The Independence School Puerto Rico 2025
June 11, 2025
The Adventure Begins
Bright beautiful sunrise
Wonderful chaperones kept us safe
Smooth flying
Pretty window seat views
Free shopping time during layover
Overly expensive but delicious lunches
Amazing dinner
Humid but warm and windy weather
Big yellow house is a big yellow house
Fun activities lie ahead
Lots of new things to look forward to
Will keep parents updated
We went to old San Juan in the morning for a tour of the city. Fort Moro was surrounded by an empty green field so enemies didn’t have easy access to the fort. Fort Moro also had running water and food so while other armies were out of supplies, the Puerto Rican army was ok.
By: Oliver P., Abby G., and Ava S.
June 12, 2025
Morning!:
This morning was calm and delightful. The girls all woke up either early or on time ready
to start the day. They brushed teeth and got dressed to tackle the day. The boys woke up a little later but were also ready on time. We were all surprised by the delicious eggs and French toast for breakfast. After breakfast, we put on shoes and got into the vans for the next destination.
By Lisa Gisiora
The Tour of Old San Juan: We went to old San Juan in the morning for a tour of the city. Fort Moro was surrounded by an empty green field so enemies didn’t have easy access to the fort.
By Charlie Schwartz
Fun! (Ice Cream + Souvenir Hopping):
After being presented with a delicious lunch, courtesy of Ms. Maren, we went souvenir
hopping and were pleasantly surprised when we found a quaint, homestyle-looking shop. Weentered with our pockets full, and out with them empty. When we left the shop, we had the decision of following Ms. Maren to enjoy some gelato or hop to another shop on the same street, accompanied by Mrs. Slaton and Ms. Grote. Afterwards, we journeyed to a mystery ice cream parlor, only to be surprised by popsicles from Global Works!
Needless to say, we had an AMAZING day!
By Rosie Pan
June 13, 2025
At 8 in the morning, we enjoyed a scrumptious feast of pancakes 🥞, eggs 🥚, ham, and and various kinds of fruit 🍎 🍊🥝 🍌 🍓 after getting a wake up call at 7:00. At around 9 in the morning, we split into two groups to go to Villa de Rio. Water our arrival, we got instructions from some of the leaders in our team, including Willi and Angel. Then we began setting up the wall supports by setting up some metal rods and wood planks. After working productively for two- three hours, we headed to Angel and Maria’s house, where Maria had cooked us a delicious meal which consisted of chicken, beans and potatoes covered in a savory sauce, and salad. After we replenished our energy with the yummy lunch 😋 and used the bathroom, we got back to work, managing to secure almost all of the wall supports, wires, and planks. On the car ride back, we received homemade water ice/ popsicles from Fernanado. All of the flavors were delicious and tasted just like the real fruit! (Grape, passionfruit, and pineapple🍇🍍) Once we arrived back at the Big Yellow House, we took a much needed break, refilling water bottles, using the restroom, and changing into our swimsuits before walking to the nearby beach. The water was beautiful, the sand was warm, and we all had lots of fun swimming, racing, building sand castles and digging holes in the sand. After showering, we ate another delicious meal; pasta night!! (The food here is AMAZING!!! 🤩) Then we learned how to salsa 💃 with our dance instructor Yara. Then we started writing this blog. Thus concludes our blog, but hopefully not the fun. Sending love from Puerto Rico! 🇵🇷 💖
By: Cole Slaton & Alice Gu
June 14, 2025
This morning we woke up bright and early in the big yellow house to a delicious breakfast. We enjoyed waffles, eggs, rice, yogurt, fruit, ham, and turkey. After that, we departed the house and drove to Villa del Rio to finish the work project. We did the mold for the walls of the new room of the houses. After our hard work, we enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by Maria.
After lunch, we rolled out and went to a hostel called Casa Coral. We settled in and dove into the beautiful river where we played games such as tag and Marco Polo. After a pizza party, we drove to the kayaking place where we paddled through a mangrove forest and saw the bioluminescent creatures in the bay. The sunset was like a diamond glittering on the water, but we soon had to head to the hostel to sleep.
Emma, Libby, Yiyi
June 15, 2025
We started out the day waking up in our comfortable beds, and got ready to go to work. Breakfast was soon delivered, which included: pancakes, eggs, potatoes, and turkey.
After breakfast, we traveled to the work site where we cleaned up the trail to Rio De Pitahawa. We raked, picked up coconuts and large leaves, while also encountering many cool animals. We had snacks and water breaks along the way to stay hydrated.
After three hours of hard work we stopped for lunch, delivered to us at the trail. We had cheesesteaks, turkey and tripleta sandwiches. After lunch, we listen to Ramon about the history of the trail and turtles which took about 45 minutes. After all of our work, we loaded up into the guagua’s (vans ), and returned to Casa Coral to have nap time and get our bathing suits on for the river. We splashed around for about an hour. At the river we engaged in activities such as freeze tag, and Marco Polo. We walked back to Casa Coral to freshen up and play games such as Frogger and Follow the Leader. Soon after, Maren had us do an activity about service work. Dinner was delivered soon after, which we enjoyed. We had grilled and fried chicken, salad, beans, rice, and broccoli.
After dinner we gathered as a group to meditate and do some group activities.
To sum up the day in one word?
✨GLAM✨
By Violet & Yujia
