OTW

OCTOBER 2012

Title it your own

Life Aquatic

Athens & Bar Harbor: A Greek revision of a life

ZOE ANDERSON

RYAN RUSSEN

PABLO AGUILERA

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11

16

YUKA TAKEMON

OPINION 3

RECIPE 6

POETRY 8 CREATIVE WRITING 16

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Welcome to the first Fall issue of Off The Wall!

Some of you might not be familiar with the content nor purpose of this publication. Do not worry, nothing here is static or absolute. First of all, we ought to say that we believe in the power of words, the intensity of images, and the potential of a blank paper. We support the existence of a space where you all can shout, share, create, question and be sure you will be read by someone else than your professor (or your mom). We can only do this with your help.

What we mean is: Off The Wall is created by you and for you.

We would like to see this publication become a statement and a record of who we are as a community. The abnormally large amount of things happening at COA-your life and the world surrounding us- should be kept somewhere and shared! We can only encourage you all to take advantage of the freedom to express.

But these are just our ideas. What about yours?

May you please enjoy this issue full of amusing poetry, pressing ideas, poignant stories, and exquisite photos.

See you in three weeks! p.s.: thanks to all contributors. We received so many submissions that we had to leave some for the next issue (you know, too many pages = too much paper = not human ecology).

- OTW editors

KRISTEN WEGNER

OPINION

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Title it your own

BY ZOE ANDERSON Dear Fellow Human Ecologists, I write to you with feet loosely dangling from the dock, dancing in the very element we roost upon. The air is heavy; mist gathers on my paper; inked words weep. A crow lowers itself onto a city of barnacles and begins to toy with a plastic wrapper. A gull preens itself on a nearby stone. The bright rays of noon are a memory and TAB is now as populated as the exposed bar. Students decorate their plates with wholesome cuisine and conversations rise and fall like the tide, the school year, and the seasons. A summer now sits between the brief disappearance of the juice machine: an occurrence that offended and befuddled the democratic system that COA cultivates. As the trunks begin to cradle new shades and the days grow shorter, perhaps the mentalities here are also shifting; however, I find no evidence to reflect this; the lawnmover, water machines, use of plastic containers, and juice machine continue to rumble in our community belly like a sour meal. As But here I am...having to put forth that the an entity with a powerful and beautiful removal of the juice machine was never intended philosophy, it is quite puzzling to witness to become the center of anonymous criminality, but seemingly careless ingestion of opposing forms and almost hostile reactions unfold a pivoting point for social change; an act of civil as members unite in protest. A man by disobedience meant to symbolize the somewhat the name of Rawles, highly influenced by bureaucratic network of COA governance that often Ghandi and King, once accentuated that makes such seemingly simple ‘human ecological’ issues such actions as ours have the potential difficult to decipher and act upon. of not just triggering dispute, but of stabilizing a community--a community that dances proudly, having been

founded by individuals deeply concerned with sustaining the natural world. These founding trustees believed there was a longing among students and faculty to focus their studies of everything from physics to public policy to poetry on understanding the relationships between humans and our environment. Sustainability on campus and in the world have always been at the heart of the COA mission.

It is indeed strange that I am writing this letter on the shores of this very institution--that this stance Marius and I have chosen calls for an explanation. But here I am...having to put forth that the removal of the juice machine was never intended to become the center of anonymous criminality, but a pivoting point for social change; an act of civil disobedience meant to symbolize the somewhat bureaucratic network of COA governance that often makes such seemingly simple ‘human ecological’ issues difficult to decipher and act upon. Our intentions are not to simply degrade this college’s political system, but rather to expose its limitations in hopes of bringing it closer to a shared vision of justice. Amongst our fundraising, human expansion, and developing methods, should it not be a main priority to exercise what we so faithfully preach? How can one confidently push a boat off the shore if it is not carefully and diligently fabricated? Our positive ideals have grown malnourished within our community; however, as Thoreau shared amidst the wrinkles of his experiences, “Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them”. Our castle is indeed set at an admirable place--now it is up to the inhabitants to create and improve upon its base, adhering to the founding values and expanding outward with modest, but knowledgeable strides. Let us foster the creativity that COA proposes:

the ability to imagine and construct novel approaches or perspectives, to be innovative and to invent in all endeavors. This includes the flexibility to use many different approaches in solving a problem, the ability to change direction and modify an approach, the originality to produce unique and unusual responses, and the ability to expand and embellish one’s ideas and projects. This includes taking intellectual and creative risks and practicing divergent thinking.

