It’s reading week here at Dolphin Lodge. I love to read, and so the idea of spending an entire week reading ahead in our school books excites me. We haven’t spent all our time reading, though. There are also assignments to be written, and fun to be had. They told us in the pre-arrival letters to be prepared to re-learn how to “recreate” without technology, but I wasn’t prepared for how much fun it is to spend time together without electronics (except for music, which is always a good thing to have).
Before I jump into reading week, I would like to recap the weekend. CCSP arranges it so that we don’t have assignments over the weekends, which means that a lot of us students are enjoying “real” weekends for the first time in a long time. Landon, Heather, Teri, and I kicked off our Saturday with some surfing on the point. It was Teri and I’s first time surfing, and it was so exciting to be out in the waves with the other surfers pretending we knew what we were doing. We got back from surfing just in time to head to mini golf with the whole crew! I spent a lot of vacation time growing up playing putt-putt, and so it was great to get a chance to play again. Everyone ended up doing quite well, despite a couple balls hitting the nearby shrubs. 😉
My favorite part of the weekend has to be Saturday night, when Lex, Landon, and all of the students were all hanging out in the living room. We did a variety of things, like coloring, journaling, talking, and doing a puzzle. I just can’t get over how much fun it was to relax and be creative all together. We laughed so much that night, and I went to bed full of thankfulness for the opportunity to live in community with such great people, in such a beautiful place.
I have a tendency to go into too much detail, so I won’t recount every detail about Sunday, but my favorite parts of Sunday were leading worship at the Anglican church (a hilarious experience) and reading The Fellowship of the Ring on the window seat upstairs.
On to the actual week, finally! After we had our reading week debriefing on Monday, we all went separate ways to begin reading. We went to the marae garden to work after lunch and had our first Te Reo Maori class after dinner. Tuesday, I went to poetry class with Lex, went with Landon, Jonathan, Teri, Lex and Heather to read on the beach at the point while others surfed, and then we had Te Reo again. On Wednesday, some of us had a Valentine’s Day sunrise picnic before coming back and doing more school work. Then, we celebrated Jonathan and Kat’s Birthdays with burgers, games, headstands, handmade icecream (with homemade hot fudge and candied almonds), and Pavlova! It was so much fun celebrating them and eating good food. On Thursday we spent most of our time doing school work and then had Te Reo again in the evening. Friday was spent preparing (with a brief beach break) for our Te Reo Exam and presentations in the evening.
So, you could say it’s been a good week. One full of learning about the Maori culture and language, fun times, and reading. A week of further bonding as a community and of learning how to balance school time with fun time in this beautiful location. I can honestly say that so far this experience a student with CCSP has been one of the best in my life. Here’s to more growing in our wisdom, our faith, and our friendships.
Creation Care Study Program NZ 