CSF is the best place of all

So I made a remark recently saying that I had gotten over my initial sadness about not being at camp this summer. I have finally come to terms with the way thi

ngs worked out. I still wanted to make a trip to camp to visit li

ke I said I would. Today was the day!

I headed down that old familiar road, through the rural countryside to a ferry across the Neuse river. A

s a young kid, this drive was fill

ed with excitement and anticipation as I looked forward to the first day of camp and meeting my cabinmates. Across the Neuse I could make out the peppermint striped sails of the SeaGull sunfish, the boys out enjoying a lovely day at camp. An itching started growing inside me. All I wanted to do was get

out on a sailboat again. I can’t believe it has been nearly 3 years now. I think the last time I was out on a boat was with Lauran stevens on the finally staff sailing evening. Unbelievable.

Life on the Neuse is eternal. Time moves slow and things hardly change. I drove through Arapahoe, past all the American flags, listening to country camp tunes with the windows rolled down. It could have easily been a few years past. You would never know the difference. My mind was racing with images of my camper days.

AHOY THERE welcome to

CAMP SEAFARER

Inside the gate, I drove along the road as if it was a daily routine. I felt like I had just been here yesterday. That’s how it always is. The Camp book begins just where it left off. I felt right at home. It’s a welcoming community to those who grew up inside. A bubble of people who act similary and strive to live by the character traits that the camp is built upon. To outsiders it may seem too regimented, too clickish, too bizarre, too exclusive. But if you can break the surface and the politics of camp, there exists a place that has made me who I am today.

I roamed around, visiting Taylor Lodge to see my old cabin photos, the Chandlery to purchase some new camp items, and towards the sail loft. But I was stopped short when “Diana Roycroft? Hold on” camp blarri

ng from the megaphone at the swim lake. NO way! Katelyn Peret my old co-counselor is UA at the swim lake this year. Wow! So ok things do change. The people are different now. My age group are the girls running camp now. How crazy is that. I remember always looking up to

those counselors as being so intelligent, experienced, and great role models. But now I am their age. We are those counselors. Yikes! And girls I taught sailing are on staff. And my campers are now in camp3 . What! Down at the sail loft I ran into more olf familiar faces and got to hang out at Check out. It was great, I was allowed to roam around as if I were a counselor myself.

I was so surposed at how many people recognized and rmemebered me after nearly 3 years abseince. They even called me by name! There were also several instances where I could palce the face but not the names. For

my own recordkeeping this is who I saw:

Meghan Taminen (UA sailing)

ML (UA sailing)

Stewart (UA sailing)

Allie Hoffman

Sara Frantz

Terra hart

Beth Peters (Aquatics UA)

Katelyn Peret

Leslie Anderson

Paige Derioun

April Pfeiffer

Kristen Benson (led my Sea venture trip)

Lucy Roberts

And…..as I was sitting waiting for lunch, a camper passed me. Is that really her? Maybe? Name????? Come on…..Katie! Yes Katie! My camper from cabin 4.

Left: Cabin 4

Right: Today

"Katie?"

She turns, looks towards me. Walks towards me

“Do you know who I am?”

“No I don’t remember”

“Im Diana, your counselor from cabin 4”

“Oh my gosh, yes. I miss you!”

She gave me a huge hug. I teared up. Literally I almost lost it. It was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever had. TO know that I had touched the life of this girl. And how grown up she was now. Upper camp 2, 12 years old. Wow I feel old. I talked to her for a little while as she sat on my lap and continuously hugged me. Katie Henchel. She gave me a silly band, a sign of true attachment. I will wear it for a long long time.

I know that there are more of my campers around but I didn’t run into any of them. But seeing Katie was enough.

Guess what? WHAT?

We’ve got FRIED CHICK’EN

Yep! It’s fried chicken Sunday lunch today. I sat with Laura Lamar’s C-35 for lunch. Just like the old times. I melded right in. Felt like I had been there all summer already. Blessing, food, bug juice, Sunday hymns, announcements, rest period until 3 O CLOCK, KP.

SAILING time! The moment I have been waiting for for a long time. Life jacket on, daggerboard, Neuse here I come. Same crocks and bathing suit I had as a counselor. Such a strange feeling. I walked right out to the sunfish, rigged it, and set sail as if I sailed yesterday. It came so natural. No need for me to ever be nervous about sailing. It was a beautiful moment. Sailing around the Neuse, alone, looking back at such a beautiful place. Knowing I will always be welcome here. Hoping that camp will be the one place I can always come and know that it will still be there. There are no words to describe the sensation of sailing along the coast of camp. I was extremely relaxed and satisfied with that moment in my life. Essentailly this moment represents what a summer at CSF can do. It reenergizes the soul and the mind and the heart. It gives you strength and confidence to be yourself and to strive to live each day to the fullest. And to be surrounded by people who also energize you and accept you as you are. I think I have this subconscious fear that that will someday disappear (and that’s why I always want to come back. To make sure that everything is still the same). After seeing how things are this summer, I can’t help but think what position I would have if I had worked the past 2 summers. Who knows I might actually be in charge of flying scotts.

My sunfish sail was cut short because of a quick forming storm. Can’t go to camp without having a thunderstorm pop out of no where. Totally ordinary. A day in the 100s is guaranteed to have a storm of some sort.

