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| Our lovely little home. |
Have I already been on the Cape for a month?! Time sure does fly when you’re at lop city. Sometimes, when we're doing service with tools, I like to sing a lopping song to the tune of Taio Cruz’s Dynamite. “I came to lop, lop, lop, lop, get out the way, me and my crew crew crew …and it goes on and on and on!” Yeah, I’m a dork. But don’t worry, I mostly sing it to myself in my head. Whatever gets you through the lop day?
Hm…so what can I say about AmeriCorps Cape Cod? I live in a
house with thirteen other people, and only two bathrooms. This actually hasn’t
been such a problem so far, but we still have ten months to go, so we shall
see! Our house is literally a stone’s throw from a retirement home. I’m
sleeping in a bunk bed for the first time since summer camp. You can’t keep a
secret from anyone, and pitchforking for 8 hours ain’t no joke. I’ve even been
given the spectacularly unfortunate nickname of ‘Pooper,’ in reference to my
stint in this costume. But I love it here, and the other corps members are an
awesome group of people.
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| Oh yeah. |
Training is over, and now each corps member has an individual
placement (IP) twice a week, along with a community development day and two
days of direct service. I can’t believe how many new things I learn
everyday. Before coming here, I had never even held a drill before. By the end
of our one-day carpentry training, I’d helped to built six wooden kiosks. I am
pretty terrible at using a hammer, though. I can’t nail anything straight!
My IP is with the engineering department at the Falmouth
Department of Public Works, focusing on mapping stormwater outfall sites, and
public outreach to raise awareness over the environmental issues that can arise
due to water pollution. Since Cape Cod has a single-source aquifer, it’s very
important to prevent water contamination. With most houses on the Cape still
having septic tanks, and the water table being so low in many areas, this is a
serious issue. I’ll be working primarily
on doing outdoor mapping and inputting data into GIS. Yes, fellow Gburg
ES majors, seems as though I can’t escape the GIS lab after all!
Downtown Falmouth (or DTF, as Will has named it) has the
most adorable collection of restaurants, stores, coffee shops, and bars. I
can’t wait to check them out on my lunch break (well, not the bars). My start time for work is the
ungodly hour of 7:30 AM, but at least I’m done for the day at 4 PM. It seems as
though my time in the office and out in the field will be balanced pretty
evenly, which should hopefully keep things interesting. My boss Bob took me
out on a tour of Falmouth on Thursday, and we visited all of what he considers
to be the best beaches. Sitting there in the DPW truck, rocking my yellow
reflective vest and gazing out at the shoreline, I couldn’t help but think to
myself that this is not real life! It was a hard decision to make, but I’m so
glad that I finally settled on AmeriCorps. Apparently, I was talking in my
sleep during the first week and said aloud: “I like it here.” Hopefully I can maintain this level of excitement
for the rest of the year!
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| Explaining what groundwater is to grade schoolers with the help of my trusty fish hat. |
What else…Jenna, Kayla, and I visited Martha’s Vineyard last
weekend for the first time! I spent most of our time there identifying
candidates for my future home. Someday, I will be fabulously wealthy, and I will live here. Worst-case
scenario, I at least need to find a friend with a boat - a man-friend or a
regular friend, either one is fine. Maybe the Cape Cod goggles will help? I was
also struck by just how many Black Dog General Stores there were on the island
– whoever owns the company must be loaded. All of those $25.00 chew toys really
add up, I suppose.
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| Clam Chowder at the Black Dog Tavern in Vineyard Haven. |
The leaves have started to change, and I am experiencing the
beginning of my first New England fall! We were given mini-pumpkins at an
early-October service project, which have been stuck in random places throughout the
Bourne house. A few of us have gotten this idea into our heads that we need to
carve pumpkins, so I think tomorrow we may venture out to a patch. In
Copenhagen, there wasn’t really a fall season last year; we skipped straight
from summer into a rainy, gray early winter. I’d forgotten how invigorating the
crisp feel of the air around this time of year can be for your spirit. There’s
so many awesome things about fall. Slipping into a flannel shirt and your
favorite pair of boots, sipping some apple cider and walking through fallen
leaves, curling up with a good book in front of a roaring fire. We’ve been
having fires every night and it’s pretty much the best thing ever. Add some Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin munchkins, and the
obligatory viewings of Hocus Pocus, and you are set! On Cape Cod, we get the
double whammy of fall leaves AND the ocean, which thanks to growing up in a
landlocked state I react to like a starving
person being given a steak dinner. It’s like a scenery orgasm!
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| Bourne huddle during capture the flag at the National Seashore! |
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| Right before we went out for my birthday...one of the more normal pictures of the night. |
