Sunburns at the Portland beach! sunshine!

Willard Beach
South Portland, ME:)

Dav and Stina (friends from Cali and the Grand Canyon)

Emma:) Fellow Outdoor Classroom staff at Chewonki- I love this woman!
We are flare flamingos together:)

Barnicles! They are now one of my favorite sea creatures- have you ever seen them eat? They eat with their legs. and their legs are pink. can't get much cooler.

feet on the ferry

tide pools:) algae and mussels and crabs and periwinkles (sea snails) and green crabs and lots of great slippery seaweed:)

Maine Mazed Coast

Introducing...
The Maine Coast!

I finally got my dad's old camera to work, so here are a few photos:)

This is the view from the Camden Hills- one of the only places on the Maine Coast around 1000 ' tall instead of 100 '. It's about an hour North of Wiscasset where I live:)
One of my housemates Ruthie and I went mountain biking and backpacking here last weekend!

The Maine coast is crazy cool; "wicked cool" would be the Maine lingo-lots of islands and inlets and crazy water ways and islands- the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago...
left knobby hills and steep valleys and tonz of meltwater moving through valleys..

...this is how it was explained to me: the coast is a sponge that was compacted during glaciation and is slowly expanding upwards... I'm no geologist, but the coastline is pretty sweet eh?
Ruthie and our little home:)


View from our Tent...Europe's out there somewhere...

Flight of the bumble bee...or is it black fly? maybe mosquito?
the bugs were plentiful at sunset

Mountain Biking...sand, rocks, mud, rusty water pipes, you name it...Good times...

yay for trees.

yay for a view outside the trees:)

oh ya, the sun doesn't set over the ocean over here...Still gettin used to this East Coast stuff.

Girl time on the beach

This is me, Leah T., and Ruthie our friend and co-worker Emma's graduation last Sunday- We had to represent Chewonki love with plenty of flare for everyone:) Good times.

I'm keepin pretty busy, this is my last week of encampment before I go through wilderness trip training and life guard training- In July/August I'll be leading some 1 week canoe trips and a 3 week backpacking/canoe trip on the Appalachian trail...

Excited for a trip to Cali in about 2.5 weeks!
That's it for now, gotta go prep for my lessons for my last week of Outdoor Classroom of the Spring!

Wonderings and Wanderings

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

I almost forgot. how ironic. I don't feel like I did anything super extraordinary to celebrate our mother earth today; my job is being an environmental educator, does that count as showing my appreciation for our ever-giving planet?

I have a feeling that teachers are chronically sleep deprived and therefore, quickly develop extreme dependencies on highly addictive substances.

like caffeine. and sugar...

hmmmm...I've stayed clear of coffee so far, which I am pretty proud of considering...
That little battle I might could deal with (bad grammar intentional), but this whole dialect of acronymese-a language I have detested since my frequent exposure to it in the Non Profit world...I don't know if I can handle much more of it...In the outdoor education field it seems to be creeping into my life more and more all the time...I was tossed a whole bunch more in my first aid class this weekend- HELP!

This week is a special week because I'm working with 1st and 2nd graders rather than 5th or 6th graders...they're excited about everything and go home at the end of each day rather than camping out with us for four days straight; a luxury. This week I am also working with Doug, a senior staff member from last year that knows what he's doing; yet another luxury....I'm learning lots and am feeling like I don't know what I'm doing most of the time, which can be kind of frustrating. Luckily with first graders who are on vacation camp, it's not too daunting- We mostly play fun games and do cool eco- activities outside all day...sounds easy right? Somehow this still takes lots o planning.

I'm learning that a lot of teaching, if not most of it, has to do with group management and lots and lots of forethought and planning-especially with 1st and 2nd graders- "oops, I peed my pants", "wait, I forgot my coat", "do you know where I put my water bottle?" "She pushed me" "I'm confused" "I need a bandaid" "I Lost my drawing and poem ( I somehow lost them already in the past 60 sec walking between point A and point B)"...

Any of you out there with pointers should feel free to share your infinite wisdom...
Especially about behavior modeling, positive language, discipline/consequences, and group facilitation.

Besides thinking about how to improve my teaching and facilitation skills, I'm feeling energized with the warmer weather- Maine is springing to life!
Flowers are emerging. Frogs are spawning and croaking like crazy!
Birds are nesting. Pastures are greening and vegetables are growing.
The sun lingers and a season of challenge and mystery awaits...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ticklypig/2082452308/

Oh ya, went to Vermont this past weekend-super great place! Went to School for International Training for a grad school open house in Brattelboro, then a Wilderness First Aid Class in Burlington- fun cities. Lake Champlain is breathtaking. More reasons Vermont is cool: close to French Speaking Canada, they make REAL maple syrup, they're stoked on good cheese, and they have the fanciest rest stops I have ever seen in my life. Check this out. Plus, topography- hooray!

And, people are super friendly, eco-savvy, and I admit, a little hippish:) You can see past the endless and beautiful mixed forests to mountains + big chunks of rock in the medians along the highway.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmoody/337938878/

I'm thinking about Grad school at School for International Training in Brattleboro maybe next year? They've got some really cool programs. They also are tres cher, so who knows what next year will bring...Thinking about Peace Corps or Fullbright, or maybe more teaching?
Anybody heard of cool programs?
Definitely have got the travel bug itchin' to get out and about in the near future....Would love to get back to West Africa to work with women/girls, dance and do art...am also hoping to get to South America for some dancing and Spanish lessons...Who knows?