I left the gate feeling accomplished and so so happy that I had made the visit. I know now that people do care about me there (something that took awhile to achieve because I am an out of stater). I know that people want me to come back. I know that I made a difference. I know that camp is still camp no matter what. I know that I have been given strength to live out the camp message yet again. I know that CSF is the most amazing thing that ever happened to be as a kid. I know Camp will forever be in my heart.

Destination OBX - the point of no return

Well its been another short lapse of time but for good reason. Our lab crew headed out on Wednesday for overnight sampling. It had already been a full week. Tuesday and Wednesday Jane and I were left on our own to take care of business. This meant checking out the truck and driving myself to Hoop Hole to do fiddler crab and plant sampling.

It was a change of pace to be in charge of things. Certainly a sense of moving up the chain of command. Our work with fiddler crabs has officially started. They are hilarious creatures. AT low tide they come out of their burrows and move around the mudflats similar to herds moving across the prairies. In order to catch them, we set plastic jars at different positions in the marsh. As the tide comes in and t

he crabs move back to land, some of them end up falling in the containers. They are much more enjoyable than blue crabs because they are only a few centimeters in length and have only one large claw (males). Right now we are just trying to identify which species live in our marshes.

In between the 9 hour work days we were trying to keep track of the World Cup games…tuning into radio in the lab and screaming when the US amazingly scored in 90’. Landon Donovan is the man.

So after a full work day on Wednesday, we packed up our Silverado truck with a Canoe and all of our gear. Repeat….Canoe, 4 people, nets, coolers, buckets, etc…….Oh yes! The drive took us through rural coastal North Carolina. It is a unique region but has

plenty of character and natural beauty. I spent an hour staring at the window across marsh fields, at old cottages, run down houses, and southern

Americana. I always wonder what those people do for a living…..farming, fishing? It is such a different world than what I

live in each day. THe landscape is gorgeous though. Very similar to what you envision from Nicholas Sparks novels. Well that’s because this is where he based his books.

We reached Cedar Island at the tip of land before the Outer Banks. The main method of transportation is via ferry. The NC ferry system is fabulous and in most places free. The ride was 2 hours across the Pamilco Sound where pirates once lurked and civil war battles occurred. It is said that Blackbeard, and infamous pirate, was beheaded in these waters. At the very center of the trek you could not see any land. I looked off the railing into a horizon of sea and was drawn into a sense of infin

ite existence and tranquility. The sun was slowly setting on the horizon and the sun’s rays were beaming on the water. It was a picture perfect moment that I will hold forever as one of my favorites.

The ferry arrived in Ocracoke, a lovely seaside village comprising of small stores, local food, a lighthouse, and cottages (we stopped at Howard’s) The drive across the island is similar to what the Pensacola beach road looked like before Hurricane Ivan. At the end of the Island is another ferry. Waiting for departure, we walked along the beach and enjoyed a rising full moon.

The final ferry took us across another treacherous pass that, due to its shifting sandunes, was labeled the graveyard of the atlantic. The OBX are littered with shipwrecks of every sort. Our journey was a short

ride to Hatteras Inlet, the tip on the northern OBX. The IMS lab purchased a house on Hatteras for summer research. In general Hatteras is a popular destination for wealthy families to summer. The beach cottages are ENORMOUS. And most people also have large fishing yachts that they keep in the Hatteras marinas. Well as nice as it would have been to stay in the mansions, our property was a one story unfurnished house on the main road. It did the trick.

In the morning, we met up with a local who had agreed to take our equipment to our site via his skiff boat. Irony, we loaded the boat next to the Citation yacht which had won the Big Rock Fishing tournament in Morehead last week until they lost their 1 million dollar prize because of a license violation. Anyways, we road the boat to a small piece of land between the marina and the sound. Our job was to sein and set fyke nets like we had in all of our other sites. A sill is going to be added to the sound soon because it is failing victim to erosion. This was evident as Prafka and I found very little species in our nets.

After a sunny, hot, and buggy day on the job, we got to relax on the beach. Hatteras is also similar to Pensacola Beach but has MAJOR dunes. It is also a very windy area that is known for its surf and kiteboarding. Sure enough the kites were out. Something I would like to try sometime in my life. Looks like a blast. The waves were really intense today, as were the currents. And to my surprise, the water was much much colder than Atlantic Beach.

The evening involved another trip our to the site at 7pm. This time we launched a canoe and paddled across on

our own. The process was repeated at 2am but this time we had to retrieve the nets and then ID all of the species on the spot. Exhaustion quickly set in.

After a few hours of sleep we were up again to retreieve all of our gear and head back to the mainland. THe journey back took all day due to missed ferries. We spent 2 hours in Ocracoke walking around the shops. I was totally drained of energy and the 100 degree temperature only added to the fatigue. I thought I was going to fall over. But I couldn’t help looking in these stores an once again envisioning what I want to have in my own house someday. Note to self: go to ocracoke to purchase décor!

THe ferry ride involved lots of napping and eavesdropping on Mennonite women from Holland and a German couple on vacation in the OBX. That’s a first. We finally made it back home. I had a great time and certainly reminded myself of the beauty of the NC OBX. Someday I’d love to go on a really nice vacation to the area.

