THE FINAL WORD

Hey all,

My apologies for not posting the last couple of days but we all were too busy finishing our research. The last couple of days were a lot of fun but also fairly sad. For our last day of research we went to a new site, Wise Point which turned out to be a bit of a let down because it was almost entirely artificially constructed and therefore could lead to no good coring. Instead we took modern transect and leveled into the nearest benchmark in an old underground very bizarre bunker. We also took geochemical and foraminifera samples the latter for Chris and the subsequent for Candace. At which point most of our group returned to Brownsville marsh while the fraction of us went to take a pollutant sample from the very tip of the Eastern Virginian coast. This attempt proved futile because someone had built a mansion on the marsh there and posted no trespassing signs everywhere. We decided to leave without our sample. When we got back, to the house, equipment washing of monumental proportions was undertaken and all the corers, both Vladmirs and Demetri were thoroughly scrubbed and all the Jeans le measureas were measured out to their full 30 m and cleaned. We tied off all the other sampling that needed to be done and added the Rose Bengal to our forams. Our whole group watched our last episode of tribe this one on the Dessanech people in the southern most tip of the Momo valley in Ethiopia.
Yesterday we had “a bit of a lie in” as Simon says and were up cleaning by 9:00AM. We finally discovered that we had an espresso/cappuccino maker, which became an indispensable tool in our final hours for some. We packed up and cleaned the house and cars from top to bottom. In keeping with time-old tradition the car, washing was half water fight half work but that seems to be the point. We were thoroughly finished by 1:00PM and did not need to leave until 4:00PM so we swam and skim-boarded with various degrees of success. After washing up, we headed out to the movies, Wall-E or Get Smart depending on your preference. Before the theatre, we stopped for dinner at the California Pizza in Norfolk, which seems to boast some of the more bizarre pizza combinations on this side of the Atlantic we made short order of a good eight pizzas and were off to the movies.
After getting home everyone spent the rest of the evening out on the porch going over the experience and talking about what expectations we had had and how those were fulfilled and exceeded. The last of us chipped in late at night and for the last time resided in our Italian villa.
Thank you to our leaders, Candace, Simon, Chris, Andrea, and Kate. The opportunity that you gave to us will be remembered by all. You are an inspiring presence and we greatly appreciate your dedication and poise. Thank you to EarthWatch for providing the context for this trip and deciding that young students are a priority for your organization. Thank you to the Durfee foundation without your funding this opportunity would not have been possible. Thank you to the University of Pennsylvania for taking on this project. Thank you the owners of our house for having the audacity to rent their house to a group of scientists and teenagers. Lastly thank you to all the parks and areas that we visited in our trip and to the various organizations that gave us permission to do our work.

Thank you
-The EarthWatch Virginia 2008 SCAP Team