July 24, 2006 – CSP Day 11
Claire’s Day
We had Claire, the Yale counterpart of the Yale-China Association, blog for today!

Today we started a week of field trips with a day-long trip to Hammonasset State Park. Even though I’d been at Yale for four years, I’d never been to Hammonasset, so I was especially excited – plus, it was a beautiful, sunny, not-too-hot day, perfect for the scavenger hunts we had planned.

After a long bus ride, filled with songs and drumming, we arrived at the park and broke into two groups. My group started our scavenger hunt at the sandy beach; we were looking for a long list of sea creatures, including blue mussels, razor clams, whelks, and Irish moss (a kind of seaweed). The kids got a little discouraged at first, because there really wasn’t as much stuff as we thought there would be, but they persevered, and soon enough, every single one of them (even the ones wearing jeans and sneakers) were up to their knees – or even their waists – in the ocean, trying to get all the items on our list.

Before we knew it, it was time to switch with the other group and head to the rocky beach, which was separated from the sandy one by a rock jetty (a kind of pier made out of rocks that juts into the water) and a long stretch of rocks we had to climb over. We had a difficult scramble over the rocks over to the beach, though the staff had a markedly harder time with the waist-high boulders than the campers, who loved every minute of the “hike”. We made it, though, and got to explore that beach, where we had a bit more success. There were pink jellyfish everywhere, which the kids were alternately fascinated and repulsed by. We collected crabs and different kinds of seaweed, and some of the kids took the Seine net and practiced the skills Brandon taught them last week in the ocean. I was especially impressed that a few of the girls remembered Hanifa’s lesson about the osprey nest at West River Memorial Park and were able to identify one from very far off.

Then we headed back to the main beach using the much easier trail and ate lunch. And then…SWIMMING!

I missed a lot of the splashing about because Sara (another staff member) and I were being buried with sand higher up on the beach, but judging by the happy yelps I could hear, it sounded like a blast. When I emerged from my mummification, though, I needed to rinse off anyway, so I joined the kids in the cold, cold water. None of them seemed bothered by it at all, though, as they swam about playing Marco Polo or riding the waves or just swimming about.

We came back wet and tired, singing a few new songs on the bus ride back and a few old classics. And then it was time to go! I love field trip days; they allow me to see a lot of greater New Haven, and of Connecticut, that I missed out on while being so focused on my academics and extracurriculars on the Yale campus. I wish all Yale students could get a taste of all that greater New Haven has to offer, and with their guides as 30 (sometimes overly rambunctious, but usually perfectly wonderful) youth.