Art, Walking, and Culture in Ireland with the Rugged Leprechaun group

The first two days of the Rugged Leprechaun group's journey has been a mix of walking, painting, and absorbing Irish culture. Once they landed in Ireland they took a bus to Annascual, Ireland to move into their hotel, The Old Anchor Guesthouse. The Old Anchor Guesthouse is described as "walkers paradise...[and] a wild life sanctuary." Today, they took a bus to the entrace of the Dingle Way walk for an 11 mile walk. Tonight, they will be returning to the Old Anchor Guesthouse for art lessons.

Behind The Scenes of Monday Night Hypnosist

Monday Night Hypnotist, left many people with a puzzled look on their face. And a question in mind, "Were the students on stage acting or were they actually put in a trance?" We decided to interview some of the people with first hand experience of the mesmerizing effects of hypnosis. Fact or fiction?

-Were you there? If so comment and let us know your thoughts.

Yoga featuring.....*drumroll*....Tokyo Joe!

Tokyo Joe made a guest appearance at MacNeil Lounge for the Yoga: Beyond the Mat winterim today. Tokyo Joe (Bobby LaMattina) is a 10th degree black belt and runs self-defense courses for a living. Mr. Joe did an interactive self-defense lesson which is basically yoga on steroids, moving ten times faster and much more strenuous. He talked about focus, concentrating, and discipline, and how that plays a very big role in his lifestyle. At the end, Joe did a presentation with his Bo Staff which was very impressive. He has won many awards in competitive scenarios, and he is a very good role model. I think it was a great idea bringing in someone so impressively successful and with great morals for the students to look up to.

ARC Volunteers Going Strong

Yesterday, the ARC Volunteers continued to work and play games with mentally-challenged adults at a community center in Fitchburg. Group members have been playing games, building block towers, and hanging out. Group members have had mixed reactions about their first few days at the community center. Jordan H. noted that "there are some adults who say really funny and cute things." Ashley V. said that she was a little nervous when "one man invited me for a beer, but then I told him that I'm too young to drink...he then invited me for coffee instead!" Although the ARC Volunteers come home tired at the end of the day, they generally feel good about their time at the community center!

Sewing: Peaceful Past-Time or Cruel Craft?

Imagine your grandmother sitting in her rocking chair by the fire, sewing you a set of sheets for your bed. What could be more harmless? Emily, a sophomore at Lawrence Academy agreed to tell the tale of her violent encounter with sewing materials. "I was cutting my fabric, and my tip was over the edge, and I cut the tip of my finger off. I have my tetanus shot though so it's alright!" As you can see, the art of sewing is one with dangers similar to crocodile wrestling. Ms. O'Connor, the Winterim leader quotes, "Yes, there are many ways to be injured in sewing...you definitely have to pay attention." Although no statistics can be easily attained, a quick search on Google reports that there are plenty of scissor related deaths every year, many of them involving moving from one sewing station to another while holding scissors and falling on top of them.


So if any lessons can be learned here, next time you see your grandmother, give her a big hug and thank her for putting her life on the line in order to provide you bedding and warmth.

Dear viewers, have you had any traumatizing experiences in your Winterims? Let us know in the comments!

Digital Photography Heads to Boston

The Digital Photography winterim group traveled to Boston yesterday. They took a tour of Fenway, and then headed to the NorthEnd for lunch.

Tarzan Helps Kick off on-campus Winterim Evening Activities

We swung right into the on-campus Winterim Evening Activities last night with the hypnotist and a pizza party! The hypnotist was extremely funny- check out the link!

R U Dgtal Nativ Photography and GMap

The day started out with a brief run around of the school taking pictures of other Winterims having a great time. Then we had a lecture on how to take photography and make sure the lighting and perspective is just right. The image above is an example of a good picture. It shows action of the quilting and the perspective was at the table line which provided excellent lighting to the picture. We learned next about how to make and use Gmaps. Then we were on our own editing blogs and summarizing the great things other Winterims are doing. Then we put in our information into the Gmaps. We moved on to our daily jobs which mine was to write this post.

