Buckle up, reader, this is about to be a big blog post. I’ll try to hit the highlights, but it’s hard to be brief when you’re writing about an entire semester!
This was my last semester in college and I finally graduated with my bachelor of science in Forestry. I only took 3 classes, which was super nice: the forestry capstone class, Korean percussion ensemble, and Bluegrass ensemble.
This is also my last time in Kentucky for a while since I will be working for the US Forest Service in Washington State! Astute readers will be thinking to themselves “Hey! Didn’t you have a whole goodbye post to basically say that the Forest Service can’t hire you because of budgetary reasons and that you didn’t think you’d be back in Washington?”
To which I say: Excellent observation, and you are exactly correct! But times change quickly (and so too does the government) and by either a miracle or a clerical error, I am somehow back in the state of Washington (typing this very blog post!) working for the US Forest Service yet again, this time I’ll be here either until November or for forever…
If this is all confusing you fear not, dear reader, because you’re in luck! There is a post coming to this blog site very soon explaining my situation. So sit tight and read about my last semester in college with the knowledge now that I will be leaving at the end of May…
I’ll go month-by-month just to keep the timeline straight:
January
This was a crazy month for me because I got sick right in the middle of the month, so I had to put a lot of things on hold. I was able to start classes and go contra dancing a ton though!
What classes did I take?
I only had 3 classes in the spring:
- Forestry Capstone
- Bluegrass Ensemble
- Korean Percussion Ensemble
The capstone was the culmination of what we’ve learned in our forestry degree program. We were given a tract of land in Berea, KY (near the pinnacles) that is managed by the college. Our task was to develop a land management plan with specific objectives and work on that throughout the course of the semester. More on that soon!
Bluegrass ensemble was a fun class that I helped recruit for during the fall semester by putting posters all over campus. At our first meeting we had about 16 people show up with a wide range of instruments ranging from fiddle to banjo (me) to hurdy gurdy. We were more of an old-time string ensemble than a true bluegrass ensemble (the reasoning of that is beyond the scope of this blog, but it comes down to play style and the types of music we performed). It was super fun and we practiced once per week.
Korean Percussion was a super fun class taught by the same professor who did gamelan last semester (see my fall blog post for more info on that). Korean traditional percussion practices go back over a thousand years and have multiple different styles and techniques. This article talks about the specifics about Korean rhythm practices. One style you may be interested in is Samul Nori We had multiple instruments in the ensemble, but the main ones where the Janggu (장구), Buk (북), Jing (징), and Kkwaenggwari (꽹과리).
Here’s some videos demonstrating all of the instruments!
I definitely had a light course-load but I filled in the rest of the time by working almost full-time for UK grounds as an arborist and with lots of extra-curriculars, which you’ll hear about!
Contra Dancing!
I was able to attend my first contra dance weekend this year in Chattanooga: Chattaboogie
Chattanooga is not too far away from Lexington, so some friends and I made the trek down there at the beginning of the month to dance our hearts out for a whole weekend.
Dance weekends are a beautiful thing in the contra dance world. They’re pretty much how they sound: you dance for a whole weekend. Normally, you have a regular contra dance that you go to that meets somewhat regularly and hosts people from around your community. A few times a year, different places have contra dance weekends that get people coming in from lots of different regions for multiple days. Some people travel huge distances for these dance weekends, and I was happy to have started out with this one!
There were festivities planned from Friday-Sunday although we didn’t arrive until Saturday because of a crazy snow storm that hit the region when we were leaving.
So we stayed in a hotel Friday night and let the plows do their work during the night. In the morning we made it and danced for a really long time!
Here is a video of one of the dances we did! There are lots of other ones up on youtube too if you look up Chattaboogie 2025. Here are some of my highlight photos!
There was also a dance weekend in Berea, which is significantly closer to Lexington. It was a lot of fun but I only got one video just before people were all piling in. At the end of the evening we had three lines going and it was a lot of fun!
