Buen Viaje a Peru

Our delegation of 9 students and 2 faculty chaperones has boarded their flight en route to Peru! Everyone is excited to meet their host sisters and families at Colegio Santa Ursula. 

Welcome to our sisters from South Africa!

Today, we welcomed our Brescia House sisters to the USA for their 11 day exchange with UA Wilmington.  After more than 24 hours of traveling, the girls arrived wide-eyed and in great spirits, ready to meet their host sisters after some time touring Philadelphia.

The sun was shining as we toured Philadelphia; visiting the Liberty Bell, seeing Independence Hall, and enjoying some Chick-fil-a "Rocky Style" on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  The girls enjoyed seeing the landscaping and architecture in Old City as well as learning about the birthplace of our nation.

Making tortillas in Costa Rica

Hola from Costa Rica! 

Today we started our day with a two hour ride to the jungle cruise in Caño Negro. Once we got on the boat, the tour immediately started as we saw caymans, iguanas, monkeys, and various birds. The river, Rio Frio, runs through the boarders of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Lunch was a typical, classic Costa Rican dish with arroz con pollo (for all you non-Spanish speakers, rice and chicken), beans, salad, yucca chips, and pineapple. 

Later in the evening, all of us traveled to a cooking class at an organic farm where we met Antonio, Giselle, and Sergio, who taught us how to prepare and cook tortillas. It's said in Costa Rica that a woman who cannot cook cannot find a husband, and thus does not get married. After making our tortillas (yes we are now marriage material), we ate our dinner consisting of rice, beans, beef, picadillo, salad, and, of course, our tortillas. The night was full of singing, laughing, and delicious food. We finished the night with volcanic mud masks and hot springs. 
Pura vida,
-Maya and Katie C 

Costa Rica - Poas Volcano National Park

Today we started off the day visiting the Doka Coffee Plantation where we learned how coffee beans are picked and prepared to be sold in Costa Rica's oldest wet mill. We then visited Poas Volcano National Park, where although the weather gave us a limited view of the crater, we still managed to be on cloud 9! Lastly, we visited the Waterfall Garden where were saw many animals including those that can only be found in Costa Rica and saw breathtaking views of the amazing waterfalls. 

- Madeleine Taylor

Meeting our sisters in New Orleans!

The sun was shining when we arrived at Ursuline Academy in New Orleans - our sister school in Louisiana. ☀️ We were greeted with gracious hugs by students, parents and staff of our Ursuline community! Feels like family already!  We love our Ursuline connections!

Welcome to Wilmington!

This afternoon, under the sunny skies of Wilmington, representatives of Ursuline Academy's students & faculty warmly welcomed a delegation of 10 students and 3 chaperones from our sister school, Ursuline Academy in Dallas, Texas.

Our schools have now participated in 4 consecutive years of exchange and look forward to continuing to strengthen the relationship between our schools.  While in Wilmington, the delegation will attend classes with their host sisters as well as complete a service project at the Food Bank of Delaware in Newark, Delaware.  This is a wonderful counterpoint to the service project that the Wilmington delegation to Dallas; when there in April, our students spent an afternoon volunteering in the North Texas Food Bank.

 We are fortunate to have 10 hosting sisters who will "adopt" their guests into their homes for the week.  Our families have been preparing for this day for weeks - readying their homes, planning activities, and setting an extra setting at the family table.  We are so grateful to all of our girls and their families for so graciously opening their homes to our guests.