Work

By now I've had four days of work at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. Over the past few years at the different organizations I've worked at, I've had many training/orientation sessions, and so I thought - no problem. I was so mentally and physically exhausted the past few days I had no energy to do anything more than trudge back to the trailer, make some grub and go to sleep. But then social engagements came up and I couldn't refuse since I am in a new town and need to start taking in new experiences.

First, I'll detail work. As always, I pushed myself to try and learn as much as possible on day one. There are a lot of little details and processes at the science center. I should also explain that I work for the science center which is a non profit w/in the state park. It has two buildings ( i may have already explained this) - the aquarium building and the natural history building. I went through trainings at both on the different exhibits, opening/closing procedures, how to work with all the volunteers (since the volunteers/docents largely interact w/ the public) and did some manual labor. There is a decent amount of physical labor in my job everyday which is great because I realized I have lost a lot of muscle and will now being building it back up, but on the other hand, I've been sore and too tired to get into my jogging/exercise routine. I think I'll give myself another day or two to recover then start to walk/job. I'm used to sitting at a desk all day and now I'm largely standing and running around for 8.5 hours a day. TIRING! I have two days off per week but these aren't neccesarily consecutive or on the weekends. Each morning (8:30am) will always begin in the aquarium building. There are 4 AmeriCorps members who have been here since October and will be here for another year. I work w/ them daily and they've taught me a lot of the info/processes that I've learned. So...we clean the aquariums and touch tanks every morning. In the past, I've mosey-ed into work, checked email, had a cup of tea before prioratizing my day. So, this has been an adjustment, especially on days when I spill brine on myself (little baby shrimps) - yes, that was yesterday and it was all down my shirt, pants and shoes, gross! It also involves sucking the end of a plastic tube to get suction to clean out the tanks, also gross but I'm now used to, and plunging your hands and arms into ice cold water for about 1.5 hours/day. We are largely sucking up the marine life poop and making the exhibited look nice and fresh. The whole building is actually like a big recycler though in that all the water being pumped into the tanks is from the sound before the pier we're in so it's saltwater and then the out take tubes/pumps are just putting it back into the sound below us. I'm starting to get the hang of these processes and in another week, I think I'll have them down pat.

I've started retaining information about the different marine life and have slowly started to get my own intrepretation style down and talk to the public. Working with the volunteers is great also, they all have their own interesting stories but sometimes being talked to all day by them can also be exhausting and I look forward to my quiet time in the trailer. I have another 1.5 weeks before my first public program too - yikes! It'll be on gray whales. The AmeriCorps girls and my supervisor are all super nice, helpful and friendly and remind me that everything will come with time and they were once where I now stand. I feel like I've already been here for a month and it's only been one full week!

The trailer is working out but with some small things that will need to be tended to. Today is my first day off and I also have tomorrow so I'm resting up, catching up on some reading for work, doing laundry and of course, trying to catch up with all of you.

The AmeriCorps girls have also welcomed me into their circle of Port Townsend young people. One had her 26th birthday and then we went to Boom Fest which I thought would be more like a fair with funnel cakes and artisans and street music. No, this was more like hippyfest in the woods with little yurts and dogs running wild. And a band on a stage next to a huge bonfire. But it was fun and I did a zip line with Heather (AmeriCorps) and had some good homemade indian food. I'm looking forward to meeting people on my own as well but so far that's just the neighbors in the other RV's in the park who are all retired but very friendly. THere are some other buildings in the park which I hope to investigate in my days off - coffee shop, woodworking shop, exercise/dance studio.

It's so beautiful here, it doesn't seem like people really "live" here, and instead, everyone is just on vacation. And I'm just on a hard work vacation. I feel like it'd take years of living here for that to go away, or perhaps just staying the winter will do it :) I found a yard sale today though which made it feel like home! There is a ton of wild life, hummingbirds outside my trailer, deer everywhere (and i mean this, you'll see them when your just driving around town), racoons and supposedly coyotes which I haven't seen yet. So, I'm doing pretty good but give me another month until I'm fully adjusted. I miss everyone and think about you all daily and look forward to your comments, mail, emails, voicemails etc. I like to hear what's going on at your homes - hope you're all having a great summer so far and please keep reading!

P.S. Pictures are of deer right outside my trailer, only a few feet away and then these tiny yellow spiders there were clustered on the trailer.