Week 7

Maxey and Christopher on the dining hall deck

On Wednesday morning, the Purple-Mouthed Morays headed out early not for morning exercise, but to the Cobia to finally complete their SCUBA certification.  The other half of campus, already certified divers, did some heavy lifting and cement mixing at the Institute for our legacy project, which includes designing and building a comfortable patio for the Institute.  Campus reunited at lunch time for a delicious midday meal of hotdogs.  After lunch, we separated into our community outreach groups for our third session as teachers to local primary and middle school kiddies.  In traditional Wednesday fashion, we topped off a busy day with advisory meetings where we discussed the upcoming midterm week. 

Thursday was another fun-filled, exciting day of classes at IS.  We started out with a super long run for the runners and a distance swim for the swimmers. Some of our friends in Algebra 2 then discovered the physics of launching projectiles. The Fab 5 of geometry continued to work on their design plans for the new dock that has just begun construction in the Girls' Dorm Cut, and the Pre-calculus students collected data in hopes of eventually being able to make an accurate tides predictor for the Cape. 

Hanna Mitchell dancing the night away

Friday we got up again for a fun morning exercise which consisted of running to the Marina, swimming the cut a couple times, and running back to school.  After a 3 hour morning block of tiring and scholarly research, the Morays went diving again while the rest of campus stayed back and worked on their Junkanoo costumes.  While the arts & crafts got a little out of hand, involving a paint war and resulting in a campus-clean-up, the SCUBA divers went on their first dive as certified divers.  Friday night everyone was busy studying for our second big reasoning exam in science, thankfully, all the teachers were there to help us study. 

After classes on Saturday, campus was buzzing with excitement for the evening trip to the local settlement of Wemyss Bight for their annual homecoming celebration.  We had a great time, ate to capacity, and danced the night away with Bahamian locals.  Upon returning to campus, we gathered to play a "Get-to-know-your-bunkie" version of The Newlywed Game led by duty peeps, Mary and Chloe. 

On Sunday, everyone slept in as long as they could.  When the boys woke up and went outside to go to breakfast, they were surprised by the absence of their shoes.  It turned out that the girls had performed a 'ninja-stealth operation' the night before and had taken all the boys' footwear captive. Once all flip flops and sneakers had been returned to their proper owners, the campus got to work collecting sticks and casuarina needles to construct their structures for the Sunday evening performance art project, Set the Night On Fire. Everyone was divided into groups with the intention of creating a choreographed art performance consisting of lighting sculptures on fire and incorporating elements of wind or water. After dinner, everyone piled into the school vans and headed down to the marina beach to install the structures and start the performance. We lit up the beach with biodiesel torches and flaming sculptures, monitored by safety teams who had buckets of water and sand. Once the coals of our work had sputtered out, we headed back to school to cram in final study time before lights out.

The ladies enjoy treats at Wemyss Bight Homecoming

For those members of the girls’ dorm who participated in the shoe stealing, Monday morning involved two sessions of morning exercise, complete with sit-ups under the stars. After morning chores and an oatmeal breakfast, classes resumed. Humanities involved a long Omeros discussion. After Humanities, students trudged off to “double potions” (two hours of math). Following lunch, there was a double block of science involving notes on plankton and trophic levels. The day ended on a positive note with a productive community meeting.

Tuesday morning we split up into our respective run and swim tracks. The swimmers completed a forty-five minute swim, doing laps in the current channel through patches of intense rain. Yeah swim track! The morning progressed with regular Tuesday classes. Art class involved beach clean up from Sunday night’s performance, and a discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of our work. Algebra class wrapped up the study of projectile motion to prepare for the imminent exam, and humanities involved a lesson on the evolution of Bahamian political parties. The academic day drew to a close with a workshop on writing research papers followed by research team meetings.  We are all looking forward to the stress of Midterms being over and the start of 8 day kayak rotations!

Shout outs:

Hanna Mitchell: Momma, Daddy, Rip, Elysa: missing you lots and thinking of you all the time. Rip who are you bugging now that I’m not around? Barn Folk: How are the ponies doing? Good luck breaking open frozen water buckets. Hopefully you haven’t had to do that yet. Emma, there are 2 pigs here that are big enough to ride. Will tell you all about them when I am home, helping you muck out frozen stalls.  Alex, Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Jen, Mormor: Thank you so much for the letters. Getting mail here is such a treat. Love you all.  Elin: Good luck plane hunting! Omeros is definitely a book that you would enjoy – way cooler than the Odyssey.   Everyone else that doesn’t fit into this pre-breakfast paragraph: Love and miss you and have Not forgotten you!

Molly: Hey everyone back in New Jersey.  Hope PHS is not getting too boring without me but know that I'm thinking about you guys all the time.  Keep all the letters coming. Mom, Dad, Nola, Julia, Carter, Pat, Emily, Christine, Mady, Cristen, Abby, and everyone else, make sure you keep writing letters.  Don't get too lonely without me.  I'm having a great time down here, you wouldn't belive some of the stuff we get to do and I love the people so much. Don't forget about me and I'll see you in December!

Will: Mom, Dad, Jackie, Laurie, Grandma, all my family I can’t wait to see you and or talk to you. To the people at L’ville keep it up I can’t wait to get back to you guys and see what’s new. Mike, I can’t wait to chill with you, we’re gunna have to start up the workouts again. Phil and Brendan I can’t wait to talk to you guys Brendan, KH2. Sara, Hayley everyone from A-town can’t wait to talk to you guys either. To everyone, keep sending me letters or start sending them either way. Can’t wait to see you all .Halfway there!!

Christopher C: Hey modernized world, I’m doing great and having a blast here at the island school. Big shout outs to my Mom and Dad, my little bro, my two baby sisters, and everyone back home. Thanks for coming to see me on Sunday and I hope the next visit isn’t to far away. Hey Jill & Jeff, miss you guys a bunch. I greatly appreciate everything especially something as simple as a letter. Expect one from me soon. Say hi to Steve and the gang for me as well. Sup Scott and Connor, thanks for setting me up with my computer software. I didn’t get it yet but I herd that it’s on its way. Tell Samantha that her big cousin said hi also. Miss you all and hope to see you soon. OH how’d you guy’s like my picture? I deliver don’t I Aunt Jill.