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Zip-lining through the Rain Forest |
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SPRING BREAK IN COSTA RICA
In the past, Middle School Spanish students have taken trips to Mexico during spring break, and French students have visited Quebec in February. This year, both groups were combined for a single trip to Costa Rica.
 "This was an exciting opportunity for the students to travel together to a non-English speaking country with a vibrant culture and an exotic and varied environment," said Middle School Head Joan Rappaport. "Rather than foreign language being the organizational determinant, the trip focused on cultural and environmental exploration," she said, "including the challenges of navigating life in another country."
Middle-Upper School ceramics teacher Ellen Kahan, who attended undergraduate and graduate school in Mexico and has traveled extensively throughout the Spanish-speaking world, was one of the trip's three chaperons along with Middle-Upper School Spanish teacher Michael Kabot and Middle School science teacher Kevin Cooney. "These kids were really fantastic," said Ellen. "They were patient, they listened to directions. In the rainforest we tramped through rain and mud, I mean rain so heavy you'd think it was time to build an arc, and they never complained. They loved it."
 The adventurous teens--and all three chaperons--braved Costa Rica's famed zip-line tour above the rainforest. A lunchtime straw poll conducted a week later in the BFS cafeteria confirmed that it was by far their favorite experience. Students took a ski tram up to the first of a series of platforms some 600 feet above the forest floor, then were strapped into harnesses and clamped to greased wires in order to bullet from one platform to the next. "The last one was as long as the Brooklyn Bridge," said a delighted Trevor G.
Was anyone afraid? Anton S. was, ironically, the only eighth grade boy brave enough to openly admit his initial terror of heights but he laughs about it now, and says he's happy he went through with it and bonded with his classmates.
"The zip-line was great and tested the kids' resolve," said chaperon Kevin. "They had an opportunity to turn back, but they screwed up their courage and did it. We couldn't see much because of the rain, but that also made it faster and more thrilling."
 Student Max G. actually preferred the warm Pacific waters at a Puntarenas beach where they stayed their final day, to shooting over the rainforest canopy on a zip-line. His classmate Elinor H. agreed with him. Puntarenas and the hot springs were her top contenders on this brief vacation.
Was there an educational component to the spring break adventure? Students Clara S. and Olivia G. got to use their Spanish on the remote island village where very little English was spoken, in order to visit a turtle nesting site and museum. They also got to try out their Spanish during a visit to a marketplace, also while ordering lunch, and during a particularly funny chat they had with a gregarious 5-year-old girl in a bakery.
"It was educational in that the kids learned something about themselves," stressed Kevin. "We had a Quaker meeting in Monteverde, which was settled by Quakers, and the students had an opportunity to reflect on all the things they had never seen before, their experience of the jungle and the Cloud Forest, being away in a foreign country with their friends, and the challenges they had overcome."
While on a tour bus in San Jose they passed a big, yellow house and were surprised to learn from the guide that it was the president's home. It seemed relatively humble and unguarded by US standards. Chaperon Ellen said it reminded her that Costa Rica is known historically to be a peaceful nation with warm and friendly people.
 She only expressed one regret about the trip. "The Arenal Volcano was covered by clouds. We never saw it. "For another time," she sighed, perhaps indicating a desire that the trip is repeated next year.
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