Capstone work
Back in the real world, we were busy in capstone working on our measurements in the snow. Our plot of land was located in Berea College Forest
Berea is about an hour away from Lexington and has a really interesting history of land management in the area involving draft horse logging. None of the scenarios we were given will actually come to fruition, but some of what previous capstones have suggested have been done on the forest.
We had 3 objectives for this project:
- Mixed-use: A balance of ecological forestry with recreation and other uses
- Timber-focus: Purely timber production
- Wildlife: Focus on habitat creation for American woodcock
In previous blog posts I’ve explained the procedure for sampling trees and estimating timber volume, so I won’t get into it in this one. The main point is that we were measuring a lot of trees and doing a lot of hiking!
We saw some cool things along the way:
February
Trail Crew
This month’s meeting of the Red River Gorge Trail Crew was a lot of fun and had me working on the chainsaw crew cutting some fallen trees from the January ice storms
We did work along the Grays Arch trail and I stayed the night at the volunteer camp, which is always fun. We had a big potluck with lots of food and it was good to see all of my trail crew friends after having not seen them much last semester!
UKSO
Continuing from last semester, the UK Symphony kicked off the spring semester in February with Debussy’s Prélude: à “L’après-midi d’un faune”, Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2, Prokofiev: Suite from Cinderella, and Richard Strauss: Suite from Der Rosenkavalier. It was good getting to see the Elaine, who was in gamelan last semester, play the harp on Debussy!
Pilot Knob
At the end of the month I went with some friends to hike Pilot Knob (that link is probably the most comprehensive article I’ve found yet about everything you ever wanted to know about that spot).
If you’ve never been to Pilot knob and don’t care to read the article, it is a significant site geologically as the cumberland plateau transitions into the bluegrass region of Kentucky. Historically it was significant because supposedly Daniel Boone looked out from the top onto the bluegrass region and decided that was the best place to start a settlement.
In recent history it’s significance is held in its nature preserve status and its interesting geological features, flora, and fauna. It’s a great place to go on the way to or from the Red River Gorge as well!
On clear days you can even see the skyline of Lexington from the top. I’ve been up there before and have taken photos of the big blue building, and we got to see it when we went! I didn’t take any photos but just imagine a big skyscraper off in the distance.
March
NYC
I went to New York for a week with some friends to volunteer with WFMU’s spring fundraiser.
If you’ve never heard of WFMU, this is their blurb about themselves from their website:
WFMU-FM is a listener-supported, non-commercial radio station broadcasting at 91.1 Mhz FM in Jersey City, NJ, right across the Hudson from lower Manhattan. It is currently the longest running freeform radio station in the United States.
A friend of a friend is a DJ at the station and we volunteered during his show! You can listen to it weekly here. It airs on Thursdays from 6-7pm eastern. Sadly our DJ friend had COVID from a previous show we had all attended the weekend before, so he wasn’t able to make it.
We ended up driving from Lexington to New York, which took us about 12 hours when you include the stops.
On the way up we stopped in Sutton, WV to check out the Flatwoods Monster Museum and the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum. I also got to add WV, PA, MD, and NJ road maps to my paper road map collection.
I had never heard of the flatwoods monster before, but she is apparently a really big deal in the cryptid community! Here’s her wikipedia article for you to learn more if you are so inclined. Essentially, she’s tied to the appearance of mothman but she has her own story, which is interesting.
We actually drove to Jersey City since that’s where WFMU is, and checked in to our hotel there. On the way over we saw all of the PATH trains sleeping.
Day 1 in New York was our big volunteer day, but that was in the evening and we did a bunch of stuff during the day. Some of the highlights included visiting Caffe Reggio, going to the Stonewall Inn and Stonewall National Monument, and getting lunch at a cool vegan place nearby.
