Colin's Network Blog

Today was my last day at Putney. I am very sad to leave Putney, although I can not wait to come home and see all my family and be home for thanksgiving. My school day started with geometry at 11:10 today, which is the time I am usually eating lunch at Maumee Valley. In geometry today we worked with a program called Geogebra. Geogebra is a program on the computer that allows you to draw shapes and lines to make diagrams. We made a cube sort of design and got to play around with the program a little bit. After geometry was lunch, following lunch i headed off to European history. In history we discussed the reading on Martin Luther and John Calvin. After our discussion the class watched a student presentation on current events dealing with a specific country. Todays countries were Ireland and Spain. After history it was time for woods crew again. Splitting wood came easier today after having some practice on Tuesday, although I know that I will be sore tomorrow.After woods crew I ate dinner and hung out in a dorm for a while and just talked with some friends, then headed back to my dorm. Tomorrow I have two classes and Paige’s uncle will be picking us up and taking us to lunch and then the train station.

Network has at times felt like it was never going to end, and that it was dragging on forever.  Looking back over the experience now though I feel as if I was just stepping onto the train in Toledo. I have loved every minute of my network experience, some more than others of course. I have enjoyed meeting many new people, and being forced outside of my comfort zone. Putting myself out there and having to meet new people and make the most out of situations that you might not have put yourself in by choice only makes you a stronger person in the end. I am so much more comfortable with myself now that I have gone through this experience. I would recommend it to everyone at Maumee Valley. Although it has been extremely challenging to be away from home for this long it has made me appreciate some things that I don’t think I could have, had i not been forced to be away from them. I am going to miss sharing my experiences with friends, teachers, and family. My blog has been a great way for me to reflect on each of my days, and will serve as a good tool in remembering all the things that I have done over the last three weeks. I hope everyone that has been reading my blog has enjoyed the journey, I know I did.

Vermont

Fog

Today was much more of an active day then yesterday. My day started off at 8 o clock with a double block of Spanish. In Spanish we went over the homework and learned some new prepositional phrases. After that we finished a movie that the class had already started, and which they will be writing a review on later. After Spanish I had a double block of English. We started of with a student presentation about writing styles that inspired her. She chose to present on odes. She talked about how an ode is a poem for someone or something, and then gave us some examples. After this she gave us each objects and gave us time to write an ode about that object. I had nostrils and I talked about how overlooked nostrils often can be. After the presentation we discussed their journal entries on statements such as what goes around comes around and life isn’t fair. After some discussion we headed outside for yoga. After some nice relaxing yoga we talked about the this I believe essays that we had to read and we got a good discussion going about just life in general. After English the whole school gathered for what is known as sing. Sing is an assembly type gathering for which you do nothing but sing for 30 or so minutes. This was a lot of fun and we got to sing a lot of energetic songs and make rounds out of them. Sing, and the people in sing, helped me to feel more comfortable doing something that i would otherwise not normally do, which I believe this whole experience to be about. After sing was lunch. Following lunch I had yet another double block (yuck) of chemistry. In chemistry we reviewed the notes from yesterday and then did a logic puzzle on the periodic table in which we had to fill in sample elements based on trends and patterns that can be found in the periodic table. This concluded my academic day.

After school it was time for afternoon activities. My activity today was barn. First we rode in the back of a pick up truck and went to a storage building where wood is kept. We filled the back of the pickup truck then headed over to the KDU, also known as the dining hall to stack the wood for the oven. After this short wood transfer, we headed to the barn. In the barn we cut open a round bale and emptied the hay into wheelbarrows and spread out the hay in front of the cow stalls. Round bales are so much heavier than they look, and it took a while to get all the hay separated and in front of the different stalls. After we got the hay out, the barn head let in the cows, I never realized how big cows where until I stood next to one. The cows knew exactly where their stalls  where, I was amazed. Once the cows got to their stalls, we had to hook a chain to their collar of sorts. We then had to go grab more hay and refill the stalls once a cows hay began to run low. After working in the barn i had some free time so I walked back to grey house and hung out there for a while.

