No one. Well, too bad. You're here, so you have to deal with it.
So here I am at the visitor center using my time to blog. Why, do you ask? Well, I'll tell you. It's a bit of a rant so bare with me.
I spoke to my main supervisor Suzanne on Friday. I asked her, since our last school group comes in on Thursday what I should plan to do with the rest of my time here. I asked if there was a schedual of sorts laying out who I would be working wih day to day. Her answer to me was a sheepish no.
Apparently, whe they were having a meeting at the beginning of the year, everyone was all for an SCA intern to help out around the refuges. Three people were particularly intent on using me. Suzanne, Janice and Sharon. The three of them weren't sure how to spilt me. They tought they could each have me for a month, but decided against that. Instead, their brilliant plan was to have me show up and decide at random who needed me the most from day to day. This blind progression has already become a problem.
I came in at 8:00 this morning. I assumed thats when Suzanne came in. I was wrong. The only people there were the plover interns. I reallty should have just gone with them beach walking checking out the plover nests. At least I'd be doin something. But I was trying to be responsible. I wanted to talk to Suzanne about what I should do, she being my supervisor. She never came in. Neither did Janice and I haven't seen Sharon.
In all fairness, I could have done a little more to find out who needed my help. I casually asked Corey and the plover girls if they needed an extra set of hands. They both said essentially that they wouldn't turn me down. So I was going to ask Suzanne where she thought I was most needed. But as I said earlier, she never came in.
What have I done today? I finished taking my Defensive Driving online course. I can now officially drive the USFWS government vehicles. But that only took me about on hour. At 10:00 I went to see if the front desk volunteer needed help. She was fine. I spent 3 minutes watching a turtle we aquired, checked on the snakes, talked to the cleaning guy and spent 1/2 an hour trying t find the internet cable for this laptop. Now I am here. I feel a little guilty since I'm not doing anything.
I have nothing planned for Tuesday, Wednesday morning or Friday. Wednesday afternoon is fully covered as is...shudder...Thusday (104 kid school group). So what do I do? I have come to learn aobut myself that I really need things to be structured. Unstructured events make me a little freutrated and uncomfortable. Thats why I am so aggrivated by this whole "we'll figure it out as we go" thing. SUzanne shuld be be to say, "oh, Erin and Corey could use your hel for this. THe plover girls could use help on this day. This day is a big banding day so go with Rhonda and Courtney." Instead, here I am with no supervisors, no ones cell phone who I can call and een if I could they would be out in the field in some random place and not easy to find to help out. I am not happy, even though I am blogging. I still have 4 hours of time to waste.
I know this entry is already long, but just to give you a quick rundown of how the rest of last week went, here it is in list form.
- Did some visitor center cleaning on Monday. tried to catch tadpoles in two different ponds. Unsucessful. Got salamanders though. It was a HOT day. went to a salt pond to cool off. Lots of jellyish.
- Tuesday was a school group that I helped out with...no biggie
- Went to trivie Tuesday night...too loud, too much swearing, got the buble boy seinfeld question right
- Up until 1:30 am after that
- 4:40 am went mist netting in a salt marsh so we could band birds
- Caught several. I got to hold a tufted titmouse...it was cute!
- Done by 10:30. Napped and relaxed.
- Thursday I tore down a rusty chcken wire fence with the maintenence intern, Ben. Got a little cut up. Done in two hours.
- Ate lunch. Helped Erin and Corey pull up Swallow wort (an invasive species).
- Done by 2:00. Watched some episode of Lost season 1.
- Friday, Was bored at the visitor center. Helped pick up a turtle from someone who wanted it gone. Started my Defensive driving test. Manned the front desk. Talked to Suzanne about this week and got nothing useful out of her.
- Saturday, did nothing. Go lost trying to find a post office. Went shopping and got gas. Bought "Fern Gully" . "Toxic Love" is the greatest song.
- Sunday...went to church. Made tuna halper for dinner.
So that was my week. This one promises to be completly uncertain. I dont like that.
To close I have decided to list a few things that I love about being here so far.
1.The woods: the woods here are so green! And they smell wonderful. I love the ferns carpeting the forest floor.
2.The ocean: especially when it's clod out and you can just walk on the beach. No ones there and you can feel the spary of the water and see the coulds making the sea a deep grey color.
3.My trailer being so close to nature. I get to fall asleep to whip poor wills and wake up to towees. Bunnies are everywhere as are chipmnks and deer.
4.Holding a Titmouse
5.Everything being so close
6.The cute little towns
Thats all I got right now. I am so lucky to be out here. I'll figure out the frustrating things. I'm only to weeks in. Thats nt enough time to completly judge my time here.
p.s. I got poison ivy. I dont think thats ever happened to me. No fun at all.
2 comments:
Ugh, Sarah, I know *exactly* what you mean with things not being structured. I don't like that either. I had a couple summer internships in college with theatre companies, and I was always hired as a "Do-whatever-needs-doing" type helper. I hated it. I felt awkward around so many people I didn't know, and not comfortable enough to jump in and interrupt people working to ask if I could help. Those times, I wished I had a best friend around to make the time pass, and have some company, so I wouldn't feel so desperately useless.
(I'm not saying you feel useless, too...just an emotion I remember having, a LOT!)
And I wish I had taken the time to appreciate my surroundings a little more, during those summers when I was at "exotic" locations and wasn't likely to explore them to such an extent again. I think it's great that you're doing that.
Lastly--I love your long posts! I hope you keep 'em coming. My fiance Neil studied biology in grad school, so I always ask him if he knows what animals you're talking about. :)
Hang in there--I know how long these summers can be, and how they can be a little disappointing compared to what you were expecting. It'll suddenly be over before you know it, I promise!
~genny
Ok, most of my comments were already delivered verbally, but I just want to let you know that I love you and am still praying for you clear on the other side of the continent :-)
Take care, and talk to you soon...
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