Ethan with an academic award he won (all contained in the bag). Clara in the background on the playground.
Ethan has finished competing at SAISA (multi-school) athletics. As seems to be Ethan's luck lately, he was injured! Not a bad injury - a tendon problem on his hip that he inflicted during training and just needs to be rested. He got through three events and then the physio told him he had to stop. He did get some points for his school in those three events and has a medal from the high jump, in which he still managed to almost meet his record despite not being able to leap the same way.
Ethan has been deciding on subjects (and curriculum!) for next year. At the moment he has decided on doing the ib diploma. The subjects he has picked are High Level Math, HL Physics, HL Economics, HL English, Standard Level Spanish, SL Chemistry. One of those HL subjects will likely be switched to SL as the course goes on. I've been told doing HL Physics and Math together will be really tough, so it's likely one of those will switch to SL. Being in an American school he also has the option of sitting the SATs and ACTs - which those scores alone (as long as he also graduates) can be used for University applications in Australia. Where to go to University and what to study has been a whole other conversation, that is still undecided. At International Schools the University conversation is wide open to courses across the world. Ethan has mentioned wanting to go to Bond University or UCLA - it's no coincidence that they are both near surf. He also mentioned BYU Hawaii at one point - again it's about the surf :) The courses he has interest in at the moment are journalism/writing, law, medicine and physiotherapy. But there is plenty of time to decide, and if he's anything like his parents he'll change his mind multiple times.
Ethan dedicated a chunk of time preparing for a Model United Nations conference in the Middle East. that he then couldn't attend due to coronavirus (he doesn't have coronavirus). Unfortunate, but he still really enjoys being involved in MUN. Roughly half the high school does MUN!
Ethan still loves surfing and has well and truly caught the surfing bug. Unfortunately there is a distinct time of the year when the surf is good (ok) in Tamil Nadu, and that time has finished.
Ethan has been called as a branch pianist. I am also a branch pianist. Ethan has a repertoire of hymns that he is working on expanding. Every Sunday he plays the postlude so that I can dash out to Primary. He also plays when I am sick. He's doing a good job, but there is more challenge with this calling in our branch. The congregation doesn't follow either the chorister or the pianist. They just sing at whatever tempo they want (which is related to the congregation reading the words in a second language which naturally slows them down and almost nobody can read music). So, the pianist tries to adjust their tempo to the congregation and stay in time with them, and our choristers seem more comfortable to follow the pianist rather than lead out. When you are a youth who has just learnt a hymn, this can be challenging!
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