Final Blog Post

1. Sense of place is a place-making and place-attachment of communities to their environment or homeland. It is also the persons perception of place and how each individual feels uniquely connected to certain places. Sense of place can change from person to person, but the general idea stays the same. It is a connection that someone feels to a particular place due to their perception of the place, or the effect the place has on them. Sense of place can effect your emotions, spirituality, and you're general connected-ness to any particular place. It can be a connection to the physical geographical location, or it can be a connection to the people in that place.
2. My sense of place in Salem is great right now. I have always liked Salem and the area because my grandmother lives in Peabody. I very much enjoy the town as a whole. The restaurants, parks, and people in the town are some of my favorite things about Salem. I also love the location of the town, right on the water. It is something I can enjoy and just walk down to the water and enjoy the view of the horizon, and see all of the boats go in and out of their harbors. I feel like the community here is just what I was hoping for. It is a quiet and quaint place, and it is very warm and inviting. Yet it's not too quiet, there's bustle and buzz throughout the days, and there's always something fun to find and do. I feel like I made the perfect choice with this school, because the area and community are exactly what I need. One of my favorite places is REDS. It's just such a small, homey restaurant that is very welcoming and they treat everybody there like a regular.
REDS

3. I am very connected to the campus at Salem State. It is a place that I feel very comfortable and I very much enjoy the things that I can do on campus. I enjoy being able to go the the Women's Basketball games and support my friend who's on the team. I feel like I can go to any one of the places on campus and ask for help whenever I need it. I enjoy being able to go to the gym and play pickup games of basketball and meet new people. One place that really stands out to me is the path we walked on down by the water. I go down there whenever I just need to clear my head and relax. But it's a place that I've grown accustomed to and I very much enjoy going down there. Another place that I very much enjoy is Starbucks. I tend to go there with friends and sit down and chat when I get the chance. I very much like this campus and enjoy all of the places I can go if I need help with anything.
4. I love my sense of place in Salem, I really feel that this is a place that I belong. Coming into school in September I wasn't really sure if I was going to like the people at school, or if there was going ot be enough for me o do here that I enjoyed. I know realize that this town and campus are everything I wanted it to be, and I think in four years Salem will be like a second home to me.

I went to my friend Stef's basketball game because she is on the girls basketball game. This was not the original event that I had planned to go to, but I went to it because she is the first friend that I made her and we met at orientation, and I thought it would be fun and would be a great way to support a friend. I went with a couple other close friends of mine and we had a great time. I really enjoyed going to the game, but I also love basketball. It's always been my favorite sport and it's something that I really enjoy watching and spending my time with. Whether it's watching basketball on T.V, watching it live, or playing it myself, I've always enjoyed it. Luckily SSU won the game that I went to and my friend Stef hit her first shot as a collegiate athelete! It was a great experience and something I would definitely go to again.

1. We don't really have any crazy traditions in my family. We all head down to my grandparents house in Marion and cook all the Thanksgiving food together, play games and puzzles, tell stories, and just have a good time being around one another. But recently I've been staying up late with my aunt and grandfather and just talking to them while everyone else is asleep.
2. I share the holiday with my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, and many baby cousins, along with my aunt's dog. My baby cousins are crazy, and loud, but I love them and they really make me appreciate the little things in life more. My aunt and uncle are both very sweet, my aunt is a teacher and is very reserved, whereas my uncle is a metalhead engineer who likes to joke around and be silly. My grandmother is the one who gets everyone together, plans everything, cooks most of the food. My grandfather helps out my grandmother, and sets the table, seasons things, and helps cook, but he makes the mixed drinks and alcohol because he used to be a bartender.
3. Here's the kitchen and Sun/Dining area

4. We are almost always at my grandparents house in Marion. I live with my grandparents and have since I was 5, so I go to this house a lot, and it's their future retirement home. It's a very big and open house, with a big front yard and a wide gravel driveway, and a big forest with a clearing in front of it behind the house. I'm usually in the finished basement on my own or with friends, but on Thanksgiving and holidays I'm always up there with my family enjoying my time.
5. I think that Thanksgiving is a time to spend time with your family and loved ones and allow yourself to reflect on life and how far we've each come, and be thankful and grateful for everything we have that has allowed us to get to where we are in the world. Being able to share a meal with distant family doesn't happen very often, so being able to appreciate the food and people around you can help you appreciate life as a whole.

