Service Learning Field Trips? They aren't so bad...

The freshman and sophomores went on their Service Learning field trip today. The freshman went to the Houston Food Bank, and the sophomores to the Armand Bayou Nature Center. I'm sure some of the students enjoyed this trip.

Since I was a sophomore, I was going to the Armand Bayou Nature Center. I thought I was going to be in for a walk through very tall prairie grass (just like the teachers had been trying to indicate to us), but NO! It was totally different than what I had been expecting! (OK, not totally different, but we were still outside.) Here's a breakdown of what we did...

When we arrived, because we were told that there were no bathrooms where we're going to be doing our service learning, we were told to go before going out there. When that was finished, we were given safety instructions for when we go out in the fields, as we were told that there are going to be bugs out there. We then started about a 15-minute walk from where we arrived to the fields.

When we arrived at the fields, we were given instructions on what to do, although I was half expecting to have to walk through at least some prairie grass during this trip. But no, it turns out they just need us to dig and plant some... well, plants. After all, we do need to preserve this habitat! (Did you know that in our state, 99% of those prairies are gone? I know... Crazy, right?)

Of course, we keep working and working. We dig holes, and then plant our plant naturally, then cover the dirt on the plant back up with more soil/dirt. Every now and then, we would take water breaks, because when you're out there during the summer months, it gets HOT. It gets so hot, you'll be sweating after working for a while. Actually, this trip temporarily knocked out a few people due to being sick and nauseous (my guess is because of heat exhaustion.) Of course, it ends up happening with my friends, while basically everyone else is OK. (Funny how that works.) 

That situation even happened with the partner I was working with while I was on this trip. It only took a little bit of time before our work speed suddenly started to go slower, and needing a few more water breaks, until eventually, my partner experiences a version of tunnel vision where everything just gets darker. Because of this, she had to sit down and recover for a minute (and so did I, because I needed to sit down. I've stood up way too long. I also wanted to assist her if she needed anything.) 

That's how I noticed that the regular honeybees around here have been WALKING on the ground, and not flying. I asked a person why, and I heard that they may have been drugged. When I asked him if it was happening just around here or if it was nationally, he responded "nationally". That doesn't sound good. We already have a hurricane coming through some of Florida (and destroyed some places in other countries nearby) - now we have honeybees becoming an endangered species? Man, the world is now a crazy place where no one is safe!

Oh, and her tunnel vision eventually did go away, but it didn't take long before she almost completely stopped responding (yes, we took a water break when she had that tunnel vision). She wouldn't want to move anymore, so I (and another group) keep asking "Jade, are you OK??" After hearing from her that she was sick and sleepy (both in a nauseous way), one of us alerted a teacher, who then came to assist (along with another teacher.) After letting her cool down, she was taken for a ride back in the ATV they had out there, along with a few other people. Thank God it happened last-minute (I know because we were starting to pack up), otherwise we would've had to do some serious planning (possibly to even get in a decent group.)

So, long story short, even though it was warm outside (we had to wear long pants, too), and a few people being unable to handle working after a while, it was a good field trip filled with planting things, insect repellent, and for some, sunscreen. I actually got sunburned on my arms, and apparently some of my face (although somewhat minimal, as I was wearing a hat AND sunglasses today.) But on the bright side, everyone who made it to the field trip today should've gotten 4 service learning hours, even though we were only out there for about 1.5 hours! Yay!

That's all I have for now. Sorry I haven't been posting recently, guys. I haven't had the time I wanted to keep this thing up to date, but rest assured I'm still somewhat motivated to put new posts for you guys, even more now that I've noticed that someone spread the word that this blog exists... don't believe me, look at this pageview chart...

I know, right? 36 pageviews yesterday compared to something like 3 pageviews/day from unknown sources?! That's crazy! Whoever spread the word to CHECHS that this blog's link was on my Instagram bio, thank you! I feel so much more popular now.

See y'all later!

P.S. Don't abuse the comment section, please.. If you do, I do have the right to delete your comment. I almost decided not to allow anonymous users to comment anymore after one long comment about rambling (that person typed 759 words & 3,859 characters in one sentence. Has he ever heard of run-on sentences? We learned this way too long ago in Language Arts.) But, since I realized that's probably too harsh, I didn't do that. (I liked his reasoning anyway.) And plus, I had an innocent anonymous user who told me with perfect grammar that I had a great blog, so I didn't want to block out the nice people. (See, I'm a nice guy!) I try to be nice, but then some mean person has to ruin it for everyone else. (When it comes to that kind of thing, I hate the way the world works.)