"The science of getting freaky gansta style

I just got back from a weekend camp with a volunteer tutoring program. The program pairs up DC public high school students with tutors to work together weekly until the young pupil graduates from high school. I have been working with my student for about 5 weeks. He is in tenth grade and wants to be a pharmacist. This weekend, tutors and students went to "camp" at Prince William Forest Park in VA.

The event is a thinly disguised experiment designed to study wild free range teenagers in an uncontrolled environment. Based on highly scientific methods, we have learned the following about this fascinating animal called "Urbanicus Teenagerus":

The teenager is a social species, prone to travelling in packs. The males of the species compete for the spot of pack leader. The competition includes tussles for physical supremacy accompanied by shows of dominance. When the female members of the species are nearby, there are displays of masculinity and attempts to win female approval by means of performance and physical advances. The female of the species engage in prolonged periods of small group bonding during the day. The females prowl around searching out the males and engaging in dance-like rituals to show their interest and attract as many mates as possible.

Accompanying the teenagers is a distantly related species called "tutors" (too-tors). This species spends much time trying to control the teenagers, keep them quiet, get them to sit down, and peel them apart when they "get freaky". To a significant extent, the teenagers do not notice these tutors. However, tutors are a tenacious species and do not surrender easily. After two days, the tutors gave up and packed the teenagers into a yellow tube.

On the second night of the study, a large celebration ritual took place. During the celebration, loud rhythmic noise played for hours while the teenagers proceded to engage in their most intense mate attraction rituals. This ritual, which the teenagers call "getting freaky", is distinguished by rhythmic gyrations and shocked looking tutors. This scientist, in an attempt to infiltrate the pack for purely academic reasons, undertook to "get freaky" by "showing her stuff". The teenager species were particularly amazed, and declared this researcher to be, and I quote: "GANSTA". Further research on the meaning of gansta is being proposed and grants are being sought.

More scientific analysis of teenagers is pending, however the researcher is now late for her airplane.

Hello World

It's Wednesday night. I decided I need a blog. Everybody's got one. I just read Jessica Cutler's blog (http://washingtoniennearchive.blogspot.com/). I know I can write better than that. The content may differ slightly.

Things to look forward to: Poison Ivy Haikus, details of my new life in DC where I live in a 1 bedroom apartment that costs more than my 2200sf house in Portland, and charming annecdotes about the upcoming cross country family drive with me, Taylor, Scruffy and Pixel. Scruffy (age 2 1/2) and Pixel (7) are so excited. They've never seen the country before.