All I wanted to do was shower, eat, and sleep when I got back to my beach house. I was about the open the main door when……..the lock wouldn’t open. I tried and tried for 10 minutes, nothing. Seriously? I was so drained at this point. The door didn’t budge. Inevitably I ended up in a condo unit next door trying to call locksmiths. No one was open. No one else could get the door to open. Wonderful. I was so thankful when the people helping me offered me to join them for dinner. But I was so tense, tired, anxious, etc….that I probably was not the best company. I owe a HUGE thank you to Christina’s family for offering me a place to stay in their house. I gave up on my house for the night and drove through an intense lightening storm to Swansboro. Best shower I’ve had in awhile and an amazing place to literally crash. I slept so well and woke up to a beautiful sunrise. I really love their house. Once again the Kohlmann’s provided for me. I couldn’t stay for long because the locksmith was going to meet me at the house.

And the inevitable happened…..the door opened perfectly. Really? How embarrassing. I cant really explain what happened but I think the humidity from the storm last night caused the door to seal.

Home finally. (Only to be depressed again after the US lost the soccer game)

A Peaceful Easy Feeling

I apologize for my absence from writing. In part I just wanted to get away from the computer for a little while. Usually I have at least a month during the summer away from technology. Also, I have been surprisingly busy this past week! A short recap:

Wednesday:

A lesson in sewing. Who knew I’d be learning so many life skills this summer. I spent the afternoon mending our beloved nets that fell victim to the terrible harassment of blue crabs. I also successfully depleted more of the sragassum seaweed population at Radio Island. Talk about habitat destruction. Oops

Thursday:

THe day I’ve been waiting for!!!!!!! 4 day weekend. Fantastic. Madelyn and I headed for Durham around lunchtime for a family reunion. Sadly, we need reunions to get my father, mother, and sister together these days. My mom was coming from DC, my father from Pcola via a trip to Spain and Tennessee. What better way to celebrate than a concert. And make it The Eagles. I’m pretty sure my dad has been saying that he wanted to take us to see them since I was 5 years old. I’ve been through endless car rides (mainly to the beach) jamming to the Best of the Eagles album. While I know the tunes by heart now, I am just beginning to finally learn, understand, and appreciate the lyrics. Our seats at the concert were decent. Average age of the crowd: 50. Excitement level: 150.

8:00pm ready to rock. The big four walk onto stage silhouetted. Glenn Fry, Don Henley, Timothy Schmidt, Joe Walsh. ……..

“There are stars on the southern sky…….” – Seven Bridges Road

Beautiful harmony. Great way to kick off the concert.

And it only got better and better and better.

They played all the hits:

Hotel California, Desparado, Tequila Sunrise, One of these nights, In the City, Victim of Love, Peaceful Easy Feeling……..and on and on and on

3 HOURS WORTH of unbelievable music and harmony. It was rocking. Best concert I’ve been too. And it was great to share the experience with my dad and seeing the joy in his face. It was a moment of family bonding that only comes around every now and then. Especially with my sister and I leaving the house now.

FRIDAY: After falling into a slump because of terrible refereeing for the USA and GERMANY games, I headed back to the beach with the family. It’s a 3 hour drive that I am getting used to making these days. It’s a country route and I am shocked when I don’t pass at least one truck of pigs. Poor hogs.

WEEKEND: Beach beach beach beach beach. Believe it or not, living at the beach I actually haven’t spent that much time on the beach itself. So I spent nearly every waking moment on it this weekend. Book of choice: Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk and finishing Anson Dorrance’s autobiography. About to start Stones For Schools. Music of choice: country – Brad paisley, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts. No wave action though. I broke out the noodle and tubes for ocean flotation. Hot HOT sand. Big Oak BBQ. Cheerwine. Dairy Queen. El Zarape Mexican. World Cup Soccer. Things just keep getting better.

Sunday: We sent dad to Spain for father’s day this morning. Meanwhile the girls went to Beaufort to buy mom’s bday gift. I have officially decided that if my entire house isn’t nautical themed than at least one of my room’s will be. I can help but walk through the waterfront stores and begin to envision my life in a few year’s when I will have a place of my own. Better start keeping an eye out now. So tempting to purchase things now. But I made lots of mental notes. And fell into another I miss sailing funk. I will admit that I have gotten over my camp nostalgia (as a figured I would). Things are much better now.

I spent the rest of the day in Swansboro eating at a killer diner that serves peach fritters (to die for), hitting up Emerald Isle beach with Christian, and working on my juggling skills (which are non existent). It was quite a challenge without a trustworthy knee. The Kohlmann’s invited me to stay for dinner again!!! And I was mistaken for Ashley by their next door neighbor. Hahaha. We watched the end of the golf tournament and a huge thunderstorm move across the bay. Another nice trip to Swansboro. It’s been great getting to know people better.

