Swagnificent!

Today was a great day! A group of us started off bouldering on the rock wall at 6 AM along with a little racket ball. After a hearty breakfast we began the day's "mollusk experience"; we split into groups with awesome mollusk names (squid, tree snail, octopus, etc.) and ventured into the domain in search of the snails of Sewanee. The data collection of snails involved measuring off 2 square meters of space in various habitats (cove forest, upper forest, exurban) and counting and measuring the diameters of snails and their shells within those squares. It was a long and patience-demanding process but it showed us how accuracy plays an important role in data collection and how randomly snails can be found around the campus. My group (the squids, for which we gave ourselves the nickname "Squidward") had trouble finding snails towards the beginning but found some eventually in the exurban area (Ryan named one "Georgia" and I killed it secretly/accidentally). After counting snails we ventured over to the RES (reservoir). The raft almost toppled over with so many people on it, an extreme raft fight developed, and we did some rope swinging into the water to top it off. The day ended with a pretty awesome concert by a band called the Culprits which was quite entertaining. Before bed we all played some truth or dare that was infiltrated by the counselors and eventually involved Ashley proposing to Trevor, a very memorable moment. As Isaiah remembers, "the day was truly swagnificent."

Graham