By Vedha, Max and Olivia

Day 1 (part 1): It was a long journey for most of us today. I had previously come to Seattle on a 15-hour flight, but despite this, it was an amazing car drive to the ferry. It was so interesting to meet everyone and learn more about their interests and backgrounds (even though it was a bit cramped). We made it to the dorms at around 8:00 p.m. and had a lovely dinner. The pizza was delicious.

– Vedha

Day 1 (part 2): On the other end, I had a quite peaceful day today. Arriving on the Island early and getting lunch at a sandwich shop before dropping my things off at Spring Street School and decorating my room that would be my new home for the next 4 weeks. I was excited to meet everyone and enjoyed our first dinner together as the Salish Sea School family.

– Olivia

Day 2: Today we woke up early to start our day, had a fantastic breakfast, and completed a quick town photo safari to get familiar with the island. The Americans (us) won! the other teams were T.M.I, Sharks, Patriots and CCP. We then quickly packed our lunches and visited the tidal zones! It was so interesting; we were particularly fascinated by the egg yolk jellyfish (it was poisonous). We saw numerous anemones, shrimps, sponges, starfish, sea cucumbers, crabs, limpets, and algae gracefully swaying in the tide pools. We all learned about the littoral zone, cnidarian species, sessile animals, and bivalve species. We learned all this through a fun game of Intertidal Bingo!