We Made Up a Little Song....

Brooke, Abby, and some of the other team members made up a song, and this is how it goes…

Got up at 4:30 it was really early, The limo we used, We went and snoozed, The plane was nice, It had drinks and ice, It was really warm, in our dorm. WE JUST ARRIVED HERE IN BALTIMORE.
We had so much fun, in the sun, we went in the pool, and it was so cool, we’re making this song, cause were never wrong, but let me tell you, there is a curfew, BUT WERE STILL HAVING FUN IN BALTIMORE.
Come with me, to Washington D.C, and then you’ll see, why you should come with me. We went to the zoo, we had to leave by two, we went on a metro, it was so retro. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN IN WASHINGTON D.C

by Alyssa

Closing Cermonies

Phew! What a busy four days! We can't believe it is already time to go home! Closing ceremonies wraps up the Odyssey of the Mind competition. The 6th through 2nd place winners are recognized during this time. Then all the first place winners. Everyone cheers and most every team has some sort of lighted device to use which makes the closing ceremonies fun. We found out that we place 32nd (out of 43 teams) in our division. This is quite impressive! It is our first time here and we've learned so much. Can't wait until next year!

Visting Washington D.C.

We spent our last day in Washington, D.C. This jam-packed day included site-seeing, visiting one of the Smithsonian museums, and meeting our Senator Susan Collins. Most of the monuments are found along the "mall" in D.C. The "mall" is not a shopping mall, but rather a large green park-like space in the center of the city. Along the edges of it are numerous museums which people can visit for free. We visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. A large elephant greets people as they enter and then visitors can choose to visit collections arranged around this center spoke. We visited the insect area, the reptile and bone exhibit, and the dinosaurs.

Before the museum, we saw the Washington monument, Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the reflecting pool, the Vietnam Wall, and the White House. We walked the whole length of the mall to get to Capitol Hill to make our 2 pm appointment with Senator Susan Collins. At the Senator's office one of her interns, Nate, gave us a personal tour of the Capitol building. We saw lots of beautiful paintings, statues, and halls and learned a lot of neat things about the Capitol building. Did you know that one of the only parts that survived a fire was the rock walls made of granite from Maine? Who was Hannibal Hamlin? And what is his connection to Maine?

After our tour, we had our picture taken on the steps of Capitol building with Susan Collins. She commended the team on their accomplishments and told us about her first trip to Washington D. C. She also said that one never knows where they'll end up! She encouraged us to get a good education and who knows maybe one day we'll be serving on the Senate floor!

Spontaneous

Our last “official” OM event was the Spontaneous problem. While the agreement is the team can’t share any of the details of the problem… the girls said it was fun. At the check out, Coach Peabody was presented with a “tail” made out of cloth which was duct taped to her backside. We learned this was in appreciation of all of the hard work in bringing the team here and in honor of completing the final step in the competition. We’d seen other “tailed” adults walking around.. now we knew why. Three cheers for Coach! Three cheers for Coach! Three cheers for Coach! Go team!

A Day at the Zoo

Decided to go to Washington DC to the National Zoo rather than the Baltimore Aquarium today. The weather was a little bit cooler, clear blue skies, and much less humid – more like the good ol’ Maine summer weather we’re used to! Folks at the zoo told us we had the perfect day to see lots of the animals on the move since it wasn’t as hot. We watched an elephant “weigh in” at its daily check up, a “baby” panda eat bamboo for breakfast, and orangutans walk across cables overhead. Perhaps the most fascinating were the “big cats” – the tigers and lions. We did A LOT of walking! Our legs are like spaghetti!

Riding the Subway

To get to the zoo, we had to take the Metro. Taking the Metro involves getting the shuttle bus from the campus to the subway station, purchasing a Metro ticket for the right fare amount from the kiosk, and figuring out how to find the right color train we need. A little different than getting around Jefferson!

Show Time!

OH NO !!! We heard a crack when we put the crusher board on. Michaela P., Abby, and Courteney were tap dancing on a piece of cardboard at the time the structure started to break. The team put 8 golf balls on which gave them extra points. The team put one 5 pound on after the dance was over. The structure broke as the weight was put on. The whole structure held 15 pounds.
by Michaela Peabody

Weigh In

What? Our structure weighs 1.2 grams more than it did back in Maine? Hmmm……. And the competition floor is covered with artificial turf? Oh dear! How do we tap dance on that? Time to solve some problems once again!

Hi-ho Kermit the Frog Here!

Hey! Is that Kermit the Frog and Jim Henson? What are they doing here? We’ll leave this as a bit of University of Maryland trivia!

R & R

Spent Sunday morning catching up on our sleep (sort of!?), pin trading, and relaxing by the pool – thankfully the sun is out! Some got a little “pink” enjoying the very summer like temperatures. There are about 9,000 kids competing so with approximately 9,000 adults chaperoning the total number of people here is around 18,000! Amazing! Good thing we have matching shirts! There is even a coach’s competition that looked pretty fun!

Opening Ceremonies

At the opening ceremonies, all the states and countries send some children from OM to represent their country or state, to march in a small march around the stadium where it was held. There was a small OM clip about how Odyssey totally rocks!! After the March and clips, we were really tired and needed rest for the next day for the competition, so we all left. Some of the girls traded pins with a security guard and went back to the dorms sleepy and happy!
By Michaela Sprague

Pin Trading

In pin trading, what the teams do is they find someone who wants to trade with them and then trade the pins with each other. There are many pins from all around the world to trade with. All the teams are enjoying the trades because they learn new things the whole time! So far we only have a small collection of pins, about 5 or 6, but there are still many to collect and to trade while we are there!
By Michaela Sprague

Singing in the Rain!

While Coach Peabody checked the team in, the girls and moms spent time getting to know some of the other participants and dodging rain showers! By the time we found our dorm, we were thoroughly soaked to the skin so much so that it was comedic! We learned the shuttle bus routes, located the Student Union, tried out our “swiper” key cards, and arranged our rooms. Coach Peabody attended the Coach’s meeting and then brought the team up to speed on all the “doing’s” on campus. The University of Maryland is beautiful – lots of open green space, brick buildings, and fragrant trees. Let’s hope the sunshine returns tomorrow.