Mouths often form intentions and proposals slip on and off the tables, but the process of change itself is often left hanging in the salty air--sometimes until it is preserved for the next motivated being to re-grasp it. Our academic philosophy also illustrates the importance of ‘critical thinking’- The ability to not only interpret and evaluate information from multiple sources but also to induce, deduce, judge, define, order, and prioritize in the interest of individual and collective action. This includes the ability to recognize one’s self-knowledge and its limits, challenge preconceptions, and work with imperfect information.

4 Haven’t we all chosen to invest our energy in COA because we foster a connection with this Earth that we wish to strengthen and share with fellow humans? It is at this level that Marius and I pivot from, bringing ourselves and others to question the common practices undergone at “the first college in Maine, and one of the first in the nation, to embrace the quest to protect and improve the environment as its organizing theme”. During the first week of my experiences here, I scribbled a poem on one of Tab’s napkins and, while it is stained with tomato sauce and pumpkin soup, the words remain: a spark within a fire I am small insignificant grouped among the rest spitting from the core of humanity holding shared heat but with abstract intention no innocent forest shall I ignite nor clothing shall I singe Warmth is all I intend to circulate amongst this gathering of vivacity caught between fires of contrasting design who play with the strength of their flaming arms.

Let us embrace our existence as individuals and as the pulsating population that perches on the Atlantic harboring vitality and compassion for all life---and not lose the source of our heat that societal pressures often slowly and inconspicuously smolder.

(All quotes were harvested from the our cyberspace garden...)

GABRIELA NIEJADLIK

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MAYTIK AVIRAMA

Peeping through the door of the world: How to see from far away?

BY GLOBAL AFFAIRS TEAM MDI is a beautiful island that might deceive us into its pleasures and makes us doubt why we should care about things happening at other places far away from us. But perhaps, we should care. Why? The first answer that comes to our mind is that we should because that makes us good people, good humans, and it will makes us feel better at the end of the day. However comforting this answer might be, eventually we have to face the truth: knowing about the current affairs in other parts of the world is probably not going to help anyone very much. However, if you earnestly care, you might find that it is tremendously hard to get involved in the most pressing issues around the world, specially when being submerged on this island where we are relatively lightly touched but what happens outside.

Sudan’s genocide, Syria’s war, Spanish protests and the Occupy Movement. These matters are not only abstract images or stories that come from anywhere. Each story, photo or Op–ed reflects the reality of another human being, and we ought not to forget that there is always another human standing at the other side of the words we read or the pictures we see. We believe that reading, talking and understanding what is happening around the world is important because it makes us capable of grasping what a human life is about, and it help us see our very own circumstances from different perspectives.

It also helps us adopt a panoramic view in which what happens in the United States becomes a cause and consequence of what happens in Europe, and so on.

We live in a globalized world where we are all invariably connected to one another, whether we like it or not. At Global Affairs we want to undercover the connections between these issues, because we all know they exist, but we are conveniently oblivious to them.

The Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater once wrote: “There is nothing better for a human being than another human being.” Perhaps after another human being there is only one thing that gets closer to be as good as him: his story. Global affairs is really about stories, about words from far away. We peep through the door of the world trying to make sense of that which surrounds us, trying to hear those that get lost in their ways from distant parts of the globe. People coming to Global Affairs are asking themselves the same question: how to hear those words from far away?

And it might be that there is not a definite answer to this question, but probably as we look for the missing voices in our context we also get closer to understand ourselves. Feeling the need to raise awareness about our tight relationship between one another in this world, and recognizing that in order to endeavor a radical change we need to understand this world’s complexity, Global Affairs opens up a space to come up with ideas that could be potentially the source for a difference.

RECIPE

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Fall Foraging

BY EMILY HOLLYDAY If your curious about wild foods to harvest this time of year, keep reading. Here is a list of edible plants to find on and around MDI. I have also included a few tid-bits of information that people have shared with me. Please add to this list with your knowledge of fall edible plants- where to find them, how to cook them, their look-alikes (especially if they are toxic), their history, their nutritional/ medicinal benefits and any other stories.