1) This trip only added to my sense because I always visit the place we were at during my free time, and when I need to calm my mind.
2) We were by the water on a bike path, with some of the water running under us when we were walking over the wooden bridges that were there. There was a pathway down to the water further up the bike path, and another path that led to the woods.
3) I got to talk to more people in our class today than I ever have, and it was a great experience. It really made me feel more connected to where I was and even better who I was with, and it was a very enjoyable experience.
4) I thought the iPad was good, but not completely necessary. I think it should be kept more open to the students, to either take pictures and videos, or talk to one another and just enjoy their time.
5) I enjoy the movies and pictures, it really shows the individual creativity of each person and group as a whole, and shows how each group expresses things in a different way.

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2) We went to the Salem Wax Museum because we figured it would give us more of a formal insight as to the history of Salem and it also was something fun that we'd all never done before
3) I just called the Wax Museum and they told us the times that tours were going through, so we met there at around the time that a tour would start and made our way through
4) What is a seafarer? Why was Salem the hot spot for all of these death sentences for people that were accused of being witches?
5) One of the things that I thought was interesting were all of the different statues, and how intricate they each were and detailed they were. I never really expected them to be that intricate and detailed in person by just looking at them. Even just walking through the Museum it smelled a lot like wax and chemicals, which was something to take note of that I found interesting in the place. One thing I didn't like was how short it was. Walking at my normal pace, I could walk through that whole museum in about 10-15 minutes. Now I obviously took my time to make the experience longer and gain more from it, but I still feel as though it could've been longer. I am using the critical thinking based around senses and knowing your surroundings from Shushan.
6) I think that I learned more about the popular side of Salem's history, with the witch trials and everything like that, but I don't really feel like I got a better sense of place from this experience, but it was something fun to do around the area.
7) I wanted to learn more about what exactly started the witch trials and why they began, the museum mostly talked about what happened in the witch trials once they had already begun.
8) I am going to write my paper on what it is that sparked the Salem witch trials to become such a big event in America's history, and why they became so big, and what was the belief behind witches and what they could do.
9) I read the link that you attached to the assignment on Canvas.

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3) The trees, along with myself and anything living in the park are always connected. We all live off of them same earth, but some of us are more dependent on others. The trees are only dependent on the sun, air, and water. We are dependent on the trees to give us oxygen, water, and helping us survive. They are the reason we can live on this earth. Other animals are dependent on the trees for food, shelter, and air as well. So in a way, we are all using the same resources.

4) I value the park as a place where I can go if I want things to be quiet, or if I want to relax and reflect on the world, on my life, and think about how things are going. Being there is a really transcendent feeling, and it really helps me think inwardly about myself and it's a very good experience.

5) It helps me with my sense of place because it is somewhere I can be alone and to myself other than my dorm room. It is a public place where I know I can be one with nature and just sit back and take in all of the sounds, smells, and experiences that the nature in the park has to offer.

6) I liked how it was a quiet and relaxing place, and the field trip there was very good. What I did not enjoy were the occasional things that would throw my mind out of the loop of being relaxed, but it is a public place, so I can't really complain about people or animals distracting my train of thought.

7) I would enjoy being able to go to places like the park during class, it is going to be harder and harder as the weather gets colder, but I think it would be a very worthwhile experience..

1A) I thought that this was a good panel. It was very relaxed, and they answered all of our questions and stayed with the class for as long as we needed them.
1B) I learned a lot about places where I can find stuff to do on campus, ways to organize my workloads and help me get all of the work done that I need to do, and also learned a lot about how to manage my time and possibly create a journal for my assignments
1C) It struck me about how important time management is. Even one of the first year mentors who is a junior was talking about how he still has trouble maganing his time. So it helped me realize how important that is, and also that if I have trouble with it that I shouldn't worry about it.
1D) It struck me that there was a list of 100 things to do at Salem State before you graduate. It really opened my eyes to how many different and fun things there are to do here.

2) I realized how important advising is and that I really need to plan out what classes I am taking during each semester, to make sure I can fulfill my class and credit requirements. I am emailing my advisor and we are working on a day that we can meet for advising, and I am looking at classes that have good professors, because that's the most important thing to me.

