MC at water station during half marathon	Charlie and Sam after running the half-marathon

Laura is doing the Monster Mash exercise

As our time here draws to a close, the Island School students have performed many amazing academic and physical feats. On Sunday, we all ran (or power walked!!!) a half marathon, which turned out to be nearly 14 miles. Despite a few injuries and colds (yes, even in the Bahamas…) everyone finished strong in under four hours. That same afternoon, half of us went on our last dive for our advanced certification. The other half will go on their last dive later this week. Throughout the past two weeks, we have finally received all the rain we need, including a spectacular thunderstorm as we finished the half-marathon.

Academics this week has reached a new level of intensity. We handed in our Humanities projects on various aspects of Bahamian culture on Tuesday, and then buckled down to finish our science research projects. We finally handed our papers in on Wednesday, which was a huge relief. We will present our projects to a group of visiting scientists and Bahamian government officials on Friday.

Group shot after the Monster Mash

This week is our last week here at the Island School, and we are all a little apprehensive about returning home in a few short days. We will be sad to leave this place and all of the great friends that we have made here. At the same time, we all look forward to seeing friends and family back home. The semester has gone awfully fast, and it has been an experience none of us will ever forget.

Shout-outs:

Laura: Hey to everyone back home in GR. It's been great here I don't want to come back home to cold weather so I'll try to bring some of our semi-warm eather back with me. Hey to everyone at City (Anna, Jessica, Staci, Laura, Rebbecca, Kaveh, Mike, Brandon, and everyone else I missed) Hey to everyone at Meijer too. Hey Mom, Dad, Nicole. Hey Pastor Tom, Dr. Mike, Grandma Laakso, Grandma and Grandpa Bock, Kari, Deron, Tyler, Gabrielle, Brandon, and Brittany.

Lucy jumps off High Rock during the Monster Mash

Josh: Howdy dudy evrybady, the spelling is wrong on that perposfuly, how is Colorado for everybody I want to say hey to Poblo, Steve, Don, Josh, and Kathy. Hey om Dad Susie And Carl I love you all and I will see you soon. I love you very much ERYN MEGHAN McBRIER and even you sister kaitlyn I love you all and treat my car gooooood!!!!! Love you a lots Joshua bombbushka lalalala.

Josh and his community outreach partner Briadra

Lucy: Wow, three months gone. Greetings and buckets of love to everyone back home; Rachel, Lauren, Val, Mary, the rest of the Hopewell crowd, and all the KUMQUAT!s back at L'ville. Keep rockin' and stay funky!! I'll see you all soon…if you haven't gone home somewhere crazy like Ohio… Hi, Mom and Dad, and Sam (if he ever sees this), I'll be back home before I know it. Lots of love to all of you.