The past week has been an interesting one… and I’ve been too busy to update, so this is going to be a particularly long post.

Workwise… I spent a lot of time designing the curriculum for the Nature Study program happening in July, made those bathroom signs from the earlier post, and got a little bit of hiking in. We decided on a “dirt” theme for the younger kids that I’m super excited about… there will even be thematically appropriate snacks each day (who doesn't love edible dirt?). And Chad is going to do a sing-a-long session with them (apparently he plays the guitar and mandolin- awesome, eh? Wish I was more musical). For the older elementary school kids we’re thinking of either something with insects (Entomology Extravaganza!) or something I’m calling “Perspectives” that has them looking at the preserve through the eyes of different animals… we’d build a dam one day, do a bunch of bird stuff one day, think like an insect another. For all sitting in front of a computer makes me crazy, it’s wonderful to have so much room to be creative, and Chad’s great for bouncing ideas off of. Still haven’t had any major brain waves about what to do with the middle school program. I wish I knew more about how to teach and entertain that age group. Oh well, that’s what research is for, right? I’m hoping to work in some really good team-building stuff and creative projects, at least.

The weather has been rainy, but warmer, and the mosquitoes are starting to make their appearance, but not so much as I’d feared (though truth be told, I think it’s hard to impress someone who’s lived in Alaska with anything other than a truly terrific mosquito population). The other interns have gone firefly catching on the evenings we’ve been home… that, dinner, and watching episodes of the TV show Bones have consumed most of our nights in.

I’m getting better at photographing wildflowers (though I really wish I could afford a camera with a better manual focus!) but have not managed any pictures of the chipmunk that lives outside my window, the Phoebe bird that’s nesting on our porch, or the baby cottontail bunny that lives next to the lab. Sad story! I left my art supplies at the office this weekend, or I’d be working on some oil pastels of the trails… my snapshots just don’t do anything to capture the beauty of the woods here. I might not do much better with my pastels, but at least it would be good practice for me.

We had a few exciting after hours field trips this week- pictures from Wednesday’s campground swimming trip are in the previous post. We also had a picnic, with subs from Sophia's deli, and afterwards went to a Stewarts gas station to refill tubes and eat ice cream. I had blueberry pomegranate frozen yogurt- pretty darn tasty! Apparently Stewarts has the best local icecream, and serves as something of a local gathering spot.

Thursday we (four interns, two local boys, six tubes, five lifejackets) went back to the campground, but instead of frolicking in the swimming hole pushed off into the current and set off on what became something of an epic adventure… or at least a cautionary tale. At first it was AWESOME… beautiful evening, fun little rapids (just exciting enough to make me whoop with joy), laughing conversation, lovely scenery drifting by. We stopped once at this nifty rocky ledge that we all agreed would make an awesome campsite. Unfortunately it had taken us longer to get on the creek than we’d anticipated, so it was 6:50 or so before we set out on what was usually a two hour downstream trip… our local intern believed it would go faster because the current was running higher from all the rain we’d had.

Well, the water being higher did make most of the rapids a safer, and the drifting along bits a lot faster. The second to last rapid we went down also unfortunately had a newly downed tree, and the current was stronger than normal, or at least too strong for me… anyway, I have some bruises, but I managed to stay in my tube and didn’t really get much more than a scare. Pretty terrifying to lose control like that, I must say, but that wasn't the epic part... We’d started to hear thunder rumbling far off in the distance, and (being the risk-management professionals that at least three of us were) begun to get a bit worried. If we’d had cell phones we’d have called for assistance and gotten off the river then… but we’d all forgotten our wet bags (uh oh), so we decided to push on, and if the thunder got any closer we’d take our chances hitchhiking or sommat, since a road ran pretty close to the creek. I was also starting to get really cold (me, cold? shocking!), even with my neoprene shorts.

It started to get darker... and darker... and the water became more of an ominous deep green… and the thunder got closer- right as we were heading into a rocky gulch. We got out anyway, scrambled up the steep embankment (I was farthest ahead, had to abandon my tube close to the water because I couldn’t pull it up the little cliff with me), and found each other in the rumbling dark. There was a house, thank goodness, and after about ten minutes the resident finally heard her dogs barking and let us in. She was very kind- a retired medical professional from long island who’d turned the property into a nature preserve- gave us towels and water and Lindt chocolates and let us use the phone. We got back to Bullfrog Camp a little before midnight, tired and sore but fine. I was exhausted the next day and kept discovering new bruises from my brush with the tree, but it's all good now.

Friday evening all five of us interns headed to the Old Music Festival for the evening concert. A half hour of twisting country roads led us to the slightly muddy fair grounds and a parking lot full of… well, the sort of people who go to events called Old Music Festival. There was lots of tie dye and beards and flowing skirts (sometimes on the same person)…. And vendors selling tasty international and local foods or handmade crafts. I bought a bandanna from a couple who turned out to be some of the Preserve’s resident artists, and a cd that looked interesting… it was a good thing I didn’t have more money with me, because I’d have spent it, for sure! I tried something called an Eccles cake that was apparently banned by the puritans, another pastry called a lamb’s tail or longjohn, and some sort of fried curly potato concoction that’s apparently a local specialty. Oh! And there was fresh squeezed lemonade. I am told I must try potato pancakes, and missed out on some amazing smoothies. We had salt potatoes last week and I think they are by far my favorite of the local foods I’ve tried so far.

Music wise the concert was eclectic- some Dutch, French, Storytelling, a really good band with a mouth-harp and banjos and guitars, a couple singer-songwriters, and one band who’s national origins I’m unsure of that played sitting cross legged and wore a turban (okay, only one guy was wearing a turban, everyone else in the group looked fairly Caucasian). It was a good time, we had some great conversations, and there was a contra dance afterwards. I think all of the college student interns are going to try to find some contra dance at their respective academic institutions. woo-hoo contra dance!

Today (Saturday) I’ve mostly been sleeping, eating, and re-reading the latest novel from one of my favorite authors. Laundry is brewing in the basement of the lab as I write this. I need to go introduce myself to the artist who’s going to be living in Lincoln Cottage for the next few weeks.

Hoping I can talk someone with a car into heading up to visit a local batik artist and Woodstock some weekend soon. I really want to buy a pair of aviator sunglasses for my sister from Woodstock, just because I think that would be awesome. Also just really want to be able to say "Oh yeah, I was at Woodstock".