It was a very exciting weekend for the Barnies and all of the CSW boarding students. It was the first of this year's three All-Boarders weekends, and all of the students who live on campus are required to participate. For this first weekend, the focus was on fun, games, and getting to know the people we share a home with for the better part of the year.
Friday night we went to Kimball Farms, where we started the evening off with heaping ice cream sundaes. Then it was off to play mini-golf, volleyball, and the most popular event of the evening--bumper boats! For the next few hours, our Barnies had a blast playing and chatting, and making surprising new friends in the greater boarding community. Also surprisingly, more people seemed to be getting wet on the mini-golf course than in the bumper boats. Mini-golf can be an extreme sport!
Most of Saturday was spent at Hale Reservation, on their ropes course and team-building brainteasers. With the boarders split into groups across dorms, they were asked to push their limits on high events such as the catwalk, a log suspended between trees 30 feet in the air that they were asked to cross. When not precariously balanced amidst the treetops, the rest of the group took turns working in belay teams, working the rope and pulley system ensuring the safety of those walking amongst the trees.
Saturday night was the eagerly anticipated annual fractured fairy tales event. A fractured fairy tale is a re-interpretation of a classic fairy tale set in the CSW community. The students are given a set of rules that must be included in their performance, such as requiring a dance number or including a reference to a person on a presidential ticket. The Barnies put on a spirited performance that made us proud, and our own Blen and Helen took home the prize for Best Narration. Unfortunately, the coveted winner's award eluded us as it went to the defending champions from the White Farm dormitory who took it home on a humorous, crowd-pleasing dance performance in their interpretation of Snow White. Great job, Barnies! We'll get them next year! Though the rain prevented our planned bonfire, the dorm parents all rallied to make S'mores in the school kitchen...mmmm..mmmm.
The weekend ended with the dorm leaders from each dorm coming together to plan and run a series of field day-like activities on Sunday. Dorm leaders are older students from each dorm who take on a leadership role in the dorm in order to help their fellow students connect and have a happier, healthier living environment. The favorite game on this day was a couple of spirited games of hide-and-seek tag across school grounds. After a controversial, late-game jail break in game one, and a hectic effort in game two, the Barn and White Farm emerged victorious (among just a bit of good-spirited controversy about their resourceful methods!) More importantly, all 80 students participated and laughed and had fresh-air fun!
Here's a slideshow of some of the other memorable moments from the weekend--enjoy!!
Good night from the Barn,
Michael K.
Juliana created this gorgeous picture in our YUM lab (a digital photo lab on campus), with a little help from her Barnie sisters Courtney and Jenny, of course. Keep smiling, girls!
CSW really values student voice and leadership opportunities. We are one of the few schools in the country that elect students as voting members on our Board of Trustees. We have student members on our judicial committee, our advisory board, our curriculum committee, our activities committee, and our diversity committee, among other things. In the dorms, leadership opportunities go beyond the dorm leaders. Our very own Hyeon Jin was elected last year to serve as the moderator and head of our boarding life committee, which includes two elected representatives from each dorm and serves to improve our residential life program and policies. On Sunday, our dorm voted, and Rada and Cheyenne will be representing the Barn on Boarding Life this year. In addition, the Barn has its own judicial committee to deal with smaller-scale policy infractions within the dorm. This committee, called Dorm Board, will meet as necessary to hear the students' perspective and then decide on an appropriate consequence. This year, Dorm Board will consist of Hyeon Jin, Blen, and Minami, with Jane and Julia as alternates. Go Team!!
CSW students read All Souls, by Michael Patrick MacDonald, over the summer, and have been talking about it all week. Starting on Tuesday, students met in their small advisor groups. Yesterday, they met as entire classes (ie the entire 10th grade met together), and then the entire school came together in the theatre to talk about why CSW as a community chose this book to read, and what resonated most strongly for members of the community. There were strong reactions to the role of parenting in the book, to the code of silence, and to the issues surrounding race. We were very proud to see Cheyenne come to the microphone during assembly to share her thoughts with the filled auditorium. 
We had an exciting weekend in the Barn this week. On Friday, Ted (CSW English teacher) took a busload of CSW students to play Monster Mini-Golf, which was genius, considering the indoor course was unaffected by the rainy weather. Lit up by black lights, the creepy course is made more challenging by the dark and scary atmosphere! Pictured on the left, you'll see this had no effect on a triumphant Jenny! 
And Katie didn't let her boyfriend Pat (CSW day student) hold her back from playing a fierce game of air hockey. Once the students returned to the dorm, Jin hosted game night, which started with an hour of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), followed by an enthusiastic game of Outburst, which was won by the team that could quickly name ten states bordering the Atlantic Ocean.
The new school year is off to a great start, and all around CSW you can see signs of growth. Martha's Garden is growing the largest Hibiscus I've ever seen--they tower over the other flowers, keeping watch almost protectively. Similarly, the older students are watching out for the new CSW students, showing them the ropes and introducing them to the CSW culture, clubs, and community.
After school, students spent time with friends. Today, returning students took a walk to the local Dairy Joy (which will close soon for the season), taking advantage of the unseasonably warm
weather. Other students caught up with old friends and made new ones, while still other students made time for a bit of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) in the cozy dorm common room. It's a great way to exercise! The new students in the Barn are quickly getting used to dorm policies surrounding internet and television usage, as well as sign-out and visitor rules. Tonight, they took advantage of the first Waltham Run...every Thursday night, boarding students may sign up to take a trip into town after study hours conclude. Once there, they are able to pick up groceries, snacks, and other necessities. 
Today, the rest of the 2008-2009 Barnies finally arrived...some as late as ten pm, after a 20-hour flight! But, finally, we are all together. As you can see in the picture to the left, some girls found that after getting their stuff out of storage, they had more clothes than they wanted in their closets. They decided they wanted to store some of the clothes they wouldn't need for a while, and they were very resourceful in sitting on the clothes while trying to use the vacuum to make the clothes fit in a bag that was easy to carry and store. I think in the end they prevailed!
