Farewell to Our Red Ranger

Oh, so we thought we were all going to get to sleep in until ten o'clock today before we had to go pet some alligators...not the case. I got up at about eight o'clock. Without an alarm. This camp has rubbed off on me way too much. Since today was Scholar's Day, I thought I'd try to make a good impression on any of my future professors and wore a yellow dress. I got to the Journalism Lecture at nine and by 9:05 had decided that dresses are stupid.

We met back at Responsibility around ten thirty to take a trip to Gator Land and meet Sam, the two year old gator. They didn't know its gender because they're apparently not interested in that sort of thing? Kelly is the representative for Busch Gardens in Tampa and...some place in Virginia. They also have a partnership with Sea World. She did a presentation on the type of work she does called "edutainment." "Edutainment" teaches kids a lot about animals, but tries to keep it really fun.

We stopped for lunch at noon and Dr. Freyermuth's son, Jacob, Alana (whose grandparents originally set up the SLAM program that allowed us to come for free. And we like free) and her friend Riley left us once we started acting younger than them and played aggressive Duck, Duck, Goose. Nothing was broken, but Vidhi did get a rug burn on her foot.

And Dr. Freyermuth returned to help us end our week by making us come up with an ethical scenario that dealt with one of each day's sessions. Although some of the arguments got a little heated, we were able to keep our cool and continue the discussions. Sort of.

Our final two sessions were about the weather and septic waste. It was called Septic City! I got beat down in a water fight. And then helped the girls lose in a kickball tournament. Because this was our last day here, there was a lot more picture taking, and many more thoughts of, "I can't believe we're leaving." We explored the corn fields, one block of the evolution of corn and the other of the mutations of the corn's ten chromosomes. Lots of midgets and one that actually had the ability to get a sunburn. It was the consummation of my corn self.

When we went down to the lake and were supposed to have canoe races. It turned into canoe tipping. What started as a peaceful sailing adventure ended as a fight to stay aboard the canoes. Somehow, Jonathan and Adam ended turning their canoe over. And then Jake tipped over Mia and Nikki. So Andrew and I chased after Adam and Jonathan with Dani and Kevin. Adam tipped us over and as we dragged our sorry selves ashore, Jake and Chris swam out to the middle of the lake just to tip over Dani and Kevin's boat. Andrew then thought it would be funny to pick me up and take me into the lake and dump me. Finally, we got John to put down his electronics because the boys dragged him in. And we smelled like poo all the way home.

There was a nap on my part after we got back, until about ten when we left to go to the Ag. Building and presented our inventions to the American Life Sciences Judges (Ce Ce and our counselors). Like American Idol, with no funny British guy, only John. and then it was time for Kevin to leave, so we all piled up on the stage to take some more pictures. On the way in, we had passed the very first picture they took of us at camp. And the one thing everyone noticed was how much space we kept between us. Our final group picture shows the friends we made and the fun we had. And there is no space.

Then it was time for one last game of poker and another round of pictures before ending our final blog of the camp. Can we stay four weeks longer?

(Brunch is at eleven in the Reynold's Alumni Hall. Mom, that means you have to be here by ten thirty.)