by Dale Lattanzio

It is clear that with the coming of Parents Weekend students and faculty are extremely excited to welcome all the families to a very full weekend. Students continue to talk about parents and siblings who are coming to share a few days together here at The Island School. For our Saturday evening activity this week we went to a man named Giant’s house. He is the general contractor who works with the school has been a part of The Island School from the beginning. He loves interacting with all the students that move through the community. He kindly hosted us for a delicious dinner of mac ‘n’ cheese, rice, beets, and chicken with some delicious cake for desert. Despite the fabulous meal the highlight of the evening was the dancing that took part on the deck, it was a fantastic display of students’ rake and scrape dance abilities. On Sunday a group of students embarked on one of our structured free dives. This week’s trip was to the offshore wall where depths begin around eighty feet and then drop off to the floor of the Exuma Sound thousands of feet deep. The Wall is known for its congregation of large fish species both reef and pelagic and everyone was extremely excited to witness its awe. As we swam over to the wall immediately students were perplexed and excited by the nurse shark and large black grouper sitting under an overhang on the shelf. However the excitement really skyrocketed when a six to seven foot Caribbean reef shark came up from the depths. After safely watching the shark for a few minutes we swam back to the boat where we clambered aboard only to continue the fun by jumping off the roof doing cannon balls, pencil dives, and maybe even a belly flop or two. Overall we had a great weekend and we are all looking forward to seeing our families.

by Dale Lattanzio

The past couple of days here on campus have been extremely busy. With beloved CEI interns leaving, analytical essays, and research projects it has been quite an emotional academic experience for many of us students. In research many of the groups are nearing the end of their data collection and we are beginning to see the results and meaning to our experiments. With our practice in scientific writing and anthropology we have written a scientific results portion and an analytical essay on the effects of tourism in the Caribbean. Although exhausted, the energy this morning at morning exercise was through the roof. Today on run track we ran interval sprints, and then on the way back to campus we did buddy sprints as a group while chanting each other’s names for encouragement. Its truly an incredible experience to have a group of students of all sorts of athletic backgrounds pushing each other in preparation for the half marathon or four mile super swim. Today was one of my favorite morning exercises and I’m looking forward to working with the group before the long exercise.

by Sam Jensen

As we began the last academic week before Parents Weekend, a rainstorm hit us. We continued with the week as normal, however we began the day differently. Instead of our usual training for either our half-marathon or 4-mile swim, we switched tracks. I am normally training for the half-marathon, so I was attempting the swim track for today. Not going to lie, it was extremely difficult trying a track we aren’t training for, but it was fun to experience something new! We had 3-hour research block in the morning. My lionfish and lobster displacement group spend the time discussing two scientific writings and having debates about them. Although the scientific papers might not have been something we all wanted to spend the whole period doing, we had so much fun getting heated in the debates and playing different roles, even when we did not agree. My research groups always has fun no matter what we do, whether its cast netting, scuba diving, lab checks, or just class work and lectures. That is one thing that I love about going to school here is the way that even things that might not be fun, like math class and taking notes, are somehow made fun by the people who you are learning from and learning with. We all headed off to lunch, and after lunch all 48 of us had another 3-hour class of Human Eco. We had prepared presentations for the rest of the class and advisors on our Human Eco Change Bomb projects. The presentations lasted all class, and we were able to learn about what our classmates are doing in their projects.  After our presentations, we had exploration time. Because of the storm and the Tourism Essay everyone is working on, most people stayed on campus. Daylight savings has thrown things off a little for me though, now at the end of exploration time, its dark out! Dinner followed exploration, and a night art class followed dinner. During this class, we voted on curators for the final art show. We also decided on what jobs people would have in order to prepare as a class. We went to study hours after this night class, personally I worked on my tourism essay. It was a pretty normal Monday here at the Island School, and everyone is excited for the week ahead.

