Blog #3: Ecuador Bound

Sunday morning family photo! What a wonderful bunch of beautiful people!

Has it really been a whole month? It is slightly unbelievable that in a matter of hours we will be in a different country! It was a wonderful parent weekend and we felt really blessed by the way you sent us all off. Family weekend consisted of pleasant weather and too much food! It was very enjoyable seeing each semester individual’s characteristics match their parents' characteristics. Identical noses and stances made sense by the end. What a talented group of parents we come from! Skit night was filled with wildly diverse performances. From showing off geckos to embarrassing stories, the night was full of laughs.

Fiona- enjoying the sunshine with her family

Rye catching up with his family

Today, we are preparing and packing. One look in the boathouse and you are overwhelmed with a sense of an organized chaos. We've made mountains of our belongings spread across the floor. You must tiptoe to reach the other side. We will rise at 4:00 AM to leave by 5:00 AM from Kroka basecamp. On the way, we will stop along the coast to smell the salt air, and for brave souls, a swim in the churning Atlantic. We then say goodbye to New England! For now.

Juan and Sofia- on the top of Mt. Monadnock 

Monadnock adventures after family weekend

We ended our last night within Misha and Lynne's wood stove heated home. We feasted, played music, and breathed in our final moments. Soon, you will hear from us from over 3,000 miles away. We look forward to this upcoming adventure, and we are excited to share with you soon the great stories we will soon hold. Wooohoo!

Your scribes,

-Rubey Grace and Blake

P.S. Thanks to the generous left over portions of food from family weekend, we had some very interesting meals after you all left! A whole smorgasbord of sweet and intense flavors. Here are two examples:

1) A bowl of crisp iceberg lettuce, and a layered, cheesy lasagna. Yum!

2) Another bowl was a condensed, cold and grainy something. We still have not been able to identify it!

Editor's Note:

Students are now enjoying their first few days in Ecuador! They are making knives, studying permaculture (including bee keeping!) getting to know the farm, and will soon be packing and preparing for their 50 day expedition which they begin in one short week! More photos and exciting updates to come from this first leg in Ecuador, soon!

Mountaintop reflections with Lucy

The crew! (Minus Savanah who is recovering from a minor leg injury)