Elizabeth and I took a Sunday afternoon trip to Huntington Beach, CA. We were sitting
in the sun and treating ourselves to some delightfully average, free Mexican food in happy hour, when three
gorgeous men asked to share our table! We immediately said ‘yes’ of course. Now,
if there is one thing you should know about Elizabeth, it’s that she is outrageously sociable, a real social
butterfly. She loves talking to people from all walks of life, and is
constantly striving to make people feel welcome in her country. We literally
cannot go anywhere without coming home with the particulars on yet another
stranger's life story. This however, does always make our outings fascinating.
It reminds me of the time we were given a bag of Gold and a bag of Platinum,
from a gentlemen who owned a Gold mine in Nevada…but that’s another story. So,
as predicted, Elizabeth got chatting to the charming young men.
The guys had just won
1st place in the The Solar Decathlon; the world’s
most challenging sustainable building, university-level
competition, sponsored by the
U.S. Department of Energy. To my amazement, one of the Austrian competitors was only 16 years of age (very different to what I was achieving at
16). It’s not every day you meet people like this.
The DOE
selected twenty university teams to
compete in the Solar Decathlon 2013,
which was held in Irvine, California.
During the week-long competition, twenty homes are designed and built by student teams. These student teams have been working on their projects for the competition for two years.
“The
Solar Decathlon is inspiring and training the next generation of clean
energy architects, engineers and
entrepreneurs, and showing that affordable, clean energy technologies can help homeowners save money
and energy today,” said U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
“Congratulations to the Solar Decathlon
2013 competitors – your hard work and creativity is helping to build a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.”
The DOE today began the process to select collegiate teams to compete in
the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2015. Colleges, universities, and
other post-secondary educational institutions can submit. So, if this article
has your togs turning and butterflies in your belly, I suggest you get involved for the 2015
competition as soon as possible!
It was eye opening and a true pleasure to meet the talented Austrian
team. Bearla International Studies wish them all the best in their future endeavors
and hope they loved their trip to the states as much as I have.
Amber Williams
no
ReplyDelete