Ohmygosh its week four.

OK so its been a while since I've written, but lots has been happening. Lets see.

plankton from a plankton tow on the boat

i found a heart shaped rock

twilight tidepool panorama

went to tea in Harrington Cove!

Week 3 was.....good! Lots of good whale watching--its only gotten better as time goes on! Last week I saw my FIRST humpback whales of the summer and boy let me tell you they were AMAZING! There were 3 of them that we were following for almost the entire whale watch, and they had been previously identified (by the white patterns on the bottom of their tail). Their names were Touchdown, Cornucopia and Foggy. We saw them logging (napping on the surface), fluking (raising their tails when they dive down from the surface) and just surfacing. They were incredibly beautiful and breathtaking and it was the best. Although finback whales (the 2nd largest animal in the world) are amazing to look at and watch, they are negatively buoyant and therefore don't show their tails (FLUKE) when diving. Humpbacks are positively buoyant, which makes it harder for them to dive, and they really gotta put their backs into it resulting in exposing their gorgeous flukes. WOOT. They went right under our boat at one point. AMAZING. Also...spending all this time on the boats with the captains and the crew makes me want to just work on a boat for the rest of my life and see amazing things. And learn knots. And brave the sea. BUT...we'll see.

I honestly can't remember much else..except that for the Friday night campfire all the staff learned the whole dance to Thriller and performed as zombies. Lots of fun. Long night of youtube videos and ridiculousness.

Week 4 is starting now and today I went on the puffin boat in the morning. I got to go ONTO Machias Seal Island this time, which is where the puffins, razorbills and common murres nest. Only 15 Americans and 15 Canadians PER DAY can legally go onto this island, and I got my chance today! We went into bird blinds--these little huts with little windows to lift up and see out of without disturbing the birds and their babies. They were so cute! And very uncoordinated. So cool to watch. After puffin-ing, we went to the bog and learned about some cool carnivorous plants and creepy bog sacrifice stories. Lots of fun--bog is one of my favorite lessons to teach. wooowoooooo.

PUFFINS!

Tomorrow I'm going on another whale watch in the afternoon on the Day's Catch--hoping to see some BREACHING!!!!!! And in the morning I am teaching a new lesson we just came up with, Modern Fisheries. Should be fun!


Other thoughts.

-The washing machine in the staff house makes the entire house shake like theres an earthquake.
- I'm slowly weaning myself off of sea-sickness medicine so that I can be a real sailor on the rough seas. Arrrr!
-It was really hot and sunny today! I got a tan line from my hiking socks.
-Anything can be fun if you participate in it and are open to it. As exemplified by my amazing campers who have the most fun playing silly games even though they're in high school.
-I put coffee in the fridge for iced coffee tomorrow morning. Yes.
-Thursday night the staff has the night off and we're getting lobster for dinner. DOUBLE YESSSS.
- After this summer I am planting myself somewhere amazing for at least a month without traveling by car, plane, train, or ferry. I have traveled way too much in the last month.