Thursday:
6:45 Bell rings -- we all roll out of bed and rush to get dressed in the cold cabin
7:00 Morning Gather -- Plato ("philosopher" of the day) reads a quote
7:00 - 7:15 Chores -- I help prepare breakfast and set up the buffet
7:20 Breakfast -- Breakfast sandwiches with eggs from local farms
7:50 Morning Meeting -- announcements for the rest of the day such as lost and found, field trip details, or saturday night activity plans
8:30 Natural History of the Maine Coast -- discussing how to predict weather and how we can learn to stay warm from how different animals have adapted to cold weather
9:30 Free Block -- finish some homework, grab some tea and toast, and listen to music
10:30 Spanish -- presenting poems about injustices in the world
11:30 Ethics -- going over the reading on Utilitarianism (a moral theory) and discussing how the theory plays out in real life
12:30 Lunch with staff from all parts of the Chewonki Foundation -- greek salad with local carrots
1:45 Work Program -- destroying a bathroom and taking down the walls to make room for a new Dairy Preparation room so we can milk the cows on the farm again
4:00 Outdoor Activity Program (OAP) -- going on a walk out to Ideal Point (Chewonki is located on a peninsula that has 5 points overlooking the ocean or different bays) and watching the sunset from the top of Blueberry Hill
6:15 Dinner -- Hamburgers with meat from our farm
7:30 - 9:30 Study Hours -- learning bird sounds and identifying trees for our next species quiz, reading articles about Kant's moral theory, studying for a spanish quiz, and reading primary sources from the Populist Party
10:00 Check In -- we all return to our cabins to reflect on our day, just hang out with our cabin mates, knit a little, listen to music, and finish up any last homework assignments for the next day
Friday, February 24, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Week of February 15
It has been such a long and exciting week and I've done some of the best activities yet! On Wednesday, my work program was spinning wool and it was so cool! I learned really quickly and got to help teach the other students. It's so cool to see the entire process of how things are made. I've seen sheep being sheared, I've skirted wool (cleaned it), pulled wool, spun wool, and knit. The only things I haven't done are washing it and carding it. It's truly amazing to know exactly what went into a final product and it's rarely thought about outside of Chewonki. Here, all processes are questioned, whether its our food production, different forest growth patterns, or specific products (like a hat).
This week I also completed one of my goals - I got to use a chainsaw! It was as amazing as I thought. At first I was a little nervous because of the precautions I had to take, but as soon as I started, I realized it wasn't too difficult to stay safe and in control. That's another process that we get to see here. We see the trees being felled, help pull them out of the woods with horses, cut them with chainsaws, split it with axes, then burn it in our woodstoves.
Then, Friday we played capture the flag with no limits! Chewonki is on a peninsula of 400 acres, and the only boundary was the trail between the two sides. Two of my friends and I were decoys so we ran screaming through the woods. It was really exhilarating to realize how little of the area I had discovered, but knowing that no matter where I ended up, I would still be able to find my way back to campus. In the end, neither team won but it was still an unbelievably fun game and I think we are planning on playing an afternoon long game again soon.
Finally, Sunday I woke up at 4:50 in the morning, had breakfast then we drove to Saddleback Mountain to go skiing! In the morning I skied lots of blues with my friends. We are all experienced skiers so we got to go really fast. It was a beautiful day and I expected it to be super icy because we haven't gotten much snow here, but there was surprisingly a lot of powder. Lunch was fun to hang out with everyone and hear about what runs they did. After, there was a big group of us that were going to do a long run, but we were all at very different levels so we got separated. I ended up completing the run with a friend who I hadn't gotten to spend much time with, and she is an intermediate snowboarder so I got to spend time going on very controlled runs with her. We had a long bus ride back to Chewonki and the whole day left me exhausted, yet it was an amazing end to the week!
This week I also completed one of my goals - I got to use a chainsaw! It was as amazing as I thought. At first I was a little nervous because of the precautions I had to take, but as soon as I started, I realized it wasn't too difficult to stay safe and in control. That's another process that we get to see here. We see the trees being felled, help pull them out of the woods with horses, cut them with chainsaws, split it with axes, then burn it in our woodstoves.
Then, Friday we played capture the flag with no limits! Chewonki is on a peninsula of 400 acres, and the only boundary was the trail between the two sides. Two of my friends and I were decoys so we ran screaming through the woods. It was really exhilarating to realize how little of the area I had discovered, but knowing that no matter where I ended up, I would still be able to find my way back to campus. In the end, neither team won but it was still an unbelievably fun game and I think we are planning on playing an afternoon long game again soon.
