Hey everyone, I’m Jonathan Sturholm from Mt. Eden High School and I was the Leader of the Day for our first Free Day. This was our first chance to have a say in what activities we chose to participate in during the day. We split up into two groups and set out to visit the places we had voted on the night before, such as, the coffee shop, the internet cafe, the call center, the market, and Eskimo the ice-cream shop.

I really enjoyed being Leader of the Day on a Free Day because it challenged me to come up with activities for the group to do during some of the dead time throughout the day, which I had already previously done. This is the main reason why I chose to be the leader on a Free Day. In the morning, those who woke up to eat breakfast at the early part of our breakfast time gathered downstairs around nine to play Ninja. It was fun to bond through the game and Jayson became the Ninja Master, winning every game of Ninja we played that morning.

After our day of exploring, we had dinner, followed by another game I came up with. This game required everyone to write a deep secret on a piece of paper, in which we all pulled one out of a hat. The goal of the game was to talk to more people on a personal level and attempt to figure out who the secret belonged to by the end of the trip. This was followed by 2 Truths and a Lie and then a surprise by Ricardo, the hotel owner. He brought a Nicaraguan band to come and play for us downstairs at the hotel! We all danced for over two hours. this brought us a lot closer together and made me feel very comfortable with the other students on the trip. It felt great to be able to let go for a night with all of my new friends.