Crab apples: SPICED CRAB APPLE BUTTER Crab Apples Water Cloves Nutmeg Cinnamon Dark Brown Sugar (optional) 1. Halve the crab apples and put them into a sauce pan with the water, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. Bring them to a boil and then reduce heat to keep a steady simmer on for about forty-five minutes or until it can be beaten into a thick pulp. Make sure to stir occasionally.

2. Put the pulp through fine strainer. Put strained mixture into a pan. Add dark brown sugar.

3. Set the pan on a low heat and stir for the sugar to dissolve. Bring to a boil and keep boiling, stirring frequently, until the butter is very thick. If you draw a spoon through the mixture it should leave a path behind it. This can take up to an hour.

REBECCA HAYDU

7 Quince: a great addition to crab apple butter, look for them on campus.

Acorn: Make into flour, nuts or porridge. Collect them without caps but don’t try to pry the cap off. They must dry in a window sill for 2 to 6 weeks before they can be ground into a flour. Dry with shell on but once dry, crack the shell to eat the nut inside.

Cattails: This time of year the rhizomes can be mashed in water to create a gooey starch to add to breads. Be cautious about where you harvest because they absorb heavy metals.

Butter nuts: Harvesting them will likely dye your hands dark brown or black... wear gloves and make a dye.

Rose hips: Rosa rugosa are still great to harvest.

The outside flesh is edible and is best when they are deep red and somewhat soft. Great for making jam, chutney and candy.

Thanks for reading and contributing! Have fun foraging this fall!

Cranberries: North East Creek is the hot spot for low bush cranberries. High bush cranberries are around too. Although you don’t have to rush to find them because they’ll last until March.

Wild Raisin: Leaves are shiny and glossy and will be changing from orange-red to crimson and eventually to purple. Look for them on the edge of swamp Jerusalem artichokes: Unrelated to artichokes, the tubers of these plants are edible cooked or raw. Look for yellow flowers that bloom will bloom through October.

Autumn Olive: They are very invasive and their leaves look like willow leaves.

Sweet fern: Used to make tea but be advised to harvest away from paths where dogs are less likely to pee on these low plants.

Ground Nuts: can be found in the Union River water shed...

Chanterelles: They are scattered. Check the undersides to make sure that the gills are blunted and that they divide. Chanterelles can be confused with poisonous Jack O’lanterns that grow in clusters and have sharp gills. Enjoy these mushrooms for their bioluminescence, not their edibility.

Burdock Root: The leaf stalks and root are edible.

Wild Carrot Root or Queen Anne’s Lace: Make sure that you can distinguish between wild carrot and hemlock. Hemlock is poisonous and has smooth ribbed stems.

Chicory Root: The entire plant is edible. Roast the roots into a meal (like a coffee grind).

Black walnut: Look for black walnuts near the shrine on campus.

MAYTIK AVIRAMA

POETRY

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this town paunches as big as the cars cars as big as the houses houses as big as the boats boats bigger than the islands

the ridges of green arrows prick the sullen skies above the rooftops of these grey plastic houses, above the stale silence of the streets in the town that smells of laundromats and fries.

- ANA PUHAC

ANNA ODELL

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NICHOLAS DU PONT

untitlted there is nothing to remind us that we are here except the scars on the bottoms of our feet there is no amount of tobacco-borne illness that can cover the ones already gnawing wake up with them, walk out with them, red ink, something sarcastic and more meals to make the belly bulge and the sun fade blame my shoes, blame my smoke smelling sweaters, blame anything but the face with hands for a nose it beats on into the filth - BOGDAN ZYMKA

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GABRIELA NIEJADLIK

Fog There is a ship docking blind in the bay, crying out to land: ‘embrace me softly,’ - MAYA CRITCHFIELD

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Life Aquatic Living life aquatic Hypnotic sensations Bubbles blown blast Past Atlantis, City of dreams drowned In the depths of Pelagic despair Utopia lost-- to be found Bound for future discovery.

A treasure to be tapped, Trapped, awaiting the call Of a legendary soul Seeking salvation From damnation With rock and roil toil towards the future you believe in.

Conceive and configure, Pin down the ideal.

Repeal misconceptions, Congeal perceptions And drive forth through the storm of uncertainty.

Dive below the surface of collective subconscious Reel and reap revelations Rebuild the nation Swept clean, pure Demure potential unleashed.

