Footie

This fall the Millie Girl is lacing up cleats again with the boys soccer team at school. This is MGJ's second autumn playing footie on a largely male dominated team. This year she's a team captain, and one of just three eighth graders on their rather young team of 4th through 8th graders. {EHJ, as noted earlier, was also set to play before breaking her arm.}

In Asia, our opportunities for sport where different than they are in the Midwest. The international school our daughters attended didn't have a gymnasium. They began each school day outside on the soccer pitch with a corporate Tai Qi lesson. {Here they begin with the pledge to the flag.}

In Asia the girls

swam more,
took sailing classes,
MGJ even had a brief stint with riding lessons on Mongolian ponies
and
they played soccer
{on artificial turf at the base of pink limestone mountains ... }

{Here they play on a grass field flanked by a soybean field}

So soccer ... that great global game ... remains the enduring sport that links their Eastern experience to their Midwestern one.

{MGJ scored her team's first and only goal in their first game}