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Akumal, Mexico Zoom Session

Added Sep 20, 2022 •

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Recorded on Tuesday, September 20 by Ms. Becerra.

Show Transcript

okay so go ahead and share my screen here with you all right so welcome everyone this is my presentation for our trip to Akumal Mexico I took the trip last year with mr. Kelly Greg Kelly and dr. Wesley Simon Wesley and I just want to share pictures with you so you can I get a sense of the amazing things we got to do and then obviously I'll take questions at the end and I will give you kind of a run down this is the Atari we have set so far is it temporary one I'm adjusting and making a reservation for a lot of things now but here's some awesome pictures so we as you can see the kids had a blast we're sailing they were snorkeling they were scuba diving they were on some speed boats that we are on there so if you have your students were wondering I can point them in the right in the direction of other students who may gone before so I this is not we'll show you all here okay here we go everybody so I'll get going with our trip dates are March 11th March 4th through the 11th this year and you can see some more pictures here we have a tentative itinerary like I said but usually what happens as will all meet up at SFO and we'll head out to Cancun and then we are there for 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ish bull Days 7 ish full days give or take with with our travel time and in that time we are go go go but we have an amazing home bass Patrol tell you about in just a second we go to a Kumon which is a town just south of Cancun and it is close enough to things or we can access all of the amazing beaches and everything but it's not in the crazy busy hubbub of that we have in Cancun area so that's the nice part and we last year we took a tour of Akumal I miss all the beautiful art that there is there there's a huge Art Festival that happens each year so we get to walk around the entire town beautiful murals all over the place so the chance to do that we also have snorkeling sailing we can't actually do some community service and interact with and I'm in touch already with the teacher from the hiccup B children's libraries with an after-school program that kind of helps Rich the students life after their classes each day and they do all sorts of projects in 2 years ago our students were able to go to the beach with the kids last year and fortunately the wind got a little scary so we couldn't take the but we did do a lot of community service for the two days in the afternoon that we were there so we have kids painting sidewalks and just be in just a second to creating our projects with recycled materials so that was a really beautiful part I think of but and we also did a float through my in Canal so this was a natural canal and also some man-made sections but it was just a gorgeous float where the kids put on their life jackets like a diaper and we just gets a kick back and Float through and it's gorgeous nothing like I I have ever done before we get to visit some ruins we go zip-lining in one of the tallest Ziplines in all of the peninsula. and we have us this way in which last year was it covered ones he had to walk down a staircase underground and then it opened up this incredible okay I'm in years past they've gone to open so kind of just depending on what we set up ahead of time I think we may return to that the cupboard one this year it was it was pretty spectacular show high water park Adventure Savannah man made as well as some natural attractions there and then we also last year went to another one that was like an amphibious Park so you could do water and you could also do things not in the in the water as well so it's it's a week of fun-filled activities I'm going to go ahead and give you a little bit here so here is where it actually is it's a small map here but we have Cancun at the tip here and then it's about an hour to an hour and a half south of Cancun and we're not staying right on the beach we're actually staying in Escondido which is Inland a little bit to work in the middle of the Jungle and I'll show you a couple pictures of the house just a moment this is the house here so if you can only make it out but it's three stories July the boys stay on the lower or they have stayed lower level and then we have last year we had two rooms for the girls on we are some of the murals that I was speaking about we please please please please please if you do not have your passport or thinking about it still just get your past please we really want to make sure that you have it that you're ready to roll whether you end up changing your mind about the trip or not please make sure that you go today and start checking out the passport information we have medical information through holding in the business office but we really stresses well that if you feel that your child has anything that you need to let us know about he would really want to set your child up for success in that if they have any mental health issues at work or going on anything like that you want to just let us know ahead of time just as we can set everything up for you ahead of time and that they are set up for Success the rest of our belly while we're out there enemies student contract and I have these on here because they are the three most important things I would say the applications are going to be available Thursday and Friday students must go see Miss molinelli and hear her talk and before getting a an application and then that is due by the 27th Miss Mullen Atlantis is a hard deadline if you did not get those paper that paper into Miss molinelli filled out by parents like this you may have seen it already it's not that your kids will be coming home with us but is a hard deadline for the 27th due to mrs. miss molinelli and here's some more information I'm go through all that so we have emergency School forms again