Living life aquatic, Narcotic illusion, Delusions of grandure, Product of halucinary dread Set sail through the fog Long for more than what you are given.

Perdition, malicion, confliction A collection of nuisances Produce distraction Once more take action Attack that path of your choosing And set forth on the open sea.

- RYAN RUSSEN

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ritan lu this is what it feels like to struggle under your own weight. flimsy legs hold up the rest, matchstick intentions trying their best. i walk nowhere with a purpose rarely seen-round in circles, out the door--then back in again. inescapable, subversive, totality, pieces of a new reality with only blurry edges. the hazy beijing skyline as seen from thirteen stories up. unlucky for some. here’s a brief escape, i though, a brief respite. i’ll get away and put my mind at ease, i thought, i’ll put my mind on ice. i’ll go to beijing, i thought, i’ll go to ritan park. but I heard it on the loudspeakers there: no mentally ill are allowed.

- NATHAN THANKI

MAYA CRITCHFIELD

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splash splash into the waters of a new world feel the salt in your eyes and lips and the beach of the lake coming from the river that cuts the land open and let the blood from the earth bathe you reach the inside of your skin nurture your center let go and start crying cry all those moments out of your memory cry them well, so that you may forget them because movement is all that counts and let those scars be beautiful - KHRISTIAN MENDEZ

Sleeping Bags This blanket warms my stomach as I lie in cold air, one hand on my naked chest the other curled up, distorted on my ear.

Buzzing, the heavy sounds of summer.

My friend asks for a direction.

Floating myself, I can not know.

So I lay, clutching my heart, feeling my ear.

I am warm, numb, and present.

- HANNAH MILLER

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CREATIVE WRITING

MAYA CRITCHFIELD

Morpheus’ land

BY MOISES FLORES Dave opens his eyes. Everything is blurry. There’s some white in the middle, maybe a fluorescent light. There are darker shapes. Maybe doctors, nurses. The high-pitched white noise is not gone yet, it’ll never be, but he can still hear other things. Some voices. He cannot distinguish what they say completely, only a few words...broken... miracle he...dead a while...ten policemen...the general’s interested...

breathing. Breath in: whistling sound; breath out: dormant growl. He turns around and there he sees it: a skinless two-headed dog. The four blood-shot eyes look at him as to a prey. The beast growls, then it barks. The bark has something mechanical in it. The beast advances but Dave can’t move: roots coming out of the ground wrap around his ankles. He pulls harder and the roots finally give up, but when he takes a step backward the ground below his foot’s sole starts sinking. Every step Extreme pain suddenly kicks in. His wrists, his back, he takes he sinks more and more. He’s now sinking in a his head...he screams. He sees one of the darker shapes quicksand pond. The more he resists the faster he sinks. approach him. He starts feeling relief, then he passes out When only his head sticks out of the quicksand the two again. headed dog starts licking his face, with two tongues. The dog itself now sinks along with Dave. Then the bites Dave’s entered the land of Morpheus, a land a nightmare start, first soft, wary, like playing, then harder, hurting a about a two-headed dog has taught him to hate. A land a little bit, then even harder...eventually the beast is eating dream about her has taught him to love.

Dave’s face, as both sink in the quicksand. Dave can’t resist as the weight of the sand doesn’t let him move.

He finds himself in a dark impenetrable forest. It’s cold, Dave dies hearing the sound of his own flesh being winds come from all directions as though it was the trees eaten by the demonic creature of two heads, and feeling themselves the ones blowing. His naked skin covered the increased pressure of denser and denser quicksand. by goosebumps feels like it’s shrinking slowly, squeezing his flesh tighter and tighter. He sees bright eyes looking He wakes up agitated, putting all his energies into at him from in-between the tall trees, more every time. dragging air into his system. Again everything looks Suddenly they start disappearing, leaving a trace of blurry. Again he can only half understand what people terrified screams. around him say. He can’t feel his body, he can only move Dave hears a branch cracking behind him, and a beastly his head, just a little.

15 He recovers his breathing. His eyesight become less blurry. He’s in a hospital room. There’s the sound of a heartbeat monitor. After every beep there’s an echo of the high-pitched white noise that the grenade explosions gave him.

Dave walks back and forth several times. Are you planning to go without me? He finally says. Come with me! Those three words hurt his ears (especially the last one), and leave the echo of a high-pitched white noise lingering in his brain.

