridgeIISports. It was really eye-opening to most of us, and the game is harder than it looks, but we had a blast getting our butts kicked by the NATIONAL qualifying athletes we competed with.
Afterwards, we were invited by the Mizzou Triangle Tigers, the alumni group in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area in NC, to a potluck which included some "real" tea - 70% sugar, 20% tea. It was nice to connect with the local alumni and everybody was so friendly to us. Our first night in Durham ended with a spectacular goodbye song from future tigers, Kate (7) and Taylor (5). With our stomachs full and spirits high, we crawled in our sleeping bags excited for our second day.
Whoever decided pre-schoolers need naps more than college students need a little talking to. Today, we headed to Learning Together, an inclusive preschool in Raleigh that has 50 percent of kids with disabilities. The kids were fun and energetic and we learned the only people who truly understand the meaning of "work hard, play hard" is that of the 2-7 year old population. Give a 5 year old kid a toy spatula, and he can turn it into any tool in which he needs to run the world. It was a great, energetic start to our day and in the name of service, we skipped (reluctantly) nap time and headed to our next service site! We headed toward archery practice at BridgeIISports office.
Upon arrival, we thankfully received a crash course in the art of shooting an arrow and while we rotated through shooting, we helped clean and organize years' worth of inventory in their warehouse. We tried our hand at shooting an arrow, many of us for the first time, alongside war veterans living in the Durham area. While we attempted to channel our inner Katniss Everdeen, the seasoned shooters alongside were practicing for the Valor Games, one of the BridgeIISports' biggest yearly events.
We ended our second day with a (driving) self tour of Duke. The campus is like Hogwarts beautiful and we're hoping we have the chance to see it again in some tamer weather. It's still hard to believe that we finally made it, but the start of this week has us so excited for what the rest of the week may bring!
To end, we'll leave you with a line of future tiger Kate's rendition of "So Long, Farwell"
"So long, farewell, a Peter says goodbyee!"
Until next time.
We out,
MAB Durham
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