A Week Without Walls, Epic Style

 
Over the past week, I've become engrossed in the planning stages of a weeklong field trip, as part of a program at our school called Week Without Walls.  The program is one of the school's signature experiences, where every teacher on our faculty designs an independent curriculum which takes our students out of the classroom and out into the world (sounds familiar, huh).

Mine has always focused on the martial arts.

My Week Without Walls trip was part of a series of blog entries that I had written early in my UBBT experience last year...so before I continue, here's a few links to my old posts for background:

A Week Without Walls (4/28/09)
You Will Experience Fear (5/17/09)
Week Without Walls, Day 1 (5/18/09)
Week Without Walls, Day 2 (5/19/09)
Week Without Walls, Day 3 (5/20/09)
Week Without Walls, Day 4 (5/21/09)
Week Without Walls, Day 5 (5/22/09)

My brother filmed a short 20-minute documentary about the week.  Here's a 2-minute trailer, featuring a much-heavier me:




Back to the present now: I'm planning another one for this year, and I'm confident that this will blow last year's trip completely out of the water.  In my mind, I have to outdo myself - not just for the sake of constant and neverending improvement (thanks Tony Robbins), but also because this year, the school's calendar provided me a unique opportunity to blend my program's black belt testing into the Week Without Walls trip....so now students will have a chance to be active participants and coaches in one of the greatest peak experiences of a martial artist's training career....and candidates will have the added bonus of being in a unique place, far away from the familiar mats of our humble dojo.

That's where I've been lately and what I've been up to.  I've been making phone calls, doing research online, and just this past weekend, I drove up to Lake Tahoe to survey several areas where I'd like to do different sections of the test.  I did some filming and will be presenting it to students at the high school in order to drum up interest for my trip (they can choose from thirteen different trips this year, including mine).

Thanks to my lovely girlfriend and her family, I was able to share a luxury suite with them while they enjoyed a family vacation.  It provided a fantastic (and luxurious!) setting for me to edit and brainstorm in peace.  Here's a short video walkthrough of half of the suite (yes, half...the other side was a mirror floorplan):




And now here's the latest batch of film making attempts from yours truly. I hope you enjoy them and that they spark some curiosity about our trip. (Could I have lucked out any better with the names of the locations?  Does this scream 'black belt test' or what?)

WWW 2010 Preview: Shadow Cliffs
WWW 2010 Preview: Vikingsholm
WWW 2010 Preview: Eagle Falls

Finally, my pièce de résistance for the weekend, a brief trailer with highlights of things to come:





I'm looking forward to telling you more of this story as it develops.  Talk to you all again soon!