In which my boss leaves for Africa and I meet a Greek man.

I woke up to snow. Lots of snow. The kind of snow that put kids in Virginia out of school for a few days. I'm borrowing a car... and the loaner had some doubts about someone not from New England driving their vehicle. I waited until the roads were plowed before I left and even then, I slid very unceremoniously into the flow of traffic at the main road. Fret not- I am only a slightly bad driver.

I walked from Central Station to Harvard Square soliciting businesses for their support on the plastic bag campaign. By that time, the snow had turned into rain, so I spent most of the day with wet feet. I don't think I'll get sick though, so it's not really that big of a deal. So far, I've gotten 11 businesses to sign their support for a plastic bag ban in Cambridge. Slowly, but surely, we will stop this detriment to the environment.

When I got back to the office from business sign on's and petitioning, I had my 2 week review from my boss.  She complimented me on my ability to talk to people, and said that my biggest area of improvement has been my letters to the editor (the one I got published in the Salem newspaper was the pinnacle). Now, she's leaving for Kenya. She's going to have a great time, and I'm really glad that I got to work with her for these few weeks. I'm now going to be working with one of the fellows and picking up what some of my boss is leaving off when she flies out. Hopefully, I'll keep the momentum on the plastic bag campaign while also working on an anti-fracking movement centered in Western Massachusetts. At the end of the month, I'll pass this torch to another fellow who will make sure it lasts until my boss returns from Africa.

While petitioning in Harvard Square, I met a Greek guy named Dimos. We talked about the Civil War, Keynes and Smith, and I told him the few Greek words I know (obviously, he was amused). He ended up taking me to this underground bar near the site of Newtowne, which was the first settlement that eventually turned into Cambridge. He has a very European way of thinking, which was really refreshing because I'm used to being with people who won't really argue with me for the sake of better understanding. Talking to him made me remember somethings that initially came to me while I was taking Conservation Biology. Humans have taken control the earth, but we're only a very small percentage of the entire world's population. I'm talking bugs, animals, fish and birds. And we usually only understand life in our terms, and not for the entire ecosystem. Relating it to my internship- in order to truly protect the environment, we need to stop looking through our human lens. But it's hard to do when a lot of our society and economy is largely based off of utilizing this planet that we have absolutely dominated. Just another push I might have needed to make it through this internship- I've decided that I need to get a job that does not put me in the front lines of dealing with a sometimes under-educated public (A.K.A. stupid people get on my nerves).