WCKA February and March Newsletter

2008-03-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

Academics
By Martin Norment

The American Lit class is currently reading and discussing The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. Brit Lit is reading Alive by Piers Paul Read, which is the story of the Uruguayan Rubgy team that crashed in the Andes mountains and were stranded for 72 days. Spanish 1 is currently learning the preterite tense.

Chemistry class just finished learning about phases of matter and now has moved onto thermochemistry. Biology class is preparing for a midterm exam on human genetics. Algebra II has been studying composite functions and their inverses.

American History has just finished learning about World War 1 and is preparing for a midterm. Cultural studies class is reading Pinochet and Me by Marc Cooper, which tells the story of Chile’s 1973 coup. Spanish 2 is studying the difference between “por” and “para” and starting the conditional tense.

Algebra 1 is learning about the quadratic formula and preparing for their midterm. Geometry has been learning about geometric proofs and the golden rectangle.

Athletics
By Michael Palmer and Nate Garcia

In the past three weeks in the fields of athletics, much has happened. We have paddled on such rivers as the Fuy, Palguin and the world-renowned Futaleufu rivers. The Fuy was an extremely exciting waterfall run consisting of waterfalls ranging in height from 5 feet to 23 feet tall.

The Rio Palguin, situated just outside of the thriving vacation destination that is Pucon. Starting at the base of looming volcano, Villarrica. With smoke fluming from the top. The Palguin river, is a short yet very challenging run. It is made up of four main rapids, or drops. They are equally intense with the largest being a 20 foot waterfall.

For the past two weeks we have been paddling on the infamous Futaleufu river, located on the northern tip of the Patagonia region in Chile. Fighting with low water, we haven’t had much opportunity to surf some of the world class play features that the Futa has at higher water. But nonetheless, the Futa provides an opportunity for many of the students to run the largest whitewater they have run up to this date.

Finally, four days a week, World Class arises as the sun is cresting over the nearby mountains. At 7:30 we begin our workout, ranging from epic games of capture the flag, to Frisbee and running. For the remainder of our time in Chile, the crew will be able to practice their big air surf moves on the world famous point break on the beach in Pichilemu.

Community and Culture
By Danny Doran and Ben Hurd

Aside from athletics and academics, WCKA has been up to other activities as well. During our stay in Pucon we were challenged to our rival kayak school, Huge Experiences, to a paintball match. Needless to say, we brought home the win. Upon leaving Pucon, we experienced a fifteen-hour ferry ride from Puerto Montt to Chaiten. From there we drove to Cara del Indio on the Futaleufu River. For the Pyranha Boys last day with us, we killed a sheep for a delicious asado.

On the Futaleufu we were forced to sleep in single man cabins with beds in each. We were surrounded by beautiful mountains on every side of us and the river is a stone’s toss away from our fabulous kitchen where Israel, our very own sushi chef, sits to relax and sip Mate with all the boys.

After a 12-hour drive from Futa to Puerto Montt, going through Argentina, we spent the night in Puerto Montt. The next evening, we caught an overnight bus that took 11 hours and then caught a connection for a final 2 and a half hours to Pichilemu. Now we’re on the beach, where many group members have rented surf boards and will be trying to learn a new sport over the next week.

Quick Picture update!

2008-03-07T05:25:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone! Quick picture update for you. Our time at Futalefu is coming to an end and the students are ready to get to the beach. Staying on the Cara Del Indio Ranch has been amazing. The students in Dan's American Literature class are working on the News letter and we will get that out in the next day or two. Our trip is going by quickly as the last days are only coming up in a couple of weeks. We are all talking about the food we look forward to eat when we get back to the states and the things we want to do. Soon we will be home!
Enjoy the pictures.

2008-02-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

2/08 Siete Tazas to Pucon

So after two days at the beautiful Siete Tazas, World Class has finally made it to Pucon. There is a cool breeze coming off Lake Villarica and magnificent views of the volcano. The weather here is wonderful and the rivers plenty.

Our time at the Siete Tazas was spent beginning academic week three and running some of the first waterfalls of the semester. Although the water was low, the students and faculty still got to practice their entry angles as they flew off three significant drops out of the seven teacups.

This was following a great river-running week in Argentina and two hectic days of driving. Although we got some great footage of the Diamante, we did not get any pictures, so the one picture of us running the Diamante is a screen shot.

More to come as we begin to explore the streets and rivers of Pucon.

World Class Chile Semester

WCKA February and March Newsletter

Quick Picture update!