bittersweet day...

I realized today that we are down to less than half of the FBEs! It was a bittersweet day since I had to say goodbye to several people who I have spent almost every day with this summer. I know that they are all going on to do awesome things in September, but I'm going to miss them so much!!!!! We talked a lot today about the nature of relationships when you are in college and beyond. These past several years I have made friends from all over the country and the world, but many of these friendships developed within a timespan of three months or less. It is so hard to keep in touch with everyone from summer jobs, semester long internships, and abroad programs, even though these people mean so much to me an had such huge impacts on my life.

On a lighter note, one of my campers made an "organic nose ring" for me today out of grass.

August!!!!

This is a special message to my avid blog readers (I know there are at least 2 of you, Hi Mom and Dad!):

I have decided to really work on blogging starting in September. Since I am making so many other changes in September, I might as well turn over a new leaf and communicate in a better way with family and friends.

I have officially decided to stay here on the Vineyard for a couple of more months, perhaps until Thanksgiving. I have a job in the Education Department through September and into October, and I might be able to work for the Garden Dept. through November. I will be moving out of my apartment (location TBD) and will be gaining new roommates. Of course, this comes with some sadness and trepidation, but I am trying to focus on the positive (I really like Emily and Hannah!) and not so much on the negative (I will miss Daniel a lot!).

These past weeks have flown by. Last weekend I went to the Newport Folk Festival which was AMAZING! Some favorite acts were The Avett Brothers, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Blitzen Trapper, John Prine, Jim James, Ben Solee, Brandi Carlisle, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and The Swell Season. I went with Daniel, his sister, and several farm workers, and we all ended up camping in a yard in Newport, which we found through Couch Surfing (if you havn't heard of couch surfing you should totally look it up! It's Awesome!) We has some adventures (aka we missed our ferry home) and we had lots of fun!

There have also been 2 baby cows born in the past 3 weeks! The first one Daniel and I found on a Sunday morning when we were doing chores, and we think it was already a couple of hours old. His name is Wale (pronounced Wally, not Wal-ay or Whale). The second calf was born on Monday during camp, so all of the kids and staff ran out to the field and saw the calf just as it dropped to the ground! It was a pretty exciting day filled with questions such as "where do babies come from?" and "where is the husband cow? isn't the mommy married?" Yikes.

I actually having a really awesome week with my groups of campers. I am especially excited about my elective this week. In the afternoons, each Educator can design their own program, and the kids get to choose what group they want to be in. After some failed elective attempts on my part (Conserving and Preserving only had 2 kids who just wanted to make pickles all day, and my Children's Book elective had two 6 year olds who couldn't write...), I finally have an elective group that is doing awesome things! Daniel and I are doing the elective together this week, and we are building a grey water system that filters the water from an outdoor sink, as well as setting up rain barrels. I am so HAPPY that these projects are getting done, and by KIDS!

I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks, although they will be crazy. I am leaving to fly back to Annapolis on Saturday morning, and I will arrive just in time for a bachelorette party in DC. Then I have a weekend full of wedding events, culminating in a Saturday wedding (YAY TIFFANY AND TUCKER!) which Daniel will be driving in for. Then, on Sunday I have to say goodbye to Daniel for a loooong time, which will be pretty hard and very sad. We have grown a lot closer this summer and I am having a hard time imagining being in Martha's Vineyard without him. He is leaving to go to England on Aug 25th, and at that point I will be back in MV finishing up the season.

That's the news for now! The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful.....

Sarah