At 6 o clock I headed back to campus for dinner. For dinner we had beef stew. After dinner I had some free time and headed to another dorm to hang out with some friends before evening activities began. There was a bunch of us sitting on couches in the commons when all of a sudden this kid came out of nowhere jumped on the couch I was sitting on and BAM the whole thing collapsed. The wood broke under the pad and I am pretty sure that it wasn’t getting fixed. I left this event and headed to my evening activity, which for tonight was B&W photography. I was excited to try out photography. The teacher was confused as to why I was put in photography for one night but she let me watch students develop the photos in the black room for a while and then taught me how to do a photo gram. It was cool to watch kids actually using a dark room and develop the negatives from a film, as most photography is done on a computer these days. I can see why because it is quite the process just doing black and white developing, I couldn’t imagine color. Essentially you place your negative in a projector that projects it down onto a mat upon which you set up a frame of sorts. You turn on the light and you check the projected image though a microscope to see if it is in focus. You then turn off the light and place your photo paper in the pre lined up frame and turn the light on for a pre determined amount of time, which determines how light or dark your photo will be. The light projects your negative onto the photo paper, which soaks up the light. You then take the photo paper and run it through a number of washes. First a developer, then a stopper, then a fixer, and finally water to remove the chemicals. I however was not quite ready for all of this so instead I was taught how to do Photo grams. For a photo gram instead of projecting film you simply project light onto the photo paper which you have already placed objects onto. The spots where the objects are stay white, and the space where the light hits the paper turns black. I have several samples of this which I will be bringing home. I am now in Grey house, awaiting the highlight of the day for my fellow dorm mates, the drive to the 24 hour Sunoco down the road.

The Barn

Today was a rather uneventful day as far as classes were concerned. I had a double free in the morning so i just slept until 9. My first class began at 11:10, which was Geometry. In Geometry we worked on more distance problems, which we have not yet done at MV. After geometry I had European history for the first time. In European history they are studying Martin Luther and John Calvin, which I actually studied last year, so it is easy for me to participate in class discussions. This concluded my school day. I have noticed though that all the classes here are under 15 students and all the classrooms have tables instead of desks which makes for a more open class. Many of the classes often hold class discussions, which is a productive way of learning in my opinion.

Yesterday I was given an English assignment to read from this I believe, a collection of essays written by people explaining what they believe in. I was not sure if i was going to do this assignment or not. I decided though that i had more than enough free time today, so I mine as well check it out. The first essay I read was by Warren Christopher from NPR’s all things considered. Not all the writers are as well known but some of them are.

His essay was titled “A Shared Moment Of Trust.” His essay started out talking about him driving down a dark two lane highway at night. In the distance approached two headlights. He said that his eyes caught the other drivers as they passed each other. He explained that in that moment they had a moment of trust and that he was relying on the other driver not to be distracted and cross over the line, as was the other driver to him. He went on to give another example about negotiations, as he was previously a negotiator for the government. His essay really got me thinking about how your life is in a lot of ways dependent on the lives of others and that you have connections with others. A quote that I really liked from his essay goes as follows, “The approaching light may not be a threat but a shared moment of trust.”

I read a few more essays, and they got me thinking about my life and what I believed, and I think that this network experience has helped me to figure out just what I do believe, and what is important to me. Getting to travel to different parts of the country and see how other people live, learn, and work has helped me to see how I wish to live my life. I have been meeting new people and hearing how they live and their beliefs in different cities, just like the website for this I believe. Only I have been hearing all these peoples beliefs by meeting people that I would never have met. From the shelter in Philadelphia to the woods of Vermont. I am glad that I decided to do this English assignment, because it has helped me to look at how this experience has affected me in a different way.

Putney Woods

My day started off at 3:40 this morning. Everyone was waking up for the meteor shower so i figured why not get up because I had never seen one before and thought it would be pretty cool. I have to say that I expected a lot of meteors to fall at once and see a lot of shooting stars at the same time. It turned out to be more like one a minute, which was still amazing and one of the coolest things i have ever seen, just not quite what I had expected.

