High school: Choosing a school overseas event

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Part 1

Ninta's school offered its year 10 students several outing events for the year  of 2010. We had to decide which of the programs was the best for Ninta :

We narrowed down the choices into two :

• A tour to China
• A four-day congress in Singapore

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A decision was made quite easily. Ninta's focus was not merely on a pure pleasure trip, neither was my husband's nor mine.

On Jan 14th 2010, Ninta flew to Singapore to attend Harvard Model Congress Asia. It is a global conference where international students from various Asia countries learn and experience government while acting as officials in the United States government. 

Ninta was certainly not traveling abroad alone. Five other students (out of around 80 students) plus a teacher were going too.

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These were what the whole family prepared before she left:

• reading materials about Argentinian trade. Ninta's grandfather worked hard to help her understand the basic concepts that she needed to know and supplied her with relevant articles.
• 3 pairs of women suit (blazers, shirts and trousers)
• traveling iron
• some extra money

My husband and I had simple hopes. We wanted that the congress would give our daughter:

• new learning experiences
• closeness with those of her five school friends (Ninta was still a new student after all)
• new friends from various countries

Part 2

Ninta chose to go to the Model United Nations at Georgetown University in Qatar the following year. This time she went with four other students and a teacher.

We gathered together at a fast-food restaurant at the Soekarno-Hatta airport : Ninta's brother and sister, my husband and myself, the teacher, the other students and some of their parents. Ninta had seemingly become a young girl with great self confidence. Nothing appeared to bother her although she stayed up all night long to finish an assignment, fell asleep at dawn for several hours, began packing at 12.00 noon, then left the house at 14.00. 

Ninta's luggage nearly reached 20 kgs. That's why I advised her to write down stories of  her five-day journey as a souvenir for me, instead of buying me a scarf as she previously planned.

Have a nice trip!