by Chris Teufel
Today I woke up to our second timed run-swim. I walk to circle ten minutes early to soak in the silence that accompanies the mornings here. As students and faculty begin to trickle out, a shape that somewhat resembles a circle begins to form around the flagpole. Today we have some special guests for morning exercise, the Alumni Advisory Board. Reminiscing and joking about their old run swim experiences, I can see they’re excited and determined to put themselves to the test. After exercise and a group stretch, we headed over to chores, me to the fishbowl. Breakfast consisted of English muffins, eggs and ham; the perfect sandwich after a heavy workout. After breakfast we have about twenty minutes to get ready for the day before heading to Research class. Making my way back to the dorms, I saw kids lined up to describe their Human Ecology project proposals, being the last day to propose an idea. In research (Sustainable Fisheries and Conservation for me), we do a run-through of our project introduction slideshow; assigning slides, adding pictures, and fixing spelling mistakes for Monday. After deciding to meet again to complete final touches on Sunday, we went over our research notes due that day. Since I was presenting, I gave a short intro and summary to the paper on the results of the implementation of MPA’s and NTMR’s in the Dry Tortugas national park region of Florida. I then led a discussion on the paper, which further provided a greater understanding of the paper for not only me but the rest of the class as well. To finish off the class, Kate, the head of our project, hands us all small slips of paper and we are told to memorize these lines for a poem we are now signed up to present on Saturday night’s Coffeehouse. This Coffeehouse concept took me a little while to understand and in case you’re not an Alum reading this I’ll break it down. First of all, it’s not actually in a coffee house, it’s in the boat house, with no coffee. But, there are a wide variety of talents and acts performed by students and faculty alike with everything from juggling, to singing, and whatever else people want to share.
After lunch, I headed to the boathouse to set up my dive kit for Marine Ecology class. Continue reading