June St. Croix Day 5 & 6

Due to a fun adventured, packed day, yesterday we were not able to blog. June 8th was a day full of adventure. We woke up to good breakfast, packed our lunch then headed out the door to go on a 5 mile hike. It was a long and exhausting hike, but we learned a lot about the islands's plantlife. In the end we were rewarded to jumping in some cool and refreshing tidal pools. This was the highlight of the hike for many. When got back, we packed up our stuff then headed to the boys and girls club. We were able to meet and connect with the kids on the island. We played games like 4 square, volleyball, basketball and more. After we had an exposed and putting us out there type of event, we came back to discovery grove and prepared for a flaming fire. We made beautiful hotdogs and delicious s'mores. We we were able to learn together how to properly cook a hotdogs on an open fire. After a relaxing, fun dinner, we ended the night with circle up, then headed to bed. 

Today we awoke to our usual breakfast and hopped into our car to learn to dive. When we got there we learned all the ways to be safe underwater. We split up into 3 groups and explored the amazing life underwater. One group was able to see a turtle, one group saw a lion fish, and some saw barracudas. When the three groups rejoined, we shared what we saw and the exaggerations began to fly. But we all concluded that the diving was an amazing and life changing experience. Then we hopped back in our mobile and had some free time to enjoy to ourselves. Afterwards we had a delicious birthday dinner in honor of Kellen. Irie 

-Grace, Landon, Stock, and Shanyn

June St. Croix Trip Day Four

This morning, we woke up early to the smell of our breakfast, which was made up of pancakes, sausages, and eggs. Then, we prepared for our kayaking trip to Salt River at 9:30 by packing our lunches and applying plenty of sunscreen. When we arrived at the kayak launch, we met up with our guide, Adrian, who helped us to set up our equipment. When we got out on the river, we saw many mangrove trees and birds such as green herons, yellow crested night herons, pelicans, and a frigate. We also learned about the river and its ecosystem, and got to surf some waves from the barrier reef. After we ate lunch and went back to Discovery Grove, we had a lesson on African drumming and dance, where we were pushed outside of our comfort zones. Then, we went to the art room to start our first art projects. Today, we worked with calabash, a unique round green fruit with a hard, shiny skin. After that, we had a traditional Cruzan dinner consisting of slow-roasted chicken, rice, and "Johnny Cakes". We complete our adventurous day with circle up and an early night.

Martin and Alex

June 2015 St. Croix Day 3

We woke up just a tad bit earlier than yesterday, around 7:00-7:15. But that didn't stop us from being excited to start our day. We started the day with cereal, bagels, toast, and some yummy fruit. After our tummies were full we ventured to the local market. We all split into groups and were assigned some special foods to search for. We also had to find a new fruit or vegetable that we had never tasted. There were papayas, sugar cane, pomegranate, and some tree of life seeds. We went to each stand, excited to learn about all the new fruits and vegetables, but first greeting everyone with a "good morning". After finding our unique fruits we headed back to discovery grove to taste them. Many priceless expressions were sought seen among the students. Then we had a coconut class where we learned all about the differnt types of coconuts. We tasted the coconuts through a straw and most were not thrilled by the tangy taste. Although a few of the boys loved them and stayed to make coconut milk while ther other split into to two groups and made island jerky and tropical fruit smoothies. After we marinated our jerky and the smoothies were blended, we went fitted for snorkeling. We tried on different types of masks and flippers till we got the perfect fit. We also were provided snorkels. Then the bell rang for us to eat lunch. We had a choice between ham and cheese grilled sandwiches, or a normal sandwich. After devouring our delicious lunch we cleaned up and headed to Shoy beach to begins snorkeling adventure. Again, we split into two groups. The first group headed out and saw lots of unique creatures, such as a stingray or lion fish. Once the first group headed back to shore the second group headed out to snorkel. We all gathered and prepared for the departure of the beach. We came back to discovery grove and cleaned up and showered. After freshening up we ate some tacos for dinner. It was a very messy process. We are now ending the night with the daily circle up.  

-Charlotte and Madisen

June 5, 2015 St. Croix Day 2

At the start of the day we did team building activities. The first game that we played was "scatter". In this game we dispersed and came back together to complete a task. The next activity was run and "scream". In this activity we tried to see who could run the farthest while screaming. While we ran, we looked like chickens with heads chopped off. Then we tried to move a rope  that was shaped to be a oval around the circle while all of us were holding hands. When this was done we tossed a duct tape ball around while saying the abc's. We failed the first couple time. Then we played "everyone's it", in this game you had to tag each other and the last one standing won. When this was over we played coconut mind field. In this game one person was blind folded and your teammates had to help maneuver the person around the field to the enemy's flag and back. The final activity was the centipede walk, in this game we were on two wooden planks and we had to make it to a certain spot. In this activity a team, red torpedoes, struggled very much. When this was all over went to Cane Bay for a while.The water was very salty, and rocky a distance away. Even with the rocks, we still had a blast at Cane Bay! When we got back from the beach we rock climbed on a sugar mill that was reconstructed into a kitchen. We ate hamburgers, fries, and phenomenal fruit salad for dinner. 

