I’m a big fan of Mondays. From sunrise to sunset they’re full of productive, exciting, adventurous, inspiring memories. At my sending school, Mondays would be full of groans and complaints because it was no longer the weekend; not here. Yesterday we started out with a choice between yoga and soccer for morning exercise. Feeling very tight and slightly stressed because I had zero clue what was going on in Omeros, I chose yoga. It was so refreshing and I felt 100% better afterwards. I remember looking around the room yesterday while we were all trying our hardest to a seemingly impossible position called “crow,” laughing with each other, encouraging each other, and realizing how close we have got over the past month. Continue reading →

This past Saturday was one of my favorite memories since I’ve been here. After a pretty strenuous hour and a half long run for me, our first long morning exercise with our tracks, we had our final Settlement Day. Usually we head to our assigned houses/areas in the afternoon, but because this was our last one, we got to leave at 9:15 and stay the whole day! While some students grew weary of  7 hours exploring settlements, Lexi, Cate, Brian, Tom and I spent the day a woman named Toya Carey, one of the most, if not the most hospitable, kind, and generous person I have ever met. Our day included meaningful conversations about her family and her community, baking lemon pound cake and strawberry cheesecake from her mother’s top secret recipe, and ordering grouper fingers and fried conch from her favorite local restaurant. Despite the difference of age and background, we all got along so well and had such a wonderful time. When John came to pick us up at 4 for the cook out, there was an unspoken but obvious sadness about saying goodbye – so we didn’t. We decided that there was no way we could take the pound cake to the cook out, and the cheesecake wasn’t completely ready, so we planned to swing by to say bye and pick up the cakes afterwards.

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Good morning family and friends of the Island School! Due to a special and unique experience that occurred Wednesday morning, chores haven’t been done since Tuesday. Thus, no blog. I left off Tuesday, a day full of classes, meals, and the first research day of the week. Although Tuesdays may be one of the most “average” days of the week here at The Island School, they always seem to be full of excitement because that’s when we’re introduced to the exciting things that we’ll be doing in the latter part of the week. For example, in Human Ecology, we got an introduction to Thursday’s class; cooking a meal made from local foods from a local farmer, that we would prepare and serve for the whole island school community. Tuesdays are also Community Meeting days, where we talk about subject regarding the community. This week we explored and discussed our different leadership styles.

On Wednesday morning, the students and staff got an opportunity that few, especially for most of us, will ever get to experience. Continue reading →

Hey everyone! It’s about that time again; when we transition from cleaning toilets to feeding pigs, from measuring cisterns to filling the GORP bucket, and for me personally, going from sweeping the girls dorm for morning chores, to sitting down watching the sunrise and talking to all of you! My name is Fiona Cerf, and I’m a student here at the Island School, and I’m from Seattle!  A little about me, I absolutely love getting to know new people, banana pancakes are my favorite breakfast meal (Mooch, if you’re reading this… please?!), I’m recently finding that I really enjoy creative writing, and I’m also having the time of my life here. I’m so excited to write the blog for the next couple weeks because it’s an honor to inform you all of what we’ve been up to here on Eleuthera. 

I guess it’s been a few days since my buddy Kelly wrote, so I’ll fill you all in! Saturday was a big day for everyone at the Island School; from students, to staff, alumni, visitors, scientists, you name it. Saturday was the MONSTER run swim! We had the option of doing the spring run-swim at 630 or participating in a 4 mile run – 2 mile swim, Monster. The feeling of support and energy we all experienced while participating in either was astounding. Continue reading →

Yesterday marked the beginning of the second academic week. Mondays are one of the busiest days of the week; we start the day with morning exercise, chores, personal space clean-up, and breakfast, and then head right into classes. After our three classes and lunch, we all piled into the vans and went to DCMS to visit our buddies and start brainstorming about our projects, and as soon as we got back to campus, we had meetings with our advisor about how the semester has been going for each of us individually. It was a pretty “typical” Monday, but I’ve mentioned before how un-typical a typical day here is. How often in a “typical” day back home do you get to go for a run along the beach with your classmates in the Bahamas? Or talk with visiting marine life photographers from Belgium? Or attend a presentation by Josh Goldman, the founder of one of the most innovative, new, sustainable fish farms?

I feel like throughout the last week, I’ve talked a lot about the Island School and what we do here, which I suppose is what I’m supposed to do given that I’m writing for the Island School Blog. But I would like to pay a little tribute to the island itself, as it really is a large part of what makes the experience. [slideshow]As I write this, I’m sitting on the dining hall deck, Continue reading →

It’s been yet another busy but rewarding weekend at the Island School; Saturday was jam-packed with activities and yesterday, Sunday, we got a day to ourselves to relax and recover from the week. Saturday was our first Settlement Day, so we all went out to either Deep Creek or Tarpum Bay – two of the nearest settlements – to get to know some of the locals. Friday evening we were split into groups of anywhere from 3 to 6 people, and assigned to a local family. Our goal for the next two Saturdays is to interview and really come to understand the past of the families that we got to know this weekend. We’re supposed to record our semi-structured interviews and create a video presentation for History class. The idea is that the best way to learn the history of a place and a people is to learn from the people who actually lived that history. My group got to visit a woman by the name of Donna Lee, who works for the Ministry of Tourism. She offered us ice cold fruity drinks and we sat around her dining room table and talked to her for hours. Continue reading →

The first academic week has kicked into full-swing here at the Island School. It’s hard to believe that it’s already Thursday! We’re all starting to realize that there is more than a little bit of truth to what we’ve been told all along; the days here seem to last forever but the weeks just fly by. With the first full academic week has come the some-what reliable schedule that many of us have been craving. With all the strangeness of being in a new place doing all of these crazy things, it’s nice to have a bit of a routine to rely on. Today, for example, we had exercise in the morning, chores and tidying up is being done right now, breakfast is in about a half hour, and right after that we have class. After morning classes and lunch, we will all go out in the field with our respective research groups for the first time. This is a somewhat typical day at the Island School. Granted, a “typical” day may look different for every student on any given day but that’s what keeps things interesting. Continue reading →

Every semester, one of the special things we do at The Island School is pair up with students at the Deep Creek Middle School (DCMS) to work on community service projects. Every student gets a buddy, ranging from ages ten to thirteen. Last week we wrote an introductory letter to our DCMS buddies and since then we’ve all been very eager to meet them. Yesterday was the big day. At lunch we got letters that our buddies had written for us, and then around 1:15, our buddies came to campus. As the buses pulled in, we all stood in the driveway waving madly. When the students climbed out of the buses and we all circled up around the flagpole there was an air of anxiety and nervousness, but that soon dissipated as we found our buddies and introduced ourselves. The teachers had three stations set up with games and activities for us to play, and the energy of the DCMS kids was soon overflowing into all aspects of the afternoon. We played tag games and a twenty-questions sort of game, and we had three-legged relay races where half-way through, a teacher would ask each buddy questions about their new friend. Everyone – and I mean every single person – was smiling and laughing, more so than I’ve seen so far all semester. [slideshow] Continue reading →