April salamanders

It would be too difficult to summarize my amphibian/children/friend packed week in a blog post, so here it is - salamander style.


Part 1: I was in Maine helping my dear friend Lucy with her amphibian camp. Many salamanders to be found!

We counted spotted salamander egg masses in various ponds and vernal pools on MDI

Caught stream salamanders (two-lined) in Mill Brook at the Cox property

Found two headless spotted salamanders...

We also found frogs. And on my last night in town Matt showed me some live spotted salamanders hanging around in some pools. What a relief! Spring without holding a real spotted would have been disappointing.

Part 2: Opening weekend at the Cove - could not leave until I thoroughly searched the stream for salamanders. Of all addicting pastimes, I feel pretty OK about this one.

Not sure what species- maybe dusky.

Northern red

Dusky

Long-tailed. My favorite- hands down.

Tomorrow I will begin my journey to lands with no salamanders, so I'm very glad to have spent some quality time with these guys this past week.

Next up: Reptiles in Arizona!

Paint Pig

In high school I got to move my room to the basement, so of course the next step was to go crazy with paint and cover an entire wall with really cool arty designs. And by that I mean we had a paint fight and some went on my wall too.

Over the years, the wall became a place for friends to write random things on when they visited. There were at least 7 languages on the wall, and other pleasant surprises:

PROOF.

But alas (insert comments about growing up and eventually moving out of my house), the day of painting over my wall has finally come. Mixed feelings of remembering good times with old friends, anger over WHY we thought it was a good idea to glue feathers on the wall, and puzzlement about why there are pink spots emerging under the fresh coat of white paint...

Not happy about being a paint pig this time.

Cat in the Hat?

I am hitting myself for not taking a recent pic, as this is one from four years ago, but it is essentially the same. Maybe a couple more languages and donuts. I miss you, wall. You will always be remembered by the weird lumpy spots underneath the paint.

What I Like About Not Being in School: Part 2

Relaxing: Tulips in the front yard and nothing to do all day but admire them, go on bike rides, organize my room, walk around barefoot and get yelled at by ladies on the street for it, hanging out with random dogs at Ft. Reno.

Traveling: Last week my brother, dad, and I went on a short midwest college trip. It wasn't so much of a college trip for me as much as it was a chance to see old friends. First stop was Oberlin. I stayed with Cynthia and we even got to go herping around a pond! Next we drove to Ann Arbor and I spent the night with DC friends.

Exploring DC: Navigating tourists on my bike, seeing corporate-world during their lunch break-- a fascinating world that I have zero experience in; it includes meeting my mom for lunch at Naan and Beyond. SO good. More DC exploring to come.

Camping (Mis)adventures

Cynthia, Sara, and I went camping (in cabins) for a few day in Shenandoah National Park. Some parts went smoothly, other parts were sooo stupid! 

Task: Drive part of Skyline Drive and make it to first cabin.
Result: Success! Incredible views, found cute lil Corbin Cabin, though we did not bring enough light sources.

Task: Hike Old Rag.

Result: Mixed. Did not check maps (shame on my maps and nav skills) so we went the wrong way for 2 miles. Got to the rock scramble while storm clouds gathered. Made it to the summit! Then, HUGE BOLTS OF LIGHTNING. We ate a gremlin lunch under some rocks.

They are called the Blue Ridge Mountains for a reason!

Impending storm.

It's an adrenaline lunch!

Task: Make it back to our cabin from Old Rag.

Result: Yes! We made it back 20 minutes before dark. Hiking back 7 or 8 miles through severe blisters, chafing, and exhaustion.

This sums up our accidental 16-mile day quite accurately.

At least we didn't hike Old Rag in a thunderstorm with a BABY like one family we saw. We're not that stupid!

All in all, it was a wonderful week outside in the mountains. I'm pretty sure I can never go back to normal backpacking, because wow staying in Potomac Appalachian Trail Club cabins was so convenient. Wood fire stove on a cold March night while camping? Yes please, all the time please! On the other hand, I do have my new tiny and extremely portable camp stove, so maybe real camping will happen too.

I'm in love.

What I Like About Not Being in School: Part 1

Today spring term began at COA. While my friends have presumably been shopping for classes and worrying about what to take, I had quite a lovely day!


1st stop: A different kind of shopping trip to Giant with Cynthia to impulse buy everything we need for our camping trip tomorrow. Our cart contained 4 boxes of animal crackers and 4 cans of beans, among other things.


