Day 3: Finding Dory

After an exhausting two nights sleeping in the bike shed, we have now moved into the CEI houses. The cots that we slept on created a few disturbances for the guys as a result of the cots being pulled incredibly tight. Imagine sleeping on a drum and whenever you move an inch, the cot creaks very loudly. Every time one of us moved, everyone else would wake up. Wes had a particularly tough time because he was in the corner and there was some banging on the walls to accompany the creaking.

We've met lots of really cool people here at the Island School. Our "teachers" are Scotty and Serena. Scotty is a recent graduate of UVA and has been working here for over a year. Everyone says that he is an amazing water polo player, and we will be testing his skill in an upcoming game. Serena is a graduate student finishing up her internship. She is one of the most upbeat and fun people on the island - I don't think I've been with her when she wasn't singing. When we snorkeled, she showed us tons of marine life, including a grouper and sting ray. The students that we have met here have all welcomed us with open arms. It's ironic because us Clevelanders are now the exotic, new, and interesting people. Students will come up to us and chat and during meals some of us try to mingle and get to know these other kids. We even met a girl from HB, Caroline, and another girl from Laurel, Lilly.

This morning started out with an intense game of soccer. We only suffered one injury; as Brian and I fought for a loose ball, Brian slipped on some loose rocks and cut his leg. Ben Bornstein recorded two goals and an assist, I also had two goals and a few assists, Alix was defensive player of the match, and Rachel scored her first career goal. It should also be said that Brian was held goalless, but did kick the ball into the brush a few times. Afterwards, Ben and I went for a morning swim near the marina and had the luck of seeing a Spotted Eagle Ray, whose wing span was about 6 feet.

Today's lesson was related to sustainability. Scotty gave us a lecture on conservation, which lead to an activity in which we thought about environmental problems facing Cleveland and created our own islands. Afterwards, we went on a scavenger hunt around campus. We visited the gardens, saw some sharks, and ate a papaya.

The highlight of the day consisted of a trip to Fourth hole to snorkel. We ventured out over 100 yards to discover the reef. The reef was beautiful and we saw an abundance of fish, from Blue tang to a French Grunt. It was incredible to swim among the corals, but disappointing not to see our first shark.

Our next student leader and blog poster will be Vanessa Bajko. Happy early Hanukkah to all and please post some comments! Also a note to Pete (Whiting), please limit your comments to once every few days. You have lots of other work to do.

Zack Whiting