Monday: Work….what’s that again. It felt like my summer job was already in the past when I woke up this morning. But thankfully it was an easy day in the lab. DATA ENTRY. For all of the fish we have been sampling, we have also been taking down notes that have to be entered into excel spreadsheets. THe process is actually slower than the collecting in my opinion (or in my tying skill abilities). It’s tedious work and crucial for the success of Rachel’s project. No pressure. Thanks to Pandora and John Mayer, I was able to stay focused and make a dent in the endless data lists. Surprise surprise, Rachel wanted me to go out into the field today. The one day I thought I had a chance of staying dry. Nope. We went out to Hoop Hole marsh to set fiddler crab traps. We successfully chased some into the traps to see if they would work. Fiddler Crabs are hilarious species. Unlike the terrorist blue crabs, they are much smaller and have a personality. They travel in herds and look like an army moving (or retreating) across the mudflat and into the grasses as you approach them. I’m looking forward to getting to know them a little bit better. She also taught me how to take sediment samples and do vegetation sampling. This is the boring stuff. We have square pipe frames that we lay out and then we count the number of plant stems of each species within the square. Trying not to get our eyes poked out by Junus grass. Now I am also going to be a plant expert. Not nearly as AWESOME as fish. I already miss my mummichogs.

Marlin, Wahoo, Dolphin oh my...its big rock time

I got Monday morning off which was nice because the weekend was so busy I didn’t feel recovered enough for another week to begin so soon. My sister and grandmother arrived yesterday. Ha and I thought I was going to have to spend a lot of my summer alone. False. I’ve actually had quite a few guests! Anyways, it was my grandma’s birthday so we went out to a nice lunch in Beaufort before I had to check into work. I brought Madelyn along so she could check out the lab and watch us in action. We headed out to the Aquarium, our final fish site for the week!!!! It was a scorcher out…probably 93 degrees plus humidity. Really really toasty in the marsh. Covered in mud, sweat, and bug spray, we rolled back into the lab to sort fish in the late afternoon. Nothing out of the ordinary was captured this time.

12 am: Back to the marsh. Probably the most difficult night out because forced myself to stay up until I had to leave. Also, really high tide and lots of area to cover (we all did 4 sites rather than 2). But it was really neat to be out in the marsh when everything was dark, still, and quiet. I stopped looked up and could see stars from horizon to horizon. Actually quite peaceful. Luckily the water was still boiling hot from earlier. I could literally have taken a bath in it.

6am: back to the marsh. I almost overslept this morning….ran out the door with a bagel in one hand and booties in the other. It was good to be out in the marsh early though. Nice and cool. I could tell it was going to be even warmer today. Our work was speedy but with 4 people, it was a workout trying to get all of our equipment back together.

8am: Counting fish in the lab. The last time for a week! Hooray. And thankfully we didn’t catch too much this morning.

11:00 Best news: “You guys can go home and relax!”

Off for the rest of the day!!!! What to do with myself?? Beach and soccer. Simple enough. The beach was hot hot hot. The sand was in fire and even the ocean was warm.

We headed into Morehead for the evening to watch the weigh ins for the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament. It is one of the biggest events in town and draws quite a large crowd from all over. This year they have 153 boats; combined worth millions of dollars. Yesterday someone caught an 883 pound marlin, the tournament record!!!!! We got to see dolphin and wahoo weighed. Quite a difference from the fish I work with. We also spotted Seafarer girls from Camp 4 headed to eat at the Sanitary. Good times : )

Then dinner at the Ruddy Duck except that I had another visitor. Adam from school came up to hang out for the weekend. More catching up time with friends. Lovin’ it

bridging networks

Saturday evening I was invited by a friend from school to have dinner at his house in Swansboro. First of all gotta love the old school style invite. I was totally expecting “I’ll meet you at ___ restaurant.” I haven’t been invited to dinner at someone’s home is ages. I was actually really excited. Being a traditional person, I was impressed by the invite. So I headed over to Swansboro, a nice historic town about 30 minutes away. First things first, meet the parents (something I also haven’t done in awhile). They have a really lovely home that was recently built. It looks over the sound . I loved it!!! Dinner was served family style. Delicious!!!! So nice to have a home cooked meal, surrounded by a very welcoming family. I mean I really have forgotten what it’s like to be in such an environment. It was a refreshing and heart warming experience. I then had time to catch up with my friend and also see some really cool family memos from his great ancestors from Germany and elsewhere (man I’m such a nerd about that stuff). But it was nice to have someone that also cares a lot for the past and their family heritage. We then played wii games with his brother. I made quite a fool of myself since I really haven’t played video games much in my life. We played Mario cart (HILARIOUS). His brother kept track of how many times I ran off the road……let’s just say A LOT. But I had a great time. It was also really nice to hang out with new people and get to know them. Usually at school we are always around other people. So it was nice to have some one on one time.

Then an unexpected event occurred. I should have prefaced this by saying that Christian is part of an interesting circle of friends I have formed. My best friend at college, Ashley, used to live on Camp Lejune (marine base in NC). Ashley and Christian went to high school together and were good friends. Knowing Ashley, I have come to learn about her good friends from high school. So last year, Christian started at UNC and was one of the people I had heard about. The three of us hung out a lot together. Now, Ashley lives in Nebraska, and Christian moved to Swansboro.

Enter: Diana tries to take Ashley’s place for the evening. Here I am at her friend’s house, in her old hometown (close to it). Even better, another good friend of theirs lives next door to Christian now. But he was away for the summer. So I am seeing first hand all the people Ashley grew up with. Even better, Christian gets a phone call saying that Sam is in town and is coming over. Well Ashley and Sam dated for awhile, so I’ve heard a lot about him. What are the chances of me meeting him the one night I come over!!!! Unbelievable (because he now lives in Virginia). So there I was sitting with them thinking, Ashley is going to die when she finds this out.