Hey here from The Island School! My name is Kiley Knott and I’ll be writing the blog this week. I have just completed my academic week. We had a very packed schedule throughout this as well as a new class: Humanities. This is a combination of Histories and Literature. Both classes have been discussing tourism so they were joined temporarily and team-taught. As for other subjects, we did a lot of work on our Human Ecology Projects and Research Results Assignment. We had long field blocks for each so that we could go out and do some hands-on activities. My research group took this opportunity to go out to our distant site and drop cameras that record video of sharks. Although each day was very busy, we also had a fun.

On Saturday, we went to The Ride For Hope. This is a bike ride in Governor’s Harbor about an hour or so north of The Cape. This ride raises awareness about cancer and is a very popular event every year. We went and cheered on Island School Faculty as well as members of CEI. Everyone got particularly excited when Maxey rode by on his “Iron Horse” and the day was full of entertainment.

Another big part of our week came on Wednesday. After a long morning exercise, K1 and K2 had been eagerly anticipating the return of K3. All throughout the evening people were reunited and there shouts of delight. Once everyone was showered and ready, all 48 of us headed down to a bonfire on Boy’s Dorm Beach. Everyone sat and talked around the warmth and I got to talk to people I hadn’t seen in almost 3 weeks. This event really brought us back together after weeks of separation. We’d had many bonfires before so it seemed a fitting way to recognize the completeness of the students once more. This late Wednesday night was really a pick-me-up for everyone and a great idea by our Caciques.

This week had a a lot of ups and downs for each person. Some students transitioning back into classes, some wishing they would end already, but we are all happy to have a full dorm and be able to count off at circle.

Hey Everyone! My name is Summer Wrobel.  Today marks the beginning of K1 and K2′s academic rotation, meaning that K4 will be leaving for their eight day kayak.  I think that even though we are all going to miss them we are excited for them to have their own experience and to hear all their stories when they get back.  It’s definitely going to be strange having only 24 students on campus though.

But yesterday was a day off for the students, which means that we all got time to relax, catch up on work, or just take a breather at the beach.  It was a little hectic though because K1, K2, and K4 where all reunited for the first time and so we all had tons to talk about.  I was especially excited for this because I had just gotten back from my eight-day kayaking trip, and as rewarding as it was its definitely also a challenge.  During the eight-day kayak you head towards the Atlantic side with a goal to get to this beach called Lighthouse Beach.  I have to say it is probably one of the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen.  It’s on this beach that we have something called solo.  Solo is a part of eight-day kayak where everyone separates for forty-eight hours and for those hours you’re alone on your own little section of the beach.  You have the bare minimums like a sleeping bag and a tarp, water, a bag of food, and your journal.  For me, it was one of the first times that I was ever that alone and yet somehow it wasn’t necessarily lonely.  Every student will have their own experiences on solo, their own moments of peace or realizations, but overall I think it gives us time to think and truly be in our own company.  Before my kayak group split up for solo we talked about an hourglass analogy.  You see an hourglass starts wide, gets narrower, and then widens again. For us we are all starting wide in our home-towns or our states.  And then we come into the island school, and then from the island school to our kayak groups and then to solo, the narrowest part of the hourglass, where we are just with ourselves.  And then back again to our groups, school, and states.  It was a really cool way of putting it. Overall, I think one of my favorite memories of solo was waking up and watching the sun rise directly above me.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to this next academic week because there’s a bunch of fun things planned, like a rake and scrape dance, fundraising stake-out, Eleuthera’s annual Ride for Hope, and even a night dive.  It’s going to be nice getting back into the rhythm on campus.  And of course were all wishing K3 and K4 the best on their kayak trips!

by  Haeyeon Jang

Wednesday was the first sleep-in the girls have had in a while (due to the unfortunate circumstances of the previous weeks in which food turned up in the dorm and we had to have multiple deep cleans), and they made the most of it. Quotes from the morning include “I feel alive.”—Lexi Merison, Girls North ‘Wing and “I love this, I’m never waking up.”—Maya Sands Bliss, Under my Bed.  Looking around the circle at the other 50% of the current student population on campus, it was apparent that the boys had enjoyed their sleep-in equally if not more than their female counterparts. They had rolled out of bed 2 minutes before circle—as was suggested initially by their bedraggled figures, and confirmed later by Chris Teufel.