Today was my first day of classes at Putney. Today started out with Spanish. In Spanish class we went over their homework and then sung some Spanish songs while the teacher played guitar. This was cool and I have never seen that done anywhere else. After Spanish I had English. In English they are reading this book called This I Believe, which is a book about all these essays written by people about what they believe. You can find some of the essays at http://thisibelieve.org/essays/featured/. To prepare the class for this book we read the introduction in class today and then talked about some different statements that we believe either to be true of false. After Spanish I had Geometry. In geometry we worked on these super long problems that dealt with finding the distance of a point from a line. It was a multiple step process and took forever to find the actual answer. Following geometry was lunch, hot dogs. After lunch I had a double period of Chemistry. In chemistry we took notes on the periodic table and then worked out some patterns that can be found in the periodic table of elements.

This concluded my school day. After my school day it was time for afternoon activities. This time is occupied by either sports or work jobs. I was on woods crew today. This means that I rode out to a spot, on the back of a tractor, where some trees had been cut down and I chopped some wood. I had never chopped wood before and it took a while to get the hang of it but after a while I felt pretty comfortable chopping the wood. Only two of us showed up though so we did not chop as much wood as they normally do. After chopping wood we rode in the wagon of the tractor to a shed where they store all the wood. I have never seen so much split wood in my life.

After work jobs I walked back to my dorm, Grey house, and went on the computer for a little while. After sitting around for a while I walked back to the dining hall and ate dinner. After dinner I hung out in the Library for a little bit, until it was time for evening activities. My evening activity tonight was weaving. Putney actually has its own weaving studio, who knew? In weaving I used a loom to weave different patterns into a set of string that was already strung through the loom. You use peddles that pull up different sets of strings and you run a shuttle though and then press them all together so that you get a tight weave. A kid in the class is weaving a hammock, which I thought would be really cool to do.

Another thing I have noticed here at Putney is that I apparently have an accent. I have never been anywhere where I have had an accent but everyone thinks my name is Allen when I tell them that my name is Colin. When I ask why everyone always tells me that it is because of my accent.

Weaving Studio

Today was a drop holiday at Putney. There were no classes which was very nice and i got to sleep in once again. After sleeping in i walked to pick up Paige and we ate lunch. After lunch our friend Noah took Paige and I into the woods, which we were allowed to go in to today. The woods are so beautiful. We hung out by a stream and talked for a while and the proceeded to an apple orchard. We ate some apples and sat and talked for a while. I am amazed at the views that Vermont has to offer. I never knew that Vermont was such a pretty state.

I am amazed at the sense of community at Putney. Everyone has jobs that they are required to do and everyone helps out. They also eat their own food here and chop their own wood. It is such a sustainable environment to be in. The school composts all there leftovers as well. Having to live in a dorm has proven to be interesting. This is my first time in a dorm and I have to say that it makes me miss my room. Having to share a room with two other students has made me miss home even more. I am so used to having alone time at home and being able to play the music I want in my room and go to bed when i am ready. However when i am here you have to be conscious of your roommates. Even though they aren’t always so considerate of you.

I was asked a question about why I did not want to swim in the pond and the answer is that I don’t think that it is the most clean pond ever. It is pretty close to the cow barn and i am worried about some of the run off from there. It is not that i don’t like to swim in ponds or lakes because i very much enjoy swimming in ponds and lakes. I am very grateful that Paige has accompanied me on this trip. As much as this is a personal experience and has been something that I can grow from as an individual it has been so nice to have someone around that you know. It has been nice that Paige has been someone that i know i can hang out with if everyone else decides to be busy. I am very much enjoying Vermont but am still looking forward to coming home.

Apple Orchard

Vermont

Today was my first full day at Putney. I am in the grey house dorm. It is the farthest away dorm on campus. It is about a 15 minute walk away from campus. At first this was a bummer and i was kind of upset but I enjoy the walk now as it allows me to take in the beautiful views that Vermont has to offer. I have a dorm mentor named Joey. Joey has been very helpful in showing both Paige and I around as well as just being a friend while we are here.

