Tigre

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Our bus picked us up at the hotel and drove to Tigre about 1 hour away. Tigre is near the mouth of the delta where the Parana River and the River Plate meet on their way to the ocean. We had a walking tour around Tigre and made our way to the canal for our 11 AM cruise up and down the canal. After the cruise we walked back to the bus pick-up spot and drove for 45 minutes until we arrived at Lincoln International school. We were greeted by the Principal and athletic director upon our arrival and we had a very nice lunch in their school cafeteria.

The school has a total of 750 students ranging from pre-kindergarten to grade 12. They also have a first year university credit program available. About 17% of the students are Argentinian, 37% from Canada and the United States and the balance from countries all over the world. Many of the students have a parent working in embassies or with foreign companies which are located in Argentina. The school is very impressive and our group were given a tour of the facilities including two gymnasiums, an outdoor olympic size swimming pool, plus numerous green fields. The school also offers an IB program. It was a very, very sobering experience for our girls who haven´t had a single thought about returning to reality (next Monday). We were invited into an English class where the students were doing Shakespeare recitals.

We were then allowed into the high school´s computer lab, which is where this update is coming from. We will play two games after school starting at 3:45 PM.

When school ended we got changed and warmed up for our game. Our hosts have a new gymnasium facility and it was great as they had a good crowd for the after school game. We ended up playing about 8 quarters of basketball. At half time they supplied us with fresh fruit to eat. After the game was over we all went to the lobby where we had empanadas, pizza and soft drinks. We spent about an hour talking with the girls from Lincoln. All of them could speak both Spanish and English. The school Principal presented our team with a large group picture that was taken prior to the game. They developed the picture, imprinted a message on it and then had it framed. It is a great picture and should look very nice in our school´s trophy case. They also gave us a disc with pictures and game video on it. At 7 PM we bid our gracious hosts goodbye and headed back to our hotel.

Mr. and Mrs. Siu along with coach and Mandy went to see a soccer game at River Plate stadium and although it was a 0 - 0 score it was very entertaining. The "fans" sang and danced the whole game long. It was like nothing you have ever seen before in Canada.

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