PE: The Week We Walked Like Penguins

After our weeklong “term” of field science, we had a weeklong term of both math and PE.

There isn’t much of an update for math, other than the fact that the classes were once again jumbled between the three cohorts. Again, it was great getting to spend time getting to know other students in the program!

PE was intense! There’s really no other word to describe it. It wasn’t that we were forced to run laps for hours, climb the rope, or perform the dreaded pull-ups. Nothing even close to that! We practiced warm up activities, and chasing/fleeing activities, tag, dodge ball, etc.

It was a three-hour class, and we were constantly moving, running, hopping, jumping, skipping, and grapevining across the gym floor. After the first day I was exhausted. My legs didn’t want to walk up the stairs. It was the good, burning feeling after a good work out. You know, those good “toilet tag” workouts, or those thrilling “capture the chicken” workouts.

The class was so fun, don’t get me wrong, but we were all so unbelievably sore it was crazy.

One day we did this warm-up around the gym where we broke into four teams, and there were four cones placed in the four corners of the gym. Are you visualizing this? You’re going to want to—I’m about to embarrass myself, get ready folks. We started at one cone and it said, “skip,” so we skipped to the next cone. The next cone said to power walk, and so on. After a few rounds we were side-stepping. The team behind my own was gaining and I was getting nervous. I can’t remember who it was, but the person in front of me stumbled a bit and I watched them catch their footing. Relieved, I continued at full speed. Unfortunately, the excitement/relief of the situation made me lose my own footing. Immediately after the person in front of me caught their self, I lost control. I knew I was going down and there was no hope of catching myself. This one guy (He shall remain nameless) watched me fall, but then forgot to pay attention and suddenly he was on the ground with me. Not only did I fall, but also I slid across the gym floor. My teacher came running over, but alas, we jumped up and continued the warm-up. I, with a slight limp, hid the pain on my face but the floor burns on my knees couldn’t lie.

Didn't look too bad the first day

The rest of the week everyone limped around campus and walked like penguins. Actually, it was extremely amusing to observe.

A few days later...ouch

you can't tell, but it's extremely bruised as well!