March 20, 2009

This week started off with the excitement of seeing the rest of RMS 22 after nine challenging days of sleeping and playing in the snow. Strangely enough, we have only been back from the Winter Expedition for a week and it feels like we've been back for months. Although at first the return to hour and a half long classes in a classroom was a bit of a shift from having them in our "quigloos," it is nice to enjoy amenities such as running water, tables, and chairs again.

On Saturday night, after desissuing, we baked pies for "Pi Day" (3.14) with math apprentice MaryClaire. Then, Sunday was just as busy. We split into three groups and made the typical laundry run (washing our puffy coats and other expedition clothes which smelled so lovely) and also did some laborious wood chopping (which seemed relatively easy after all of the shoveling we did on the winter expedition). We also made the greatly anticipated visit to Read's house in Buena Vista. Read built an environmentally sustainable house completely off the grid. Instead of connecting to utility lines, Read's house generates its own electricity and hot water. It is also extremely energy efficient, so it doesn't waste electricity like many modern homes do. His house was small, but we all agreed it was comfy and incredible.

After the winter expedition, our semester had a goal of cleaning up after ourselves and performing our chores to make HMI sparkling clean. On Monday, we resumed with our designated chore and did our best to pick up the dust that had been lying there since we had left. Also, we attempted a new strategy to help us focus during study hall. In each area, a designated student was appointed to be in charge of that night's study hall. If we were studious, we were given a 3-minute dance party in the middle of study hall! This strategy worked amazingly well.

On Tuesday night we had great burgers with tons of toppings courtesy of the lovely Tuesday evening cook crew,  especially grillers extraordinaire Maddie "Pants" and Liz. Wednesday we had our community meeting in the yurt during lunch. After eating wraps filled with avocado and chicken, we made lists about what we are doing well and what we need to work on. Thursday we woke up extra early for AMX to prepare for our fun run (10 miles at the end of the semester!). We also had our second student-led meeting. During the meeting we planned our first evening activity for the window of time between study hall and the time we need to be in cabins. Next Friday, we are having a whole semester game of "mafia."

In addition to all the community meetings, study hall dance parties, and the rest of the routine, this week has been full of fun activities. As always, activity periods offer a great break from school and there are always so many fun options every week! On Monday, some students went to the kiddie corral playground in town, some went dog walking at the local animal shelter, and still others make a "hollerin'" movie with Matt. Apparently it's hilarious and we're looking forward to seeing it this week! The next day there were even more options. A couple students did yoga, others played field hockey or went swimming at the local pool. A great number of students gathered to plan our Passover Seder that is occurring after Spring Break. The great part about Seder planning was that so many people were excited to plan it, even if they weren't Jewish! It should be really fun.

Classes have also ramped up to full speed since the winter expedition.  We're working on creative writing in English in preparation for next week when we write Parent's Weekend poems.  In Science we worked on animal tracking and went to Turquoise Lake and the Fish Hatchery to look at animal tracks. In History we studied Native American history in the West while in Precal 1 focused on graphing trigonometric functions. French class studied present participles and gerunds.

This week's update features advanced Spanish class.  Crazily enough, in Spanish this week we had only one "normal" class.  On Monday we did a brief review of mandatos (commands) and then went into the kitchen. We got vocabulary lists for kitchen related items and then started following commands in Spanish, baking a cake for Chewie's (our teacher's) birthday. Another group made guacamole, practicing Spanish speaking and following commands. The recipes were in Spanish and we were supposed to talk in Spanish the entire time. Both dishes turned out well and that night we celebrated Chewie's birthday.

The next class was "normal". We practiced commands by pretending we were Sam (the faculty member who inspects cabins) going into a cabin and ordering the kids to clean up. We spent the remainder of the class planning the visit of a Leadville Hispanic leadership group called Latinos Unidos. Each of us chose one part to plan: the tour, icebreaker games, interviews, or the slideshow at the end.

The next class started outside with the 8 members of the advanced Spanish class and 6 members of the leadership group. We played a game called "all my neighbors" (todos mis vecinos). There are spots for everyone to stand in a circle except for one person who starts in the middle. The person in the middle says "all my neighbors who do x" then everyone who does x has to run to find another spot to stand and some one else ends up in the middle.  Then we went into the library. We each paired up with someone from the other group and interviewed them.  We then introduced them to the rest of the group. All the above took place in a mix of Spanish and English - great practice for all of us. Next, we showed them around campus. We went to Who's Hall, the climbing hall, the classrooms, and a cabin. This was done mostly in Spanish. Some of the kids expressed interest in doing the Rocky Mountain Semester. We finished in the library and watched a slideshow that Spencer, Adrian, and Charlotte made about the Rocky Mountain Semester.  They talked about the pictures and answered any questions.  It was a lot of fun to practice our Spanish, to meet local Latino students, and also to learn about cultural similarities and differences. We are looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday when we're all going swimming and talking in a mix of Spanish and English while learning more about one another.

Next week will lead us into Parent's Weekend and Spring Break.  Things are going to be busy for sure, with plenty of deadlines approaching, but we are all excited to see our families.

By: Maddy Tennis, Ben Small, Emma Rouse, & Michael Jorgensen