Point of this story. Well I just think it’s interesting how bonds form between people. I went from meeting Ashley my freshman year, to being in a position where I was basically living in her life for a moment, meeting all her friends, etc. So cool how life works like that. I mean it really is a small world!

I also just wanted to express how enjoyable it was to be in such a loving environment. These people were so nice and I really enjoyed having a place to go. It has certainly made me cherish even more the close relationships I have with people and to also realize how important it is to reach out to others.

Go World

I have been getting pumped about the world cup since this past fall during college soccer season. My interest in world soccer is a recent development thanks to fetzer field being outside my dorm room window and also close friends with a passion for the sport. And I also should blame discovering Fox Soccer Channel at home. After watching games at the college, MLS, and European levels, I have come to appreciate the sport more and more. While some people find the 2 hour game to be a complete waste of time, I have found that having an attachment to the players really makes a difference. The World Cup is a perfect display of what soccer really is all about. Soccer has the power of bringing people together with a since of pride and belonging that nothing else can do. It’s a game of perseverance, of respect, of determination. It encompasses both physical ability and mental strength. And what’s even more impressive, is that it’s a sport that can be played almost anywhere and in any circumstance. Soccer is the sport of the people.

On the surface, the world cup may seem like another type of Olympics. This is certainly true for the media hype/attention. But I think that it’s a lot more than that. Instead of being dominated by athletes from “western” countries, the beauty of the world cup is that each country can have only ONE team. Not to mention American soccer isn’t that great. So with a more even playing field, it gives us a chance to really get to see the faces and the talent of so many different people.

I got chills watching the first match: South Africa vs. Mexico. Just seeing the enormous stadium at the heart of an African nation. Or maybe it was the bright colors of all the South African fans united under a common allegiance ; something that not so long ago was unthinkable. To see the patriotism, the camaraderie, it was really awesome. Not to mention watching soccer at such a level! And also, looking into the player’s eyes and wondering what they are thinking about. So much pressure is those 11 players who represent an entire nation. Wow.

Ok. so enough with the sentimental. The two teams I’m rooting for. US naturally and DEUTSCHLAND!!!!! Man the Germans looked awesome in their first game. I mean they blew everyone else out of the water. It was really beautiful soccer. They actually play as a team not as individuals. And they are all so young which brings a new level of speed and talent. It’s going to be quite a Cup. I’ve got to brackets that I am keeping up. In my real bracket I have Argentina winning. And in my Ideal bracket I have Germany. I’m definitely leaning for Germany.

As Besir said so proudly: DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLES!!!!!!!!!

Stealth Missions

Friday. Except that I don’t even know what day of the week it is anymore. Thankfully I didn’t have to go into work until 1:30. I am getting used to this new routine of sleeping in. But work resumed as usual. Counting fish and more fish and more crabs. And then back into the field to our new location. Pine Knoll Shores residents 252 and 260 home to adorable old ladies who were so excited to have us working in their backyards. We seined our sites and headed back to the lab to count more species. At this rate is safe to say

I’ve handled at least 1,000 fish. I haven’t really elaborated on the process so here is a quick explination

1. move fish from transport coolers to water tanks

2. sort all the fish (fish are both alive and dead) by species

3. measure 20 of each species (10 alive 10 dead if applicable)

4. Weigh ALL of each species in order to get a total biomass

5. Dump fish back in the water

The key is to try not to lose any fish and also to keep them alive. It’s quite a task and is very tedious. But it has been cool to learn all th

e fish species and learn their behaviors.

I managed to break for dinner to meet Laura and her friends from camp for dinner in Beaufort. It was a gorgeous evening. My favorite time of day down here on the coast is around sunset; everyone is cleaned up from a beach day, dressed in their finest vineyard vines and seer sucker, and strolling around the docks checking out million dollar yachts. We sat outside and people watched as the sun set over the bay. Gorgeous.

Back to work. Time to go set nets at our new locations. We were down to only 4 people (2 per site). Operation began. Drive up in a white van (no seats in the back; we just jump out). Grab our stuff. GO. Red head lamps on. Walk around peoples houses. Into the marsh.

Not sketch at all. Haha.

So I was with MJ and we had to set up the fyke nets. The water was waste deep. I was a bit scared not gonna lie. Not to mention I was walking through oysters and mud holes without a good knee (and my expensive knee brace). But Mission Accomplished!!!

I got back to my house and chilled with my guests for a bit before I hit the pillow. 4 hours later I was up and out the door to retrieve the nets. More success. I got to see the sunrise over the bogue sound. Very inspirational. First the horizon starts to glow with a deep grey light. Slowly the light becomes brighter and changes tone into a rainbow orange to pink and purple. Everything was still in the marsh and so quiet. It was a peaceful reward for the work we were doing.

than waiting to count species later, it was now Saturday so we had to go back to the lab to finish everything for the weekend. Guess what that meant???? Yep count fish. For 2 hours!!!! And clean all the nets. We had fun though not gonna lie. Trying to deal with the eels and crabs is just hysterical because most of the time we end up chasing the creatures around the lab. The lifesaver this morning was getting Panera breakfast!!!! A bacon/egg/cheese bagel has never tasted sooooo good.

Well its 9am and I am rolling out of the lab. WEEKEND!

