Year: 2017

Wednesday June 28

Day 4, The Last Day

Sadly, today is our last day. We did our morning activities and then headed up to the Convention Center. 

The first thing we did was a presentation about gadgets which, to be honest I thought would be super boring, but was super cool and I learned a lot. I even took some photos about Legos for my brother! The person who presented, Leslie Fisher, was super funny and made it a very special presentation.

We then went to the last 30 minutes of the Expo hall before it closed. Everyone was giving away stuff. We got a bag full of candy that we later gave to pilots of the plane. They handed the candy out for their next flight.

We then went to closing ceremony which had a lovely  live singer. They also gave a few speeches. Lastly, they had a person talk about bullying and her experience from it.  We then had to leave before the ceremony was over to head to the airport. We flew from San Antonio, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia. Then  from  Atlanta, Georgia to Indianapolis, Indiana. We came in around 12:30. Mr. Voskoboynik took us home.      

Tuesday June 27

Day 3

Today was, I think, the most interesting day, in some ways. The plan was to do our morning things and then meet up at the Convention Center, to walk to the hotel, where lunch is, have lunch. We would then walk back to ISTE to finish with the Expo hall. Later in the night we would go on a boat ride through the riverwalk. 

This is what really happened: In the morning I went shopping (our hotel was right next to a mall. The mall had H n M ). We went shopping, but then we had to evacuate the mall because of a fire. Turned out there was a grease trap at a restaurant under the hotel that held the kosher meals. But, sadly, the smoke was going the the air conditioning and everyone had to evacuate the hotel. Since it was traveling through the vents it somehow was traveling through the mall.  Izzy was trying on some clothes at that moment. There was chaos. (Luckily no one was hurt by the fire.) We couldn’t meet up with Mr. Voskoboynik, but he was safe. We were on our own for lunch and the rest of the day until we could meet up again. 

So we went on a bus tour that took us to a Japanese Garden and an Art museum. We briefly walked past the Alamo. The garden was so beautiful.

After being apart the whole day we finally met up with Mr. Voskoboynik at our hotel. We had dinner at a different hotel, because the hotel was still not safe. We then walked down to the river walk. We got tickets and went on a boat tour. 

After the boat tour we went up a sky tower, that was 750 feet tall, where we could see the whole city.  It was super pretty because it was sunset time. It had such a great view, but it wasn’t my favorite because the tower was kind of moving and we had to take this big elevator. We then went in a 4D movie for 10 minutes. Afterwards, we went back to our hotel. We went swimming and then went to bed.  

Monday June 26

Day 2

Today was a very busy day! In the morning, my mom and I got starbucks and then workout/swim. Mr. Voskoboynik went to the Convention Center.

After we meet up we headed to lunch. Afterwards, we went to Expo hall, which was a gigantic room that had different booths for different technology companies. The booths usually handed out a prize if you listen to them for a few minutes. From all the booths I got three shirts, a bunch of stress balls, a phone case, etc. We went through about 1/5 of the hall and I got a whole big bag full of prizes.    

What we looked at took about 3 hours, which made the time around 4:30. It was time to head up to our second presentation, our Jewish presentation. Five people were asked to present and one of them was our teacher Mr. Voskoboynik. Everyone (of the 5) had 5 min to present. When this part was finished,  it was our turn to present.  I talked to several people and shared my Family Tree presentation. 

When we were done with our second and last presentation we had kosher dinner at the Marriott hotel.  They even had a Minyan for Mincha! When we walked back to our hotel, I went swimming for a little. That was the end of our day!  

June 25-28

Picture

                             Arriving at San Antonio!!
We presented our technology projects at a booth and we were very successful.
                 We met the creator of Scratch!!
           We visited the Expo hall to look around.
We also presented our projects to the Jewish Education Network and showed them how we connect Technology into Judaism.
We walked along a really pretty botanical garden.
We went to an Art Museum and looked at all these historical features.
I saw the Alamo where people fought during a war between America and Mexico.
We took a boat tour to explore the streets of San Antonio from the Riverwalk. On the picture to the left the building has an optical illusion.
I went up the building on the right by elevator and on the top there was an amazing view overlooking San Antonio.

Leslie Fisher

Today is our last day in San Antonio. We went to a theater were we would see Leslie Fisher present on gadgets. She was really funny and her whole presentation was very interesting. I loved listening to her.

Last Time at Expo Hall

Today was our last time in the expo hall. We got our own google cardboard  and we got our own magic 8 balls. The presenters at the google station took pictures of us and they printed those pictures out and put it on a huge board reading “Thank You Teachers”. It was so cool. Later on, everyone at their booths were giving away everything that had left. I got a car charger! We went to the closing ceremony but we had to leave early in order to get to the airport on time. Even though we weren’t at the closing ceremony that long, the ceremony was great.

The Tower of the Americas

After the Riverwalk boat ride, we went to the Tower of the Americas. There was an elevator we took to get to the top the the tower. In the elevator there were glass windows so we could see the view while going up. There was an elevator operator that controlled the elevator and turned on a voice recording explaining a little about the Tower of the Americas. We got to the top and we came when it was dark outside and the view was amazing! We could see everything and I loved staring at the view. We went down some stairs and out a door and we got an even better view. I could feel the breeze and it was cool there. I really recommend going to the tower of the Americas in San Antonio.

Presenting to the Jewish Federation

We had a chance to present to the Jewish Federation. We first heard other people’s presentations and then Mr. Voskoboynik briefly presented what we were going to present in detail. After the main presenters were done presenting with the attention of everyone, the audience could go to all of the presenters directly and ask them questions in detail. People came to our table and we presented to them. I showed them www.tikitoki.com and how I used it to really understand the history of the Jews in Ethiopia. The people I presented to were really nice and they talked to me a little of what they knew about Ethiopia. I really liked talking with them. 

The Expo Hall

Today is the day the grand Expo hall was open! In the expo hall there were many famous programs and technology being showed off. There was a google station, at&t station, brainpop station, and even a MIcrosoft station! Many other stations showed cool and unique 3D printers. There was even one station where they had a read laser and they used in to burn words into wood. It was so awesome! Eveyone got many different things from everyone station. I had a huge bag filled with different stuff (mainly stress balls). Everything had a logo on it so we would remember the station and the program we got it from. There was so much to see.