Research was invigorating as usual. In the project I am affiliated with, the Flats Program, today was data analysis day. Also known as crash course in college statistics day. Also known as mixed joy and pain. After an eventful three hours involving markers bleeding red life-juice all over the board, various statistical terms, and tears of incomprehension, the Flats team, or those of it left on campus—Dale, Krissy, Andrew, and of course, me—was relatively confident in our capacity to create comprehensive graphs on the effect of predatory presence on the thermoregulatory behaviors of juvenile schoolmaster snapper. We’ll explain it to y’all when you get here for Parent’s Weekend. Plus I’ll make sure to show you my awesome new fly-fishing skills.

Lunch resulted in what may have been the happiest moment so far of my young life. The Human Ecology project I am in, Solar for Our Superheroes (made up of Alliea, Haeyeon, Kiley, Krissy, Nani, and Will) met with Christian Henry(co-founder of the Island School and our advisor for the project) and came away with the glorious news that Christian would be on our Board of Directors!! Christian, everyone on campus loves you, but I love you most. We’ll extrapolate on what Solar for Our Superheroes is on a later blog post, be excited, especially all those of you in MA!

We also received letters today! After Art class, all of us flooded in to the faculty office, and there was much rejoicing. Many of mine dated back from September 23^rd (oh mail system, you so silly), and it warmed my heart to know that my friends back home really cared.  Many of the letters were for students still on kayak and down-island trips, and will end up a pleasant surprise for them when they get back.

All in all, a typical Island school day. After a mass sharing session, we all went to sleep a bit earlier than usual, still thinking of the letters we’d read. I dreamed of my laptop falling into Current Cut for some reason though.

Good morning! My name is Eliza and I will be writing the blog for today. Over the weekend with K1 gone on their Kayak and K2 away on their three day down island trip to North Eleuthera, I along with the rest of K3 and K4 have been here on campus, taking most of our regular classes despite the twisted kayak schedule. Saturday afternoon started up our weekend fun. At 3:30 all of us on campus took the vans to a nearby settlement called Wemyss Bight to compete in the annual Chris Brown (Bahamian Olympic medalist) 4 mile race. After hanging around for an hour waiting for the race to begin all we could listen to was the MC saying over and over again “if you beat me you get $50, if you beat me you get $50”, so by the time the race started and ended with John Shatz coming in first, we still are waiting for him to receive his $50. After dinner at The Island School we headed back to Wemyss Bight for their Homecoming celebration. Although there wasn’t as much dancing as we expected, I think most of us Island School students were pretty content with the food stands where I got a virgin pina colada and conch fritters, finally allowing me to appreciate the Bahamian love for conch.

Over the past 24 hours the campus has been bustling with people coming and going. Yesterday K3 and K4 had our regular classes and a long research block. K2 made it back from their down island trip at around 2:00pm right before the rain came. As it started to pour all that we could think about here on campus, besides the fact that we were chilly for the first time all semester, was imagining K1 out on their 8-Day Kayak trip, trying to find shelter from the deluge. By the time everyone was back from our long research blocks, the rain cleared and K2 took advantage of their last time to shower before setting off for kayak. After dinner as K2 continued to pack up their belongings, I along with the rest of my class were working on our homework for the class we begin today called Humanities, which is a mixture of Histories and Literature. The other half of us who are in the second-class rotation, headed out for their first night dive at Tunnel Rock, dressed not in the usual bathing suit, spandex, sports bra, apparel but instead, for everyone’s first time, the wetsuits were pulled out! Everyone in racers got back to campus at around 9:30pm. All I heard was good things about the bioluminescence, swimming the tunnel and just the overall experience of diving in the dark. I can’t wait for my turn on Thursday! All right, I’m headed down to the dock to say bye to K2 as they head off on their 8-Day. Goodbye for now!