And that concluded our day.

Turn, Baby, Turn

Turn, Baby, Turn!

Mr. Oldham and his students are off to a great start as they begin their two week journey into the world of wood turning. The students are allowed to make whatever they like on the wood turners, so long as it's spherical. One student, Alex, is setting out to make a model lightsaber. However, he, like all the other students are starting out by making beautiful wooden bowls. These bowls are created by spinning a block of wood on a turner while slowly widdling down the surface with multiple sized carving tools. We wish Mr. Oldham and his students luck in these next two weeks, and we will be keeping y'all updated!

Chess

Students have been enjoying learning and playing the game of chess. It is considered a challenging game for most. Colby Emma has been struggling, he has found himself in last place on the leader board. Today he went 0-5 and is hoping to be more successful in the second half of the day. Other students, like Yeong-Jin Choi are climbing up the leader board. Yeong-Jin is 3-0 today and hopes to keep his win streak alive.

Quilting

The quilting group jumped off to a nice start yesterday. They hit the fabric store early to gather fabric for their projects. The group members said that the fabric store was fun, because they were able to begin thinking about their personal project. During the second half of the day, they were taught to use a sewing machine and cut fabric. For homework, they were told to create an outline for their quilt. Today, they began to cut and sew together their fabric that they purchased at the store yesterday. Although there have been a few minor sewing machine mishaps, the amateur quilters are quickly making their ways to pros!

Andes and Amazon Adventure

Hola from Ecuador!
We made it here last night rather late in the evening, and checked into our cute hotel in Quito, Ecuador. We were all pretty tired from our travels so we feel alseep quickly. This morning we woke up to a great breakfast together and Meg Lewis wowed us with her spanish speaking skills. (She also left her cell phone on the plane in Atlanta, Georgia yesterday). We are getting ready for a fun filled day with our awesome guide, Markus who knew all of our names right when we got on our tour bus. Today we will be emarking on an amazing adventure where we will drive to the northern part of the country and stay in a village for the next three days. On our way to the village, we will be passing Ecuador´s most picturesque, snowcapped colcanoes, Cayambe, Cotopaxi or Antisana. We will also vist the sacred Peguche Waterfall and give an offering to Pachamama (Mother Earth) and then enjoy a traditional Andean lunch in the village of Peguche. After that we are going to visit the Andean instrument workshop and listen to a musical demonstration. Once we make it to the viallge of Quitugo were we are going to begin our service project. During this project, we will help with thei deforestation issues as well as learn and teach about our different cultures. We will be staying overnight at the school, which will be an experience for all of us, but we are excited for this different and new adventure. Hope to write soon when we find another computer! Pictures to come!
Love, TEAM ECUADOR

Learning the tools of the internet

We have been setting up new accounts for internet applications that I have never heard of before. Today has been torture, I feel like I have typed my name over 100 times. However, we have created these accounts to become more organized and make our blog better. Enjoy.

Torture is such a harsh word, however I feel that we must work to make this as best as we can!

Group Photos - Take 1

Several group photos were taken during the final Winterim Meetings on Feb. 12th. All on/near campus group photos will be taken the first Monday of Winterim, 3/8.
View these photos on our Picasa Web Album.

We look forward to receiving "action photos" of all groups during the 2-week adventure!
EMAIL us at: latechie@gmail.com.

WE WOULD LOVE PHOTOS OF THESE OFF CAMPUS GROUPS BEFORE YOU LEAVE.

Rafting in Mexico

Dominican Service

Mountain Biking

Thank you and have fun!

Thank you to our fearless Winterim Director, David Smith!

We are sure everyone has done every bit of paperwork and things are all set to go. Enjoy your own bike trip. No worries - we will all be fine!
Be safe and have fun!