I AM SO GLAD TO BE HOME! Okay, I've loved everything about college so far, but it is really awesome to be back at home for a while. I have wasted no time getting back out in the Forest Preserves...I never realized how much I missed them until I got back out there. I've run on the trails everyday since I've been home (what a difference from C-U!) and have been out to two workdays at Hidden Pond Prairie. On Saturday, I organized a big group from my high school to come out for service hours, and we were joined by two other groups for a RECORD TURNOUT of 67 people! This massive group initially posed some logistical problems, but the stewards were quickly able to split up the groups into manageable units and we had a great three hours of work. We cut a lot of brush, had a chainsaw running most of the time, and got 2 bigbrush piles burned. The weather was just perfect! Check out this video I took of the workday (my first ever YouTube video!). Stay tuned for a soon-to-be-released video of a long term project I have been working on at this same prairie!! Below are some stills as well. You can clearly see the brush I was attacking!
I also want to catch up on a few other things that have taken place in the last few weeks...
First, the Waddling Penguins (my Eng198 project group) has been making progress on our waddling arduino penguin. I'm not going to talk too much about this, because I don't want to stir up the crazy emotions that this project has brought forth already....let's just say that at our last get together I have never cried so hard AND laughed so hard AT THE SAME TIME before! It was quite the complex emotion...
Here is a picture of penguin at the moment:
Okay, and then the last big event of the last few weeks was Cross Country Nationals! The club team traveled up to Ann Arbor (Ypsilanti to be precise) Michigan to run against other club teams from all over the country, and we got second place! We had beautiful weather and I had an awesome time with all of my teammates. I really love our team and can't wait to continue with track in the spring. I also PRed for the 8k with a 29:03! I'm glad it happened at the last race, but I know I can still do better...next year will be great. However, I've been experiencing some cognitive dissonance lately between my priorities: I'm not sure exactly how summer base training will work next summer if my plans to study abroad in Costa Rica actually go through...running in the rainforest could be a problem. Anyway, I don't have too many pictures from Nationals, so here are some from Regionals weekend:
