DAY 13: Finishing up the Week

(September 21)

Bear Sightings: 0

The rest of my week has gone well, if slightly uneventful. I met my boss, Kara, on Wednesday. She gave me another tour of the town, and introduced me to some people. Part of my duties will be putting up fliers about the lecture series, so it’s important for me to know my way around. Thursday evening was my first lecture series; the talk was given by one of my coworkers at the science center. She is doing research on a type of shorebird called oystercatchers and their breeding grounds on the coast of North Carolina.

This is the Prince William Sound Science Center, where I work.

I recorded the lecture, and my job now is to edit the video footage and put it up on YouTube. We’re still trying to figure out the format we want to use. We can do full video or just the audio with the powerpoint presentation used as the visual. My goal is to put something together that will be similar to a TED talk, where you have video of the speaker with some of the more important slides from the presentation put up full screen.

On Friday I began work on the video from the lecture. Figuring out the strange file system on the camera and downloading the software I needed to utilize it took up my morning. In the afternoon I went out to the site where the science center holds their summer camps to do a little work. There are a couple of cabins, one of which is still a work in progress. We put up waterproof sheeting on the outside, which will be covered up by siding at a later date. It was really nice to get outside on one of Cordova’s rare sunny days. 

BEAR KEYWORD: “Bearanoid” – A colloquial portmanteau of “bear” and “paranoid.” It is used to describe an intense feeling of worry that you may encounter a bear at any moment. Use: “I went for a hike but I turned back early because I was alone and I got bearanoid.”

Forest of Bearanoia

Some friends and I went mushroom hunting after work at The Haystack, part of the Chugach National Forest. This is a huge boulder mound in the middle of the delta that was deposited by the glaciers. The floor is covered with a thick spongy moss and soil, and it's pretty dim and creepy from the dense trees. I wasn't having much luck or patience with the mushrooms, so I decided to walk down the trail (about a mile each way). There's a cool overlook of the river delta at the end of the trail. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure I saw a pair of bald eagles out there. Despite my worries, I did not encounter any bears; my companions had picked their fill of mushrooms by the time I returned and we headed home.

I have a new phone number and mailing address up here. If you would like either of them, just email me or leave a comment.