Nature Trail

We had a great time learning about the history of Ft. Myers beach and walking on the nature trail was really pretty. I took so many pictures but only uploaded a few onto here. We learned the difference between black, white, and red mangroves and saw a lot more interesting things.  

A new experience every time.

The bus ride was normal as usual; long, but it's a bus ride what do you expect??

Mrs. Jo Hughes?? (hopefully that's her name, please excuse my mistake, I've been wrong before so who knows. Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Anyways, Mrs. Jo gave us food, which is the #1 interest of college students everywhere.... talk about world corruption, or zombies.... Our attention is on you 100% after you feed us and win us over....

This sweet lady showed us pictures of the destruction, but the creation of the island from the hurricane.

She was an extremely bright individual, knowing more than I'm sure all of us present combined.

Look at how cute she is!! :-)

Anyways, after she spoke about Fort Myers Beach's history and some of the history of her friends from the island we were allowed to explore the nature trails.

Oh joy.

Since I was running a bit late to begin with to get to the bus, I had to use the restroom....

I found a collection of bug spray in the window.

(Mrs. Jo wasn't kidding when she said they had a mosquito problem there....)

Have your pick!!

As I was snapping photos of the mosuito spray in the bathroom the group decided it best to leave without me.... (and a few other students)

I later realized that it wasn't just me he had left without, I guess this was a nature walk better done on your own.

So a fellow student, Dan and I walked the nature trail and we used our superb tracking skills to find our way back to the group.

Ok, so it's not a human foot print....But we tried!

Well, those awesome tracking skills lead us to the opposite end of the preserve, and into a trailer park.

We basically rock.

Mrs. Jo gave us a small jar of Sea Grape Jelly, so we figured if we were lost for too long, we would be able to survive off that jar.... After that it would have to be every man/woman for him/herself.

We just started taking every right until we ended up at a path that had not been used by humans for quite some time..... So we figured we were definitely lost at that point.

So using my awesome video skills, we video taped us getting lost through senior citizens drinking wine out of a box and playing shuffle board in their trailer park.

Yes a trailer park.

 

Lost Students Video

Adventures through the back half of the nature preserve.... otherwise known as the trailer park.

-Nadia

Challenging Viewpoints

I spent the first eighteen years of my life in the seacoast of New Hampshire. I lived in a town where our only claim to fame had been having the largest greenhouses in the country—until they collapsed in a thunderstorm. We’ve got cows, fields, a library and a town hall. The only reason I’m not the biggest hick you’ve ever met is because that town also contains the University of New Hampshire. Ever heard of it? It’s basically a rich school for Hippies. You’ll see them climbing trees in front of their dorms in summertime- yes, college students. My high school was in the same town and so the ‘hippie outlook’- overrun with radical ideas of “No War”, “Go Green” fanatics and boys with greasy long hair was clearly evident in my high school. My high school was the outcome of bringing liberal educators and their families to a small town: rich, intelligent kids that drove a rusty Volvo instead of a new Lexus. My parents raised my brother and me in a much more conservative manner than most kids in my town. We went to a Roman Catholic Church every Sunday, we did not recycle, and we most definitely took showers every day. Teachers liked me and other conservative students in classrooms because we were the minority and we brought a different opinion. Yeah- I hated it at first, I honestly had ignorant dirty kids telling me we shouldn’t be in school we should all just run around naked in the woods. Ridiculous. But as we grew up all of our ideas became more intelligent and backed by facts we could mold our ideas together. I'm no longer superconservative my thoughts and values tend to fall on the more conservative side of the spectrum but I'm definitely more open minded about new ideas. (And I recycle :))  I’m glad I moved to Florida; the beaches are beautiful, it’s summer 12 months a year, and I think college is what you make it. The only thing I realized I’m missing is someone challenging my opinions. As we talked about in class this part of Florida is super conservative and only now do I realize how much I benefited from different opinions. No, I don’t agree with everything Dr. Segal is saying but I do with some of it and this class seems to be that challenge I’m looking for. College is supposed to help me construct my own thoughts and ideas and I can’t do that without hearing a broader spectrum than I’ve been getting, so personally, I’m eager for this class to continue.