the lobster as big as Maxey's dog

During our academic rotation in which we were destroyed by homework, we had a beacon of light, a Wednesday evening night dive. The moon was shining, the stars were out, and the good ship Cobia captained by our own dive master Daryl powered into the night. Once we stopped at Cathedral, an enormous church-shaped coral head in 50 feet of water, we anchored and began to gear up. After our leaders briefed us, we plunged into the darkness with our dive lights. We could see all kinds of creatures that only come out at night, including enormous crabs and lobsters. Hank and Ben claim they saw a lobster the size of Maxey’s dog. When we turned off our dive lights, we could see a fireworks display made up of blue flashes of bioluminescence in the water. After 25 minutes in the water we ascended and got savagely attacked by box jellyfish. Thankfully the jellyfish filled up the first night leaving the second group jellyfish-free. After our night dive, we came back to campus to continue working. Classes focused on Omeros, as we still had a lot of work to do. By Friday came a colossal achievement, our rough drafts of the final Omeros essays were finished.

releasing academics

Saturday was filled with a cornucopia of events. We started the day off with an intense yoga session led by our very own Karen and Christi. There were various levels of skill in flexibility, but we all challenged ourselves and got a lot out of it. Yoga was a nice break from treacherous runs and intense swims. We really released our stress listening to Enya and practicing our yoga moves. The day went on and we were spoiled with some delicious French toast. This particular day was no usual breakfast. This breakfast was a challenge of the big eaters. Our very own Dave Seamans consumed the most French toast of any students, 17 pieces. The day went on and we finished up our last day of the 3-week rotation. The stress was over (for the moment) and we were ready to PAAARTAY! The students who were on the second academic rotation were treated to a luxurious dinner at the Maxey estate. We cooked up burgers and had a dandy old time. At about 9:00 we left Maxey’s house and met up with K3 and K4. There was a plethora of hugs and kisses welcoming everyone back. We instantly threw on the dance shoes and began to boogey down. A huge dance party went on for the rest of the night until check-in.

Sunday was a nice relaxing free day, a rarity here at The Island School. Students worked on junkanoo costumes, and prepared for research presentations. Some students were even went into the local settlement Deep Creek, and participated in church. Duriko led the expedition, teaching other Island School students such as Jake, Lizzie, Luke, Danny, and Cordelia. When the students who went to church returned, a phat deep clean of campus was held. Students went all out getting the campus in order in preparation for parents weekend.  

early morning water polo

Monday morning the campus awoke to a heated game of water polo for morning exercise. Although the water was cold and filled with jellyfish everyone still managed to have a good time. The teams were divided up by kayak groups and K4 eventually took first place. The rest of the morning was filled with research workshops and our first classes back with our fish groups. At free time there was a mad dash to the marina store for some much needed sugar and at dinner circle we were excited to be joined by the first arrivals of parents coming for parents weekend. After dinner we had a productive student meeting were we decided on a design for sweatshirts and learned about all of the fun things we get to do with our parents this weekend. Then it was study hours, interrupted only for a quick cookie break.

On Tuesday, morning exercise was run and swim tracks. It was hard to get back into rigorous exercise after the long break of kayak and down island trips. The rest of the day was spent in class and on research. Our presentations are being polished before parents arrive. Free time was spent perfecting Junkanoo costumes for most students. Then it was study hours and natural history class.

lovin' the dish duty!

SHOUTOUTS:

Amelia: Hey mom and dad can’t wait to see you this weekend! Megs I miss you sooo much and can’t wait to come visit you! Hannah miss you tons! I will be back before you know it!

Brittany: Hi, mommy and daddy! You two will be here for parent’s weekend tomorrow. I’m so excited. Love you and I miss you. Tell granddad, uncle Greg, Neville, Horatio, and Kyron, I said, “Hi!”   Big ups to the 05’ crew at St. Anne’s High School in Nassau. I miss ALL of you. To all of you at C. O. B. I’ll be joining you in January.  

Ben: How is everybody on the outside? Life is good here, just getting ready for Parent’s Weekend. Hope all you guys are doing alright at Taft, Sam hold on buddy, stay strong, I’ll be back and ready to go…. Kaz, Chuck, Nate (handler), Gustavo, Dannyboy, Furm, Calder, Fertie @@@@, I miss you guys…. Fabuss (wherever you are) I may have to drop by Manhasset this December… What’s up, fight the power man…. All you guys in Bronxville, I’ll see you guys in 3 weeks, Win… have FUN ken…. John, Tompkins, Aceman….. I’ll see you guys when I get back. Dixon… hope Deerfield is going alright…. Biarritz ’06? Caity and Taylor, psyched for Jamaica? Sorry I can’t be there thanksgiving… Dew… hope your senior year’s going well. Hey Lalla and gramps… Mom, Dad, Jane… hey guys, hope everything is good, can’t wait to see you guys in two days!

I.S. Team Maine comes together

Jake: Whats up world? How is everyone doing back in Falmouth? Brett, Rick, Bart, Mom, Dad, Mah, G:P. and everyone else, I miss you guys a ton, and cannot wait to see you here in Eleuthera. FHS, I hope you are doing well. Everyone in the sophomore class, all is well and I can’t wait to see you. I appreciate the letters. Keep them coming.   The Island School is going great. I’m having a fabulous time, and meeting a lot of great people. I can’t believe the semester is almost over! I love the experience here, and cannot believe that it is almost over. I hope you Mainers are handling the cold well. You stay Classy.