Finally, Sunday I woke up at 4:50 in the morning, had breakfast then we drove to Saddleback Mountain to go skiing! In the morning I skied lots of blues with my friends. We are all experienced skiers so we got to go really fast. It was a beautiful day and I expected it to be super icy because we haven't gotten much snow here, but there was surprisingly a lot of powder. Lunch was fun to hang out with everyone and hear about what runs they did. After, there was a big group of us that were going to do a long run, but we were all at very different levels so we got separated. I ended up completing the run with a friend who I hadn't gotten to spend much time with, and she is an intermediate snowboarder so I got to spend time going on very controlled runs with her. We had a long bus ride back to Chewonki and the whole day left me exhausted, yet it was an amazing end to the week!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
10 Days
These past 10 days have been filled with new friends, cold mornings, hard work, homework, and lots of laughs. It's going to be virtually impossible to describe this experience, but I'll start with my cabin. I'm living in a cabin called Gordy with 8 other girls from around the country. We heat it with a woodstove, and tonight will be discussing going off the electric grid (we have a bike that can power all our energy). The 8 of us became extremely close so fast. We have only been together for 10 days, and we have already had ups and downs, but that has made us a family. The best parts of my days are always going back to my cabin knowing that I will most likely be both rolling on the floor laughing at our goofiness and having serious discussions about our classes or lives at home in one night. We are all there to support each other during everything this semester throws at us, and life after Chewonki.
Classes are also incredibly different. Monday mornings start with Farm Talk, where our farmer gives us an update of the happenings of the farm and other issues relating to farming today. During our first farm talk, we were able to watch our sheep being sheared in preparation for lambing season! My biggest class is Natural History of the Maine Coast which has 15 students and my smallest is Ethics which has 6. Every class is discussion based, and even in math we sit around a round table. Everything is also applied to the world around us. My first day in math we did a lab outside measuring and graphing the motion of a tree we pulled. Yesterday in Natural History we walked around campus and found examples of how a forest progresses over time. Also, every Tuesday I go on a science field trip to an ecosystem we are studying. This past Tuesday I hiked Morse Mountain then wrote species accounts for the trees we need to identify for our quiz on Monday. Even in Spanish we are currently learning vocabulary that describes our experiences (such as to knit, sustainable energy, organic farm, cut wood, etc). Coming from a large public school where I mostly take notes in classes as the teacher talks, this is a huge difference!
Work program is another key part of my experience at Chewonki. Twice a week we are assigned jobs that need to be done around campus and we spend about 2 hours working with a couple other students and a staff member maintaining our campus. Wednesday I helped the Farm Intern skirt wool (cleaning the shorn wool so that it can be sent off for cleaning before being spun into yarn), and today I deep cleaned the dish room. Anywhere else, kneeling on a wet floor under the counters cleaning corners that might have never been touched, would be repulsive, yet knowing that the work I do benefits the community makes it worth it.
Tomorrow is one of two full days of classes, then a group of students have planned an Outdoor Activity Program (OAP) for us. Three days a week we all participate in OAP and we set goals to accomplish by the end of the semester. Mine is to run more, so each week large groups of us head out on the road for a while before heading back to campus to stretch and do some yoga. After OAP, a speaker or presentation comes to campus. Last week, a man showed us gorgeous 3-D photos of the natural world. This weekend consists of horse logging on Saturday and some much needed free time Sunday.
My experience at Chewonki has been so amazing so far, and I can't wait to see what the rest of this semester will bring!!!
Classes are also incredibly different. Monday mornings start with Farm Talk, where our farmer gives us an update of the happenings of the farm and other issues relating to farming today. During our first farm talk, we were able to watch our sheep being sheared in preparation for lambing season! My biggest class is Natural History of the Maine Coast which has 15 students and my smallest is Ethics which has 6. Every class is discussion based, and even in math we sit around a round table. Everything is also applied to the world around us. My first day in math we did a lab outside measuring and graphing the motion of a tree we pulled. Yesterday in Natural History we walked around campus and found examples of how a forest progresses over time. Also, every Tuesday I go on a science field trip to an ecosystem we are studying. This past Tuesday I hiked Morse Mountain then wrote species accounts for the trees we need to identify for our quiz on Monday. Even in Spanish we are currently learning vocabulary that describes our experiences (such as to knit, sustainable energy, organic farm, cut wood, etc). Coming from a large public school where I mostly take notes in classes as the teacher talks, this is a huge difference!
