Greetings from Warm Beach

What's this??? A moment to write a blog entry? Unheard of!! So far we've enjoyed an action-packed, meaningful retreat with our 8th graders and one another! It occurred to me that you might like to share in some of the exciting activity. As I write this, half of our girls are off experiencing the high ropes course while the other half are reflecting in their Curiosità journals about some of the theme development activities we presented this morning. We continue to be amazed by the ability of this year's class to "go there" - that is, to make connections, use ideas as springboards into realms of higher level thinking, and express controversial opinions in a way that others can best hear, absorb and understand, if not agree. In addition, we've been having a fair amount of fun - both planned and spontaneous. We began our shared experience with several field games, geared to build cooperation and community and led by Fleur (Larsen - our SGS Sports and Activities Director and 8th grade friend!) and J - this year's Adventure and Wellness Director and beloved 6th grade teacher. Last night after dinner and before our camp fire, we shared a modified "Tashlik" ceremony, inspired by the fact that many of us had just returned from Rosh Hashanah celebrations. As we look ahead to our 8th grade year and seek to craft it in a form and fashion that will best serve us, we wrote aspects of our way of being that we'd like to leave behind or "cast off" (a truer definition of the Hebrew word "tashlik".) Then when we gathered around the impressive bon fire built by our own J - we quietly cast our papers into the flames. To round out the nod to various faith traditions, we learned the Gregorian chant Dona nobis pacem - Give us peace - with its three part harmony. Tonight we may well try to sing it as a round as well!

This afternoon will be devoted to more theme-building activities, with an eye to settling on a first term theme by the time we roll away tomorrow at one! Should the weather cooperate, we'll swim after lunch. We've also got a mind to watching the vice-presidential debates after dinner, as we deem it an historic moment for sure!

That's about it for the moment...more as it happens!