Turning Up The Heat

      Day two of classes began with a devotion of Psalm 2 lead by our very own Master Lord Sensei Skogen.  The discussions had already become more intense as we all warmed up to each other.  Comments of the futility of rebelling against God and a debate on the definite difference between fear and comfort flew around the table, pulling everyone in with vigor.  Nothing was left unsaid: even a quote from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was drawn into the conversations.  By the time the discussions were concluded, the Fellows were wide awake and ready to go.

      What they didn't realize was that their morning was about to get confusing.  Mrs. Bortins shattered the Fellows' understanding of math by having them create their own mathematical system.  To ignore the ideas of formulas, equations, numbers, and even the theory of value, gave many of us a headache; but it was so intriguing that we just couldn't help but try our best to comprehend the exercise.  Starting from nothing, we created value, then symbols to represent that value, and then symbols that we could use to count more than one value, and then ways to combine values, so on and so forth.  It took us nearly an hour to create a way to simply add numbers together, and by then we were all completely immersed in the game.  Though we couldn't tell at the beginning of it, the exercise helped us understand the ideas of different numerical systems such as binary and trinary, as well as deepened our understanding and reverence for math in itself.

      There was only a short stretch break between the brain-busting "warm up" before we did our daily SAT practice passage.  This time we all worked individually on the same packet; and when time was up, Mrs. Bortins explained any problems we had difficulty on.  I got one less wrong answer than I had the day before, so I felt accomplished!  Once we finished the SAT answers, we had more lessons in Algebra and Geometry; ensuring that our minds were thoroughly befuddled.

      When it was time for the Fellows to go their separate ways for work, Mrs. Bortins asked my team and I to stay in the classroom.  Unsure of how to feel about being called out, we waited for the others to file out of the room before approaching Mrs. Bortins.  She explained what she wanted for us to accomplish throughout the year and we all brainstormed ideas for how to do this.  It was actually quite enjoyable to work with her as we planned for the upcoming months.  Once we had made a basic outline of our objectives, Mrs. Bortins gave each of us starting assignments and let us have at it.  My assignment was to take care of a letter from someone concerning a Classical Conversations teacher.  The teacher had just retired after ten years of instructing, and yet had received no recognition for her service.  I was happy to do it, as my mission was simply to write a few emails in order to have a token of appreciation sent to the teacher.

      While I was busy writing emails and organizing information, Barnabas and Zack were working on their own assignments.  We had been given the passwords for the various Mandala websites, and it was now part of our jurisdiction to maintain them.  Barnabas was working hard on setting up blog links and organizing the main page while Zack started updating social media and added pictures to our gallery.  Together, the three of us took care of the most pressing issues before getting started on our more personal projects.  Once everything had been updated and we had begun advertising our sites, we began to brainstorm on ways to get the word out about Mandala.  Barnabas and I, being writers, decided that we would each write a blog on the happenings of Mandala.  We got some sites and links and did a little bit of set-up, all the while discussing various ways we could both write without being redundant.  After we each wrote a little bit in our blogs, we discovered that we have very different writing styles.  This turned out to be to our advantage, as his active narrative-type writing was a great contrast to my more personal story-type writing.  Time flies when you're having fun, and soon enough we had done all we could for the day.

      After each villa had eaten dinner, a few Fellows went around and invited the rest to join them for a swim.  Pretty soon there were a dozen or more Fellows strutting in their swim suits and piling into cars.  At the Mandala House, the cars emptied and the serene surface of the lake was shattered by the splashes of cannon-balls and kayaks.  I, of course, hopped into a kayak and paddled after my companions; most of which were holding onto the sail-less windsurfer board and were kicking their way out to the sand bank.  We all played water games in the near-pitch dark, some of us wishing that the clouds would part enough for us to see the moon or stars.  It wasn't too late when we re-emerged from the lake water, wet feet padding up the walkway and back to the cars.  The Fellows slept well that night.


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      Wednesday morning came quickly for the Mandala Fellows, but we still got up and ready in time.  Devotions were lead by a Fellow named Seth, whose tall figure and sweet face matches his personality.  He started wonderful discussions regarding the situation and context of Psalm 3 and didn't withdraw from the discussion once it had picked up.  We closed with song and prayer, before transitioning into the classroom.  There was a buzz of excitement throughout the room as we waited for Master Lord Sensei Skogen.  No one really knew what to expect--it was the first day of music lessons.

      Most of class was spent in a lively discussion of what music actually is.  We were never really able to answer.  The conversation hopped from one theological idea to another, but the main subject was maintained as we all racked our brains for more to contribute.  Eventually the voices yielded to the shift into what makes music good or bad.  This flow of conversation only deepened the intellectual digging.  So on and so forth we went, including history and theory in our conversations, till the growling of stomachs was louder than the voices.  We broke for lunch, and then entered into what we had all been nervous and excited about--chorus.  Sensei Skogen put us into groups according to vocal range as we were instructed on how to read music.  At first the sounds we created were less than easy on the ears, but by the end of the lesson we had managed a great harmony of voices.

      Zack, Barnabas and I worked hard on writing blogs and uploading pictures.  When one of us finished writing the rough draft for our blog entries, we would send it to another to be proof-read and nit-picked.  Once the mistakes were pointed out, we edited and then finally published.  There was a nerdy sort of excitement as we each publicized our blogs, which turned almost ecstatic as we kept an eye on our view counts.  Pretty soon Barnabas and I were comparing view counts, sparking the flame which has blazed into the Blog War we are now immersed in.

       The other fellows were a little late getting home from work, but none of us wanted to make dinner before all of our villa mates were present.  Despite our desire to eat dinner with our other Fellows, we quickly grew impatient.  I'm not really sure how, but all of the Fellows who were around ended up in my villa.  Everyone had brought some sort of food, and Laura was busy in the kitchen making it into a delicious meal.  When the meal was ready to serve, the rest of the fellows had come back from work safe and sound.  Everyone was invited to the potluck, made up of pasta with sauce, green beans, stir-fried veggies, and rotisserie chicken.  Shouts of gratification to Laura were mixed in with the laughter and conversations as those at the dinner found seats here and there in our living room and kitchen.  Some of the guys graciously washed the dishes for us since Laura had done all the cooking, and when they had finished it was time to go back to the Mandala House for our first astronomy lesson.

      We feared that class might be canceled due to the gray blanket of clouds overhead, but we were put to ease as Mrs. Bortins welcomed us into the classroom.  After conversation on the creation of a Mandala Calender, Mrs. Bortins came up with some birthday prank ideas.  Once the business side of things was taken care of, class was in session.  The lesson started out with a very humbling exercise where we all attempted to draw an accurate map of the Earth--each person failing at various levels.  Due to the weather and the fact that we have yet to discover a field in which we can properly stargaze, we ended up watching a number of interesting videos on maps and stargazing.  By the end of the night everyone felt very satisfied with what they had learned, and we were all ready for a good night's sleep.