that's through MS call Dean I'm we will be carrying pictures of passports I'll get all the passport pictures ahead of time I'll make a couple of copies and we'll gather all the password to make sure they're in a safe spot in the house and we will make sure ask the kids to have a copy for themselves just to be on the safe side as well again cleaning service snorkeling scuba ziplining which we did last year cenotes Mayan civilization ruin incredible and then the Mayan floats in the canals was a whole nother world that's also weather-dependent but crossing our fingers that we we get a chance to go this year I know there were a couple of three last year who were certified scuba divers so please make sure they bring a copy of their certification we are not getting a class talk to us were simply being given some basic instructions and I'm taken out and there are very experienced divers I was probably the most panics person on out there on the boat with the kids and their calmness help me so we will get through it together but there are professionals out there who took us scuba diving and there were probably about I want to say about 10 to 12 students who actually went out and and just do that those who are snorkeling and we don't have an adult with them as well so you don't have to do it emergency communication making sure that all of your emergency contacts are up-to-date with the Saint Mary's remember you like to remember that no goodness no news is good news and well we're at the we may not have the ability to contact you at times in terms of the Wi-Fi capability but I will have my phone they depending on where we are out in the the jungle at San Jose may not have good service so please just be be aware of that the dive is 40 ft by 40 ft we were out and it's helpful if they know how to swim but it is not required again we will be on Beach they don't want to be in the water at all they can chill on the on the shore at the beach if we're at the waterpark they can also kind of just hang out there plenty of places for them to hang out if they are not comfortable swimming and here so it'll be myself and two other most likely to other prefix we're going with them we are definitely going thank goodness we have the program back in action and we definitely have access to hospital a personal doctor actually came out and it all of our covid test last year so we'll talk about covid and people bringing their test later on but we do have Acts do emergency hospitals and I will most likely be renting a vehicle as a small vehicle and then each of the other chaperones will be writing in one of the other two bands so that we always have something to take us to the two hospitals necessary or it just any any reason we need the car pictures I'm going to share this with with you all later on and have it displayed I'm not going to go through every single point but you know I just want you to know there is some walking involved so inhalers anything like that please make sure you have those prescriptions make sure that we have in the carry-on luggage and we have our prescription with us and he written prescription from your doctor the details later obviously Behavior you are representatives of Saint Mary's College High School so school rules apply here so we are on our best behavior we are out in the jungle so it's nice we're not I don't think anybody wants to sneak because there are wild animals in the in the jungle nothing too crazy but some monkeys Jaguar so what kind of away from from kids wanting to sneak away obviously making sure that you're not bringing anything that is any anything illegal I cannot stress enough the pens please make sure that you hopefully not nobody is vaping that was I know that's been an issue in the past and it's molinelli will if you're not already hurt her or she'll she'll tell you a little bit about that so no smoking drinking alcohol does it matter what the drinking age we are running it as though you are students here to Berkeley at our school no so this is the question was will be other schools participating on staying there so what happens is it's a home gets rented out or facility that gets rented out to usually university University students coming in and actually studying the ecological effects of tourism in such in the area and so we have the opportunity as a high school because of Mister Kelly's connections of friends there to stay there so we are the only group there I did not I did not see very many other students while we were out there and in terms of stuff food we actually have the fortune of getting to eat at The Turtle Bay Cafe which is the owner of Jen who helped set this all up and is the owner of the home that we stay and she caters food to us in the evening time and where house and if not then we will be eating at Turtle Bay Cafe which has little shops and things and we going to hang out there in the in the city center is a small City it's nothing nothing big near the beach but that's where we will spend some of our evenings having dinner of course if you have your children have any food aversions and things like that they're not all that already on the medical form please let us know and obviously make it known to us again once we have our group decided currency they are ATM they're just can't let it notify your bank you're having your child need to bring her a card with them 350 bucks in cash I really didn't feel like there were that many places for kids to spend too much money on this is not like a tourist trap I want to say it it's very much more experience but if kids want to buy you no drinks snacks maybe a meal while we're at the water parks and things like that would be a good idea to bring $150 just to kind of spread out. during the different trips that we take okay and packing all the stuff it is fairly humid can be get pretty human so what the weather was gorgeous last year so I expect similar weather and it was typically in the 80s couple days ago pretty hot in the 90s making sure kids