seventy dollars well spent

I choked a little... when we found out that the trading pins for Odyssey of the Mind were going to be $70. I felt a little better when they arrived... and saw how far the $70 had gone. So many of the pins were really cool... and when she pinned them all to her towel, I realized how heavy they were. Really heavy. At least I was not toting them to Michigan in my purse. And still... $70?


And then... we came upon a crowd of kids sitting in the grass under the trees. The breeze was blowing and the air was just about perfect. But these kids were not just enjoying the day... they were pin trading. Their towels were spread before them displaying their own treasure trove of pins... and before I knew it I was mesmerized by the process and totally in love with it. I was also kinda wishing we had bought a few more pins...






The pin trading continued all day... every day... into the evenings... and probably into the dark of night! But these kids weren't just trading pins... there were Hellos and Where are froms and Have you performed yets and Good lucks... and not necessarily in English, or even in words. What a way to meet people!
Laura came home with pins from Japan, Korea, Singapore, Poland, Mexico, Hong Kong... and a whole bunch of US states. But more than that... she came home knowing that she had made the most of her opportunity and met people from all over the world.