Well hey everyone! I've been a little out of the loop this past week. You see, Classical Conversations, the company which Mrs. Bortins runs and which produces the home education curriculum which brought most of us to Mandala, was hosting a practicum. A bevy of prospective (and current) homeschooling moms and Classical Conversations tutors arrived on Tuesday morning to listen to a great lineup of speakers. Aside from teaching the adults, the practicum also offered a series of camps for their children, ranging from a simple play-camp for the toddlers to a persuasive writing class for the young teens. They also provided a nursery for the babies. Leigh asked a group of us (the ones who's work studies would not be too badly disrupted) to assist the men and women teaching these smaller groups. Six of us ended up making the trip out to the practicum every day. Christopher drove the rest of us: Laura, Anna Gordon, Gracsyn, and Elizabeth, besides me.
So my story really starts off a few hours after I posted my last update on monday, when the six of us piled into Mrs. Bortins' car and drove to the Sandhills Presbyterian church where everyone was getting ready to host this event. A few other fellows met us there, where we unloaded a few hundred pounds of books, set up some tables in classrooms and corridors, and listened to our assignments for the week. Gracsyn and Anna went to the nursery, Laura and Elizabeth took the geometry (or Geo-draw) classes, Christopher volunteered to help teach trigonometry to pre-teens, and I almost jumped out of my socks for the chance to work in the Lost Tools of Writing class with the oldest group, the 12-15 year olds. Once we had our assignments, we left for home. This would prove to be the least eventful trip home in the entire week.
We rose early to be at the practicum on time. With a group prayer and a few exaggerated farewells, we left for our classrooms to find our teachers. Because Leigh was at the practicum, Caleb led the remaining fellows in math drills and review, adding a little bit of music to the mix and ending the days early, at lunch. While the other fellows ate and left for work, the six of us enjoyed a leisurely break, contrasting sharply with the intense teaching of the hours before and after. So each day came and went. After leaving the practicum each day, the six of us would generally head over to the nearby town of Aberdeen and the stores and restaurants there. I won't go into too much detail about these rides, but I can say with confidence that between impromptu Chinese fire drills, ear-shattering Mozart, and strange behavior in multiple drive-throughs, we brought a great deal of amused confusion to the people we met on the way— and grew closer as a group.
The evenings together at the villas were mostly uneventful, except for a few bouts of harmless pranking here and there, as certain fellows performed acts of— how can I put this— voluntary interior decorating on their neighbors' villas. I love the spirit of playfulness here; everyone got a laugh out of it and could appreciate the humor.
The practicum ended on Thursday. We said goodbyes to our students (and teachers), some of whom had really grown on us, and cleaned up the church. It was hard to settle down that evening, because we felt like the week was concluded, but we managed to make it to bed and rise again on Friday. Leigh was out with her husband, and the fellows were all present, so Caleb led us in a full day of music discussion and teaching, dismissing the women after lunch to work on choir with just the men. We had a lot of fun, even those who took longer to pick it up, and we made good progress. Austin amused Caleb with the statement, "This is too high; I can go an octave lower." and then amazed him by proving it, hitting one of the lowest notes on the keyboard with power and volume. We're going to continue working on our piece while Caleb introduces something to the other side of the fellows.
With nothing scheduled for the rest of the day, we all went our separate ways. Some people went to town, some went swimming, but there were no mass excursions until later that evening, when most of us went to the Copper Lodge to watch a few movies. We left at midnight and most everyone tried to sleep early.
Caleb came around on Saturday to meet for individual music lessons, and many of us used Saturday to sleep and simply relax, completely worn out. By four in the afternoon, the relaxation was over for me, Anna Harvey, Zach, and Laura. We met in the driveway, wearing our most stylish clothes, threw our dance shoes in the back of Anna's car, and took off for Greensboro and the monthly swing dance they hold there. It was a good night. We danced our feet sore with an expert crowd and had a wonderful time. Our GPS lied to us on the way home, however, and we rolled into our darkened neighborhood at nearly one in the morning. Expecting our fellows to be asleep, we crept into our houses, only to find them all but deserted as nearly everyone else was still at the Copper Lodge. I was soon asleep, and awakened only too soon the next morning.
Alec and I left earliest to go to choir where I would try out to join, and we watched the rest of our fellows stride in through the doors through the morning, most of them arriving early for Sunday school. The pastor taught on Daniel and Jonathan Edwards, two strong Christians who were strong even as young people. I watched my fellows sit a little taller in their seats as they thought about ways to follow these examples. Mandala is teaching us all responsibility, and it's not letting us make any excuses based on our age. We're treated as adults here, both in school and at work, and it's always a challenge but a joy.
After church a few of us went to the Bianco house for dinner and conversation. It was a pleasure, as always, as my smart mouth almost got me expelled— as always. We parted in good spirits, hosts and hosted, and the fellows drove home. When we got to the villas, we discovered that a majority of the others had gone swimming. Ian and I both observed that my villa immediately made people sleepy, so we experimented on that possibility by hopping from house to house, comparing atmospheres. Hijinks ensued, dishes were washed, and art was made. Twilight found most of us together again at the Copper Lodge, where we cleaned the house, played sardines, watched one final movie for the weekend, and set up the classroom for the next day.
We rose bright and cheery, and Caleb led us through another day of music, this time ending it with the ladies' choir. While there are usually a half-dozen of us staying at the Copper Lodge every day, either working on the house or doing something computer-based, only Zach and I are behind today. Everyone else has temporarily joined one of the other jobs. It strikes me what a unique and unusual experience this is, to be so heavily immersed in both school and work. I've never done anything like this before, and I've never heard of a similar program. It really impresses on me what we have and don't use during the day, whether it's time, potential, energy, or any combination of the three. We can do so much. At the same time, we're finding we can't do everything, and it's not an easy truth to accept.
Au revoir,
Barnabas
Because we were not all together for this week, we had no chance to test together. We'll make up for it next week by doubling all the scores!
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