I may be tan by the end of the summer
Five things I haven't done in the last two weeks:
1. Flushed a toilet
2. Seen myself in a mirror
3. bathed
4. Flipped a light switch
5.Seen a tv or car
So it was raining an miserable when I got out to Penikese a couple weeks ago. The first big task to complete was the gull census which involves going over every inch of the island and counting the gull nests. Penikese is 70 acres of every thorn imaginable, poison ivy, and grass so high and thick you can't feel the ground underneath you. I HATE HATE HATE censusing. I didn't like it last summer but that was a picnic compared to this. It took four or five days and it was the hardest most miserable task I have ever completed. The rain was rough as well. You may have even heard about the flooding in MA on the national news. But since the end of the census it was been smooth sailing.
I work with one other person on the island and her name is Mary. She is pretty much a badass. She did her undergrad at Duke and studied abroad in Tanzania where she got to do an independent primate study. She also worked with sea turtles in the Virgin Islands has done other various jobs in every corner of the country. Now she is in her second year of grad school.
We start off the day at about 7:30. We eat breakfast and then go into the tern colondy to count the nests and eggs. lately we have been getting done at about 1 and then we eat lunch and maybe resight some leg bands for a couple hours. We have plenty of free time until the chicks hatch and it gets busy. We listen to NPR alot, read, and change the words to songs from the Little Mermaid to make them dirty. We have a blast. The only things that kind of suck are having to lug water across the island from the school, not bathing, and washing dishes is much more difficult when you don't have running water. The Common terns are also very mean. I probably get shit on about 30 times a day and lately they have started to dive at my hands while I'm working and it fucking hurts.
I have met some pretty cool people up here. There are 10 people on this project. Jeff coordinates the research on the Roseate terns which are endangered and he used to teach at Yale. Everyubody has just done such cool things. One girl taught English in Peru, one guy did bobcat research out in Iowa. the list goes one. Some of the staff at the island school are really cool. Jimbo is probably in his 50's and he has tons of stories that start out "I was riding an elephant in thailand...." or something equally intrigueing. We thought he was a hippi until we found out he has stock in Exon Mobil. Haha.
I am one of two people on the project that doesn't have a degree. I am the youngest. Both of the interns have degrees and while it is awesome that I'm only a junior and have a position higher than them, it is kind of scary. That shows how hard it is to find a job with an environmental degree.
I am having a great time but I miss everyone. This isn't a profession where you can have your cake and eat it too. My family is coming up to visit and Gregg probably will too. Logan is in CO now and I miss him. It's comforting to know that he's getting to do something really cool though. Not seeing him for this long will make going home that much more exciting. We get to talk every day though. I get signal on the island. He's getting into parts of CO that he's not going to get signal in though.
I miss you all and talk about you all the time. I wish I could go to the drive in :( Hopefully I will get to see whoevere is still around in the fall when I get back. My next break is in 17 days so I will talk to you guys then. I made a facebook pic album of the island for those who are interested.
1. Flushed a toilet
2. Seen myself in a mirror
3. bathed
4. Flipped a light switch
5.Seen a tv or car
So it was raining an miserable when I got out to Penikese a couple weeks ago. The first big task to complete was the gull census which involves going over every inch of the island and counting the gull nests. Penikese is 70 acres of every thorn imaginable, poison ivy, and grass so high and thick you can't feel the ground underneath you. I HATE HATE HATE censusing. I didn't like it last summer but that was a picnic compared to this. It took four or five days and it was the hardest most miserable task I have ever completed. The rain was rough as well. You may have even heard about the flooding in MA on the national news. But since the end of the census it was been smooth sailing.
I work with one other person on the island and her name is Mary. She is pretty much a badass. She did her undergrad at Duke and studied abroad in Tanzania where she got to do an independent primate study. She also worked with sea turtles in the Virgin Islands has done other various jobs in every corner of the country. Now she is in her second year of grad school.
We start off the day at about 7:30. We eat breakfast and then go into the tern colondy to count the nests and eggs. lately we have been getting done at about 1 and then we eat lunch and maybe resight some leg bands for a couple hours. We have plenty of free time until the chicks hatch and it gets busy. We listen to NPR alot, read, and change the words to songs from the Little Mermaid to make them dirty. We have a blast. The only things that kind of suck are having to lug water across the island from the school, not bathing, and washing dishes is much more difficult when you don't have running water. The Common terns are also very mean. I probably get shit on about 30 times a day and lately they have started to dive at my hands while I'm working and it fucking hurts.
I have met some pretty cool people up here. There are 10 people on this project. Jeff coordinates the research on the Roseate terns which are endangered and he used to teach at Yale. Everyubody has just done such cool things. One girl taught English in Peru, one guy did bobcat research out in Iowa. the list goes one. Some of the staff at the island school are really cool. Jimbo is probably in his 50's and he has tons of stories that start out "I was riding an elephant in thailand...." or something equally intrigueing. We thought he was a hippi until we found out he has stock in Exon Mobil. Haha.
I am one of two people on the project that doesn't have a degree. I am the youngest. Both of the interns have degrees and while it is awesome that I'm only a junior and have a position higher than them, it is kind of scary. That shows how hard it is to find a job with an environmental degree.
I am having a great time but I miss everyone. This isn't a profession where you can have your cake and eat it too. My family is coming up to visit and Gregg probably will too. Logan is in CO now and I miss him. It's comforting to know that he's getting to do something really cool though. Not seeing him for this long will make going home that much more exciting. We get to talk every day though. I get signal on the island. He's getting into parts of CO that he's not going to get signal in though.
I miss you all and talk about you all the time. I wish I could go to the drive in :( Hopefully I will get to see whoevere is still around in the fall when I get back. My next break is in 17 days so I will talk to you guys then. I made a facebook pic album of the island for those who are interested.