Sustainable Living in England

Hi everyone,

I just returned from England two weeks ago. I am not sure if the government mandates recycling or if the people there are just a lot more interested in living a sustainable lifestyle, but the opportunities for recycling and composting are terrific! All the plastic bags (grocery bags, for instance) are recyclable, and all the groceries take back the bags if you choose not to recycle them (and this option is heavily advertised in the groceries). I bought a sandwich at a little grocery store, and it was in a sort of cardboard holder (but sort of waxy - don't think you can recycle them most places here in the U.S.), and all over the holder were announcements that it was recyclable, compostable, and biodegradable. Heathrow has a triple bin program where trash bins are always accompanied by recycling bins for glass and plastic.

Petrol (gasoline) prices are outrageously expensive - 8 or 9 pounds per liter. We pay about $4 per gallon - a lot more gasoline for a lot less money. I think, though, that it's good that the gasoline is so expensive over there, because it certainly encourages people to drive less frequently and own cars that are better for the environment. Their cars do use diesel, which is not as clean as gasoline (except in areas that mandate "clean diesel," which is diesel subjected to high standards of purification, I think) but lasts a lot longer in manual cars (and most of their cars are manual), so helps Britons to get the most out of their petrol and avoid filling up so often.

Another interesting thing was that all the English electrical outlets had switches to turn the electric on and off. So, for instance, when nobody was watching the television, the entire outlet would be switched off, so the television wouldn't use up energy with it's tiny red lights that indicate power or whatever. (Sort of like when you turn off your stereo but a red or blue light stays on to indicate that it's plugged in.) And apparently they save a lot of energy this way! I wondered why we Americans can't turn off our outlets, but my mother says we have a different kind of electricity (hence why we have to use converters when using our own electrical products in Europe). Since we can't turn off our outlets, I'm now unplugging the stereo and the shredder and other things that have little lights still on when they aren't in use. I am careful, too, not to leave my laptop or cell phone charging longer than necessary. I think I have picked up a lot of these English energy conservation habits not just because I am environmentally-conscious but because I was so broke in England that I needed them to save my money!

Megan's Incredible Summer

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't written until now...I have been so busy! I got an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) position at the Kellogg Biological Station at Michigan State University (it's actually 2 hours from campus). I really had no idea what to expect, and I was still not getting information about what I was going to do here the day I arrived. So I drove from Boston to Michigan with my mom, stopping in Canada. We got to Michigan, where I have never been before, and I was very scared by all the farmland and being in the middle of nowhere as we drove to this station! I thought I was going to hate it, but now I even want to live on a farm! Also, I showed up and saw that my apartment and the whole station is right on a beautiful lake! And here is a picture of a gorgeous sunset from the dock right behind my apartment! I absolutely love it here. Free room, free board, a stipend, and a free ecology class that I am getting credit for at Richmond! For the first few weeks I really had no idea what I was doing, and my mentor is the head of the whole station so I never really got to see her. But I got to sleep in every day and go kayaking and canoeing with the people I met and it was just awesome. There are about ten undergraduates here for research, six of us supposedly doing research on biofuels, including myself. Michigan State received a huge grant for biofuel research which I can tell you all about when we get back to school since this post is already so long! With a lot of guidance from my mentor, I started doing research on burning in prairies and switchgrass fields. It was pretty awesome in the end, even after all of the hot days bending over and trying to identify plants. Here is the poster I presented last night with all of my findings! The poster session went very well. I also have a huge project due for my class next week so I will continue to be very very busy this weekend! But even with all this work it has still been a lot of fun. Oh and there is also a math-ecology program here and so there are other graduate and undergrad students that came in June who are pretty awesome. We have had some crazy adventures...including going camping 3 hours away and getting my prius stuck in the mud at 11pm...but ya it's basically nerd central and I love it!! Hope you are all doing well :)

you can't really tell they are dancing...but I was blasting my music and everyone had a dance party in the mud haha

scouting the cabin

Clary and I decided to check out Doyle's River cabin for ourselves - and her 6 months pregnant!

The walk in was almost all down hill, and the cabin is less than half a mile from Skyline Drive, so you'll hardly break a sweat on the way in.

Here's the view from the front porch. Just imagine the watching the moonrise from here sitting next to the outdoor fireplace...
(caution: the gray rocks at the bottom of the picture mark a steep drop off!)

We'll need to plan a menu for the trip - any volunteers?
We can buy the food on our way up to the mountains. We should plan for 2 breakfasts, 2 dinners & 2 lunches, light weight food, easy to prepare.

About 100 yards from the cabin is a spring that comes out of the mountain and collects in a small pool - let's hope we have plenty of rain between now and then. Here our dogs Betty and Ellie enjoy tasting the cool spring waters...

Hi everybody!

Hey! This is Ivi. The summer for me started on May 4th when I went to Philly to visit a friend and celebrate my birthday (the big two-zero). After a week break I returned back on campus to do a math research. It's the 9th week of the research now (out of 10) and this is pretty exciting. We are preparing the poster for a conference in Michigan at the end of July. I just can't believe how fast the time has passed! Some weeks ago, the whole group from the research went on a trip to the National Security Agency in DC. There were some very good presentations on the Enigma machine and on coding/decoding. Other than that, there is not much going on campus. There are pretty interesting fitness classes in the gym. I highly recommend Pilates and the Fitness Fusion :) After the conference I am going home (in Bulgaria) for a couple of weeks and I am pretty excited about that. I live 15 minutes by walk from the beach, so hopefully it will be sunny and warm when I get there...






Here is a picture of our dorm from this summer!!I am so excited about living there in the fall!!


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Friends of mine and I went to DC on July 4th to see the parade and the fireworks. It was beautiful. Here is a short video...




Smiles,
Ivi

Hello

Hey everyone, it's Alix. I haven't contributed to the blog yet, partly because I didn't think I had anything blog-worthy to say, so I thought now I would share what I've done this summer. The first part of my summer was pretty relaxing, I just stayed around home, which is in Moorestown, NJ, a town about 30 minutes outside of center city Philadelphia. I live close to the Atlantic City too, so that's been a fun place to go on day trips. In June I took a calculus class at The College of New Jersey, just so I wouldn't have to deal with taking it during the year. I'm so happy it's over! So right now, I'm actually in Killington, VT. It's my first time in Vermont, and it's beautiful! We're staying at a hiking spa, which basically means you get to go on a long hike in the morning, participate in other fitness classes, and get spa treatments :) Tomorrow we're going to Woodstock to hike, which I'm so excited about! Anyway, I'll try to take some good pictures on the hikes to post later. So, I hope everyone else is having a fun summer too! Oh yeah and I'm so excited to spend time with Earth Lodge's very own Kristen and Aleena next week! Kristen's coming up from WV to stay with me and Aleena for a week!!! So that's what's been up with me lately.
Peace,
Alix