are staying hydrated a bottle of water is one of the most important things and I kept sprinkling a little bit of salt in my water and telling the kids you know hydrated dehydrated stay hydrated because I think that's the biggest issue that we run into a times with kids is feeling like they get dehydrated because we're out in the sun out in the water on a lot of these trips and accommodations here it is the worst thing Escondida like I said it's a guest house where they bring different groups of students but we are the only student group staying there at that time so it's dormitories last year I think we had 10 girls in one of the rooms in about or nine girls in the other room in the second floor and we had about ten boys and bottom so there's like bunk beds with plenty of space and then plenty of showers and plenty of toilets and yes there are big bugs sowbugs here and there we caught them and scorpions I never got to speak with scorpions are like but they're fine they're not want to be scared of the big ones and not necessarily in the dormitory but around the house because it's giant Katie just want to pick up calling it because there are screens so the bedrooms are on the inside of the house but there is like a walkway that is covered with screens around the outside and there are people who actually live right on the property our caretaker so we always have somebody there in case something you know what happened with the big bug and nobody else wanted to touch it and have fun here we are floating through the will you float my last thing with that so now I want to open up cuz I know we only have about 12 minutes so I'm going to stop sharing and I'm going to ask if anybody has any other questions the total cost it is dependent on the amount of students to go so it's anywhere between 25 and $2,700 checking to see my questions here how many people were you I think we were looking with monelli Ganon from around 2018 to 24 we can actually add if we need to we just have to add another chaperone depending on the number back please thank you total cost of inclusive of travel insurance recommend we last year we had students parents did purchase entrance because of the pandemic that is totally up to the person I have people did use it we had a couple kids who got sick not with covid-19 travel they got injured or something in the pants I bought travel insurance a work they got their complete MoneyPak so that's the first time we've ever had to use it if they provide some with that when you purchase a ticket but if you are so inclined to be want to be extra safe go ahead and insurance are you a question by a couple more points to go over but I covered most of it so I talk super fast questions you can totally just under yourself and ask do I know I answered a few from the from the chat can you describe a little more the immersion component of the program what will the students do with the children in Mexico yeah so we have kind of a few different levels and know they're too like a full-blown immersion trips that are running this year there's a Thailand trip and there's the one to the blackfeet reservation in Montana but this one doesn't have a little bit of a service component during like about half a day on a couple of the days we will head over because is an after-school program the kids are not there the entire time but we go on a couple of the evenings and we work with the kids I mean the kids are playing with the kids they were dancing the kids performed for our students they were really excited show their performance that they had prepared we paint the sidewalks we do a lot of the kind of sprucing up of the place and making a colorful each year over the course of the last three years that's what happened and then we help him out organizing some of the the things they're the kids also just really want to play so kind of being an influence to these little anywhere from I think it was the youngest was a four-year-old some kids who were about Wednesday 11 or 12 so they're the our kids are interacting with them and I'll have some organized activities and I the teacher there and I collaborate and I'm also I didn't talk with you about this but she had asked last year if we you know if there were any books or things that your kids aren't using anymore that they may want to donate or bring me some something easy to carry in your in their suitcase that would be like a nice gift for the school big they love that as well she said I feel kind of embarrassed after I said no no no please ask you know who this is what we're about we're about service connectivity all the siding for principals so I'll be talking more with a core group once we get into that in our in our actual meetings okay thank you course I'm a couple more questions see here is it open as sophomores yes it is I think this room is not even taking Pina will go see what the applications look like as I mentioned in my information meeting yesterday at the beginning of everything is it all depends on who is wanting to travel and what the numbers look like freshman typically don't Nestle go on these your trips but if a freshman is ready to go and we sure enough we would take a freshman if there is room single sophomores Juniors and seniors typically Juniors and seniors are the ones who travel on these trips but we do get a handful of sophomores and an often you know a handful of freshmen as well it's just we're out of you know 2020 after 2020 and kind of broke our patterns so it'll be interesting to see what the patterns are as we get back to what we would consider normal that's also a verb people saying I think we talked about this is the teachers and preparation for all these groups to get together is that I told the kids that you may not travel with your friends but you will make potentially lifelong friends right so I had a pretty good I would say kids last year I had Juniors sophomores I think I had one freshman and I think that's it I think Wednesday in here so it was a good little