Minnesota: July 13th
I could hardly sleep, due to really itchy insect bites that cover both of my legs. Because of this, I could get up early. Did that, and went jogging before breakfast together with one of the other guys. At breakfast, as I had just taken two pancakes and maple syruped them, the really friendly (and really huge) assistant cook asked me to try out the belgian waffles as well. I hadn't intended to have such a sweet breakfast, so I tried to compensate by eating a bowl of oatmeal as well.

We met up with our mentors, and they drove us to the St. Paul campus, where we had a lecture on climate change in general, in a real fancy room with comfy chairs and a huge LCD screen. The lecturer was the earthy kind of climate scientist, who does this only for the best of mankind -- as opposed to all of us (and most of the other climate scientists), who do it out of devotion to and love for the Earth and its well-being. This, I realize, enabled him to escape the depression that strikes many concerned scientists. I wish to implement his positive attitude without acting the escapist towards Earth.

Then we had lunch by a ginkgo tree. The dining hall had made us lunch bags, since we couldn't get back in time. I was amused to find that its contents included a bag of potato chips, two cookies and a chocolate chip granola bar. As we wandered there and back, I was testing out the polaroid glasses I got at Target: by tilting my head, suddenly reflected light appears! It's a clever invention.

For the next hour, we took the Ecological Footprin test over and over again. Apparently, it calculates the footprint verydifferently depending on what country you live in -- even if you fill in all the fields identically. We discussed why. Well, mainly, a select few of us argued about some stupid and irrelevant point. Arguments disinterest me, so I stayed out of it.

Now we're back, and we're supposed to pack for five days in the wild. There's just one detail that's kind of amiss: we're not getting proper backpacks until we're there. Because we were to be given such equipment, I didn't bring anything spacey enough to store the proper amount of luggage -- short of my suitcase, in which I'd rather prefer to securely store my laptop while I'm gone. Furthermore, we're to store all of our collective luggage in one room while we're gone, and if I use my suitcase to transport the necessary items out, I don't have anything spacey enough to store the rest while I'm gone!

So I'll just get dinner and then see if things'll work out.