The campus of Putney is unlike anything that I have ever seen before. There is a working farm complete with small animal, cow, and horse barns. The campus is very spread out and there are a lot of buildings. There are a few learning buildings which are mostly just your average classrooms, except that they all have tables and not desks. There are however a lot of art rooms. There is an art room which has a weaving studio, a blacksmith shop, dark room, and jewelry making studio. There are also other art spaces across the campus like the wood shop and other places.

The campus also has a pond, which i have heard that kids actually swim in, I don’t think I will be, and not just because of the cold. All the people that I meet here are extremely relaxed. Everyone here is so understanding and laid back. The students don’t seem to mind about what anyone else looks like or what their interests are. This is so refreshing to not have to be presentable every second of every day. There is even a flannel off going on. Some students have decided who can where a flannel shirt the longest, without every taking it off. They are now on week 3. It is so cool to meet people that are just so free spirited.

Tomorrow is a drop holiday which i am told happen about twice a year and the headmaster just decided to suspend classes on Monday. I have heard that the teachers here are also very spunky and relaxed and am looking forward to meeting them.  I am enjoying Vermont because it is one of the prettiest places that I have every seen.

Cow

The Pond

I am writing about yesterdays train trip today because Putney’s in dorm time is 11, their internet off time is also 11. This did not work out so well as I was planning on blogging after in dorms. Yesterday started off with breakfast and then off to the train station where i met Paige. We got the tickets without any problem and got on the train hassle free. We arrived in New York ahead of schedule a half an hour ahead of schedule so the conductor told us that we could get off the train and come back on. I went up and looked around. I was amazing at the amount of everything. There were so many people and so many taxis and buildings. It was my first time in NYC and i am looking forward to going back again.

The train ride to Vermont went rather quickly and Paige and I mostly watched movies and listened to music. When we got off at Brattleboro Karla was not there yet but she arrived in about half an hour. On the ride to Putney Karla explained to us the inter workings of Putney. Once we got to Putney everyone was very extremely welcoming. Everyone referred to us as the Ohio people. It was so nice to be welcomed with such opened arms. Everyone at Putney seems very relaxed and just kind of goes with the flow. It was dark by the time we got to Putney last night but this morning I have been able to see some of it although it is foggy and I can’t see that far. I am looking forward to seeing what Putney has to offer.

Madison Square Garden

Well my last day in Philly was a sad but happy day. At my last day of school I got many good byes from teachers and friends. Today in English the teacher talked to us all about the 3,000 colleges in the US and how students should not stress out as much as they do about B’s and how the grading system should be more like that of the lower school which is a needs improvement, improving skills, and meets requirements. This was an interesting idea and I am not sure I agree with it or not.

The highlight of everyone’s day at GFS today though was the surprise of watching a hawk eat its lunch. Some kids noticed a hawk in a tree, which was HUGE, eating a squirrel. Within about 5 minutes half the school had gathered around the tree looking up at the hawk. Every few minutes the hawk would snap off part of the squirrel and the crowd would make noises of disgust. It was quit the sight. Everyone was late to their next period class but the teachers did not mind because half of them were watching the bird as well.

For dinner the Randalls and I went out to a local diner which had great food and milkshakes. After dinner we took a picture together. I will miss the Randalls and I am sad that I have to leave them because I feel like i was just starting to really get to know them and feel comfortable being around them. I feel a similar feeling about the school. I almost feel like I finally settled into the family and and school and now I have to leave. I do have to say that my experience has been amazing in Philadelphia. I would not change any of it for any reason. I very much enjoyed meeting new students and teachers and seeing a new city. I am excited though to go on to Vermont and see what yet another school is like and see a state that I have never seen before. Goodnight to the city of brotherly love.

Students and teacher garthered around the hawk

The Randalls and Me

Today was my last day at whosoever gospel mission. I have to say that I was sad to leave there. It has been such a great organization to work with and I am really going to miss working with the guys at the mission. It was so refreshing to get thanked for your work. I did have somewhat of a shocking encounter with one of the guys today though.

