End of school

The school year is coming to an end very fast. I have my last day of class on Monday and then i have to deal with moving and evaluations. On Friday my group ran an activity called "The Barking Tree" and taught kids from 2nd to 7th grade about conifer and deciduous trees. We each researched a particular tree and informed the kids about the importance and uses of it. My tree was the western red cedar which is unique to the pacific northwest and has lots of cultural significance and uses with the Native Americans. The weather has been super nice here and in the 70s and 80s most days thus i have spending lots of time outside. I have also been trying to cover lots of hours at my job since i don't know if i will have one when i go back home. Im trying to pack lots of things in these next two weeks and hope to do some backpacking or camping.

Sasquatch

This weekend has been an amazing journey and i feel like i know Washington way more now. On Friday after class i met up with some friends Molly, Emma, and Maggie and we began the drive to Seattle. We planned on stopping at Folk Life in Seattle and staying there the night, however the car broke down and we were stranded on the highway. Luckily there was a bus stop close by so once Molly's car was towed we rode the bus to downtown and went to Emma's brothers house. We spent the night there relaxing and preparing for the show. The next day we drove to the gorge to see the 3 day festival Sasquatch with Kendrick(Emma bro) and had a long, yet stunning ride though the snowy mountains and into the dry region of Washington. The Gorge Amphitheater is a giant place and was actually rate #1 venue. Its sits in the middle of a canyon right over the Columbia river. We arrived late on Saturday and met up with a few more cars filled with friends and then all set up camp together. That night we were able to get into the show for free and had lots of fun in the dance hall which had djs and light shows. On Sunday after waking up in the burning heat we decided to drive to vantage point and go swimming in the Columbia river. This water is basically glacial melt and was freezing, but still very refreshing. We later headed back to camp and relaxing in the sun. That night we also got into the show for free and saw Janes Addiction and heard lots of djs. I decided to go back on Monday with a few people and was able to catch a ride to Seattle and than i had to take many buses from there to Olympia. It was a little overwhelming due to the random memorial day bus schedule, however it all worked out and i made it back in around 7 hours. Today i had class and we continued planning out the science carnival. I have found some friends to live with next year and we will be staying on campus. Back to the cleaning, unpacking, and recovering.

Bowling

These past few days have been lots of fun, yet very busy. On Wednesday i ran an activity with some classmates for seventh graders from the program gear up. We played an ecology game with them and ended up having lots of fun. The goal of this program was to encourage students to stay involved with school and continue there education to college. Next i registered for classes and will be taking human health evolution and development which consists of developmental psychology, evolution, human biology and health. Later me and some friends went downtown and did some bowling. It was fun and is a cool college scene, there always seems to be Evergreen students there. After bowling we went and got hotdogs. I got a vegan dog which was surprisingly tasty. We then went back to campus and watched a movie. Today has been very relaxed and just trying to get lots of work done. I think this week i will be going with some friends to Sasquatch which is a 3 day music festival at the Gorge. We will be camping there and might travel to Seattle for a folk festival also. I still have a lot of things to figure out but will update my plans when they are figured out.

Mima Mounds

This weekend was very nice and relaxing. I spent the majority of time outside reading on the grass. The weather was in the high 70's all day, however now its cooling down and will probably rain soon. Today i went on a class trip to Mima Mounds located 30 minutes from campus. This place is very sacred and also highly valued by ecologists. Prairies cover the land and consist of wildflowers and wild grass growing on these mounds. There are many theories about how these occurred such as: gophers over a large period of time piled glacier dirt, glacier melting and runoff, and Native American interaction. Native Americans used to burn this area every few year to fertilize the soil and maintain the prairie. The park rangers perform controlled burns of this area every few years to keep this unique state. Unfortunately we were only able to spend a 2 hours here, yet it was still very interesting. After we got back i had some lunch and then went to yoga. Yoga only had one other person today so it was pretty much a private and very intense class.