A silhouette approaches: a nurse. The nurse moves his index finger in front of Dave’s face, to one side, then to the other. Dave follows the fingers with his eyeballs.

Can you hear me? says the nurse. His voice sounds remote, as if traveling through a fish bowl. The end of every sentence leaves that echo.Close your eyes once if you can hear me.

He opens his eyes again. The blur. The pain: wrists, back head. The scream. The silhouette. The relief. The magic of rest. Then a skin-less demonic beast of two heads, only for a moment.

-I can hear you alright, responds Dave with extreme effort, in a voice that sounds even more remote than that of the nurse.

Great, General Rockefeller is interested in talking to you as soon as possible. I’ll call him right away. Says the nurse in a tone that annoys Dave to the limit.

Dave looks up at the white light in the center of the room. He lets his eyes go out of focus. It all becomes blurry again. He slips out of reality.

We’ve talked about this before! says Dave furiously. Do you wanna fucking get killed?

She tries to calm him down by hugging him. He pushes her back. She falls on the bed, looking at him severely, clenching her teeth. A tear, another one...

He walks toward the bathroom, opens the medicine cabinet, extracts an orange container, pops a pink capsule into his mouth, washes it down with water from the sink.

He looks down at the sink, his hands on the sides of it supporting all his weight. His agitated breathing slows down, little by little, little by little. She’s behind him, he turns. She embraces him. He leans his head on her shoulder and lets the crying begin. It is soothing.

I’m sorry, he utters in between sobs.

The magic of rest. One of the reasons Dave likes it is that it makes him remember better times. At some point that stage in which he’s just awake enough to know that he’s falling asleep, and asleep enough to not be able to move, feels like’s it’s felt every single time. Like that one time when he was about to fall asleep -awake enough to know it, too asleep to do anything about it- and she walked him up.

Dave, I love you, that’s what he thought she’d said. He wanted her to have said that. He wishes she’d said that.

Dave! She shook him out of the magic of rest. We need to talk!

Dave opens his eyes, sees the white light in the center of the ceiling. Not yet, he thinks to himself, and closes his eyes.

It’s gotta be now...I may be leaving by the end of the week.

Then he really wakes up, sits up, gets up.

MOLLIE BEDICK

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Athens & Bar Harbor: A Greek revision of a life

BY PABLO AGUILERA How uncertain can the destiny of a man be? What mysterious and divine struggles will he face in his short life? The life of a man, the biggest tragedy, only an instant in existence and an eternal wait for death, a bagel or both.

Morning Glory Bakery: We finally arrive there. I sit, timidly and irremediably half-hiding myself under the table. I hear a group of voices from the back. Old and young men and women gather, standing at the back of the bakery. I feel confused and as soon as I realize their presence their chants become louder and louder as the lights of the room become darker and darker.

[Chorus:] Oh! Naive man is he who has come following the light of an extinct sun, only finding the ghosts of a dead star dwindling away.

[Chorus:] Cruel and painful hours waiting for him, he who desires too much, only buries himself slowly in desire and hope.

[Chorus:] A modern man who pursues his dreams so much that his desires inevitably catch him from the back blinding him like the same sun he pursues.

Morning Glory Bakery: I smile at her while we wait for our daily AMBROSIA. She ignores me, consciously or subconsciously, most likely both. It’s always good to go back to the basics, thus, I cannot stop thinking that I should put in practice the three classical methods of persuasion. I finally convince myself, I cannot lose anything.

ETHOS: -So...you like animals, right? Well I have to say I am quite knowledgable about these things. Also, I am notorious for being a fine and kind man with animals and sometimes even with humans. Additionally, I must say I am willing to put my very many virtues to your service if you want me to.

- Oh yeah?, I see.

LOGOS: -Well, let’s think about this rationally. After all I am not such a bad option. And I think I really like you. The winter is coming soon and it’s always good to have someone to talk to in the long nights of this cold island.

-Well, if you say so.

PATHOS: -Ok, I will tell you the truth. I love you. I do. I suffer every day and night and I am about to drown in tears day after day. Since you came to my life, my only measurement of time is you.

-Dude! Seriously you are so weird man! Chill!

[Chorus:] More blind than Oedipus, this man is jumping off a titanic abysm, hoping to see some light at its deepest point. While only darkness awaits for him.

