Chris went solo, and I saw my first game of polo!

The title may be slightly confusing, but hey, it rhymes! Our TA, Mr. Glover had to take our class out to Aiken State Natural Area for our field trip yesterday. We walked the nature trails and saw some wildlife (including a very friendly duck), but due to the volume of our group, I'm surprised the duck even stuck around. On our way out to the park, we were talking about the equine history of Aiken, South Carolina. Apparently, racehorses from the northern states are boarded here in the cold months. Right as Mr. Glover finished his story, we passed a huge polo area with piles of horses. Being a horse lover, I immediately screamed "POLO!" Since no one in the van had ever seen a game, Chris pulled over and let us watch for a few minutes. After we finished up at the park, we drove out to a gopher tortoise reserve and several parts of the Edisto river. We were welcomed back with a pop quiz.

Today was a free day since we had such a long day on Tuesday. So far I've had a very productive day. I ran some errands in the morning, decided on my final sources for my Wetlands research paper, wrote part of the paper, and went to the gym. After I study for tomorrow's exam in Environmental, I plan to complete the introduction of my paper. I like the pace of things up here, I function best when I have time constraints.

Go Rays!

Usually exam days aren't the best days for students, but today was a pretty great day. Despite still being tired from whitewater rafting on Sunday, I felt pretty good going into the exam. Once Dr. CK handed out the exam, I felt even better. I'm especially excited about the take-home portion of the exam! After a recess for lunch, we headed out to the Savannah River Site for a tour. Since we haven't had an official tour of the site or anyone official to question about the site, I was intrigued. First things first, inspection. Then, hop in the SRS bus for a tour of the limited access areas. Of course we didn't get to go into any of the buildings or walk around the reactors, but then again, who would want to? It was neat to actually get close to the buildings we'd only seen from a distance. We also learned that the walls of the buildings are 5 feet thick and there's typically another three stories of building underground. Many of the areas are being closed down, but new buildings are still being built and designed. Many of the new areas are being designed to store plutonium until a final resting place is determined for the radioactive waste of the entire U.S. I found the whole tour pretty interesting, and our tour guide seemed to really know her stuff. That being said, you can't believe everything you hear!

Ps. GO AL EAST!!! That's me watching the All-Star game!

What's that smell?! RAW SEWAGE!

That's right, today everyone got to visit the Richmond Wastewater Treatment Plant. Did it smell? Yes. Was there poop everywhere? Yes. Did I learn something? Yes! Luckily this was a very well-run plant where every little piece of waste has its place. I originally didn't know what I was going to get out of this field trip, but I found the logistics of the whole operation quite intriguing. These people had their (place funny word here) together, if you catch my drift. I will sleep well knowing that my waste is being managed responsibly by the people at the Richmond plant. Here's how it works in a nutshell: Water is pumped in, and goes through a bar screen where larger waste is removed and taken to a landfill (they still haven't found the perfect place for it). Then, the grit tanks collect your dirt and sand particles. The waste then goes through settling tanks where oils are pushed to one end on the top, and sludge is pushed to the other end on the bottom. They use an activated sludge process and aeration tanks to keep the "bugs" happy as they munch on Aiken's poo. At the disinfecting stage, salt is added to gently disinfect the water without using harmful chemicals that can injure employees. After all is said and done, the water is moved out to the wetlands where it goes through tertiary treatment. What an amazing way to clean water! The picture at the top shows the sludge being thickened before it is taken out to be spread on land...hopefully land that I will never set foot on. This plant actually is working on a biological process for odor control...and it smelled glorious! I'm just kidding. As previously stated, the logistics involved were mind-blowing. This plant can handle over 60 million gallons of waste a day! Overall the whole process worked like a charm, but I would really hate to be there if the (again, use your imagination) ever hit the fan.

Lazy Days in SC...NOT!

We've really picked up the pace in these parts over the past few days...Now that I have an idea of the work load, I feel a lot more prepared for the rest of my time here. For my Intro to Environmental class I have two partners, Dorneisha and Alesha. Together we will be writing a research paper, creating a scientific poster, a powerpoint presentation, and presenting it all on the last day. While that may seem like a lot, consider this: I'll be doing the same amount of work with only one partner, Michael, for my Wetlands class. I'm really excited about narrowing down my topics and hitting the books. Luckily it seems like everyone here has made posters and done presentations before, and I feel like we're all on the same page. Unfortunately, I don't have any new pictures to share so I'm going to share an old one. I hope you guys enjoy, I'll try to make up for my lack of pictures in the future!

Happy Holidays!

I think of the 4th as a pretty big family holiday, so I wasn't too keen on being away from home. Luckily, our wonderful professors came through and made it one of the most memorable celebrations I've had in a long time. We started setting up the pavilion behind the dorms around 3pm, and played a wild game of volleyball at 4pm. Once the flames on the grill had died down to a reasonable level, Dr. CK took over the grilling! After eating and chatting for awhile, we changed and headed down to the pool area for some more beach volleyball. These games were a little more intense thanks to our coach, Brandon! Finally, we headed to the pool to get cooled off. Swimming lessons, jokes, and races ensued! It gets dark around 9pm here, so we had a lot of time to kill...We finally drove out to a "safe area" with Dr. CK and Dr. Weirda to set off the fireworks. Thanks to them we had a pretty great show...I'm sure they're a little sore today from all of the running. We had some great fireworks until the mortar-holder-thing finally gave out and shot one completely horizontal. At that point we noticed the HIGH PRESSURE GAS LINE sign and decided to find a new place to set off our Roman Candles. We had a great time, and I can't think of a better way to spend the 4th without my family. Thanks again to our enthusiastic professors for throwing it all together for us!

Today we hit the ground running (or sitting) with class. I've got two great partners to work with for the Intro to Environmental class, and I feel like we'll make a great team.

My first time in waders!

I get the feeling a lot of my days are going to begin bright and early around here...so I'll do my best not to start every blog the same way. Today's class was Introduction to Environmental Science with Dr. Carvalho-Knighton. This will serve as my Monday/Wednesday/Friday course. We spent a lot of time outdoors, which I wasn't dressed for. Luckily, when it came time to go in the muddy stream, we had waders! Apparently I fit perfectly in a men's size 7...you can be the judge of that one. I was really surprised by how well the waders actually worked, I came out perfectly clean and dry!

While we were in the water, we used nets to scoop under the vegetation along the sides of the stream. I was originally supposed to take the temperature of the water and collect a water sample, but I ended up using the net a few times too. I missed the initial instructions about not scooping up sediment, but I collected some pretty neat things! My misfortune yielded clams, a crayfish, a random fish, a baby catfish, and a tiny little shrimp. I was pretty pleased with the results!

I've found that I really like learning about plants when I visit new places, and there were tons of new and interesting plants to see today. We saw lots of cattails, cut grass (which is a wild rice), and duckweed. It's pretty amazing to learn about man-made wetlands, and how they can act as tertiary water treatment facilities. I don't want to overwhelm you all with pictures, but there're a lot more where these came from.

Look, Mom, I'm alive! Actually, I'm SUPER!