2nd stop: New brake pads for my bike so I can bike around the city will less fear of injury.


3rd event: Biking to Georgetown, and sitting at the aqueduct in the sunshine.

4th: Seeing the MLK memorial

5th stop: The cherry blossoms! There were a couple peak trees, but on the whole they seem to be post-peak. What the heck, early spring?

6th stop: The Capitol! Where I took a pointing picture by myself. Cool.

7th: Moises had a long layover in DC, so he metroed to the mall and we hung out for the first time since last March!

Please ignore my awkward selfie-picture-taking face

Moises is holding up the Washington Monument! Look at him go!

It is good to be back in this city, yessir.

How did this happen??

It seems like I just got to Maine a couple of weeks ago and now I am LEAVING. Econ final = done. Paper is turned in. My bag is packed. I remembered my passport. I managed to not go to bed after 2 am for the entire Week 10 (I am very proud of this). Erin and I are driving down to Boston in two hours, and then on Saturday I will catch my flight to San Jose! 

I already miss the ocean too much.

But... more adventures ahead! Wahoooo!

And on leap years there are 29!

I actually have no reason for a post, except that it's a leap year so... that's important.

I'm just gonna post a picture of a salamander, because in 10 days I will be Costa Rica with all sorts of amphibians and reptiles and everything else in the tropics, and I cannot wait!

It had to happen sometime...

We, the residents of Bar Harbor, like to joke about the stupid tourists who get stuck on Bar Island because they don't realize that the bar is only a bar at low tide. Then they have to get rescued by the coast guard, ha ha ha! Why they so stupid??. 

 

Fast forward to today. Taylor and I decided to visit Bar Island on his last day in town. We checked the tide charts. Twice. Low tide was at 7:30. We got there at 9:30. Easy Peasy, plenty of time! We almost blew away, but we made it to the island and spent about 20 minutes thawing in a meadow. Then we strolled back out to cross back to town and then.... WATER! Covering part of the bar!! How could this be?? So we ran. And screamed. And froze our feet and legs.

This was the shallow part, after we calmed down a bit.

So stupid!!

It had to happen once. And it was most likely helped along by our extreme amounts of gimpitude. 

A Valentines Day Story

No no no, not the sappy romantic kind. This story is from elementary school, where Valentines Day was a Big Huge Deal. I'm sure all you readers know this, but here is a re-cap: 


If you didn't buy or make valentines for everyone in your class, then you were the lamest of the lame. I used to stay up extremely late (for a 9/10/11 year old) hand-crafting valentines for my class. One year I made pigs out of clay and pasted them on cards and drew a cartoon customized pig for each of my classmates. But that story of my weird pig obsession phase is another story for another day. 
Another huge part of Valentines Day in class was The Box where everyone put your valentines in. You would leave it on your desk, and everyone walked around and put Valentines in everyone else's boxes. Then you got to take the box home and spend the afternoon looking through all of your notes again and eating the candy. 


One Valentines Day in 4th grade, I took the bus back from school with my mom, day-dreaming about looking through my box all afternoon. But then-- the horror!-- I got off the bus and realized, as the bus was driving off, that I had left my beloved box on the floor. 

I proceeded to freak out. Lots. Worst Valentines Day ever. But for some reason, that day of all days I had memorized the bus number. So we went home and called Metro, told them our predicament and the bus number, got the route, and found out the time that that same bus would stop at the Metro stop. We met the bus there at the designated time, and there was my hero the bus driver, holding out my box! We gave him a handmade valentine, and there was joy throughout the land!
And that, my friends, is the story of why I love handmade valentines and public transportation.

Good Ripples

I've only posted a couple of times (and about nothing very important) since I've returned to life on Mount Desert Island. I guess I don't have many *new* things happening, because I am back in familiar territory, and that seems boring to blog about. But today I thought I would share my normal Friday with you. Nothing special happened, but it was a really good day. Those are my favorite. I love how the small exchanges and interactions that happen on an ordinary day can cause good ripples.

Shout-out to Joan of Arcadia!

Today after doing food shopping for my trip I walked to the post office in town. The man who works there, Warren, is my favorite postal worker ever. Every time I go, I have somehow managed to wrap my box terribly or with the wrong tape. He tells me that he is supposed to charge me for the tape that he uses to fix my messy work, but since we are best friends he'll let it slide. Because that's what best friends do. And every time I leave, I'm smiling. Kindness goes a long way.


