April 30
This week has been our first full week of classes since before spring break. We all had an amazing break and third expedition, but we were ready to get back into our normal routine. In science we caught macro invertebrates in local streams and then tested the water so see how clean it was. It was cool finding all types of macro invertebrates in our nets and then it was fascinating to learn about the types of water in which they could survive.
In English, we received our final essay assignment. We are all tasked with writing a lyric essay concerning our lives in relationship to texts we have read this semester. This essay is exciting because it isn't analytical like the other essays we've written this semester; it's creative! We're excited to get to write more freely. We also discussed the book Into the Wild and had a Harkness discussion about whether we believe Chris McCandless was an activist or not. These discussions often turned into heated debates about what an activist even is, which made class very exciting.
In Advanced Spanish, we participated in another intercambio (exchange) with the women of the Women's Empowerment Group. They read “No Speak English” from The House on Mango Street and discussed some of the cultural issues brought up in the book, such as feeling distant from the world because of a language barrier and having ones’ children speak a different language than oneself. The women talked about their personal experiences with this issue.
Honors Western History students watched part of a documentary about the Donner Party, which we found particularly fascinating. Maybe a little too fascinating, considering that cannibalism was involved…
In addition to settling into classes again, we have fallen into our normal routine with AMX (morning exercise) and cook crew. Yesterday, as we were heading out of our cabins for a 3-mile run, we happily realized that it was warm outside! Some of us actually went back in to the cabin to change into shorts, while others rejoiced by rolling up their sleeves and not wearing hats and gloves. It didn’t even matter that it started lightly snowing halfway through the run - we were all so excited that the temperature was near 40°! Everyone is anticipating the 10-mile fun run that is quickly approaching, so some of us are choosing to run for longer distances in order to feel more prepared.
Sometimes the best part of a run is looking forward to the amazing breakfast that cook crew has made. Some days it might be warm muffins and smoothies, or other days cheesy eggs and sausage. We are also getting more confident in our cooking skills, and creating dishes like enchiladas or salmon with mango salsa. The cook crews are also becoming more efficient, and one group the other day had enough time after they were done to play washers outside!
By: Barrett Donovan, Haley Abbott, & Rachel Dahan