The Stonewall Visitor Center was really moving and I would recommend anyone go there to see the exhibits they have about LGBTQ+ history. They had these notebooks that you could write in with different themes like “coming out”, “when did you know?”, and lots more. Reading other people’s stories was very emotional and I was amazed at how much they resonated with my own experiences in life. It’s definitely worth the 30 minutes out of your day to visit if you find yourself in the area!
In the evening, we went to the WFMU station and volunteered for a while. We were answering phones and taking pledges. It was cool getting to go inside the station and getting to meet everyone who makes WFMU run!
One of the cooler things I found while sitting at the phone was this bespoke lighter someone made for the station called a heavier. I’ll let you figure out why it’s called that:
When that was all said and done, we had dinner at the station and saw a show from one of our other friends at the theater next door. I don’t have any photos of that but it was good!
On day 2, we took it easy because I was starting to feel a little sick. We saw some more friends, then went to Grand Central Terminal, MoMA, and Central Park. For lunch I had some killer onigiri from a place nearby Grand Central. For dinner, since we were staying in India Square in Jersey City, we had Indian food and it was seriously some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had in my life!
Day 3 is when we went out and saw some really cool stuff. We got brunch with more friends and saw a bunch of little exhibits! We saw the little island, NYC Earth Room, NYC Dream House, Broken Kilometer, and walked around China Town. To finish it all off, we had tickets to go see Life and Trust, an immersive theater show that abruptly closed in April. That was seriously cool, and it was the closest I’ve ever felt to being inside of a video game in real life.
After this point I also did not get many more photos since the things we were doing did not allow us to photograph them!
That was our last day in NYC and we made the trek back to KY the next day. It was a really fun trip and I could see myself being able to make it in New York if I ever lived there!
KY travels
After that exciting week of travel, I decided that I wanted to travel more in KY to check some places off of my bucket list. Those places were:
Bernheim is famous for having three really big “wood giants” – a family of giant sculptures that have a permanent home in the forest. On the way there from Lexington is My Old Kentucky Home State Park, which claims to be the inspiration of the state song of the same name.
The soda shop was good to visit too! If you’re ever in the area I’d recommend. I got a milkshake and they had little fortune telling machines that cost 25 cents to tell your fortune. They also have 4 lanes of bowling and a full restaurant attached!
Pigtown Fling
Yet another contra dance weekend. This one was up in Cincinnati so I got to stay with my parents!
What’s cool about a lot of these events is the opportunity to do work-trade. If you haven’t heard of work-trade, it’s a program that some events do where you can work for the event in exchange for free or reduced admission. In my case I got to do all 3 days of pigtown fling for free because I worked a certain amount of time.
That was super fun and I got to meet a lot of dancers from all over the country. Even a few from Washington!
April
My final month of undergrad!
Tin Whistle
I was walking home from Korean Percussion ensemble one day and I saw that there was a flyer posted to take a 4-week Irish Tin Whistle course through a private instructor.
I immediately stopped in my tracks, did a 180, and signed up for the class on the spot. Since then, I’ve been practicing and have learned a decent number of tunes!
Bluegrass Ensemble performance
At the end of the semester, we had a big performance for the UK Bluegrass Ensemble, where we played all of the songs we had been working during the semester. Here are a few video highlights taken by friends:
Mahler 6 and CSO
In April I went to 2 performances of the Cincinanti Symphony Orchestra:
- Strauss’s Alpine Symphony
- Mahler 6 (the one with the hammer)
They were both super fun! I’m really glad I got these deals on CSO tickets because they averaged out to about $15 per performance, which is well worth it in my opinion.
I enjoyed seeing Mahler 6 because, of course, it has that hammer at the end which symbolizes Mahler’s two struggles during the composition of the piece.
Capstone Presentations
At the end of April is when the forestry class of 2025 finally presented our capstone projects. We all did really well and answered some tough questions.
Afterwards we had a celebratory dinner to mark the end of undergrad!
May
My last month in KY for a while…
Special surprise!
