Anne Dalke's blog

Feeling the burden of finding a place, close by, for our final collective ramble, I forsook the Friendship Bench once again, in order to explore Ashbridge Park. I think this is our place!
Re-storation.
Re-stori-ation.
Re-story-ing.

What (I think!) emerged in today's discussion was a shared desire for a final field trip that (in graham's words)  "lets our discussion become mobile." We seem to be moving towards a walk along Mill Creek. Below find what Lynne Elkins, of the BMC Geology Department, said when I asked her for guidance on how to do this "ramble."

In reponse to her questions: what is our purpose here? Shall we go to Ashbridge Park, to Mill Creek (in the acreage below Harriton House), or to Dove Lake? Rambling and talking together about a text? What is an "ecological" mode for making such a decision? How to be "ecologically conscious" in doing so?

....we do local trips very often, sometimes nearly every week for particular classes. I use Mill Creek for at least one class every semester. I agree that walking along it isn't feasible--in some places the banks are too overgrown, and in others it's probably private property or the stream enters underground drainages. You could walk farther by going through the water with waders, but in places storms have deposited enough debris that it might be impassible. I've never used it as far as Dove Lake, though.

My recommendations/ideas will really depend on the purpose of using a field site for this class. What kinds of observations are your class hoping to make? Will you take any measurements or do any analysis? Environmental studies/ecology is a bit too broad to be sure what would be best.

One of the students in my other class did some research on Erdman, and discovered that Louis Kahn, the architect who designed it, said, “A dormitory should not express a nostalgia for home, it is not a permanent place, but an interim place.” Can an interim place be a niche?

We made a number of decisions in class today (see updated syllabus for details).

We agreed that we will take a final class-wide "ramble":
we are eco-imagining a collective event to end the semester,
which will compliment the individual Thoreauvian stroll with which you each began
(lovely thought; thanks, rachelr!)

We also agreed to go do this @ 1 p.m. on Sunday, December 2nd --
and to accomodate that time by cancelling class on Monday, Dec. 3rd.

Next to be decided is where we will go, how we will get there, and what we will do once we arrive.

Current options for where to go include the
* Tinicum Wildlife Refuge (a visitor center, observation platform, and
10 miles of trails in southwest Philly, near I-95 and the airport);
* Forbidden Drive (a 5 1/2 mile trail in the Wissahickon Valley Park in the northwest part of Philly); and
* Mill Creek (which we can access from the edge of the Bryn Mawr
campus, and would try to walk along, as far as Dove Lake).

Options for how to get to the first include taking the R5, then the R1--or renting a college van;
for the second, renting the van; and for the third, walking.

Blackout Poetry

Yangon, Myanmar (AP)
earthquake struck
feared
slowly,
extent unclear
response
lost
devastating
reported no
epicenter
collapsed
on state television

deaths
of the
clash
massacre
coldbloodedly
clash
looking for communication
holding up assault
wounded
clashes
cause
death
war
promised
deadly clashes

--------
among
possible violation of
process
Educational
a single poor
complaint offers
devastating
flaws
who can afford
to be a good
performance
further
discriminatory
including leadership....

--------
hurricane was
powerful
mighty
had
windows,
"There they go.
distressing. I grew up with those trees."
insulting
not yet
downed
memory

--------
the country
housing
two million units
black-listing
impossible for them to rent--
But many see no alternative.
"I could not let my children and my grandchildren starve."
squat-
squatting
squat
qui-
embarrassed
protesting
"shame on you"
The crowd
outnumbered police
But one day, he said, he got a call.