The Buzz

Proctor Academy Mountain Classroom arrived at the Annunciation House to begin our Border Awareness experience with hopes of improving our general immigration knowledge, completely unaware of the stories and bravery we would be shown.

The Proctor en Segovia Winter 2015 group’s first week in Spain is full of activity.  Students start building relationships with their host families, discover natural spaces along the border of the city, participate in a diverse array of afternoon activities and begin their study of Spanish language, history and literature!

Over the last seven days we have learned and grown a lot as a group during our canoeing expedition, led by our experienced river guide Jeff Renfro with Desert Sports. This trip was a true expedition, having to strap all we needed to live on into our canoes and set off into the isolation that is Big Bend National Park.

Compared to Proctor’s quaint country campus in New Hampshire, the City of Aix en Provence seems like a page from a Hemingway novel with its cobbled streets, bustling cafés, and vibrant nightlife.

Being thrust into this foreign city we soon constructed our own definitions of the phrase “Experiential Learning”. My definition being an inability to communicate and a reliance on various hand signals all of which causes local patrons to erupt in laughter.

After the winter break, our group has begun to return to life on Mountain Classroom. We quickly jumped right back into our responsibilities without hesitation. The first few days we were reintroduced to our classes. We have to be able to manage our time wisely with our homework and our daily routine. Even though we have just gotten back we are pretty independent with the jobs that each of us are assigned every day. We take turns being cooks, who make the delicious meals, and being the leader of the day, who keeps track of the groups timeliness and makes sure the rest of the jobs get done without any problems. As our group grows closer and becomes more dependent on one other in these roles, we are also learning just how independent we can be. 

After meeting with Kayden in Boston, we said our final goodbyes and began our two month journey together as a group. Our red eye flight left Boston around 7pm and we didn’t land in Marseille until late the next morning. It was such a relief to see Jen and Dave waiting for us by the baggage claim. Although the group was both excited and sleep deprived we had finally arrived and were ready to hit the ground running.