IS Blog Post #5

Sunday, April 15th

Hey guys! I hope everyone is doing well. The past few weeks have been really busy (although that’s hardly an anomaly) but very fun! A lot of funny things happened last week, so I’ll fill you in on everything: the first thing that happened is that we had a lice outbreak, which was quite interesting. We all had to get our heads checked and wash all of our sheets, but thankfully, I’m clear of any lice – knock on wood.

The second hilariously random thing that happened is that someone found a rat in their drawer (at about 10:45pm, after lights-out). When we heard the scream, we all got out of our beds to help; as we logically did not want a rat sojourning in our dorm, we worked together and gingerly took the drawer outside in attempt to get the rat to climb out. After a while, we figured it hopped out, but couldn’t exactly tell since it was pitch-black outside; so, when we brought the drawer back inside, 90% sure the rat was gone, it suddenly scurried out, fell on someone’s foot (which caused an extremely loud scream), and then climbed up the rafters. Thus, after all of that work, we still have a rat in our dorm.

Anyway, last Friday, we also had our first Settlement Day, which was a very cool experience. Our DCMS buddies took us to the settlements that they live in and showed us some of their favorite spots to help us learn more about their communities. My buddy lives in the settlement of Wymss Bight, about a ten-minute drive outside of Deep Creek. She took me to her old elementary school, a local park, and a beach where we had some good bonding time trying to do handstands in the water and seeing who can hold their breath underwater the longest (she won).

Overall, it was not only a very fun experience for me, but also an educational one, as I was able to become fully immersed in a different community based on my buddy telling me stories as we stopped at different locations. Afterwards, I had to write a paper for my Histories class about the stories my buddy told me and how stories often help a person learn the history of a place most effectively.

That is just a glimpse of how cool the classes are at the Island School. While the academic weeks have been fairly stressful, the material that I have been learning has been extremely interesting, and I can’t wait to share everything I’ve learned with you guys when I get home.

Until next time,

Nora