Spring Quarter and Homeless in New York for 24 Hours

Back on the plane after 15 months of being home due to covid.

It’s been a long time since I’ve added to my blog, but I’m back for the summer! My college classes in the spring quarter are the main reason for my absence: I took three classes that involved a lot of writing, which meant that by the time I was done writing papers, midterms, articles, and finals, I didn’t have the energy to write for my blog. These classes included Environmental Studies in Society and Culture, Religious Studies Intro to Native American Religions, and Political Science Intro to International Relations. In addition, I also took a birdwatching class that was partially in person, which involved meeting up with about 30 students and 2 professors on Friday mornings to birdwatch for an hour (I greatly improved my shorebird identification skills). I also continued my tree planting and restoration internships that I had begun in the winter and started working in a lab on campus. In the lab, I helped graduate and PhD students with projects that study the relationship between fungi and tree roots in the soil. I did work in the greenhouses measuring and transplanting baby trees, learned how to do PCR (genetic amplification) in the lab, and cultured fungi in glass jars. In the fall, I will lead parts of an independent research project that looks at the effect of different fungal communities on oak trees when they are deprived of water (you can expect a more complete description sometime in the fall).

Pictures from my work at the lab.

My roommate situation did not change at all: Chris and I became experts at staying out of each other’s way. For the most part, I tried to stay out of the apartment as much as possible. Santa Barbara weather made this easy: most days, I would pack a lunch and snacks, go to campus, and set up a hammock somewhere. I would stay there all day, sometimes for more than 10 hours. I love doing my schoolwork outside in a hammock, and I really came to love my campus and its little nooks and hidden fields.

Next fall, I will be living in a co-op. This is a house of 15-18 people who live together and share the care of the house and each other. This involves a rotating system of chores and cooking duties, where everyone then shares the common spaces and eats dinner together most nights. I will be sharing a room, and am already good friends with my roommate, whom I met in the best way possible. Her name is Catrina, and we noticed that we shared most of our classes at the beginning of the quarter. When my tree planting internship started, she was there too! I found out she lived at the co-op I’m moving into next year, and told her I was moving there in the fall. She asked me what room, and when I answered, “Room 1”, she said, “That’s my room!”. From there we started hanging out and studying together, watching class lectures together and editing each other’s papers. Needless to say, I can’t wait to move in in the fall.

Now on to the summer: I went home by train the Sunday before finals week, and wrote my final paper for my political science class on the train. Because I was able to do finals online, I was able to be there for Tovia’s high school graduation. The 3.5 hour ceremony was conducted in person and streamed online, and because her graduating class was only 95 people, each graduate was honored individually. Tovia is going to CalPoly San Luis Obispo in the fall, only an hour and a half north of Santa Barbara! I am excited to be able to visit her and be close to her during college, and I’m very proud of everything she’s accomplished so far in her life.

After finishing my finals and attending Tovia’s graduation, I flew to Flagstaff, Arizona for the peaks hike. This was the 43rd peaks hike and my 7th or 8th year, and I was so grateful to once again be able to complete the whole hike with a great collection of people.

Slideshow of Peaks Hike pictures.

After the hike, I had only 3 days in Davis before I started my summer travels. The plan was to fly overnight to New York, spend the day in the city, fly to Zurich that night, spend two days there with a friend I had met in Peru, and then take the train to Gottmadingen, the town where I will be doing my internship for the summer. However, not everything went as planned.

The first part of the journey went well: I flew to New York, took the subway to Manhattan, walked through Central Park, and went to the American Museum of Natural History for the day. Although the museum was cool, it felt like an "Ode to Colonialism", especially the sections about Native Americans, Africans, and Polynesians. In the Native American section, some objects were missing due to repatriation claims, meaning people still alive today want them back.

New York, Central Park, an Easter Island statue, and removed Native American objects.

That evening, I took a shuttle to the airport in New Jersey, where I was scheduled to fly out at 11:00 pm. However, when I arrived at the counter to check in my bag, the lady asked for my covid test and boarding pass. Covid test??? I had not heard ANYTHING about a required covid test. I was flying into Switzerland, and Annika had looked it up and Switzerland’s travel restrictions fell away for vaccinated passengers on the day I was set to arrive. However, I was flying through Portugal, and Portugal’s covid restrictions had not even entered my considerations (nor had the airline I was flying with communicated anything about that requirement via the emails they sent). I now had 2 hours to try to get a rapid covid test, or I would have to miss my flight.

I called my family, and together we searched and searched for an open covid testing site. However, it was Sunday night at 8:00 pm, and at this point, everything was closed. At Brian’s suggestion, I took an uber to the hospital to see if they could do a rapid test there, but there was a long line, and there was no way I could make it in time. Defeated, I returned to the airport.

As I was waiting in line to reschedule my flight, I overheard several people in front of me discussing where they could get a covid test in the morning, and it turned out they were in the same situation as I was. After rescheduling our flights for the next day for a disgusting price, one woman, Priscila, and I, decided to team up, spend the night in the airport together, and get covid tested together in the morning. I had a friend! We found a decently quiet spot in the terminal, and first things first, scheduled a rapid covid test at a nearby CVS in the morning. We then spent the night together in the cold airport, mutually aiding each other: I gave her some of my clothes to keep her warm, and she woke me up when a homeless woman came to join us in our nook in the middle of the night (I quickly realized she was harmless, just another someone looking for somewhere quiet to sleep, just like we were).

After a second night of subpar sleep (for me), Priscila and I got covid tested in the morning, with our results coming back within 20 minutes. We then spent the rest of the day at the airport, reading and sleeping, and finally waiting in line for our check-in. We were first in line, ready an hour before the counter even opened. From there on out, it was smooth sailing. The lady who had rescheduled our flights the day before had evidently noticed we had teamed up, because she called us up to the counter and changed our seats to be next to each other.

After two nights of unrestful sleep, I was dead tired. I slept almost the entire flight to Portugal in the middle seat of the airplane, waking up only to change positions occasionally. Once in Portugal, everything went smoothly, and I flew to Switzerland that night, where my friend Larissa, whom I had met in Peru last year, picked me up from the airport. Larissa let me stay at her house, and after an incredible shower, I finally got a good night’s sleep.

In the morning, Larissa and I took the train to downtown Zurich and walked around the city. Zurich is a pretty city of old buildings with a clear river running right through the middle which people often bathe in.

Slideshow of pictures from Zurich.

In the afternoon, I completed the last leg of my journey, which involved taking a train to Gottmadingen, the town where I will be doing my internship with the BUND this summer. I arrived safe and sound around 5:30 pm, and was greeted by the other interns, who I’ll be spending the next few months with. I will soon post another blog about my first impressions about my time here.