Journal #3

Our class with the naturalist at the park was awesome, to say the least.  This is despite my troubles finding the place.  My favorite thing I learned during the day was that people often went fly fishing in the river.  I'm a big fly fishing fan, but I've only been able to do so out west.  It was great to discover a location where I can partake in a favored hobby of mine.  Hopefully I'll be back there in the near future with a fly rod. 

Mr. Pitrizzi seemed like a very hands kind of guy.  I enjoyed his teaching methods and sharing of knowledge very much.  The first learning strategy I admired was letting us feel and hear the animals and the sounds coming from them, like the beetle at the beginning of the trip.  Secondly, he let us learn through personal experience by letting us freely explore the river and the wildlife around the area.  This was great because it let the students learn and communicate more with each other, instead of sitting and listening to instruction.

I don't think I learned anything new about myself during the trip.  However, I think this class made me realize I may enjoy the outdoors even more than I originally thought.  Just being out there put my mind at ease and forget any worries I had for the time being.  A few more trips like this one might be enough to change my mind about future jobs and work.  Simply put, if I'm happier outdoors, than I'm going to focus my career on the outdoors.

If I could add one activity and make this event a full day it would be fishing with nets.  I've never fished at all with nets and it's a common method among hunters in other countries.  It would be really cool to learn this skill and catch fish.  It would force the fishermen into the water and increase hand-eye coordination as well as ones senses in the outdoors.  Maybe it's just me being weird, but it just seems awesome and rewarding to catch something using that method.