Today at our lunch table a man told Paige and I his story about how he wound up at whosoever gospel mission. The man explained that he is from Maryland where he had a wife, job, kids, and a house. He told Paige and I that he was bored with his life and decided to try Heroin and his life went downhill from there. He lost everything and became apart of the drug lifestyle and all the bad things that accompany drug use. The man said that he was at the mission to get closer to god.

I was very shocked by this mans story I had a hard time how you could get bored with what sounded like the life that most Americans dream for. I could not quite grasp the fact that he had kids and still turned to drugs because he was “bored.” I just had a really hard time with this. It truly made me realize just how powerful a drug habit can be. After the man tried it he could not turn away from it, not even for his children. I believe stories like this need to be heard by kids everywhere because it truly is a hard story to swallow and makes you sad, but it makes you realize just how badly drugs will mess up your life.

On a lighter note though Whosoever has turned me on to wanting to work with more orginizations with similar programs and I will be looking for places like this in Toledo to help out with because there are truly people in the world that need your help and everyone can afford some time to help these people out. I will miss some of employees of whosoever as I did make a few friends that were great to talk to throughout my days there.

Today was also Will’s birthday. Will opended his presents before school which surprised me because even on my birthday I do not have that much time in the morning. This evening we sung happy birthday and ate cake. I am both happy and sad that tomorrow is my last day here in Philadelphia. I am sad because it has been a great experience and I have made a lot of friends here and started to get along really well with my host family. On the other hand however I am excited to move on to my next adventure and see what else this trip has to offer!

Paige and I at whosoever gospel

Today both started and ended very interestingly. This morning I woke up as usual but on my way down stairs I skidded across the floor on the Randall’s dog’s present that he left for me. Luckily I was wearing shoes! My day at school today was a lot like most of the other days at school. However I am beginning to make more and more friends as each day goes on. It is nice to make new friends in new places. Today after school Will had basketball so I had to wait after school while his practice ended. Will however forgot that I was still at school and got a ride home with one of his friends and Will’s babysitter had to come and pick me up. I do have to say though that it allowed me to get in some much needed reading for English back at MV.

I have to be honest about one thing that surprised me a little though. I had heard from a few different people that GFS is viewed nationally as a very prestigious school. I have to say it is a good school but I do not think that it is any better than MV. I would even say from what I have experienced at GFS that the academics at MV are more challenging then those at GFS. I am not trying to say that MV is better than GFS at all!! I just found it interesting that i was told that GFS is known for such a prestigious academic curriculum but MV is not, which does not make a whole lot of sense to me. I find the academics very similar if not easier at GFS which makes me wonder why MV is not regarded as highly, or maybe it is and I am just unaware of it?

On a different note the faculty at GFS are very into talking to me and I have had numerous faculty from many different departments come up and introduce themselves. GFS has an advisor program very similar to MV’s however they call it homeroom instead, but still the same thing. It is nice though to meet faculty from another school and just talk to them and explain your reasons for participating in the Network. Many students at GFS participate in the network and I have been encouraging students to come to Toledo. GFS also offers a network to France. I am not sure about anywhere else but I know for sure they have a connection in France. GFS however does not have a winterim type program to get time off to participate in networks. The closest thing that GFS has to MV’s winterim program is a work study for juniors. They have to work with someone in the community for a month. I think this is unfortunate for the students because I think it is important for students to have other opportunities like network and even the on campus winterims to experience the world around them.

One thing that I have learned through this experience so far is to appreciate the little things. Before I set off on this adventure I was always talking about how stupid Toledo was and how sick I was of seeing the same people at MV every day but I have to say that I miss Toledo and the people there. Toledo is not as bad a place as I once thought it was. I have also come to appreciate things in a different way from being gone. I have to admit that when at home I unfortunately usually do not see my grandparents for about the same amount of time as my network exchange, however talking to them on the phone and hearing how much they love to share this experience with me through my posts means so much to me and makes me realize just how valuable time with your family, especially your grandparents truly is. And I will always be thankful for all the time i can spend with them.

Beautiful Park a few miles from the Randall’s house