the second semester

Sarah and I are once again at Mountain School, living in Underwood with Brigitte and Timo and babysitting faculty children during our gap year. Alden asked me last night about how the Spring 10 blog was holding up, and when he told me how touched he had been by our efforts to continue with anonymous, journal-like posts, I felt inspired to try and re-invigorate this thing!

(this is Rachel speaking)

I want to tell you guys everything about the new semester; I don't even know where to start. Sarah and I arrived at Mountain School a few days before the Fall '11 kids did, and for a few days we roamed the campus pretending that it was ours once more. On the first weekend of the new semester it was strange and more painful than I thought it would be to watch the kids meet their advisors, cook brunch for the first time, talk about Ayn Rand and stay up late in the dorms. I sort of had no idea what my identity at Mountain School could be outside of the parameters of class schedules and planned activities, etc. The kids seem SO young! I really can't believe this, but there have already been like 4 hook ups! The first one happened on Tuesday, the FOURTH NIGHT of the semester! It's funny, Sarah and I have been explicitly forbidden by Alden from talking to the new kids about any details from our personal lives or the spring '10 semester. They ask us tons of questions like what we did on Solo, who our favorite teacher was, what activities we did on weekends... we aren't allowed to answer any of them.

After two weeks here, I finally feel completely comfortable with a new gang of kids roaming around. Sarah and I eat meals with them and play knockout with them, but we also have a great time doing things that none of them can do--for example, I ate dinner at Missy and Alden's house with the Kruses, and I got to hear Jack and Alden gossiping about all of their English students! Babysitting Ella and Smalden and peeking into Alden and Missy's secret glamorous world is a joy for me.

If anyone wants to come visit us during the fall semester, we would love to see you! And so would all the faculty--they really do remember every single one of us, and lots of details from our semester.

Anyways, greetings from Vershire, and good luck with all of your adventures. Post them here!

--Rachel