spread and they all got along really well and I think it was cool to see the senior get to know some of the underclassmen and then the Freshman to to have upperclassmen friends too so it was that you build some bonds and then we have a question about the including the international airfare I believe it does everything is included in this one expected Todd maybe lunches are you know when you guys are out in that little town the Turtle Bay Cafe the airport at Cancun potentially but yeah that's pretty much and I don't think with the scuba diving Trina I do not think any way to set it all up ahead of time so we're just now waiting for numbers with the applications and then if purchasing travel insurance and so I will I will get the name of from last year of the people who actually work for and I'll send it out to the truck people traveling if they want to if they want to purchase that or for the third for their kids so we'll wait on that until we have our group and a scuba dive how long is the activity of it felt like if I like this I'm sure we were out there for about I want to say hour and a half from getting all our gear on getting on the boat getting out to the spot and then we do 4 I want to say like about half an hour maybe but again I was the freaked-out one so am I for section of time it may have been a little skewed but I would do it again so I highly recommended and again we were with professional so I think the actual died was about half an hour it was always have two dolphins which doesn't happen often so it was pretty pretty brother are you still here or did you a question actually the question was if in case you have any sign that you have a huge demand will you give priority to see and or juniors so it's never been a problem did you need some seniors actually get everything they want if they're flexible if they were on last year the only Juniors who couldn't travel to certain trip was because the seniors wanted to go we are make it work so I wouldn't worry about it but typically enrichment week is a blended activities for seniors never get priority I mean every time to win that when these kids are fresh they don't want the seniors have priority course when they get to be seniors they want to have priority so it's it's it's it's a program for all grade levels but yes the Juniors and seniors always really get a chance to to do what they what to do with a K when it's the regular registration every single one of the Juniors and seniors got their first choice last year every single one so there's this big hype about I'm not going to get what I want but you have to be flexible you're not going to be able to travel with and best friends I see a lot of familiar people in all these others do so there shouldn't be anything you're not going to be able to travel with your 10 best friends and maybe even your best friend so you got to be flexible and his mistress are already said you will meet new will end in create lifetime friendships and get that experience which is the purpose of enrichment week is not go on vacation it's to create relationships and experience new culture and something new I just asked because you know a good portion of Juniors and seniors obviously lost you know the year and a half or give him to pandemic being able to travel before so that's why the seniors last year did last year we made a one-year those seniors and juniors did not get any enrichment week and so it really now we're back to kind of normal because the seniors now I did have a freshman and sophomore enrichment week they just lost their they lost their sophomore year they were able to request last year and to travel if they wanted to so we only lost one year and now it's far use for sophomores in 2021 so it's we kind of I think caught up again I had very very few kids not get into a trip but that was a choice they were trips open we actually canceled two trips last year that were open to people because we didn't have enough to reach the threshold of what that range of price was so we had to cancel it so I mean that the trips are available the opportunities are available it's is being flexible questions thank you Miss monali for being here answering those questions any other than the other thing is I kind of like to build the team before we go anywhere so we'll meet you know at least once I'm hoping twice a month each month before we actually get to the actual event to kind of create a sense of family in a little bit of familiarity so the kids aren't just showing up at the airport and feeling like I'm kind of awkward I don't know any of these people so we'll do all that ahead of time I know we really built it a little family last year so and I think I have to open thank you thank you those of you have to sign off for heading to the next meeting please let us know if you have any other questions you're even always email me thank you take care thank you very much no problem thank you sorry my camera is blurry hi this is Liz Mateo's mom I apologize profusely I have to have on his first work trip since the pandemic and I'm like driving with the other baseball everywhere that I did read that the meetings are going to be recorded is that correct yes yeah if you look online II I was able to get last night all five are online right now so if you want to watch the videos from last night's they're already in the enrichment week it says videos and all the Zumba recorded So I know it's awesome that out as soon as I get the four from tonight on I'll send out an email go see it I was very proud of myself by the way cuz I'm not get on this list and your meeting and of course I wake up at midnight yesterday. we know it's a beauty resume that's one thing about the pandemic is that we've taught ourselves that we can we can figure this all out so it's all good I will definitely tune in to the website again thank you thank you

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Akumal, Mexico Zoom Session

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