Holy Recap, Batman!

As my loving father reminded me a few days ago...I haven't posted since May.

Whoops.

Sharing Invertebrates with students
(above), and "working" (below)

There have definitely been a ton of blog-worthy moments in the past 3 months, but my excuse for not publishing them on the internet is that I've been too busy experiencing them to write them down!

"the office"

For literally the entire month of June we had a group on the island. I don't mean one group of students stayed for a month, I mean one would stay for a couple days, leave at 10am, we'd clean like crazy people, and welcome the next group at 4pm the same day. In between the days of crazy cleaning we educated groups from all over the country--California, Pennsylvania, and Arizona sent representatives--about the wonders of Marine Science. Week after week we explored the island, kayaked through mangroves, and watched as students who were terrified of putting a toe in the water on day one transformed into kids who couldn't dive off the snorkel boat fast enough out at the reef. It was exhausting, overwhelming, and wonderful.

After a weekend of blowing off steam sleeping, July 1st found us greeting parents and kids for week one of Pigeon Key Marine Science Summer Camp. We run a day and overnight camp together (everyone does the same activities during the day, but we send the day campers home on the ferry at 4:30pm) with educational programs in the morning, and hours of jumping off the dock more traditional camp activities in the afternoon.

Our proud campers with their self-caught lobster dinner!

Taking a break from dock jumping
to practice cheerleading

Our campers learn to identify reef fish, dissect a squid, the importance of mangrove ecosystems, and the ins-and-outs of a bonnethead shark. They also jump off the dock, compete in all-camp kickball, jump off the dock, play capture the flag, jump off the dock, do a pie-in-the-face relay race, jump off the dock, and swim through an underwater obstacle course. After sending the day campers off, the overnight campers got to pick their activity each night.  They usually chose to spend their evenings shark fishing, but we also had movie night (which I volunteered to supervise when Harry Potter was selected as the feature film), a campfire (record number of s'mores eaten: 13), and ultimate Frisbee. There's never a dull moment at summer camp, and bonus: the staff gets a full weekend off between each!

The fruits of shark fishing!

Now we're in August. Which is crazy (didn't I just get here in February aka yesterday?). We finished our last summer camp on the 9th, went day-drinking in Key West had an intern bonding retreat , and have spent the last week edging sidewalks, painting picnic tables, and bleaching every conceivable surface on this island. I swear it will be months before I stop getting whiffs of bleach every time I tuck my hair behind my ears...We also represented the Pigeon Key Foundation at the Marathon Chamber of Commerce's "After Hours" gathering! Local businesses take turns hosting, and people from the community are invited to come, eat, drink and be merry (very very merry when all the booze is free!). This month, the Community Theater played host, so everyone had to wear a hat. We put Jason in an army hat and the local ladies just about lost it--he was a good sport until his cheeks got pinched!
it

It's crazy to think my internship here is drawing to a close. After 6 months of blood, sweat, tears, chaos, laughter, and hard work, I'll be packing my things and flying home to Bloomington on August 26th.

But this is not where the Emventure ends! I am packing my things only to move them across the island, and I'll only be in Bloomington for about a month before heading back down to Pigeon Key. I am excited to say that when I come back in September, it will be as the Foundation and Marine Science Center's newest Education Director. I am nervous and anxious and over the moon excited about this opportunity, and I can't wait to share my trials, tribulations, and successes with all of you!

...and hopefully more frequently than once every three months :)