-Kellen and Taisho 

June 2015 St. Croix

Day 1-June 4

This morning we woke up at three to make a journey at six fifteen. We met in the airport looking very tired and exhausted. In the plane the group sat towards the tail of the plane. When we arrived at  the Miami airport we had a three hour lay over. During this time, we all ate brunch at different restaurants. While we were waiting for the flight we got to hear Colombian music. Once again the group sat towards the back of the plane. When we arrived at the airport we were greeted by the discovery grove members. They took us to the baggage claim and Shanyn couldn't find his luggage. It turned out that his luggage was right in front of him the whole time! After this we got a tour of the discovery grove facility. Jake prepared fantastic food for all of us. When we finished eating we learned our responsibilities for the week. We ended the evening with music led our leader, Ty.

-Kellen & Taisho

Senior Reflections - Tenors Ike Brehm

Tenors:
Carson- Carson’s favorite thing about the trip was definitely the acoustics he wishes that we had more places and churches like they have in Italy.

Franklin- Franklin really loved the art that was in all the museums he learned a lot about the history and the artists of Italy.

Clark- Clark really loved everything about Italy. He loved the museums he loved the cities, he just absolutely everything.

Ike- My favorite part was being together with everyone and the thing that made all the performances worth singing was being surrounded by the friends, and these aren’t just classmates they are people who you could talk to for hours. They are true friends.

Senior Reflections: Soprano Hanna Bleznak

3/6/15

If you asked the Sopranos to describe this trip in three words, they would sum it up to "eye opening", "inspiring", and slightly "insane".

Last night the chorus split up into our four sections; alto, tenor, bass, and soprano to discuss our overall experience from the past 7 days. A senior led each discussion, and with just 2 months left of our high school choral experiences, were able to reflect on the growth of this amazing ensemble. Eye opening is a phrase we have both heard and used countless times on this trip describing attractions such as the ruins of Pompeii, the architecture overflowing Rome,  and the religion and culture that encompasses the country.  Living in a city like Virginia Beach, we don't see a lot of history or architecture that hasn't been modernized. The Pompeii ruins have been maintained to remain in their best original condition in order to tell the story of life in Pompeii. In Rome, much of the city has been renovated, but renovated to resemble its original image. The art painted on the ceilings of the Vatican museum, the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's Church tell the story of ancient Italy and Catholic beliefs of creation. This trip has brought me an overwhelming sense of peace by the religion this culture worships, even though it is so different from my own. Many times throughout this journey we have questioned the reasoning for things such as different languages, different religions, different food, (even different outlets and bathroom appliances).  And while we may not have the answers to all of those, we have learned to embrace these new experiences and remain open minded regarding these differences.

When we departed for Italy, my mind was set on fulfilling my childhood dream (based on the Lizzie McGuire Movie) of meeting a boy at the Trevi Fountain and becoming an Italian popstar. This was soon made more realistic to me when I lost my voice on the second day of the trip, and the Trevi Fountain was under construction. So since that was out of the question, it was time to set my sight on the true meaning of this trip, making music. While a small fraction of our time was actually spent singing, the appreciation we received from our audience members was by far the most meaningful part of this trip. The majority of our performances were spontaneous, and began with nearly no onlookers. But by the conclusion of each piece, we held the attention of those who heard us. This was such a great difference from our assembly performances as we could sense the passion those listening had for our sound. While they most likely did not understand the words we were saying, they responded to our tones, facial expressions, dynamics and overall emotions within each song. I believe our chorus benefitted greatest from witnessing the affect our music can have when we truly portray its purpose.

For seven days now we have spent nearly 20 hours a day together (23 teenagers won't sleep much at night). You can imagine it could be difficult to coexist when there is little time to ourselves (most of which is spent napping), and some disputes happen to arise. Between misplacing a passport, misplacing two kids (we found them), leaving a sleeping student on the bus (not our fault), and dealing with food allergies (and an unbelievable abundance of food), this journey has proved to be just a tad insane. And although my Lizzie McGuire dream may be lost, I feel comfortable returning to Virginia Beach knowing this ensemble has grown together over the past week, and will be even stronger because of this when we seniors depart in two months. Ciao :)