This week the group was at Riverside Community helping and learning an amazing amount about the environment and living within a community. The start of the week was very stressful as we were planning a week in advance for our first Student Directed Travel. We spent a day and a half getting the main frame of the week in place. Our captain for the week split us up into groups and designated us by group roles for booking accommodations as well as transportation. After that we were picked up by our lovely host, Verena, for the five days ahead of us. We were driven to beautiful Riverside Community, the oldest intentional community in New Zealand, and were immediately shown hospitality by being welcomed to a lunch served and prepared by some of the members. After lunch Verena, wanted us to get to know each other a little bit better in an activity surprising to most. She let us pick a toy out of her basket that drew our attention and asked us to find a connection between the toy and us. After that we were taken to our living space for the next five days and little did we know that it was such an attractive space for twelve young adults. Wednesday, we woke up and after breakfast we helped pick different vegetables such as, leeks, stinging nettle, and calendula. We ended up going full farm to table and used the veggies we picked for lunch. Lunch was a delicious nettle soup prepared by the one and only Hongi Carpe Diem group for the entire community, around forty-five people. While half of the group was preparing the community lunch the other half were either booking for the Student Directed Travel or helping some of the locals with a project that they were working on before we arrived. The project consisted of bending and mending bamboo to create a curved archway of sorts as a support system for a heavy canvas to be used as a roof for a small structure. The archways had not all been created so a few people were involved with tying knots to secure the curved bamboo while the others dug and prepared the foundation and support system of the summer home. We learned while working that Marie, the ideas behind the project, lives half of the year in New Zealand and the other half of the year in a bamboo structure she designed in a community in India. Marie is a yoga instructor as well as a GP back in France. After that we called it a day and took some personal time to get acclimated to our new living space and made dinner for our selves. On Thursday the group took part in a seminar based around non violent communication and how it can be used inside our everyday lives. It was a very eye opening and interesting experience for the majority. There were lots of tools that were thrown around that will be used within our up and coming circle. After our learning experience we made our selves lunch, after lunch, Verena had left over milk for us to try out our cheese making skills which turn out to be quite high. Cheese making was not as difficult as any of us had imagined as long as you have the right ingredients handy. We now have four small tupperware containers filled to the brim with homemade cheese. And then after we had some personal time to catch our breath from the strenuous activity that is cheese making, Verena helped us by facilitating a heart circle between the group. This was a positive impact on the group as no one was talking over anyone and we could all get things off of our chest that had been weighing us down. It seems to have opened up a new and more light filled chapter of the book that is our group and our trip together. After the heart circle we were filled right back up with positivity as we played a game that anonymously showed our appreciation for each other and opened us up to each other. After a good nights rest we woke up and half of our week had passed in a blink of an eye as we realized it was Friday. On Friday morning, Marie, the yoga instructor I mentioned earlier, helped us through an early morning yoga session that concentrated on breathing and being able to control our emotions and shower ourselves in relaxation. One of the many quotes we took from her was, “ If you can control your breathing, you can control your life.” After the yoga session the group was taken to a spiritual Maori river opening, where the group was able to jump in for a cold swim in this ancient river. Then we went to a beach nearby with Verena and company. We enjoyed a dinner of fish and chips while sitting along the water watching the sunset. On Saturday morning around half of the group were willing to get up and walk to a nearby hill to watch the sunrise over the mountains. Once the group was reconnected we picked weeds to help out around the Riverside garden as well as picked some fresh vegetables for the community dinner that we planned and are carrying out cooking. We are very excited and can’t wait to see what we have laid out for ourselves in the week ahead. — Zach