Work program is another key part of my experience at Chewonki. Twice a week we are assigned jobs that need to be done around campus and we spend about 2 hours working with a couple other students and a staff member maintaining our campus. Wednesday I helped the Farm Intern skirt wool (cleaning the shorn wool so that it can be sent off for cleaning before being spun into yarn), and today I deep cleaned the dish room. Anywhere else, kneeling on a wet floor under the counters cleaning corners that might have never been touched, would be repulsive, yet knowing that the work I do benefits the community makes it worth it.
Tomorrow is one of two full days of classes, then a group of students have planned an Outdoor Activity Program (OAP) for us. Three days a week we all participate in OAP and we set goals to accomplish by the end of the semester. Mine is to run more, so each week large groups of us head out on the road for a while before heading back to campus to stretch and do some yoga. After OAP, a speaker or presentation comes to campus. Last week, a man showed us gorgeous 3-D photos of the natural world. This weekend consists of horse logging on Saturday and some much needed free time Sunday.
My experience at Chewonki has been so amazing so far, and I can't wait to see what the rest of this semester will bring!!!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Hi family, friends, teachers, and anyone else who wants to stay updated on my adventures!
Welcome to my blog detailing my semester at Chewonki! Chewonki is a semester program in Wiscasset, ME where I will live in cabins, take classes that focus on hands-on exploration, work on a farm, go on hiking trips, and much more! If you want to learn more, check out the website: http://www.chewonki.org/mcs/default.asp. I'm leaving in a few days, so I figured I would post some information for those who want to keep in touch!
First, I will have my computer with me so I'll be able to contact everyone via facebook (hopefully limitedly) and my gmail account (marlostein@gmail.com). For the first 10 days, we are not allowed to use our computers in order to create community, so don't expect any responses during that time.
Second, I would LOVE letters and packages!!!!! I will try to respond to letters, hopefully I will have enough time to write lots. If you want to receive letters and are not sure if I have your address, please message me on facebook. However, Chewonki has started a Zero Waste Initiative and ask that care packages not contain lots of individually packed items like candy. If you want to send food, they ask that you send it in reusable containers.
My address is :
Marlo Stein
Chewonki Semester School
485 Chewonki Neck Rd.
Wiscasset, ME 04578
Third, I will not have my cell phone with me all semester. Instead I will set up an extension for voicemails on a phone there (number will come later), and I will be able to call every once in a while.
Fourth, the school also keeps a blog that students can contribute to and pictures are posted. The URL is http://blogs.chewonki.org/semester/
Finally, visiting will be limited. I know no one will be able to visit in February because we will be creating our community as well as going on week long wilderness trips. If you would like to visit, please let me know and I'm sure we can arrange something later on in the semester!
I'll try to update this blog as much as I can to let you all in on my adventures!
I'm getting very excited!
Marlo
Welcome to my blog detailing my semester at Chewonki! Chewonki is a semester program in Wiscasset, ME where I will live in cabins, take classes that focus on hands-on exploration, work on a farm, go on hiking trips, and much more! If you want to learn more, check out the website: http://www.chewonki.org/mcs/default.asp. I'm leaving in a few days, so I figured I would post some information for those who want to keep in touch!
First, I will have my computer with me so I'll be able to contact everyone via facebook (hopefully limitedly) and my gmail account (marlostein@gmail.com). For the first 10 days, we are not allowed to use our computers in order to create community, so don't expect any responses during that time.
Second, I would LOVE letters and packages!!!!! I will try to respond to letters, hopefully I will have enough time to write lots. If you want to receive letters and are not sure if I have your address, please message me on facebook. However, Chewonki has started a Zero Waste Initiative and ask that care packages not contain lots of individually packed items like candy. If you want to send food, they ask that you send it in reusable containers.
My address is :
Marlo Stein
Chewonki Semester School
485 Chewonki Neck Rd.
Wiscasset, ME 04578
Third, I will not have my cell phone with me all semester. Instead I will set up an extension for voicemails on a phone there (number will come later), and I will be able to call every once in a while.
Fourth, the school also keeps a blog that students can contribute to and pictures are posted. The URL is http://blogs.chewonki.org/semester/
Finally, visiting will be limited. I know no one will be able to visit in February because we will be creating our community as well as going on week long wilderness trips. If you would like to visit, please let me know and I'm sure we can arrange something later on in the semester!
I'll try to update this blog as much as I can to let you all in on my adventures!
I'm getting very excited!
Marlo
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