Still Off the Face of the Earth

I lied when I said that I would get back at updating my blog frequently. Turns out life can get hectic when you start to realize how quickly a month can fly by, especially when you keeping thinking of 'lasts'. Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely stoked for my upcoming move to AmSam, and am not having any second thoughts I am just trying to savor those last Erie moments with family and friends. As a consequence I still haven't been updating the blog. However somehow I find myself on this day of Independence celebrating my leaving the mainland, and readying myself for an adventure away from this strange American society that everyone outside is currently celebrating.

With certainty I can tell you that this will be my last blog post for at least a week, as I am leaving tomorrow morning for lovely week camping with my extended family in Cook Forest. As ridiculously excited as I am for this annual family tradition it did cause the last few days to be hectic as I am leaving on the 15th - two days after I get back from the woods. Taking a break from laundry and searching out almost forgotten items to pack, I thought I would be nice to post a quick catch up of what I have done the last month. For my sanity and yours I'm letting the pictures do most of the talking.

On Sundays I got to my grandfather's house where the family typically indulges in a few rounds of four square, and yes there are way more adults than kids.

For three weeks in May when I had my class in Pymatuning I stayed with an awesome guy named Josh who let me couch surf. One night he caught a bat in his apt and we made friends and then set him free.

The town where my class was held is known for the carp by it's spillway which gives the town it's catch phrase "Linesville - where the ducks walk on fish." I'm not kidding, it's on their town sign - but I have yet to actually meet anyone who has seen this phenomenon.

I spend a lovely two days totaling around 10 hours doing data collection and analysis on host species and dbh concerning different species of lianas. Can you identify the two in this picture? (hint: they rhyme with smosion shmivyand berginia beeper.)

While roaming in the woods for forest ecology I would occasionally run into something I thought was cool like the trunk of this beech tree which I swear looks just like a troll or elephant foot.

Pretty flowers...

Lake Pymatuning in all its glory.

On Memorial Day weekend my family from all about stayed the weekend at Camp Notre Dame and hung out. In exchange for our use of the camp we put in a few hours of work each day, here we were cleaning up brush... woo hoo...

Last week with my cousin and friend I visited the site of Extreme Home Makeover in Erie. It was interesting to see how fast they can get up a house. Interesting experience.

Trying to take advantage of time with family and what is uniquely Erie, we went on a pontoon boat ride in the lagoons of Presque Isle. After seeing beavers swimming around their dam my cousin Luke declared that he could stay on the boat for five more hours. There's a boy after my own heart.

Sunset over the lagoon.

As I've mentioned before, my not-so-little little brother and I decided to get scuba certified, and just this week we finished our open water dives and got officially certified.

After mastering my technique of catching sunfish with my bare hands while diving I surfaced with one and proceeded to slap my brother in the face with it. We had some good times.

So there are my weird doings of the last month or so in a nutshell. I'm off camping tomorrow, and will hopefully have time to post when I get back to Erie before I leave for LA. I'll be in LA for three days before embarking on my journey to AmSam staying with my friend who just moved to the city. I'll try to keep this updated. I can;t believe it's only a week and a half 'til I leave...!