Last Monday of Freshman year!!

Day 9

We wrote a story today. It was a short story based on a creature. This is my short story. Its called: Save the Turtle

She was swimming quietly in the ocean with her new friend, Bobby.

“Savanah can we get some rest now? I’m really tired” Bobby said, slowing down.

“We just have another ten miles and we’ll be done for the day!” Savanah said.

They were both migrating through the huge Pacific Ocean. Both of them had been together since they were younger. It had been five years since they were friends and now they were both ready to mate and lay eggs. During this time of the year, they usually start migrating. This was a very long journey. Both the turtles were tired, but Savanah, as usual was determined to complete the distance they had planned to finish in the day. She was a very organized and strong-minded. She always did what she wanted and was a very independent child.

They were both fast swimmers so their goal was to cover a minimum of about 30 miles per day. Then they would either rest on the shore or stay in the water. Today they had decided to go up the shore after they had reached their destination. An hour had passed and they were five miles away from their destination. It was a rainy night. The water was colder than usual and the sky was cloudy. The sound of the lightning echoed through the ocean leaving Bobby terrified. Bobby had always been scared of thunderstorms. The wind was also blowing really fast which made it harder for the two friends to swim as fast as they would normally do. As they neared the shore, there was a bunch of trash being sent their way because of the wind. Plastic bags, soda cans, paper, and something that looked like a broken glass bottle.

All this trash was not new territory for them. They were used to the pollution by all the humans by now. They both knew how to get through it. Bobby was a little slower than usual. Savanah was struggling to get through the objects coming toward her with the water. The wind was stronger than what they had experienced before. It was very hard to get through all the cans and just as Savanah was about to reach the shore, she felt something piercing through her right foot. She couldn’t move for a whole minute. She was in agonizing pain.

At first, she thought her foot was stuck in a plant or maybe a creature was trying to eat her, but when she looked back she found something worse.

“A soda can?!” she exclaimed, “How am I supposed to get myself out of this now?” she sighed.

She tried and tried, nothing but blood came out of the can. She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to get out of this. She knew that a bunch of her close friends and family who had lost their limbs to the mistakes the humans.

As determined as she was to get herself out of this situation, the loss of blood made her weak and tired. She tried to call Bobby for help but she was nowhere to be seen either. She wiggled her leg as hard as she could. After a moment of silence, something or someone pulled the can out of her leg. It was Bobby! Just like any other time, Bobby was always there for Savanah when she needed help. After all, a friend in need is a friend in deed!

Canoeing(:

Day 8

Today we started of listening to a TED talk. It was about listening and understanding the sounds around you. This video gave us some tips about how to listen to the sounds in nature which are sometimes very quiet and sometimes very muffled so its hard to listen to them as individuals. We tried to take some of the tips he gave us and tried to listen to the beautiful sounds o nature. Then we had a workshop on writing recipe poems. The poem I wrote was an inspiration from Emily Dickinson's "To Make A Prairie" My poem was:

To make a river, it takes a pound of fish, 

a pinch of dragonflies

and some cute little turtle.

Water would work too,

If the fish are few  

The canoeing experience was very nice because the water was very calm and relaxing. I really liked the sound of the birds and the water. 

Bellbrook Canoe!!(: 

Vignettes!

Day 7

A vignette is a small illustration or portrait photograph that fades into its background without a definite border. The two vignettes that we wrote today were both about nature. For the first one, we were shown a picture of a stream of water with a bear. My vignettes are: 

Nature

On this somewhat warm day of fall, the sun is shining. The mountains covered with snow are melting creating the beautiful stream of fresh water. The trees ruffling from the wind and the birds chirping through the colorful trees. Some green some orange, some red, and some yellow they all make this a calm place where anyone can relax. A bear is slowly entering the water trying to catch some fish for him and his family. The river and the trees provide the animals and birds with plenty of fresh food. 

My second vignette was about the creature that we found in the Cox Arboretum. Our creature was the snake, This is the picture: 

The vignette for this picture was: 

The slithering snake makes its way through the bushes. Hissing at anyone who tries to touch it, it goes on to find food for itself. Sliding to the rat that was running in front of them. Their colorful scaly body helping it move without its legs. Dancing around the reptile finally gets its food and goes back to its “house” without harming any humans who are so scared of these cute little creatures. 

Kayaking!