Academic Fair

On Wednesday i went to the academic fair and found three interesting classes for next year. I'm still deciding between The Mathematical Order of Nature, Introduction to Environmental Studies, and Human Health, Evolution and Development. I also might try to take a wilderness first responder course offered here this summer. On Thursday i mostly tried to finish reading and work up and later had work at the rec center. Today i picked up my first paycheck which was very nice! In the morning i had seminar about wildlife films/books and how they portray nature to people. In the afternoon we had a lab dealing with botany and pollination. We learned about a the interesting cycle with plants and animals and the various symbiotic relations which exist. Plants are much more complex then they appear and many have interesting and almost magical properties. Many plants have coloring which can only be seen under UV light, however most animals are able to see this and it guides them to nectar. Anther surprising fact is the ability for plants to generate heat. Lotus's can maintain an internal temperature of 80 degrees even when the outer temperature is 50 degrees. This encourages bugs to land in the flower and mate/feed which in turn helps the plant pollinate. Today has been very beautiful and this weekend should be very nice!

Wheres Spring At?

These past few days have been very gloomy and rainy, its also gotten colder recently. The weather is crazy here and does not seem to fallow any seasons. On Monday i went to class with my sister, unfortunately all she was able to view was a speaker about the Cool School Challenge and how setting goals and dedication are the best way to heal the environment. We also watched a slide show about the trends in global warming and how its necessary to reduce emissions 85% by 2050 before permanently damaging this planet and our lives. During the lunch break i took my sister to the greenery then we relaxed in my doom until her shuttle arrived. After lunch i returned to class and began auditing the schools energy use and brainstorming ideas to cut energy use and increase sustainability. On Tuesday we gave presentations about our science projects(my groups is running a station which teaches about trees) and later had a lab involving memory and effective ways to teach and learn. Today so far has been very wet and dark so im just getting lots of reading and writing done and will probably do some yoga later.

Remy at Evergreen!!!

This weekend has been lots of fun and i have been showing my sister around Olympia and Evergreen. On Friday we walked around campus and hiked in the woods and went down to the beach. At the beach we saw a family of red foxes and sat and watched them for a while. There was a large mother fox and five babies. Later we went to the gym and used the saunas. After we met up with my friend Moses, who was attending freshmen introduction day. We then went to Ezzys apartment and had diner there. On Saturday we relaxed on field and read our books. Then we went to the gym and played racquetball and went to the sauna. Later we met Ezzy downtown and ate Indian food. Finally we attended an Orissi Indian dance performance which included the number one orissi dancer in the nation. Today we had a very lazy morning and watched the movie Earth. After we went into the forest with some friends and explored the tree houses. We have been having lots of fun and tomarrow we will check out my class.

Lotsa Rain

Its been a smooth transition back to the school work and life after the trip. This weekend was very relaxing and also productive. I have been doing lots of reading for class and am meeting my science group later to plan our educational station. Yesterday i tried yoga with some friends, everyday the yoga club hosts free classes. The class was about a hour and a half and was almost as intense as bikram. After i went and soothed my sore muscles in the sauna. Im very sore now from it, and am going to try to go twice a week. Im still trying to figure out summer and fall plans and hopefully will have it all figured out soon.

Educating on the WIld Side!!!

Day 1

These past few days have been a blur and I'm still recovering from this super fun trip. Our class left at 730 on Saturday and began our drive to Idaho. Each van had 2 drivers, i started off sleeping in the back for a few hours than i switched with the other driver and drove around five hours to Farwell Bend State Park. On the way we stopped at some gigantic waterfalls which were stunning. We made a few other stops on the way at various rest stops then eventually stopped in a small town called Huntingvile. We ate at a old redneck restaurant in a large room next to the main bar. The food was terrible, but held us down for a bit. We then headed to the park and set up camp. It was super windy and cold, yet the sky was very beautiful as a result of the low light pollution. I slept outside in between peoples tents, and actually slept very well.

