There have always been smiles in my life because I turned out to be a smiley person with all my crazy mannerisms and  sounds that mean words.  These sounds and mannerisms come out even more when I’m really happy, thus anyone who came into the Hatfield Marine Science Center and saw me would know that I LOVE my job.  This past week has been filled with smiles, not only from me, but from many visitor’s both tall and small.  On Monday, everyone who worked with me was asking me how my vacation was and was so happy that I got a break from the craziness of work.  Also, that day Aurora was fed quite happily and I had many people who said they loved the marine science center and couldn’t wait to come back again next summer.  Then, Tuesday was a great project day because I got to see my wave tank in action even more.  A summer camp with 56 kids and a boy scout troop of 23 came in at the same time and tested out my erosion wave tank.  Also, I got to be at the tide pool touch tanks for most of the morning and have some amazing questions asked by children about the animals and their environment.  On a cool/sad note I got to see a fish necropsy to see why it passed away which was highly informative while the death was a sad state of affairs.

On Wednesday which was my only day off this week, I got to do something quite different.  I went with Hillary to Cascade head and see what she does for her internship.  I got to take pictures of her interviewing many people about their view on marine reserves and taking pressure counts of people at each site.  I saw her interview many types of people from local fisherman to families just traveling to the coast for a few days.  These surveys asked very interesting questions and I got to hear various answers such as people who think marine reserves are great and others who had very strong opinions about how unsuccessful they would be.  Hillary did and is still doing an amazing job for her internship and it was a treat to see her in action was well as get to go to Cascade Head as well as the Lincoln city outlets.  Even at the outlets I got some great deals on jeans and workout clothes :)

The rest of the week was just as amazing as the start and challenges actually didn’t occur this week.  Many people may consider that boring, just like how a story without conflict is boring, but smiles are never boring to me.  I got to do more estuary tours, even one with 32 people on it! So many people, but I still got asked some highly intelligent questions.  Then, I showed a girl scout troop from Redmond, OR through the VC.  There were 10 7-8th graders and their leaders.  They were fascinated that I was a lifetime girl scout as well as a broze, silver and gold award winner.  They asked me so many questions and all were different from girl scout ideas to my time as a girly girl scout to marine science.  The VC was really cool to them and that made me smile even more.  Yet, the most exciting thing that made me smile was………….learning to be a feeder! I got to feed every animal in the VC except the octopus such as sea anemones, rock fish, wolf eel and much more.  I traveled around the whole VC with my cart accompanied by Harrison, Kristen (aquarists) and Julie! Together, we fed all the animals a wide variety of food items.  It was one of the best learning experiences I have had at Hatfield and I can’t believe I was so lucky.

Next week I’m sure will also be filled with smiles but also with a little bit of sadness since this will be my last blog post of the summer .  There will also be sadness because my new made friends will all be leaving while Brian, Nick and I stay for another 10 days until the VC changes over to winter hours.  This summer has been filled with crazy, exciting and magical moments that I will keep forever in my memory.  Thanks for everything and I hope for all the best not only in the future of my project, but also all of our OSG Scholar’s futures.