Morning Glory Bakery: I carefully hear her laconic words. She talks about this and that, she ends up her short monologue with a heavy phrase: “I just hate feelings.” Hate feelings? Really? But is hatred not a feeling, is it not an oxymoron? Besides, how can someone hate feelings? Are not EROS and TANATOS what drive us in life, what make us be? She looks to the girl at the cash machine and her last words stay in my mind. ECHOS runs in my mind, I cannot hear anything else but her last words.

She stand up and leaves. She always leaves. She runs, she is the best materialization of leaving I have encountered in my life. I stay alone inside the cafe. My PATHOS has a CATHARTIC effect on the day. Yes, it will rain for acouple of days, until I fix my PATHOS.

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OOPs, I did it again (editors’ ti-

KRISTEN WEGNER

BY CARLY SEGAL

One of my favorite memories from my years here this day I cannot think of a better way to have begun at College of the Atlantic (COA) is sailing beneath the my college career, in a strange place, thirty-five hundred huge full moon onboard the Alamar, a 40 foot sailboat miles from home than by exploring my new surroundhired to carry my Outdoor Orientation (OOPs) group ings with a group of equally excited and overwhelmed from Castine to Bar Harbor. I had arrived in Maine days co-years. We tested the waters of making new friends before, ready to sail for five days before beginning my and learning about different places, shared our confirst term at COA. It was a clear, frigid night. We had cerns and questions and came back with some excellent sailed for days withstories of our out benefit of modern adventures to It was a clear, frigid night. We had navigational devices brag about to sailed for days without benefit of modern and that night was no the other OOPs exception. We shared the navigational devices and that night was no groups. Like the task of keeping our course day we made exception.

We shared the task of keeping and relighting the colored a blackberry our course and relighting the colored candle candle lanterns marking our coffee cake out starboard and port sides of our pancake lanterns marking our starboard and port when they blew out. Earbatter and the sides when they blew out. lier that evening, around blackberries we sunset we had sailed past collected from the wreckage of Mount Hurricane Island Desert Rock’s (MDR) boat one sunny afterand staff house. It was an eerie site, completely silent noon. We had formed the beginnings of a family that and destroyed. Now we were headed for the Cranberry was to grow and get stronger in the coming years of Islands though in truth I had little idea where those were joy, accomplishments, tears, and homework. When we in comparison to MDR, much less where those were returned from OOPS my sailing family and I made it a located in relation to my new home in Bar Harbor. The goal to sit with a new table of our fellow freshman every captain had set us a course and so we followed it, watch- day and learn everyone else’s names (which became a ing the stars and moon shift their position above us. I bit of a race.) Despite our excitement and enthusiasm was cold and sleepy but most of all in awe of sailors about meeting all of the new people in our lives, it was from around the world who sailed off to places they had also reassuring to have a group to sit with if we needed never been with only their knowledge of the sea and the a break from introducing ourselves over and over. They stars and a sense of adventure luring them forward. To were, for the time being, the few friendly faces in the sea

18 of unfamiliar eyes. I came away from OOPs excited and feeling ready to begin my new life. I was also interested in becoming an OOPs leader and giving the next freshman that same sense of security and excitement that my leaders had given me.

OOPs is a longstanding tradition at College of the Atlantic. Generations of COA students have begun their new academic career by hiking into the woods or paddling into the sunset together. This year one trip sailed from Old Quarry Campground on Deer Isle to Mount Desert Island, two trips paddled over 60 miles of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, one group rock-climbed and hiked Mount Desert Island. One group canoed Nahmakanta Lake and spent the rest of their time hiking and learning yoga; two groups hiked sections of the 100 Mile Wilderness on the Appalachian Trail and met up in the middle; two groups set off in sea kayaks from Deer Isle and then split up and found their own paths back to Mount Desert Island; and one group camped in Maine’s own Baxter State Park and climbed to the top Katahdin, which at 5,200 feet is Maine’s highest peak.

Eighteen students, two alumni, and multiple outside guides led these trips and helped welcome COA’s class of 2016 into our home and our community.

These same student leaders will lead more trips throughout the school year, on and off the island.