Day 2

Today we left from Farwell Bend at 7 and began our drive to Utah. This drive took around 11 hours, and i drove around 7 of them. It was very crazy and began snowing during the drive which was very surreal in dry Utah. On the way we stopped at Bear River Wildlife Refuge in Utah. This place consists of over a hundred acres of wetlands. There are roads which loop throughout the park and we drove around then eventually walked some of the trails. This place is filled with many majestic birds such as hawks, owls, pelicans, pheasants, finches, cranes... We were able to look at all of these birds though fancy powerful equipment from the school. One very amazing site was when we viewed a group of 5 pelicans swimming and eating synchronized. The place we were at had an excellent view of the Wasatch mountain range and we were able to view a line on the range which showed how salt lake used to be massive and covered a great amount of land. Later we headed to the city of Odgen and camped out at the Ogden Nature Center. This place is very unique because its roughly the size of one city block within the city. This place is truly wild and has packs of wild deer, turkey, rabbits, mice, snakes... There are many trees and a huge swamp lies in the middle of the refuge. We camped in the back of the park by two large tree houses and had bathrooms and electricity. I shared a tent with a friend from class. Later this night we cooked a peanut stir fry which was very tasty(one of my classmates used to be a chief!). After diner we sat around a large fire and roasted smores.

Day 3

On Monday we were woken up and rushed at 7 to get ready for the day. In the morning i worked with grads from NAU(Northern Arizona University, This was one of my college choices) and helped them with an ongoing project involving cotton wood trees and symbiotic fungi. We helped them collect data by taking four soil/root samples from each tree at the directions N,E,S,W. We dug into the dirt a meter away from the tree base and then sifted through the dirt for fine cotton wood roots and then bagged and labeled them for further study. After this we rushed back to camp and than after changing into hiking gear headed to the Wasatch front. The city abruptly ends and the mountain range takes over. We decided to do a 3 mile hike to Malans Peak. This hike was amazing and very intense. We began by hiking up into a little canyon next to a river and eventually the switchbacks took us higher up. The environment began to change as we got higher up and soon the whole landscape was covered in snow! It felt like i was climbing Mt. Everest and we had to be very careful not to slip. When we made it to the top we rested at the clearing and had a short seminar about wilderness and the transition of nature and city.

Day 4

Yet again we woke up super early and headed to the nature center headquarters. We were supposed to work with kinder gardeners, however the class never showed up. Instead we helped the educators prep activities and we also toured the facilities. They have a large raptor center which takes in injured and desensitized birds. Some of the birds they had were pelicans, golden eagles, owls, hawks, and ravens... After this we drove to various sections of the Weber River and studied how the surrounding ecology was effected by the city. In many parts erosion had influenced the river and created at risk areas for housing close by. We also looked at one area in which the plants were dieing due to the large amount of paint ballers who shot up the area. We had some very interesting discussions about how to educate people about environmental issues such as these. Later this evening we had a seminar on the book Last Child In The Woods which is a very insightful text about nature deficit disorder and how its contributing to attention disorders, depression, and obesity.

Day 5


WE left camp at 6 and headed back to Washington. The night was very stormy and there were thunder/lightening storms so i packed up the tent the night before and slept in a trees house which was lots of fun. Unfortunately i did not hear the wake up call and woke up a few minutes before 6. I stuffed everything in my pack and jumped into the back of the van and slept for a few hours. Later i took over driving and ended up driving 10 hours back to Washington. We ended up arriving around 9 back on campus. This trip was lots of fun and i have bonded with many of my classmates. Now i have lots of time to relax, the other half of the class is going camping in Northern Washington so i have no class this next next week. I still have assignments and will be watching several nature films and reading a book about natures influence in media. Im also going to start solidifying my plans for the science carnival with my group. You can check out photos from the trip here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81102&id=631538370&l=5ebb772909