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!!!