Day 6

Today we read a prose by Henry David Thoreau. It was an excerpt from "The ponds" It was a very important article because it had a lot of examples of observation, meaning and delivery. We also went to the Metro parks in Eastwood where we did hiking and kayaking. Kayaking was a very new experience for me since I had never done it before. I thought it was amazing because it was just like swimming except we didn't have to use our feet (and I love swimming). On the lake that we were Kayaking on there were a bunch of trees hanging low and some that were higher. It was fun going through the trees. I also had fun because after the initial "training, " the person in-charge let us go with our friends for a while. We went through the trees, and under the bridges. We also got really wet because the paddle (which were like the oars of the kayak) would have water on them and when we lifted them, the water would get into the boat and get us wet. After that we went hiking. We looked at plants and talked about them just like we did in the Aullwood Audubon. I really enjoyed today and look forward to go canoeing on Thursday!

Kayaking!

A day off!

Day 5

We started off watching multiple videos related to the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed. She went backpacking in 1995. She wanted to explore the PCT- the Pacific Crest Trail in the south so she started hiking from the Mojave desert in California. After watching this, we made a plans to go on a hike. Me and my partner, Shivani planned a hike together. We had to come up with the list of items we needed to go on the hike, the number of days we were going for, and where we were going. We planned to go to Nagalapuram Trek in the winter for 2 weeks. We also included the weight so we could see how much we had to carry with us and the essentials. Our list was:
clothes - 5lbs
water - 14 lbs
tent - 10lbs
fruit cups - 3lbs
first aid kit - 2lbs
berries - 2lbs
mangoes - 4lbs
chapati - 0.5
compass - 1 ounce
flashlight - 4lbs
medicine - 6ounces
sun protection - 1ounce
gun - 2lbs
ammo - 0.5lbs
pads - 3ounces
which totaled up to about 60 lbs. This was very good for us since we could just split the weight and get 30lbs each!

This was a very hard process since we had to leave behind a bunch of things we thought were essential for the day, for example, we couldn't get any coffee, a comfy bed after a long day of walking, etc. I thought it was very interesting since we had to think about what was really essential for survival!

The tent we intended to take with us!(: 

Aullwood Audubon

Day 4

Today was a very exciting day for me because we were going to Aullwood Audubon. I had heard a lot of amazing things about this nature center. I was very excited to go there. Before going there, we reflected on a question, "what is a community?" All the groups came up with very unique and interesting responses. We talked about equality in the community and how if one organism in the community is missing almost everyone would be affected. To prove this, we did an activity where we all were given a note-card of an organism in the community. Then we were asked to stand in a circle. One person was given a string roll and asked to throw it at one person who would affect them and so on. This was the end result:

The "string" activity 

Then we went to Alluwood Audubon. I really liked the whole experience of going into the woods and doing the water study. In the water study, we were at a lake looking for a invertebrate. We were also given binoculars to look closely at birds. I got to see the Indigo Bunting. It was very bright blue in color and I though it was very beautiful. We got to look and carry a turtle and a snake. It was very scary at first to get the snake but after I held it in my hand, I realized it wasn't as bad. We then went to the farm where we played with baby goats, pigs, and rabbits. They were all very cute and that was my favorite part of the day. We then had lunch and came back. We were then asked to write a meditation script. The one I wrote was: 

Imagine you standing under a tall sycamore tree. You close your eyes and try to take in all the sounds around you. The blue jay making various types of sounds, the insects flying over your head, the bees buzzing in your ears. As you look further, you see a creek. The clear water in the creek crashing gently against the glacial rocks almost sounding like the beach. Following the creek, you see a pond in which there are a bunch of fish, turtles under the low lying branches of the trees.

The boardwalk on which you are standing is wet from the rain that had recently left the whole trail wet and soft. You go on following the trail. You see a beautifully bright blue colored Indigo Bunting. Its bright wings standing out from the rest of its green environment. You also see some prairie grass, almost as tall as your knees brushing softly against your knees. You keep walking and see the sycamore tree you had originally started from.

You open your eyes and see the sun piercing through the trees. The sounds still around you. You feel equal to everything around you. As you take a deep breath, the smell of the wet dirt fills your whole body leaving you refreshed and ready for the rest of the day. 

playing with the baby goats!(: 

Cox Arboetum

Day 3

Today we continued working on a activity that we started yesterday. It was called the Hershey Kiss activity. For this activity, we had to observe a Hershey Kiss using all the 5 senses. We also went to the Cox Arboretum. We went by a bus. We were given a task to take pictures of five trees and a creature. It was a really big and awesome. I really liked all the trees and the "nature" Me and my friends took a bunch of pictures at the little waterfall. There was also a tree Tower which was very cute cause we all went up there and ate lunch. We then did Yoga in the grass. It was very warm out because the sun was out. It was really fun after Yoga when we got to go into the building with Air Conditioning. I really liked the experience of walking around and observing your surroundings.

The Hershey Kiss activity

European beech

Sycamore tree

Austrian pine 

Hoops blue spruce

Jack pine tree