Programs Blog

Tue Sep 17, 2024 

Sea Education Association campus, Woods Hole, MA 

Sunny, 72 ̊ F

I just finished reading Jeff’s blog (Sep 16) and all I have to say is I’m glad to be in the same program as this man. But I’ll save you all from another blog post about the Mystic trip and just talk about my day. From the start, I woke up at 0830 for the first OGCC (Oceans and Global Carbon Cycle) class, which started at 0900. I quickly made and ate a bowl of granola-mixed cereal before heading out to the Madden Center to join everyone in the classroom. Jan tested positive for Covid over the weekend and had to quarantine, so we had class over Zoom. Hopefully he recovers promptly, which he seems to be optimistic about. In class we learned about primary production in the ocean and the major phototrophic plankton.

Class ended around 1015 and the next class–Marine Environmental History taught by Brooke Grasberger–was scheduled for 1045, so in the meantime I read a book in the lounge. The book I’m currently reading is The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides, as recommended by my uncle, and reading about Captain Cook and his Pacific voyages is extremely intriguing as it parallels–albeit a small portion–the voyage we are going to be embarking on in only a few weeks! I honestly enjoy Brooke’s class, even with the amount of readings we get, and today we learned about historic sailor superstitions surrounding animals.

After class, which ended at 1200, I biked to Falmouth Beach to collect trash for my open genre piece. For Rich’s class, Environmental Communication, we were assigned to choose a scientific paper and write a report on it. The open genre piece is an extension of that assignment, where we have creative authority over what we want to submit. My article is about seabird interactions with ocean plastics, and for my open genre piece I decided to make an illustration of a bird with all the trash I collected at the beach.

I got back in time for the next OGCC class, scheduled for 1330. Again over Zoom, Jan taught us about satellite ocean data and different ways that such data is collected and sorted. Getting out at 1600, Jeff and I were hungry and decided to cook up some chicken cutlets. With leftover tomato sauce and mozzarella, we whipped up some tasty chicken parms that brought me back home to Brooklyn.

Now 1755, I’m waiting for our mandatory team dip at Falmouth beach. I don’t even know if it’s still on, but all I know is that I’m getting in the water after this. Only 18 more days until we arrive to the ship!!