The beginning of the month had a special surprise that I wish was under better circumstances. One of Johnna’s relatives passed away, which meant that she was in town for a short period of time at the beginning of the month. So I got to spend quite a bit of time with her, which I appreciated!
I took her to contra dance, and all around town.
Astute readers will remember that one issue I would run in to with Johnna being in town is the fact that I don’t have a bed! So we had to borrow her sister’s inflatable mattress while she was staying in Lexington so that she could sleep properly. I, of course, dearly missed the shiki futon…
Last Trail Crew
May was also the last Red River Gorge Trail Crew that I will be attending for a while.
I have a really soft spot in my heart for the organization! Not just because of all of the wonderful amazing friends I’ve made throughout my involvement for the last five years, but also for helping me figure out what it is I even want to do in life. When I first joined in 2020 I was a computer engineering major working for a semiconductor company in Lexington, and now I’m a forestry graduate from UK working for the US Forest Service in Washington. Crazy how time changes things!
This last outing was bittersweet for all of those reasons and more.
As far as work goes, I was on the crosscut crew (the same crew I was on when I first joined!). We got a few logs out in an area of designated wilderness, which doesn’t allow for things like chainsaws to be run.
Vent Haven
If you ever find yourself in Northern Kentucky with some time on your hands, consider going to Vent Haven! “The World’s Only Museum Dedicated to Ventriloquism”
Some people find it unnerving being in the museum for a long period of time but I thought it was really interesting! They have ventriloquist dolls from all time periods ranging from all kinds of different topics and owners. One of my friends recommended this place to me and it was interesting getting to go – I’m not sure if I’d go back again, but it’s worth it to check it out at least once!
New car!
As of mid-May this year I am the proud owner of a 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport, which I plan to take all over the place with me in Washington!
This car came to me from one of my housemates who owned it for a few years and kept it in pretty good shape. I decided that I wanted to buy it because my old car (2011 Hyundai Sonata) had pretty low clearance and lacked 4 wheel drive – two important components needed for navigating forest service roads in Washington.
Once I got the car, I added stickers and got to work building a raised platform.
If you are interested in a detailed build, you can check out the blog post I made about it!
Gallivanting in Eastern KY
The first trip I decided to take my new XJ on was to Eastern Kentucky to attend Mycology in May, a joint event being put on by the Bluegrass Mycological Society and several other mycology organizations in the area.
The event was held at Breaks Interstate Park, which is one of two interstate parks in the country operated jointly by two states simultaneously.
It’s in a very biodiverse region of Appalachia, and we were able to find a TON of species on iNaturalist. We totaled 110 species of fungi over 3 days. Very impressive!
The cicadas were out in full force! We could hear them all over the park, and it felt like there was magic in the air. You don’t get cicadas like these on the west coast so it felt really special.
On the second day of our trip, we did a brief slime mold foray, then hit the road to Kingdom Come State Park to do some hiking on the Pine Mountain Trail, then visited our friend who works at Lilley Cornett Woods doing herpetology research. Lilley Cornett woods is owned by Eastern Kentucky University and is notable for having one of the few remaining old growth forests in the state.
Going away party
Right when I was about to leave to go to Washington, I had a big going away party with all of my friends in Lexington! It was a fun and emotional night but I’m glad so many people were able to make it out.
And that was my spring semester!
I hope you enjoyed reading all about it. A lot certainly happened. There was a lot I didn’t write about either: working for UK grounds, fighting fires in Eastern Kentucky, political activism, book clubs, and much much more. I wish I could include all of the juicy details but I can only write so much on this blog!
It’s cliche to say, but it really has been a wild ride during undergrad and during my time in Lexington, and I’ll cherish all of those memories forever.
I have a lot to look forward to in Washington, and you, dear reader, have a lot to read coming up. So keep on reading and I’ll keep on writing.
Until next time!
Mushrooms and Arches 
Leave a comment