Paige Hosbein This year, Project Week, more commonly known as “P-Week,” was filled with countless crazy adventures, including scuba diving in Belize, attending a robot show in Tokyo, and bathing in natural springs in Iceland. During this week, students not only learned about different cultures, and forged new friendships, but they also tackled some unusual bumps along the way. Most notably, for the first time in P-Week history, a group essentially “ruined” a house. On the Oregon Climbing Adventure, students arrived in Bend, Oregon on a Monday and had a great first night in house #1; it was a beautiful home on a private 20-acre ranch with a fire pit, gorgeous views, and a hot tub. After lots of climbing at the Smith Rock State Park the following day, one of the toilets clogged at the house, unexpectedly causing the fire alarm to go off and the ceiling to leak; it was quite a scene! Everyone quickly ran outside, unsure of what was going on, but were later ushered into the basement’s game room while Ms. LC and Mr. Baer assessed the situation. Everyone soon had to pack their belongings and the five hundred dollars worth of groceries into the vans at 9 PM and drive to house #2. Fortunately, the homeowners graciously offered the group another house on their property. Despite the uncertainty, the group remained positive and did not veer off of the busy, fun-filled schedule. Olivia Syftestad, a freshman, commented, “No one saw it coming! Moving houses was crazy and unexpected, but we ended up having a fantastic time and a great story to tell. It was an awesome first p-week!” Furthermore, Katie Kraczkowsky, a sophomore on the trip to Trinidad, recounted their hectic journey back to Chicago. The group’s first flight from Trinidad to Miami was delayed, causing them to miss their connecting flight to Chicago. Once the group arrived in Miami, they made it through customs in record timing and sprinted towards the check-in counter of the large airport. Although they thought they had made the flight, there was no time to send their bags to the plane. The students were furious – some would miss flights scheduled for the next day, while others would miss family plans. In the meantime, Ms. Jeno and Ms. Ramirez spent two hours sorting everything out with American Airlines while the students waited around at the airport. Finally, everyone arrived at a hotel at about 1:30 a.m. and slept for an hour before returning to the airport at 3:30 in the morning. Some were on standby, while others, like Katie, flew back to Chicago by themselves. She stated, “In the end, we all returned home safely and extremely sleep deprived.” Lastly, in Chile, sophomore Emilio Alvarez had an allergic reaction to peanuts from eating a muffin in a café — even after he was ensured it did not contain peanuts. As a result, Emilio had to use his EpiPen and wait for hours at a clinic, which all happened on the same day his group planned to leave for Patagonia. Luckily, Emilio did not consume much of the nuts in the muffin, so the reaction was not severe; nevertheless, it created an inconvenient day. Emilio stated, “The worst part was missing out on the activities that day. I’m so grateful for Ms. Taylor who stuck with me for 6 hours in the waiting room. Luckily, we were able to leave in time for dinner and the flight.” Despite the few incidents over project week, Latin students are privileged to have such fantastic and enriching opportunities outside of the classroom. Overall, Mr. Mahoney and Ms. Wells did an exceptional job planning all project weeks; students were able to handle the unexpected turns with positive attitudes, leaving them with plenty of funny stories to recount to their classmates!]]>