July 7, 2014: Day 8
Donning running shoes, water bottles, and optimistic outlooks, students and faculty rose at 6:30 am for our first 4-mile run to High Rock and back. We ran the two miles down Cape Eleuthera Blvd. to the cliff, taking a few minutes of silence to reflect while listening to the waves crash against the rocks before jumping into the ocean below, and heading back to campus.
With a new sense of accomplishment, students split up into their K groups to continue with the activities planned for the last day of orientation week. K1 avoided a few thunderstorms while learning kayaking skills and braving the occasional rain showers. K2 packed into a van for their South Eleuthera Road Trip, visiting historical sites and stocking up on goodies from the marketplace. K3 and K4 jumped into their SCUBA gear to complete their final day of diving, and joined the rest of campus by becoming officially SCUBA certified! Now that orientation weeks has ended, students will split up into their three academic groups to rotate through classes for the remainder of the semester. With the end of orientation, students have started to fall into the routine of IS, and are looking forward to the next few weeks.
As a celebration of completing the first week at IS, the students gathered in the presentation room at 9:30 pm for the first ‘late night’. We played a human bingo bonding game where students had to complete a table of facts about other students, and ended the night with a dance party. Although only one week has past, the summer term students have already begun to understand the importance of the connections between each other, and the new home that we will never forget.
Your Day 8 Caciques,
Hanna and Evan