During the school year the outdoor program is called C.O.A.S.T.A.L. This stands for: COA Students Train in Adventure and Leadership. The goals of the program are to provide opportunities for interested students to improve on their leadership skills, their outdoor skills, and meet more of their community, as well as teach skills that others may want to learn more about. Skills we like to teach include things like: general camping practices (fire-building, shelter building etc…), or more technical skills in specific sports such as sea kayaking or rock-climbing. We learn about communication methods, organizational skills, group dynamics, We do it because we love to be outside; we want to learn more about leadership and all that that entails, and because it’s fun to meet people we may not have spent time with yet.

If you think C.O.A.S.T.A.L. is something you are interested in pay attention to publicity about trips to go on and meet some leaders, also talk to Nick Jenei (njenei@ coa.edu) to learn more about getting involved.

Come join us outside! We will sing songs, be silly, meet new people, spend time in the beautiful surroundings we are lucky to have here in Maine, and learn from one another. Feel free to suggest outdoor trips that you want to see happen and we will do our best. We want to meet you.

YUKA TAKEMON

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Words from the library and beyond We asked Off The Wall if we could have a library column to share information about the library and have you get to know the people working here better. For this issue Chloe Dodge, one of our library work study students, wrote this poem. If you have particular things you would like us to share with you in this column, please let us know. We invite you to visit our web site at coa.edu/library and join us on Facebook!

- Jane Hultberg, Library Director

Stacks how many books contain the translucent bookmarks of your shed hair, golden betray the memory of your eyes with hot cocoa stains and almost dogears where you read something, something spectacular, but didn’t let it change you? i like to imagine books are portals into their readers’ lives, as much as they contain portals into other worlds, so i leave messages in books little scraps of paper bookmarks train tickets paper airplanes pressed flowers once in a postsecret book at the public library a love letter folded up origami paper that i realized after i biked home was the wrong one, and that now my best friend will never know but my librarian may recognize in my handwriting the history of the short time the book was mine.

- CHLOE DODGE

GABRIELA NIEJADLIK

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANNA ODELL TALK - Monday, Oct. 8 at 4 p.m. - Shaping the future of technology: emerging technologies and you by Ian Illuminato ’06, health and environment campaigner at Friends of the Earth US. For College of the Atlantic’s Human Ecology Forum in McCormick Lecture Hall.

Contact Heath Cabot at 207-288-5015 or gcox@coa. edu.

POETRY READING - Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 4:10 p.m.Poetry and discussion with Scott Ezell for College of the Atlantic’s Human Ecology Forum in McCormick Lecture Hall. Contact Heath Cabot at 207-288-5015 or hcabot@coa.edu.

POETRY READING - Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 4:10 p.m.Poetry and discussion with Scott Ezell for College of the Atlantic’s Human Ecology Forum in McCormick Lecture Hall. Contact Heath Cabot at 207-288-5015 or hcabot@coa.edu.

YOGA - Sunday, Oct. 14 at 5 a.m. and every other Sunday until Nov. 11- Kundalini yoga morning sadhana with Lauren Rupp, Deering Common. Comtact lrupp@coa.edu or 207-288-5015.

TALK - Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 4:10 p.m - Davis Taylor, College of the Atlantic faculty member in economics: “Starting a Small Farm: Experience and Economics” for COA’s Human Ecology Forum in McCormick Lecture Hall. Contact 207-288-5015 or dtaylor@coa.edu.

TALK - Friday, Oct. 19 from 4 to 6 p.m. - Wendy Klemperer talks about her work: Re-Imagined: Elk, Wolf, Mountain Lion, and Caribou during a closing celebration for her sculptures at COA. On campus beside the mountain lion. Rain location TBD. Contact jlacombe@maine.rr.com or 288-5015.

TALK - Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 4:10 p.m. - “Cold War Mosquitoes to Social Media Wasps: tracking ecological change in arctic insects” by Terry Wheeler for College of the Atlantic’s Human Ecology Forum in McCormick Lecture Hall. Contact Heath Cabot at 207-288-5015 or hcabot@coa.edu.

TALK - Tuesday, Oct. 23 at 4:10 p.m. - David Buchanan speaks to College of the Atlantic’s Human Ecology Forum in McCormick Lecture Hall. Contact Heath Cabot at 207-288-5015 or hcabot@coa.edu.

BAND - Friday, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. - Cabildo. College of the Atlantic’s Gates Community Center. Contact rupp@coa.edu or 288-5015.

MAYA CRITCHFIELD

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