Well there's only one week left in February. And winter has no intentions of slowing down. Every week I look ahead at the weather forecast and see another snowstorm headed our way. Right now my guess is that we have about three feet of existing snow on the ground. In areas where it's been piled it's at least five feet. For perspective that's about level with my shoulders. Now for everyone who listened to me talk about my expectations for this job, you know that I frequently mentioned wanting lots and lots of snow. While I'm quickly tiring of shoveling out vehicles, walkways, raking off roofs and the constant school delays or cancellations, I continue to be thrilled by the prospect of more snow. However the week ahead promises the threat of ice as well, due to warmer days and cold nights. Luckily schools are on break this week so we don't have too many places to go outside of camp.
Our first three weeks of teaching have been amazing and exhausting and a mixture of many other emotions. More and more I can see myself working in this sort of environment long term. It's quite a change for me from what I've done in the past. I distinctly remember all my years in school being terrified to speak in front of a class. I admit I was nervous before I got into the classrooms here, and I still am slightly nervous at times. But it quickly fades once I get into the lesson.
This is due largely to having a teaching partner that I can rely on. This was especially true for our past week. On Valentine's Day a large number of us volunteered at a winter festival on a farm a couple hours away. The wind chill for that night was -25 and the day wasn't much warmer. By the time we were headed home I knew that I was getting a cold. This cold turned out to be a week long illness. After resting for a couple days I felt well enough to teach on Tuesday, but realized when I returned home that I had pushed myself too quickly. I spent the next two days off work. My teaching partner stepped up and taught alone on Wednesday, but he too fell sick and our Thursday lesson had to be rescheduled. So now I'm finally almost 100% and looking forward to being more active.
I can already begin to see how fast education season is passing by. Mid April we finish teaching in schools and transition to conservation season, which will last until we finish in late October. We have our tentative schedule for the rest of the year and I'm excited to hear about the projects we'll be doing. One event I'm extremely excited about is called All Corps. This takes place in mid July in Massachusetts. Basically several corps including ours come together for a few days to meet and we have competitions. I'm assuming some of these will include things like fire building, races and survival skills. But the specifics haven't been shared with us just yet. One thing we do know is that last year NH Corps took home the silver hammer and we've all got gold in our sights. We are also in the process of designing our flag to take with us. Each cabin will be coming up with their own small design and we will have a large design for the corps as a whole.
For now that's it for the big news. Most likely I'll spend a good portion of my weekend indoors, watching movies or playing board games and possibly watching more snow fall tomorrow. If I get inspired to walk around in the cold I may add some photos later today or tomorrow. Take care.
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