Bro. I am quite literally, effectively braindead now that I’m on the other side of this winter break. I don’t know quite what posseses my mother to think that she should take her entire family, all of which are either in school or tough jobs, on an event-filled winter break. Alas, we are an event family and that means there is precious little time for any of us to just chill over school breaks. This is usually manageable, but because I just returned from a semester away from home and then was thrown into a month of events and trips, excuse me if I’m a little run down in this post. Let’s get rolling.
So, I decided to go on a semester program mostly because, dun-dun-dun: my family wanted me to! I swear, that should be on my tombstone: “Jade Bennett. Because her family wanted her to. RIP.” Anyway, I decided around December a year ago, and then August rolled around and I was nervous but excited to go off on my four-month-long semester program. I arrived in Idaho on the 17th and the rest is well documented and remembered history from yours truly.
For those who are unfamiliar with a semester school, let me fill you in a little bit. Not all of them look the same, but they do operate on semester-long programs for high school students, typically in the sophomore to senior range. They’re based all over the US primarily, but Alzar School, where I went spends half of each semester in Patagonia, Chile, and the other half in Idaho. When I flew to school in August, I landed in Boise and was taken to the Idaho campus, where I met all 31 of my fellow students.
Over the coming months, we had crazy awesome experiences. Classes were unusual for myself and my peers, though for different reasons; I was adjusting to a more traditional classroom space, while they were thrown off by such small class sizes. I got to get close with my peers and teachers, as we were such a small group and were together constantly, even outside of class. I lived in a yurt in Idaho with five other girls, and then in a refugio (small cabin) in Chile with three other girls. We also went on two two-week expedition blocks throughout the semester, one in the US and one in Chile. These expeditions were half backpacking and half white-water kayaking. We got to see the incredible Owyhee Canyonlands of Oregon, and Parque Nacional Patagonia in Chile, as well as the Salmon River in Idaho and the Rio Baker in Patagonia.
Alzar focused on honors and AP classes with an emphasis on outdoor experience and adventures, with a mix of cultural activities we got to partake in in Chile. We went into the town of Coyhaique, Chile every week when we were there, and spoke Spanish as best we could to order food and groceries. We also learned how to whitewater kayak and cook outside with small, backpacking stoves called Whisperlites.
Our group was average compared to other semester groups, but felt small for a lot of people. Personally, because I hadn’t been to regular school in almost a decade, it felt massive to me, but I also found some of my best friends. Especially living in a refugio with such a small group, we got super close and I loved our late-night chats about anything and everything.
I also did a ton of reading because we almost never had our phones, so check out My Bookography to see some of my updated reads. Also, I just recently added my Goodreads account to the blog, so follow me pls!! You guys don’t understand how much I missed you all and posting book reviews and updates over the past few months. Love you all so much!