**photos: American eel and toadfish with Michelle and Rachel (the grad student I am working with

crab terror

I was so thankful to have the morning off (although I couldn’t sleep in much). I spent it lounging, recouping, and enjoying some beach time. Work began again at midday. We sorted all the fish from our late night catch. Best finds were flounder and a huge American eel! He was a pain to measure due to his slimy composure. And we found a few different species of blennies. After sorting it was back into the field to work on our next site: Oakleaf Drive 220 and 186. Same process as yesterday. We set the fyke net poles and then seined the areas (photo: setting the fyke at low tide - the area will later be filled with water). Today’s work was at a natural site and a site that will soon have a sill put into place. It’s really amazing how much erosion has occurred in these areas due to wave action (coming from speeding boaters). The seining was somewhat successful. Well successful in terms of blue crabs. They are EVERYWHERE. And a HUGE pain! I caught the biggest one yet today. Without gloves my hands would have been done for. And in the short amount of time they were stuck in the nets, the crabs managed to terrorize the fish. I picked up one crab that had a

fish in each claw already. Terrible! So in order to save the fish we had to separate the troublemakers. Even in separate tanks, the crabs started to nibble on each other. Out of control. (*the photo is of me carrying 4 crabs to their confinement container.) We headed back to the lab and sorted/ID’d all the seined species.

Break for dinner.

21:00 high tide fyke nets set. And time to get eaten alive my mosquitoes.

Bedtime for a bit

3:30am low tide – fyke nets retrieved. MORE CRABS!!!! And a MASSIVE stone crab (pics later). Not too many fish though. The other team had to deal with a another eel. We also had have eaten squid….guess who was responsible.

marsh adventures: after hours

Today kicked off quite an adventurous week of work activities. I arrived at 8am prepared for a full day of work. Yesterday MJ and I had finally gotten all of his tanks (minus a few malfunctions) prepared for experiment. After quick fix its involving tying seaweed to rocks, we left with all the crabs, shrimp, and fish in place. Oh and yesterday I got to spread oyster larvae into tanks where they are being raised. So cool.

Upon arrival this morning…..disaster. 3 crabs were missing, 2 were in different tanks than they had started, the shrimp were eaten, and the putty sealant was chopped up. CRABS you didn’t!!!!!!! What a nuisance. They were little terrorists to our project. Turns out one crab was buried in the rocks, one was hanging out in the water table, but there is still one missing. Oops. MJ’s experiment is off to a great start.

Leaving him to rethink his project, I went off to learn how to drive a 4x4 truck! What a way to start my truck experience. It was a Silverado and man I felt like I was riding on top of the world. The man testing me out is a jokester from Harker’s Island (which means he has a crazy irish/Australian accent even though he is American). He took me out to an island and instructed me to “just drive into that patch of sand at full speed and then slam on the breaks.” DO what!! Well I sufficiently got stuck in the sand. Enter: 4 gear driving. Switch to 4 wheel drive, hit the gas, and bam! Your driving again. Then I had to drive in a circle through the deep sand without getting stuck. Some machine I tell you. Now I know why guys love big trucks. I felt like I could drive through anything. Sweet!

Meanwhile, MJ had resorted to sticking with behavioral observations. As his assistant I was in charge of timing and writing down his observations. Catch is, we were observing an amphipod which is maybe 0.5cm long and blends in with the tank. Well that was interesting. We probably lost 5 in the process.

13:00 – the hour has come. Marsh adventures begin. We left the lab with 6 people headed to Pine Knoll Shores. We had 2 sites to work on this afternoon. Both are residential backyards on the sound: one with a new sill in place, the other a natural site. Our job was to put all the equipment at each site, set up the fyke net poles, set fiddler crab traps, and seine. All went well until our oxygen bubblers quit working and the scales malfunctioned. Executive decision: bring all the species back to the lab. Well, without the bubblers most of the fish died. Terrible! My mummichogs were resilient fighters though! Not so much for the poor brown shrimp. They were HUGE!!! Like 7cm.

17:00 normal time to get

off work. False. We just arrived back at the lab and had to start sorting, weighing, and measuring all the fish. Stay patient.

18:30 finally done. One hour off for dinner. I went with the 2 grad students to wendy’s. Mistake. They were having an even worse afternoon than we had. Literally they could not get a single order correct. We were there 30 minutes before we got food. Incompetent people. And my sandwich was missing its lettuce. All I could do was laugh.

19:30 headed back to our two sites. Set up the fyke nets because its now high tide. Drastic tidal difference!

20:30 finally driving back home…….bedtime

2:30am alarm goes off. Up! Banana, bathing suit, ipod, booties. Drive back to the same site. Time for the nets to come back in because its now low tide. Awesome decision to take ALL the species back for measurements. Originally we were going to do it all in the field. Rachel finally realized how crazy that was going to be. So we will be counting tomorrow. For now we just collected the nets, put all the creatures in containers, and done.

4:00 BED again.

Ocean Therapy

Its amazing what weekends can do for mental and physical health! I figured out why last week was such a struggle….my immune system was working its butt off to keep me from getting sick (like the rest of my family). Success!!!!