An editorial note to parents reading: though Morgen and Ella had some fun with writing this blog, rest assured that have been no fist-fights, sunk kayaks, or students forgotten on solo.

Hello parents and friends! This is Morgen and Ella, sorry if you are getting bored with our blog posts, but chores haven’t switched in a while! This past week we had Midterm meetings with each of our teachers who gave us on update on how we are doing up to this point. You also have a letter from your children coming your way, summarizing the feedback they received from Midterms.

After much anticipation, kayak groups have been posted! There is a lot of excitement around campus and only two fist-fights about groups. I (Morgen) was caught of guard by finding out I am leaving Saturday for 8-day, but I am very excited to be departing with a fun group of people led by Jon and Brady. Woohooo! Other groups will either be going on their Down Island Trip, or on campus for another academic rotation. Bombs of change are dropping all over campus after everyone’s Human Ecology Projects were approved. Projects include everything from creating underwater sculptures and cookbooks to growing medicinal herbs and revitalizing the Poo Poo Garden.

Random shouts out day!!

• Shoutout to Chris Teufel for making all the way to Deep Creek on our Tuesday run, completing nine miles!
• Shoutout to Eliza and Lyndell’s parents, your daughters had their birthdays this week in case you forgot
• Shoutout to Caroline and Ella’s parents, they made some really good gorp a few days ago
• Shoutout to Dale and Asher, leading swim- track kids on long exercise on Tuesday.
• Shoutout to Max’s parents, your son is an extremely fast sprinter.
• To Liahs parent: your daughter is a perfectionist.
• Shoutout to this week’s caciques (Colin M, Carly, Duncan, Cutter, and Chris) for saying they have a lot of fun events planned but then not following through, but its ok midterm week is overwhelming!!
• Shoutout to our very own Jason and Kate, for getting married today. The best of luck to you two.

Don’t fret if you don’t get a phone time from your child this week, they were probably forgotten at their solo, or their kayak sank. The events we have been waiting for all semester are approaching, and the mood around campus is very energized. Your children are happy and about to embark on new adventures. They miss you and are excited to see you for parents weekend. You probably won’t hear from us (Morgen and Ella) again, so it’s been nice writing to you. Bye!

by Morgen Montgomery

Hello everyone! This is Morgen again. As another week passes by, we realize the routine we have gotten used to is about to change. We have a lot to look forward to next weekend, as our first 8-day kayak group will depart, but first we must endure in midterm week. Students are scrambling to finish our last papers due Monday and Tuesday, knowing that after that we have a well-deserved break.

Yesterday the Caciques led a successful run to High Rock, similar to what we did in the beginning of the semester. Last time, we symbolically “jumped” into the semester, but this time, each student made a personal goal for the rest of the semester. This was a really nice morning because we haven’t all been together for a morning exercise in a while. Later yesterday morning, we had our community meeting. These always prove to be a highlight of each student’s week. We aim to learn more about each other, and this week we sought to learn more about how others see us. Through a process called a Johari Window, we were able to write about how we see ourselves from the outside, then what people may not visibly see, and then what others see in us. This was a powerful exercise, led by Ashley, and students were really able to bond with each other, along with faculty. During exploration time yesterday, girls were able to enjoy a deep clean of the dorms (again!!), while boys threw Jon Shatz a surprise Bachelor party. It’s safe to say he was very, very surprised. They enjoyed a nice afternoon of throwing rocks and conch shells.

Today, run- swim tracks split up once again for Saturday sprint morning. Today, we have a three-hour querencia period to look forward to, followed by history and literature classes. After a nice day of classes to end the week, we have a bonfire and night snorkel at Sunrise Beach, planned by last week’s Caciques to look forward too. Though we have a lot of work to complete for next week, everyone is looking forward to a peaceful night with the community after a tough week.

We have so much to look forward too, as the main events we have heard about constantly throughout the semester are quickly approaching us. I ensure you your children are having a great time and are working very hard to finish up strong!