Each trimester, another 30 students go off to Proctor in Spain or France, Ocean Classroom (fall) or Mountain Classroom (winter and spring). Ideally, this means that 30 students return from these glorious experiences for the start of each term. The benefits to participants are obvious and profound, but there's also a nice sense of new beginnings for the whole school every ten weeks, as dozens of completely JACKED kids integrate back into the campus scene. This photo shows students gazing through a glass door at the new seating chart for assembly:

It's not that easy. Some kids have no problem transitioning (this part of speech is a gerund: a verb used as a noun....in this case, the verb "to transition" as in "I transitioned well..." or "You are transitioning very poorly...."); for others, the move from life on a schooner to dorms and sit-down classes can be tough. One of Sue Houston's chemistry classes is comprised completely of new returnees. They're taking the first term of chemistry in the winter. Sue has them standing on desks here to witness a stunt designed to imbue kids just back from adventures on the north Atlantic or life in southern France with passion and joy for chemistry.

Using a mortar and pestle, she grinds together two elements and a compound: carbon, sulfur, and potassium nitrate, forming black powder, which she then ignites.

It's a home-made Roman candle. The result is a room full of smoke. Now it's time to view a short clip from Mel Gibson's Patriot in which we see what gun powder and bullets do to young men's bodies when fired at close range. The overall effect is hard for me to describe. Below, Proctor Abroad coordinator Derek Mansell meets after assembly with those signed up for this spring term in Aix-en-Provence and Segovia.