And I have to admit that spending all day Saturday and most of Sunday on the beach were huge contributors. It was so nice to relax in the sun. The ocean was quite lively this weekend. My attempt at boogie boarding in intense wind, current, and wave conditions without a functioning knee made for quite a sight. Let’s just say I got a beating. But nothing is better than coming away from the ocean feeling good to be alive. I also treated myself to BBQ, cheerwine and my favorite Mexican. Best remedies in the world.

So come 7am this morning, I was perky and pumped to be going back to structured days when I feel like I cram a lot into each hour. My positive attitude stayed with me all day long and by 5pm I hardly believed it was already time to leave. Today I got to use a side of my brain that doesn’t get used as much these days….creative thinking and problem solving. MJ and I are working on constructing tanks for his animal behavior projects. We had to come up with 3 different materials to use as tank dividers and figure out how to secure them in the tank. I got to cut, glue, sandblast, and drill and also spent time wandering through Lowes and Staples to come up with some crazy designs. We also made another run for seaweed. This time I had to battle a strong current that sent me flying backwards anytime I lifted my feet off the ground to dive for seaweed. It was a good laugh indeed.

Just ate some awesome leftovers from the feast I cooked last night. My first true attempt at cooking alone. I managed chicken alfredo, german green beans, and mashed potatoes. Delicious.

dairy queen Friday, carnivorous crabs, and 60 plastic bottles

I made it! It’s Friday. Hallelujah. Now I finally understand the feeling of TGIF for the workforce of America. 36 hours this week. And I am pooped. I can not even imagine what it must be like for some people. Not to mention having to deal with children and etc…. Respect x1000

We spent this morning working at the Aquarium marsh. With 4 people we were able to run 4 seine trials in natural and sill locations. Talk about a lot of species. The marsh was certainly heating up and the fiddler crabs were moving around us like an army. Our process is more efficient now and we are getting better at identifying species (and getting covered in marsh mud).

With a successful but hot morning there was no choice but to stop at DQ and get some cones. From here on out Fridays are DQ days!!!!! That was probably the best vanilla cone I have ever had.

Back at the IMS I spent the afternoon identifying species, making our fish happy, taking photos, and entering data. We also put a dead needlefish in our random species tank that now houses our mud crabs we collected during low tide at hoophole creek. Talk about a showdown. A big crab was lucky to get to the fish first. He held it in his mouth and started chomping on it quickly. Like magic, all the other crabs sensed food and started moving towards the crab. After taking my advice, one of the crabs hiding in the PCV pipe jumped out and attacked the crab holding the fish. Success!!!! A new owner. He sat the in the pipe eating…..until another crab came up and started digging one of his claws down the pipe. He ended up with the fish head. It was a battle to be seen!

My day ended after I cleaned 60 plastic bottles to be used for crab traps. I will NEVER work as a dishwasher. It was pretty terrible. Glad to know I am learning what I don’t want to do. I guess that’s what internships are all a about.

I'm all tangled up inside

Thursday didn’t get a report because of some special company I had last night!!!!!! Laura Lamar is working at Seafarer this summer (long story but thanks to her dating a Seagull guy). So I told her to come down on her nights off. After I got off work (wow….still not used to hearing myself say this) I met a group for dinner in Morehead: Laura, her boyfriend, Johnny (boyfriend’s best friend from school), another new staff member, and the Nagels (Katie and John). It was an awesome break for me especially since I got to talk about camp for all of dinner. And it was the first time ever that I got to talk about Seagull with Sea Gull counselors! I couldn’t help but constantly think about being there. It’s on my mind all the time; at work, at the beach house.

What if……

· I hadn’t torn my ACL

· If I decided to work at camp with my ACL anyways

I am stuck with this nagging regret that I don’t know if I can ever overcome. I have been living with it for 3 years now (since the last time I worked at camp). That’s why I applied to work this summer. Because I wanted to bring closure to myself and that feeling. Why did fate cause my injury? And why did things have to get even more difficult finding out that Laura Lamar was working (a person that I would have known and loved to have spent my summer with). Its like I am being taunted. I am trying to push camp away so it doesn’t destroy my inside feelings but at the same time how can I cover up something I love so so much. I keep coming up with excuses:

· You can’t go to camp forever; cherish the time you spent there

· The people have changed now; it won’t be the same; are you really willing to deal with the change

And yet that feeling lingers. The moments we spent last night talking about camp made me feel happy for the first time in a really long time. And then I started yelling at myself for choosing to do the internship when I knew all along that camp was what I really wanted to do. But instead I kept thinking about what other people wanted….my family thought I should try something new, my peers and academia would be more impressed with an internship than working at a camp.

But it was my last chance…….will I ever get to go back to camp. I feel like I have let it down. I realize now that I have become what I disliked so much as a camper…..the counselors that never came back. I loved seeing familiar faces, to know that people would always be there. How can I justify my actions? I have to go back. No I have to work there again. But I was planning on doing an internship in Germany next summer…..and then the next summer I graduate. Really? Is this the end. Did I just make perhaps the biggest mistake of my life. Why did this happen to me…….

Camp is everything to me. It is with me every day. Its what made me who I am inside and out. It gave me love and energy and the tools to navigate lifes obstacles. Camp Seafarer truly is the best place of all…..

Green and Gooey

I’m glad I got somewhat of a second wind that has enabled me to type up today’s summary. I hope I can get myself adjusted to the work pace soon! Today started off great around the house. I rolled into work at 8 again….which is early for most of the gang there. MJ (my fellow intern from here on out) was around too so we got to work on his stuff.

