Special Report: correspondent Alexander

Dear Mr. Scherman + Rest of class,

We're happy to tell you that we're moving along nicely on our props/performance. Some of the earlier setbacks, such as taking apart some of the props has proven to be good, because we went crazy and made it totally (way) cool. We've also watched some of the other challenges, including one of the high school ones for the challenge, "Kidz Rulz". It was really really good, and I'd be surprised if they didn't win. We also soaked ourselves to the bone with this weird fountain thing. The funny thing is everyone loved it, even though we all have blood shot eyes. The UT campus has two pools, both the size of about six Piedmont Pools. It is even bigger than an Olympic pool. They have a diving board that's 10 meters up. That's 30 feet. I can't imagine what it would feel like to go off for the first time, I went off the 9 foot one, and it was really scary. The pool was 20 feet deep in the diving area, and in the indoor pool, which was even bigger, it was 25 feet. It would kill my ears pretty bad if I had to go down that deep. We had our instant challenge. I'm prohibited from talking about it, but I'll tell you. They really put us to the test in that one. However, out of the 100 points (max), 20 of them were for teamwork. We had extreme teamwork. This is just a small example of how much they try and teach us teamwork. Just like the saying, "Location Location Location", this is "Teamwork, Teamwork, Teamwork". I love the appraisers here, they're so nice. They make like "Super Hats", which they wear. This one person made a chicken hat, and another woman, from our region made a "Nacho Hat". It was so cool. Well, I hope things are going well in the good ol' state of California.

Best regards,
Alex~