What is there for a nine-year-old American girl to do in Doha? Admittedly not as much as in DC, but more than you might think, and Morgan has had a pretty eventful couple of weeks. We thought her birthday would be a good chance to update everyone on what's new with her.
On the 14th, Morgan and a few of her classmates performed an adaptation of the Roald Dahl book Matilda for other Year 4, 5, and 6 students (the equivalent of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade, respectively, in the U.S. system) and parents. They wrote and staged the play themselves, and pretty much did everything from casting to props and directing. (Ella did give them a hand with hair and makeup.) All of the kids performed beautifully, and Morgan seemed to be entirely in her comfort zone hamming it up as Mrs. Wormwood.
Five days later, Morgan and her teammates from the Gymnastics Academy performed in a competition with other local programs. As with the competition in which she participated last year, medals were awarded to all kids who received at least 14 points out of 20 based on their ability to perform ten skills. The judging was much tougher than last time, when all of the kids from Morgan's program--and one-third to one-half of the participants from elsewhere--walked away with medals. This time about half the kids in Morgan's gym received medals, and the other gyms received no more than two or three each. Morgan stayed calm throughout, did her best, and managed to score 16 out of 20. That means she will definitely be party of the contingent representing her gym in the next competition in April, and may be competing in May as well.
Next, Morgan had the good fortune of having regular classes canceled on her birthday for the school's sports day. She surprised us and herself by not only taking first place in the high jump among the Year 4 girls, but also beating the girls from Years 5 and 6, despite her rather unconventional technique. Who knew that doing an airborne forward roll over the crossbar would be an effective way to perform the high jump?
As for the birthday celebration, Morgan managed to stretch it out for three days:
Day 1 (Wednesday) - Morgan celebrated her birthday at school with homemade cupcakes and was serenaded with renditions of "Happy Birthday" in four languages--English, French, Arabic, and Dutch. A classmate also performed the song in sign language for her.
Day 2 (Thursday) - Ella took Morgan and a few friends from school bowling after sports day, and Morgan won with a 98. (Not bad for someone who barely weighs 50 pounds!) Then we had dinner with some friends at the Grand Hyatt's casual pizza restaurant, which uses a wood-fired oven to make pizza that is the best we've had in Doha and not far from our gold standard of Two Amys in Washington. The staff prepared a special birthday mini-cheesecake for Morgan, and she was serenaded again, this time with "Happy Birthday" in English, French, and Afrikaans.
Day 3 (Friday) - A dozen of Morgan's friends came to our house for a "Wicked"-themed party, most of them dressed as their favorite good or bad witch. Ella & Morgan taught them the song "Popular," with each girl taking just a few lines, and the girls did a performance for parents at the end. Some of the girls apparently don't like singing nearly as much as Morgan, but they generally seemed to have a good time anyway. Of course, the highlight for me was the excellent chocolate cake (topped with chocolate ganache) that Ella made from scratch; it was actually good enough to make the rest OK.
2 comments:
Sounds like a spectacular birthday! It's wonderful Morgan has so many friends!
Now we want to see Morgan's Twitter page!
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