Each Tuesday night and Sunday morning, my cabin mates from Gordy and I turn on our speaker to maximum volume in the dish room and start scrubbing. After every breakfast and dinner, a cabin is designated to be on dish crew. Dish crew consists of cleaning all the dishes, silverware, cooking supplies, and serving dishes. There are three different stations within the dish room; pot sink, dirty side, and clean side. My cabin of 8 girls typically has 3 at pot sink, 3 on the dirty side, and 2 on the Read More

You may be wondering: What are some of the things people spend their solos doing? There is no correct way to spend your solo, it is your time. While some people spend their time being introspective, others spend the whole time sleeping. I never found myself bored. The following are some of the things I did in my solitude.  Building fairy houses Reading  Journaling Singing to myself  Dancing in the rain Practicing mindfulness Drawing the mushrooms, lichens, and Read More

My Saturday started off bright and early at 6:10 for farm chores. It was very misty and foggy as the sun started to rise over the dew-covered gardens and pastures. Completing the various tasks we were set (mine was feeding and mucking the cows) around 7:10, the sun shed angelic beams through the trees, illuminating the mist and stillness of the air. One of the prettier mornings I’ve been fully present in. Breakfast consisted of fantastic overnight french toast, and as a treat, morning meeting Read More

It was the first day I got here. Will, my advisor, helped take my stuff all the way to New Meadows. No one was there, so I was able to unpack by myself. I will never forget the first night here. I met some new friends that I hope to keep for life. My roommate Nick and I love the talks we have when it's just us in the cabin. He plays the guitar and sang “Wagon Wheel” for the first coffee house here at Chewonki. Oliver is another one of my cabin mates. I truly think I found another brother Read More

As the leaves change to a beautiful array of yellows, oranges, and reds, the night comes quicker and temperatures drop. Semester 67 looks forward to using the wood stoves for warm and cozy nights among cabin mates. The day after returning from our backcountry trips, we had an unusual Sunday morning activity: woodstove lessons! Everyone grew extremely excited to finally learn how to use the woodstove in order to keep our cabins cozy.  Our semester community gathered at Campfire Circle before Read More

A lot of Chewonki life is go go go. But sometimes it's nice to take a break. Every weekend I look forward to going out to my phenology site to get some me-time and spend an hour looking out at the Maine coast. The first weekend of the semester each student was assigned a spot on the neck with a view of the water. The purpose of this spot is to go back week after week and notice changes and similarities (this is New England so it looks different each time), while recording observations and Read More

My day started with a walk to the farm, bright and early at 6:30 in the morning. It was still dark out and the sun was just beginning to poke through the clouds when my cabinmates and I arrived at the farm. I immediately started on my morning power walk down Chewonki Neck road to the eastside pasture. I arrived to a beautiful sunrise and set off on taking care of the cows. When I was done, I wished the cows a good day (as I had every morning for the past two weeks) and went on my way. I went Read More

There’s something special achieved through Chewonki’s focus on outdoor classroom settings and nature-based experiential learning. While there’s no contradiction between the two, academics and the outdoors rarely overlap in conventional high school settings; something that has heightened my appreciation of this facet of life at Maine Coast Semester. While I had anticipated outdoor classrooms before arriving, expecting to experience the occasional lecture outdoors or salt marsh field lab, the Read More

Each Saturday morning a faculty member stands up and asks if any students are willing to cook Saturday dinner and Sunday brunch. This requires a crew of about eight students to cook meals for the rest of the semester. I liked cooking so the first time I raised my hand for the Saturday dinner crew. I was one of the chosen students and we were told to meet at the kitchen at 4:30.  I walked up to the kitchen nervous, because this was one of the first weeks and I wasn't close with any of the Read More

Sitting on the Chewonki van, squished between Lilly on my left, diligently working on her eighth friendship bracelet of the week, and Shoshana, peacefully napping to my right, I begin to think back to just five days ago. I recall sitting in the same seat, wondering how my backpacking trip to the Bigelow mountain range would play out. What would my role in this lively group of 11 people be? How would we manage summiting three different peaks all while carrying five days worth of food and all of Read More