Back in Time...

So I moved! to Maine! It snows here. In April! It's finally melting- or so it seems...and mud is everywhere! One of the staff gave me yellow mud boots with bumble bees- that makes me smile.:)




Check out this interactive map of Maine! I'm still learning Maine geography, and history and everything else for that matter...Apparently they have annual dog sled races, sand castle contests, potato and blueberry blossom festivals, and I'm sure there's gotta be some kind of Lobster feed at some point during the year...



So I live on a "neck". at an environmental education institution. on a farm. in the woods. near a town called Wiscasset, about an hour north of Portland, in the state of Maine, on the East Coast of the United States of America.



Bye bye Sunny California! No more West Coast for me...at least not til November...Well actually, that's not quite true. Once I find an affordable plane ticket, I'll be flying out to California this summer to go to two weddings- four wonderful friends from Humboldt State: Lisa and Jesse, and Miles and Daniele!

I'm super psyched for that. I do miss my Oakland pals and my Warwick Palace and well, the diverse richness of the Bay...might comment more on that later...
All my love to my Oakland posse!


For now, I work for a place called the Chewonki Foundation. I think that's one of the funnest words to say ever. isn't it? try it: Che-wonk-ee:)
There are three meals every day that I don't have to cook. interesting. We eat together at round tables with different people every day: teachers, high school students, environmental education teachers, and other Chewonki staff day in and day out...
I live in a house with 7 other staff...The Warren House. That's next to the Betty Decker House and "Packout" - the magical place where all the gear and food for our encampments with kids lives...tents, peanut butter, tuna fish and wannagens- yes wannagens. I don't know if that's how you spell it, but I'm learning a whole new vocabulary living in Maine- such fun words they have here.
I'll explain about the wannagens later.

My life is getting more structured all the time...which means that it's 11:19 and I need to go to bed. it's past bedtime. still getting used to that. breakfast is at 7:15 every morning, meetings at 8, then staff training stuff til 5:30 for the next two weeks...then outdoor programs and lessons with kids five days a week...so it begins...the life of an outdoor educator.

I'm excited to start learning how to make lesson plans and scheming up fun ways to incorporate art and culture and creativity into environment and science lessons!
woopee:)

Now that I am super far from most everyone that I have ever been close with, maybe I'll want to write in my blog more often:)
And maybe all you people that love me will be motivated to write me cuz you'll know a little bit more about what I'm doing on a daily basis...(hint hint, write me comments and e-mails and stuff if'n ya wanto:)

lots of love!

okay, bed time for reals.
good night maine!

Vision Videos and Amazing Grace!

First, have you ever wondered where the song amazing grace originated?
It's the most recognized hymn in the world I think...I always thought it was an African American Sprititual from the Southern U.S., but it actually was written by an Englishman slave ship merchant... Read about it here.
I just watched the movie "Amazing Grace", which is a British film "based on the life of anti-slavery pioneer William Wilberforce" in England. It's an amazing true story about a man who fought for the abolition of slavery for years in the time between the American and French Revolutions. Highly recommend it. Youssou N'Dour (our favorite Senegalese singer- remember, I met him backstage at his concert in SF a few weeks ago) plays a slave who bought his freedom and helps provide evidence for the inhumanness of slavery with his personal account about coming across the ocean on a slave ship and all the horrors he witnessed.

I think it's pretty cool that the film makers chose a respected, world renowned African man to play the part of the African slave.

Goree Island, off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, was on of the ports for the slave trade...and a place most Senegalese don't like to visit unless they are among the small community that lives there. I visited the house of slaves when I was in Dakar- they kept the slaves there on Goree Island in insanely cramped quarters (while their captors lived lavishly in the spacious quarters above them) before they were taken to the ships where they would go across the sea to experience even more cramped-ness, suffering and despair...
It was powerful to link both sides of the story and learn about a few amazing people who fought to abolish slavery in England...

The door of No Return, House of Slaves, Goree Island, Senegal

The movie is a great history lesson, but also sheds light on the fact that slavery does still exist today, especially for children in places like SouthEast Asia. This site has a list of organization partners and those working the end modern day slavery once and for all. For all the teachers out there, they also include discussion guides to supplement the movie. Pretty cool.

Besides watching movies, latley I've been working on finding my quest (and a new job.)
I'm getting close! I'm making a video about my personal vision for my life, which I'm really excited about! I'm almost done and will post it soon!

I learned how to make the video from a great presentation I went to last Thursday by a guy named Malcom Cohan- he's a crazy enthusiastic guy from Australia that came up with this easy, yet incredibly profound and creative exercise that helps people find their purpose, or quest, and help make our dreams reality!
that's him--------------------->

I know, sounds kind of bizzare impossible and maybe you even feel a little skeptical.
But I promise, it's magical and it works! If you don't believe me, try it yourself.
Or if you do believe me, definitely try it yourself.

Even if you don't believe me, watch Malcom's vision video for humanity here.

Start making your own movie here- you need to register, then he gives you all the software, online tutorials, and instructions to create your very own vision video=your own personal expression for what you truly want out of life. It's totally free! Detailed instructions here.

Info about some of his initiatives to help chronically depressed, elderly, disadvantaged youth, etc, go here.

Let me know what you think!

Any of you that were making vision boards for New Years with me have got to try this!
This is truly magical!

If you do make a video, please share it! Once other people know what your vision is, we can help each other make our visions into reality!