4) https://www.salemstate.edu/academics/2424.php

Yes, I met with Melissa from Maple Pot Honey Farm at the farmers market, and also her husband was there with her. It was a little smaller than I expected it to be, but I honestly enjoyed that it was smaller, it was more quaint, and it was nice seeing the last one of the year, everybody was very friendly. Prior to going I was wondering what kinds of honey they made, and if they only make honey and maple syrup or if they have any other things that they make. I found out that they have tons of different kinds of honey like blackberry, lavender, and all kinds of stuff. I also found out that they have chickens, and they keep them for the eggs.
1. 8 farmer’s market’s around Salem, 1 a week (other locations: Tewksbury, North Reading, Haverhill, Stoneham)
2. This farm has chickens, provides eggs year round
3. About 50 beehives
4. Profit - a free commodity dependent on bees, safe to say around $250
5. Bees pollinate on their own during the summer, but in winter fed sugar water
6. It takes 1 bee 6 weeks to make 1 tablespoon of honey; for 1 jar, a week and half for the whole hive
7. Farm located in Wilmington
8. Children work on the farm with them for cookies and treats
9. Hive dies without the queen
10. Unlike storebought honey, theirs isn't pasteurized
11. Lip balm is made with leftover beeswax
I really enjoyed this, and thought it was a good experience for us to better become part of the community. It helped get us new students out there and figure out what it is we like about the community, and just walk around and get a feel for things.

I could see myself feeling comfortable in the places in the library that are very open, and free flowing and have a lot of access to light. It helps me relax and keeps me comfortable. I think the fact that the library is right around the middle of the campus makes it feel like the center of community,  and I always feel like I can go in there. I never knew that there were study rooms with whiteboards, which I like because it really makes me feel like they care about our ability to show others our work and work coherently as a group. I learned from Jason that during research, I can go to the library website and they will have articles and such that could really help me in school. I didn't know that on Mapworks we could win prizes, or that it could tell us the likelihood of staying at Salem or going to another institution.

http://www.leekennedy.com/project/salem-state-library-and-learning-commons/
I chose this link because it tells me about the value and more of the actual physical structure of the library, which is something that interested me.

1) I learned that Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote the Scarlet Letter, worked with the ships and with the trade service and helped bring in supplies like sugar, spices, and exotic animals in from the ships into America. I also learned that the popcorn business at The Willows has been around for 131 years, I never even realized that it was around for that long. I also learned that the Polish community in Salem is still about 5% of the community. And I also enjoyed learning that the eagle statue is not the original one, but that they have the refurbished original one still.
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4) http://www.salemwillowspark.com/
5A) I think the sights and smells of the ocean, and watching the waves flow and ebb back and forth, and imagining how it looked 400 years ago is what affected me the most.
5B) I think that this gave me more of a general idea about what the history of Salem is besides just the witch trials. I enjoyed it and it gave me good insight into what the town was and still is all about.
6) I don't have any questions about this experience

I thought that Jim's story struck me more than Kylie's just because it was a bit more personal. It struck me how he talked about his relationships with people, and that his relationships are what got him into the position that he is in today. He did talk about the history of Salem, and I think some of the stories he told about REDS make me want to go there when I get a chance. It also struck me how he talked about making relationships with all types of people. Not just people in school, but people of all ages, races, and from all different types of places. It was all of his relationship stories that really struck ne. As well as the fact that he had his entire life planned out and things took a big turn, and it all worked out for him. He had his entire life planned out, and had what he was going to do laid out exactly in his head, and just like that it all changed. I also like how he said that all he did was play to his strengths and follow things that he loved and was interested in, and it got him to the place he's at now. So to me it was a very inspiring story, and it really made me worry less about having to know about what I want to do right now. I did ask him a question about where I could play guitar in Salem and gig, since the Pig's Eye is closed, and he told me a new place that I could go to and gig. I want to learn more about Salem's music scene, and places that I can play, see live bands, and just have a good time. http://boston.eater.com/2016/9/15/12927830/pigs-eye-salem-closing. This is a picture of Reds. I learned a lot more about how Salem is made up of small businesses and family businesses. I think it is great that the city is so authentic, and not overrun with big businesses and chains. I thought that preparing for this talk with the homework was helpful, and it prepared me more for the talks and got me into what exactly it is that they were going to be talking about. I thought that Jim's story helped me worry less about pressuring myself about what I want to do, and just let me focus on making friends, because I never know where those friends will lead me. I thought that my engagement was much higher during these talks. I rated myself a 1 and a 2. I very much enjoyed Jim's talk and asked a question and was very attentive to his talk. I had a 2 for Kylie's talk, because I was attentive, but not as much so, and I asked a question. I also just didn't enjoy her talk as much as Jim's.