Week Twelve

Wednesday November 15, 2006- This week started out very exciting because the long awaited parents weekend was here! After a sleep in on Wednesday morning, students put together the art gallery, which displayed our hard work and final projects throughout the semester. The theme this year was “Immersed in the Island”. Decorations consisted of palm fronds, sarongs, sand, and bottles.  We set up some slide shows of images from our semester that will run during the gallery opening.  A series of deep cleans were also done throughout campus and our dorms to make sure everything was in tip top shape for our parents arrival.

Thursday November 16, 2006- Thursday morning finally came with a solid morning exercise of run and swim tracks. Because many of us were so excited, our classes seemed like they would never end. At around five, parents started to arrive and were hounded by all of their anxious children. After reuniting with our families we gave them a tour around campus including our art gallery, dorms, and an awesome dinner from the kitchen ladies!

All hands in for research presentations

Friday November 17, 2006- Today we were all excited for our parents to come back.  After a relaxing morning of yoga and an exciting game of water polo, which some parents came to, we quickly shoved down our breakfast to get ready for our research presentations.  Everyone was nervous, we practiced many times before we were called in to present in front of the much larger than anticipated crowd of parents.  Then after an amazing lunch we chilled out in between our parent teacher meetings.  We were all excited to sign out and show our parents the loop and where we go during free time.  After we ate dinner we had the most amazing and fun time beating drums and dancing for an hour.  OOOOOOOOOOO JUNKANOO.  As Junkanoo ended all of the kids still wanted to go on dancing through the night. 

Dancing it up at Junkanoo

Saturday November 18, 2006- We all woke up at 6:20 for a nice 4 mile run to high rock with our families it was great to show off how fit we were.  It was also cool jumping off high rock; even some parents jumped!  After our group picture we had the  directors presentation where all of the parents were impressed to see what we are all about.  Then in the after noon everyone had a blast just chilling with their parents or going scuba diving and snorkeling with them.  That night the students put on a amazing coffee house which included different things from flutes to mime skits.  After all of the laughing we were surprised to see a slide show from our amazing weekend.  When all of the activities were done and the parents had left, all of us and our siblings stayed for a fun filled bon-fire. 

Group Photo Students, Families, and Faculty

Sunday November 19. 2006- A day we had been waiting for finally arrived… A full day to spend with our parents and show them the whole island we have come to love! All of us left early in the morning to spend the day with them. Many of us went "down island" to show our parents places we went during our Down Island trip while some either just hung out near the marina or others showed families their solo spot. We came together at 10:00 for check in eager to tell each other about the days we had with our families.

Monday November 20, 2006- Today was a day that we have been dreading all week… parents had gone and we were back to regular classes. Many of us struggled through class, but were raring to go to free time and get some sugar in our blood. Our community meeting was filled with enthusiasm as we anticipated our fun-filled freedom morning that was on the horizon! After some secret planning we headed to bed for a couple hours trying our hardest to not be obvious about the excitement that would be taking place the next morning.

Tuesday November 21, 2006- Today as always was a regular day at the Island School……… no wait a minute, oh yeah, it was actually FREEDOM MORNING!!!! Boy did we have fun. The girls woke up super early to go over to the boys’ dorm and we locked ourselves in for the morning. It was a fun filled morning of games, chocolate, food, and music, and capturing the CFO of the school. We ended up going to class and were allowed to wear our pajamas as well. Of course, we were all tired because of such an early morning wake up, but it was worth it. The day ended with the experience of a cold day here in The Bahamas with the temperature of what everybody thought had to be less than 70 degrees, all bundled up in clothes and finally falling asleep with blankets wrapped around us.

Wednesday November 22, 2006- Today was a sleep in; the one day where only a couple kids did so. The rest were out saying a farewell to our male pig as it was almost Thanksgiving. Circle started as usual with a note that scuba diving was cancelled due to the wind. Thinking we were going to all go to legacy projects, we ended up having a 3 hour block of research. I am proud to say that research groups did get a decent amount of work done. Lunch was joyous for most people because we got to enjoy our paid for food, where the money went to the Deep Creek primary school. Community outreach came and went, everybody had a good time as always. Advisory followed, then we had a delicious dinner of pizza with a little pre thanksgiving dinner chat about the percentages of people who have everything, those that have some, and those that have very little.  Nic as cacique helped with the discussion.  The semester is coming to an end; everybody is doing what they can to enjoy it.

Group Photo Students, Families, and Faculty

 SHOUTOUTS!

Liz M- Hey to everyone in Myrtle Beach! I miss you and can’t wait to see everyone in exactly two weeks. Mommy and Alec, I wish you guys were here! Daddy, thank you so much for a great parents weekend! Are you still sore? Kelly, Lauren, and Anne-Louise, I can’t wait to tell you guys everything! Tia says hey to everyone! Love you all and see you soon!

Chris “Beans” Megrue- Hey guys.  I am having a blast down here in the Bahamas.  Eleuthera is amazing and really cold right now (around 68 degrees).  I cant wait to come home and see you all in Connecticut and tell you all about it.  Have fun during thanksgiving I may be snorkeling and diving on a coral reef that day.  Can't wait to see you all. Mom and dad and the whole extended family at thanks giving have fun. Dan, eat some and save me some cake I still want a piece when I come home on the sixth.  Can’t wait to see you guys in 2 weeks 14 days but who’s counting.  Talk to everyone later.  Peace.

Syd- Hey everyone! On the advise of my loving mother, I decided I will do an update to say hello. Mom, Dad, Cole and Cassie, I love you and it was so good to see you again! Kristen and Dustin, it was good to see you guys too! Can you believe its almost overL Lynae, Mike, Jessica, Phoebe, Liz, Kirk and everyone who deals with my daily drama at home, I miss you guys too! AJS, I love you tons and I miss you tremendously and I can’t wait to see you! Sam, Tonster, Jo, Pat,  Jordan, Elenia, Sarah, Katie, Caroline and everyone else I missed, I love you guys and get ready for me to come to town. Thanks to everyone for writing to me! It means so much to me! I’ll see you soon in Good Ol’ Cold G-rap!

Larissa- Hi everyone in New York, it must be getting cold up there by now, I can’t wait to come back. I miss everyone in Bronx Lab and can’t wait to see you guys. Mommy, Khafre, and Tarikh, thank you for a great parents weekend because even though I was extra tired I loved and enjoyed the support and understanding of you guys and I can’t wait to see you again in 14 days!!! Daddy and Mama I can’t wait to see you guys too and the rest of the family, I am looking forward to coming home (even though more than half of the students here would probably beg to differ). Jilea I miss you a lot too, and I can’t wait to see you again, you are a really cool best friend. I will see you guys sooner than we all think and I can’t wait. Love you always!