And when I left the post office and sat waiting outside in the glorious February sunshine (WHAT is wrong with this winter?), who else introduced himself to me than one of the founders of COA! I guess I looked like your typical COA student, soaking up the sun on the grass in Carhartts. Anyway, we chatted for a couple of minutes about how wonderful the school is, and how he started it, and then we were both on our merry ways! Small town, small school.


Then I rented XC skis for the first time (will probably blog about how it goes later) and headed home with friends to make Indian food and watch a stupid chick flick! And eat cookie dough ice cream! So normal, so wonderful.


I don't have pictures from any of these things because nothing really happened (I think that is the point of this post?), but here is a picture from yesterday. My house had 'Dress Like Your Housemate Day', and it was a raging success! No one could tell us apart. We are pros.

Here's hoping that I will find something cool to blog about soon! If you are still reading this, I hope you find yourself in the path of some good ripples.

Major Reflection

Well it's midterms here at COA (and it's only February?!?), so I thought I'd briefly reflect on what I've learned so far, and think about if I want to change anything about how my classes are going.


Here is what has been happening in....


Intro to Econ: Global Issues
Major Global Currency
General Sense
Major Tools
General Idea
General Assumption
General Motors
General Electric
Major Takeaway Point
General Recognition
General Expectation
Major Areas
Major Factor


Our Public Lands: Past, Present, and Future
Major Rail Lines
Major Way To Get To Them
Major Snowmobile Loops
General Lands Office 
Major Piece
Major Usually
General Management Plan (Hey! I remember this guy. He was in my block course too!)


For some reason my other two classes haven't had any visits from the military. I'm going to bring that up in my midterm evaluations. If I can't randomly salute in class, then what is the point??

A Real Maine Adventure

That's right. Renys. A store where dreams come true.

But seriously, this place is magical.

My real live Mainer friend Sarah 

and I were in the mood for 

wool socks 

this afternoon, 

so we took a lil drive 

up the road. 

huge roll of teal duck tape- $2.99

chocolate- $1.99

cookies- $2.99

50 ft of rope- $2.99

wool socks- $3.99

A Real Maine Adventure- Priceless

And speaking of magical, 10 points to Gryffindor to whoever can guess what shape this post is in!

Winter on MDI

The plus side of living on an island in Maine in the winter is that the island is a magical wonderland when it snows. We got a perfect snow on Friday. I woke up to a white sky and blanketed forest (oh yeah my house is in the woods!), and then right when I got out of class at eleven, the sky was bright blue and sunny and we pranced around campus giddily. 

We're so happy! Snow for lunch! 

It's been 3 years and I still can't believe this is campus! 

A prime ice-licking tree

And then on Saturday Becca's family came to visit. We all went skating at Eagle Lake for a few hours, then went home and ate SO MUCH good food. Eagle Lake is the water source for the island, so you can't swim in it. Which is why it is best enjoyed in the winter when it freezes over! There was a couple inches of snow on the ice, but it was still easy to glide through it.

Skating through the snow while it was snowing

Yes, winter is good.

There's no place like Home

It's high time for a corny post (I love corn) about having many homes. I was nervous about returning to COA after a short break in DC and an incredible semester in Arizona. But after my first lunch in TAB, I was glad to be back in this warm and caring community (corny corn corn I know).


COA is home. My friends, Acadia, small school jokes, having classes in a castle, that... uhhh.. pleasant ocean breeze.

A fall bike ride in Acadia

Holi ocean-jump!

DC obviously is also home, my first home. No matter how far we go, my friends and I always manage to reconnect on some break or another and reminisce about our times together at DCPS.

A visit to the new Wilson... stairway to the grass.

Anna and I have our Yerba Mate Latte home tradition

Prescott became my home even though I was only there for five months. It was hard to avoid, what with my luck with my house and housemates and the sunny western welcoming attitudes.

Overlooking lil' Prescott

Grand Canyon was my classroom

And obviously, camp is home. West Virginia, mountain mamma. I was lucky to squeeze in two trips to The Cove this fall/ winter and spend lots of time with the camp friends and make the same really stupid jokes.

A group pic of a lengendary intersession. Can you see our grillz? Because we have them...

Here we are counting all of the birds. Can't you tell?

What I really meant to say is: As much as I miss my other homes, it is good to be back at my COA home. I'm going to stop before I say more corny things about how wonderful my friends are. Corn corn corny corn corn! 
(seriously I'm sorry about the corn. make corn pudding?)