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We had an exciting weekend in Delhi at the American Embassy School’s Super Saturday. Each year MPA looks forward to facing off against AES in basketball and soccer. It was a good showing for MPA this year; we came home with 5 wins and 3 losses. There were many exciting games, including the girls basketball win over the AES Varsity Team and the riveting finale when the boys basketball team narrowly lost in overtime to the AES Varsity Team. The cheering in that game reached a fever pitch unlike anything the Embassy had ever seen before. It was a thrill for all present. MPA left the American Embassy School feeling elated; happy to have done so well during this year’s matches. We look forward to seeing them again next year.

Girls Soccer

AES Varsity Team won 5-2 against MPA on the first day. MPA beat the AES Junior Varsity Team 5-1 on day 2. The footage below is the 2nd half of the game against the Junior Varsity Team.

Girls Basketball

The girls basketball team won both of their games. It was a close match with the Varsity Team with MPA winning 29-25. They beat the Junior Varsity Team 35-3. You can watch both games on MPA’s Facebook page.

Boys Soccer

The AES Varsity Team won 6-1 on Friday. On Saturday, MPA beat the Junior Varsity Team 4-3. The video below is of the 1st half of the game against the Junior Varsity Team.

Boys Basketball

Both boys basketball games took place on Saturday near the end of the day. They won the first game against the Junior Varsity team 51-39 and then faced off against the Varsity Team. AES was ahead during the first three quarters but MPA tied it up in the 4th quarter to go into overtime. Unfortunately we lost during the 3-minute overtime with the final score 49-47 for AES. It was an exciting game with MPA picking up serious momentum in the 3rd and 4th quarters. You can watch the 4th quarter, the 3-minute overtime and the excellent cheering below. Both games are up on our Facebook page.

Boys basketball: 4th quarter

Posted by Miri Piri Academy on Saturday, January 19, 2019

As part of this year’s Humanology course the squads were unleashed on Amritsar for a Amazing Race style adventure through the city. At 10:30am they were given a long list of objectives and given the task to fulfill as many as possible before 5:30pm. Some of the objectives were visiting Amritsar landmarks, others involved trying food items they may not have been brave enough to try as of yet, still others were interactive, like leading PT, milking a cow, or playing a game with locals.

Throughout the competition, the houses had to send in video and picture evidence of their accomplishments. All day long the staff were receiving entertaining posts from the different groups on their journey through Amritsar. Most of the houses demonstrated a lot of hustle throughout the day, locating significant Amritsar landmarks, eating interesting food, and connecting with locals. All houses arrived back at MPA just as the clock struck 5:30pm.

You can get a feel for their day by watching the video below and experiencing the day along with them. It was a good opportunity for the students to try new things and learn more about the city they live in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thdGdva5Uc&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=MiriPiriAcademy

Silver House

1st Place – 80 points

White House

2nd Place – 75 points

Blue House

3rd Place – 56 points

Gold House

4th Place – 54 points

We’re back in the swing of things here at MPA after the 12th grade class trip, Winter Break and Humanology course. It was a great couple of weeks and a needed break from our usual routine here at MPA but we’re happy to be back now and into the regular schedule. Here’s a look at this year’s Winter Break.

12th Grade Class Trip

The highlight for the grade 12 students is always the 12th grade class trip to Malaysia and Thailand. In Malaysia they participated in a Sikh camp, teaching what they’ve learned here at MPA, before heading to Thailand for fun in the sun. It’s a special opportunity for all of the 12th grade students to spend time together in their final year.

Scavenger Hunt & Beatles Ashram

The rest of the students spent their winter break in Rishikesh, home of the yogis. One of our favourite places to visit is the ‘Beatles Ashram’, the abandoned ashram of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the father of transcendental meditation. There are all kinds of cool buildings and great murals. This year we were surprised to find some fresh paint in the main hall.

After a short trip to the ashram we began our scavenger hunt around Rishikesh, where the students had to find certain locations and fulfill various tasks before reaching the final meeting place. The winning team won lunch for their group.

Christmas at Ramana’s Garden

We spent Christmas morning with the children of Ramana’s Garden. Several of our students have come from Ramana’s Garden over the years and we visit them each year when we’re in Rishikesh. This year we sang songs together and brought presents to share with the children. They were happy to see us and seemed to know more Christmas songs than we did!

 

On the Train Again

Our journey to and from Rishikesh was a smooth one.

Kris kringle gift exchange

Back at the school and reunited with the grade 12 students, we had our annual Kris Kringle gift exchange, where each student gives a receives a gift from a fellow MPAer. The students and staff spend much of their holidays looking for the perfect gif and enjoy this time together.

New year’s dip at the golden temple

After the gift exchange we headed to the Golden Temple for our New Year’s dip. Like many who start the year off with a cold dip, we plunged into the cold waters of the holy sarovar to start our year refreshed, energized and ready for the year ahead.

This blog post was written by grade 11 student Hana Goodkind. She’ll be making regular contributions to the MPA Blog. I’ve written about her before here.

Hargobind is an American student from Espanola, New Mexico. He has been at MPA since 2012. He will be graduating this year in May.

What creative projects are you currently spending your free time on?

I am interested a lot in technology, media, music production, making digital beats and photography.

Lately, I have been spending a lot of my free time making digital beats on my laptop. I create a beat and then I record friends rapping or singing over the beat. After that, I remaster and edit the sound and we release the songs onto soundcloud. So far, there are about 14 songs on Soundcloud which I recorded and produced. Here is a sample featuring fellow students Karam Singh and Aloka Collister. Trubute ft.Aloka Collister (Prod. by Vile Thoughts).

Or this featuring the words of the Siri Singh Sahib:

I am also really into photography. India is such an interesting and exciting environment for photography. I usually take my camera with me every time we leave the school. I really like looking back at the photos I took. I do a bit of editing and then share them on my Instagram. I always help with photos for the yearbook as I really enjoy taking portraits. I’ve been working on photos and design for our yearbook this year.

How does mpa support these creative outlets?

It is sometimes hard for me, because at MPA we usually don’t have a ton of access to technology. However, it’s been really awesome that I was able to set up a super mini recording studio in my room. I have special permission to keep my laptop out so I can work on making beats or editing recordings.

All the great trips and activities we are involved in give me the opportunity to take some pretty cool photos. Plus, the staff encourage me by asking me to take photos for the yearbook etc.

So, overall I feel pretty supported to explore my own creative interests which may not always align with the schedule. And I find that without the constant stimulation of my technology, I am actually able to generate and receive tons more ideas for future projects.

Hargobind is super excited to be attending the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque this fall. His interests in computers and media inspired him to major in computer science. He says, he figures he’ll start with that as a base and see where it takes him. He also hopes to continue developing his skills and experience as a photographer and he will be taking photography classes in college.