MLK Jr and Ed Training

So the service day and ed training are done. Hooray.

For our service day on MLK, Jr. day, we learned about Tsunamis, and then we were split into teams of 3-5 and sent to local towns where we would canvas, giving people information about what to do, how to know if you're in danger (natural warnings rather than official warnings), and where they should go in their community.

I was in a little town called King Salmon, essentially a large trailer park.

Definitely going to be underwater in a Tsunami.
You can see it cause I circled it with red.

The tsunami danger reminded me of tornadoes in the midwest. The warning to watch elevation, the sirens (which either don't exist, don't work, or don't carry far enough in the North Coast area...). The main difference was that everyone in the midwest knows what to do if a tornado is on it's way. Basement, low point, not by a tree. The sirens are used, tested regularly, and acknowledged (unless you're in the middle of nowhere). Not so much for tsunamis.

WSP member Tambra pushing her independent service project at
King Salmon's Tsunami information station

Thus the event, while being in its first year and thus poorly organized (not enough sandwiches for people, no organized rides to the communities-to-be-canvassed), was still clearly helpful for a number of community members. A lot of people knew where to go, but not necessarily the natural warning signs. And of course a lot of people knew what to look for or feel, but didn't know where to go.

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The education training was alright. We went through a lot of stuff that was redundant, considering the number of field trips Heidi and I have done at SPAWN. But we also learned a lot of new games to play and useful tips on classroom management, we dissected a steelhead trout, and went through what is required to complete our "Real Science" portion of the AmeriCorps WSP.

One of the new games is a salmon pageant. I was a shimmery, shiny smolt.
Jacob is a spawner (adult coming back to spawn)

Another new activity is fish printing - using plastic fish molds,
painting them, and then pressing them to paper. Yay a fish.


Are you ready steelhead? It's going to hurt.


I told you so.


Fish organs. Tasty. Or not so much.

We also met the new January hires (there's an October hire period and a January hire period in the WSP), one who is from Champaign-Urbana and went to Parkland. Yay chambananites.

We played catchphrase and drank cheap beer.

It was colder up there, and I spotted some snow on the drive back! Driving along hwy 101, Heidi slowed and I rolled the window down and took a couple pictures. Kristin laughed. One of the pictures showed up.

SNOW! Or possibly ice/frost that never melted if it's always in the shade.
I'd like to believe it's snow.

You can kind of see the white ahead along the road...
another small patch of snow. /frost. Didn't turn out so well.


I like this town's sign. It's a fairly large town along hwy 101.

While we did have to buy our dinners while we were up there, we got to claim them as expenses. Of course we won't see that money for many, many months. I did finally receive my physical reimbursement ($70.15!) from September. I think I may have been the first person to receive it!! Yay money.

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Talking to Kristin, who is the AmeriCorps WSP at Institute for Fisheries Resources, made me really curious in possibly serving a second year, specifically at her site. The position at IFR is all policy, so no field work and little outreach. I would really like to know more and experience more of the policy side of this whole industry, but I'm not sure I'd want to spend an entire 11 months away from field work and outreach. Currently I feel like I learn something new every day or at least reinforce newly acquired knowledge. I have this fear that I'd forget all this new knowledge.

Whatever, it's a long ways away before I need to start worrying about applying for another job.

Disappointing

It didn't snow the entire time I was in Illinois. 9 days of weather pretty similar to what I came from, though less rain I'm sure. I'm disappointed.

No hoodie with a scarf under a peacoat with gloves and a hat. Instead it was run-outside-really-quick-in-your-tee-shirt-and-no-shoes to move the car weather.

Oh well. I shopped on State Street, saw the Marshall Field's/Macy's windows and the Bean, practiced my South Side Chicago accent, and celebrated Kerry's Christmas Eve birthday all the while enjoying family and friends... etc etc. We had a take off of peking duck for Christmas Eve dinner and lasagna for Christmas day dinner. Very a-traditional and very delicious.

It was my last night sleeping with Judy (my parents dog), and she decided to be even more of a bedhog than usual. She comes into the room late, usually when I'm already asleep and last night was no different. In the middle of the night I had this uncomfortable feeling that I couldn't put my legs together. I woke up and discovered Judy curled in a ball between them. She's such a slow and difficult mover when she's half asleep. When I got up to go to the bathroom I discovered she had moved, even though I had just shoved her to the perfect spot, and was now positioned exactly where I wanted to be. Like, the central point. Frustrating things to deal with when you want a living space heater to sleep with you.

On the way here, I had a layover in Denver. Luckily it was the day before the blizzard hit, so I had no problem with it, though apparently Aspen was snowed under as the flights across from me were incredibly delayed. As they boarded, the woman on the loudspeaker said "If the plane can't land, it's coming back" and everyone groaned. I flew into Rockford, amazingly, and ended up in a very small airport very late at night with no one there but the people getting off the plane and the people waiting for them. Seriously, I really don't even remember workers there.

I leave for O'Hare at 5 PM this evening and have a direct flight to Oakland. Which means I'll have a movie on the plane! Lately I've discovered that I get a little motion sickness on planes and I can't read on them. I need the movie to distract me, since my iPod is breaking down and the battery only lasts a couple hours at the most (but I got a new one so this will no longer be a problem after this flight).