1. Prepare pods for shipment

We had to collect amphipods from the sargassum seaweed. The process involved “thwacking” seaweed and trying to pick up the creatures – w

hich are less than a cm in length. Not to mention there are different species of pods that live in the seaweed. – without killing them. Thankfully, the kind we were trying to catch (oh and they jump) are green! An easy spot. For tho

se of you who thought that seaweed was just a plant….wrong. They are like mirco habitats for some of the most unusual sea critters I have seen…….slugs, worms that looked like neurons, and who knows what else….keep in mind that everything was microscopic. I still feel like they are crawling on my hands! After capturing enough of our pods we had to cleverly find a way to store them and package them for shipment. Thanks to nalgenes, paper towels, Styrofoam, and ice we sent off our little friends to Charleston, SC.

Rachel my “mentor”/boss appeared and helped us get things a bit more organized around the lab. Our research team is almost complete now. Still waiting on one more girl. Another quiet day down at the lab though.

Lunch break on the IMS dorm porch….l

eftover pizza from last night’s dinner with MJ. Storms a brewing – as about every afternoon down here.

2. Seine for shrimp at Loophole marsh ( and beat the weather)

After a safari ride to get out to the marsh, we ventured to the waterfront. It was close to high tide which wasn’t ideal for collecting crabs. MJ and I went seining. It was quite a task since every time you step eith

er 1. You sink 2. You step in a hole 3. You step on oysters. We caught some species though

o pinfish

o spot

o silversides

o mummichong

o blue crab

o flounder

We called in quits after that and made a dash to the van to avoid the horse flies who were eagerly waiting our return

3. Designated species photographer

I am now in charge of cataloging all of the marsh species we find

4. Remove the toadfish

No big deal. FALSE. Toadsfish are hideous and terrifying fish. They are very aggressive and poisonous if they bite you.

They love to hide out in dark

places. Our random tank of species somehow ended up with 3 of them

inside. So we had to outsmart them into buckets and dump them off the dock

5. Clean the outdoor water tables

In order to accommodate our expected collection of new species in the next few weeks, I was assigned the task of cleaning out water tables. They are basically holding tanks that are 3 feet x 10 feet and ½ foot deep. Somebody decided to do algal experiments in the tanks which resulted in a gooey, slimy eruption of algae. YUM!!! So I had to go in and remove the slime, scrub the tanks, while managing water flow in and out. That took care of my afternoon and the rest of my energy.

Shrimp where are you?

Up and moving early! Anxiety set in and I couldn’t wait to get to work. 15 minute commute to the IMS lab….not bad. I arrived before 8am and had to awkwardly sit in the lobby to wait for someone to tell me what to do. Thankfully the main desk lady showed up to help me with paperwork. But then I was on my own. I was relieved when a lady came up to me in the lobby and adopted the role as tour guide. Turns out that my grad student was out today so I was left with other interns. I got a thorough tour of the IMS. Quite a place!!!!! I assumed two possibilities for the lab: 1. Brand new up scale equipment or 2. Random stuff everywhere and a bit chaotic. I’d say definitely number 2. Haha. There are lab rooms and storage facilities with the most random stuff you could possibly imagine. The place is really exciting right now with so many projects going on. There are tanks outside, natural ponds, microecosystems, inside labs, etc… It was quiet today because many people are out in the field. But I can only imagine what its going to be like. Pretty awesome to be surrounded by so much talent and creativity. The people at the lab are really nice. Its certainly a laid back crew. Dress code: psht……lets say bathing suits, chacos, and maybe shirts if your lucky. Love it.

After my tour and lecture on all the projects running at the IMS I was handed over to Michael the other intern working under Rachel. I will be working with him all summer, assisting his own research project. Luckily it seems we will get along really well. We worked out of the wet lab which means what is sounds: a lab that involves anything wet….tanks, etc. And the day continued as follows:

Task 1: Pick up frozen brine shrimp from Petsmart (if you can get the fridge open)

*our means of transportation are the IMS trucks (and I mean TRUCK). I will have to learn how to drive them and get tested on getting out of the sand.

Task 2: Radio Island – collect sargassum seaweed and shrimp

We picked up our private key to the island from a hilarious State guard (so yes for a few hours I owned an island). We then went searching for seaweed in the intercoastal jetties. Fortunately the water visibility was good. Who knew there were urchins off the coast! I collected a bag of seaweed after pulling up the roots. Why seaweed? Because amphipods live on it and they are part of Michael’s experiment. Also, our pinfish like the seaweed. We then tried to use the sieve to collect shrimp. Three tries later…..fail! Where are the shrimp? The seaweed was taken back to the indoor labs and we had to set up water filters and oxygen tubes.

Task 3: Transfer pinfish from indoor tanks to the outdoor tank.

This involved moving and dumping aquariums (along with yummy fish poop). We also had to search for and create a covering for the outdoor tanks. Success!

Task 4: Find silcone sealer at Lowes

Success again. This will be used for MJ’s project.

It was a great first day. Finished a bit early but since boss wasn’t around I couldn’t find anything else to take care of. I won’t lie…..it’s gonna be a good summer. I’m so relieved now. Off to dinner with my new intern pal.