7/8 Field day!!

My porch.  I'll miss you!

Today is the first day I’ve really felt emotional about leaving.  I’m so excited to see Drew, I’ve missed him more than I can say.  But on the other hand there are so many things about Viterbo I’m going to miss.  I’m really interested in seeing how I feel when I walk into my house.  See how I handle those first few days.  

Paula wanted to get some more water samples done.  She was equipped with a topographical map of the Rieti Basin with about 15 marks on it.  We had already collected samples from three sites a few weeks ago which left us a good dozen to do.  Our group consisted of Paula, Irene, Claire and myself.  Irene’s car only fits four and knowing how the day played out I’m glad only four of us went.  It would have been a bit interesting if there had been a fifth person!  We met at Porta de Verita at the bright and shiny hour of 6:00am.  I had my coffee pot at the apartment ready to go I just had to turn the burner on.  Love that little mocha.  

Lago di Piediluco

Irene drove us to our first stop, a beautiful lake named Piediluco. Since this was a lake we needed to sample, we went through the whole kit and caboodle.  Paula had liminilogical maps that showed the deepest part of the lake so that is where we set up her perfect little inflatable boat.  Claire and Paula went out to the lake to complete the readings, the secchi disk, the Oakton pen chemistry readings and a plankton tow.  Irene and I stayed on shore to get some diatom samples, always fun scraping gunk of the formicies and lake bottom!  We completed this area in about an hour, then we took off to meet our new partners in crime.

Left side

Right side

Ok, so we didn’t meet our new partners in crime right away.  You see there was a bar and four sleepy women.  What do you think we did!?  Claire learned the difference between ordering a double and ordering two drinks and the rest of us giggled while we drank our cappuccinos.  Then we met the Rangers from the reserve that were going to help us get our samples.  You may remember a few weeks ago I told you about Paola and Andrea, who are park rangers for the Rieti Basin.  No Paola this time, but Andrea was there!  And Carlos.  This duo wasn’t as entertaining as Paola was but they are both such great people.  Andrea would do anything to get us to a sample and Carlos took full control of the maps navigating Andrea.  We all piled into their truck.  Remember when I mentioned it was good only four of us went?  Yup.  The four of us piled in the back seat of their truck.  We are all very close now, as you can see from the two pictures!

The 11 remaining samples were all located in natural springs on privately owned farmland. Which is probably why we needed an escort since we were going onto private property. All  the springs feed our lakes, which means they eventually end at the Marmore Falls.  For each area Paula did a diatom collection using the net, Claire would use the Oakton pen to get the salinity, pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids, and temperature.  I got to be the recorder and photographer.  Right up my alley, right?  Most of this went off without a hitch, however let me tell you about my new little friend...

Claire collecting samples

We were deep in the vegetation at one location when I had a brilliant question.  I asked Paula if they had poison ivy there.  Of course they don’t.  I was just being silly.  Suddenly Irene tells me not to move.  (Naturally, when you are deep in vegetation and someone tells you not to move, what do you do?  I was thinking "large spider in my hair"!!  Yeah, try to hold still after that thought is burned into your head.)  She then uses the papers she was holding to bend a plant back.  I took the cue and sprang out of there like a frightened gazelle (shaking my head to get rid of those imaginary spiders- yes, spiders.  they always multiply in my imagination).  Then a minute later Carlos comes and tramples the plant Irene held back.  Ever heard of stinging nettles?  I don’t like them...  I can still feel those little buggers all over my arm and feet...

Not too much to say about the sampling.  If you've been reading my blogs in order this process was the same as when Paula and I went out alone earlier.  We got into a very nice routine with our jobs.  Luckily my other job was photographer, and “note” app on the iPhone came in handy.  The GPS coordinates of each photo are attached to the photo meta data, which helps to recreate the location data later.  We forgot the sharpie to write on the vials for the samples, so again I saved the day with my pocket knife by scratching the number into the vials.  All my kooky little quirks are starting to come in handy. 

We finished close to 3:00pm then we headed home.  I mentioned to Paula that I wanted to go to Bagnoregio and was intending on going either Tuesday or Wednesday.  Since Paula has successfully managed the bus system here, I was grateful for her insight.  As it turns out, when we got back Paula walked over to the bus station to show me how it worked.  In the end we decided that tomorrow works best, since Scott is going to an archive meeting tomorrow and Lexy is going with him.  Then I won’t be out of the lab working on the cores.  And, as it turns out, David and Nathan want to go to Bagnoregio too!  The three of us are heading out at 9:00am.  This trip completes my checklist of things I wanted to do in Italy.  I’m also glad I get some company, these two are pretty fun to be around.

My bracelet

After visiting the bust station with Paula I had a small shopping endeavor.  My birthday is in 20 days, and I wanted a gift to myself to remember Italy by.  I bought my charm bracelet.  Back in the days when I worked at Helzberg I always loved the two or three little old ladies that would come in for me to clean their charm bracelets.  Ok, really, I hated it, those things are a pain to clean.  But the stories they had about each charm.  For places they’ve been, their hopes, their dreams, their children, grand kids...  It was never a piece of jewelry, but a collection of memories.  I got my bracelet, a typical silver large ring one, and a charm to go on it.  A little mocha.  What else could be more italian!?  I’ve really taken to the coffee since I’ve been here, and this little charm made me feel all warm and happy when I saw it.  Perfect start and gift to myself.  (It’s taken me about a half hour to write that silly paragraph...  I keep looking at this awesome bracelet in between bites of pecorino and honey)

Tomorrow should be a blast, I’ll share all I can of Bagnoregio with you.  So excited!!!!