last week, our students were on february vacation (that's right, they have a week off in february AND april. what's up with that??). that meant we got to hang out in boston for a week serving in urban parks, learning about civic engagement, and exploring a fun city!
MONDAY
after our community meeting and chores, we hopped into the vans and trekked out to boston.
once we arrived at the blue hills reservation (the chickatawbut education center to be precise), we ate lunch and headed out to clear out some small pine trees from a forest buffering the road. this may seem a bit anti-conservation-esque at first, but we learned that that stretch of forest has been known to house some sketchy activity, so clearing the road is good for police and other park officials to view what is going on. also, there is a walking path along that way, so removing the saplings before their roots start to ruin the paved path is great for keeping the park accessible (and keep maintenance costs down with not having to repair the path so often). but, the best conservation benefit was that by clearing most of the saplings and allowing only one or two in a stretch to remain, it is more likely that those one or two trees will make it to maturity than if all of those saplings competed with one another for space and light. plus, sometimes it's just really fun to use a bow saw and haul trees through the woods.
TUESDAY
we began at a farm (brookwood) doing some more trail pruning and brush clearing. when it started snowing, we moved over to clean exhibits at the trailside museum. my favorite part of the day, though, was hiking up to the blue hills observatory where we got to see the inner workings of a weather station. i'm not sure if all of you know this about me, but for a really long time (and still sometimes today), i've wanted to be a meteorologist, so i was pretty darn excited to see all of the cool weather equipment : ) the neatest contraption by far was the magnifying glass (crystal ball, rather) that measured the cloud cover. when the sun shines, the light goes through the glass ball and burns a hole onto a paper underneath. the paper is designed to reflect the time of day so that observers can go back and figure out when the sun was shining and when it wasn't. so simple, but so cool.
tuesday night, all of the corps members and staff had a family fun night full of games, props and skits : ) fun times indeed!!
WEDNESDAY
we did some more brush clearing type of work in another forest. i was with a group that was clearing out some small trees and brush around and observation tower. we got to climb to the top of the tower to get the lay of the land...except that there isn't actually door to the tower (that isn't locked). we had to climb up a rock wall and shimmy through a window. i felt like a ninja.
wednesday ended with a few rousing games of sardines back at the education center : ) i managed to find the person who was hiding first for three out of four rounds. go me! that did result sitting in some rather uncomfortable positions for long periods of time....
THURSDAY (civic engagement day!)
thursday found us exploring downtown boston. to get into town, we had to walk a ways to a bus stop, take the bus to a T station (the subway), and take the T into the city. all in all...about an hour journey. our first adventure was the mass audubon (one of our major program funders) advocacy office where jack clark, the legislative director, briefly welcomed us in his office before heading over to the state house to give us a personal tour. we had to go through the "general hooker entrance", which made me giggle.
all i could think of when i was in the state house was film the departed...but we did get to sit in on some sessions of the house and the senate as well as meet some of the civic dignitaries. pretty sweet!! : )
after our state house shenanigans, we were let loose to frolic around town. i went with some folks to harvard square and wandered cambridge around for a while. we ate lunch at a wonderful indian restaurant and later met up with some other corps members for drinks at a pub.
FRIDAY
friday was a bit of a change of pace. we volunteered with cradles to crayons in the morning and then half of the group headed back while the other half of us stayed so we could see george clinton and p-funk at the boston house of blues. the show was great! definitely funky...
SATURDAY
after all of us groggily packed up and cleaned up the site, we drove out to the boston university area to see caleb in a play (the girl with the red kerchief). the play was part of a russian theater festival...kind of random, but caleb did a great job : )
it was very nice to get get a break and to explore a city i've never visited, but i'm looking forward to seeing the kiddos again tomorrow! only 5 more weeks left of teaching...better make the best of them.
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