Schodack Island

            Today was bittersweet. It was the day I’ve been dreading the entire semester but it seemed to be rather pleasant after all. We went to Schodack Island State Park. There we got to spend the morning experimenting with watercolor and painting pictures. We were taught different painting techniques that helped us create our pictures the way we wanted them to look as opposed to just trying to replicate an image. My favorite technique was the vertical dragging technique that made the portrait almost look as if there was a reflection in it. I attempted this technique several times. I noticed the affect it had on my painting and with a little more practice hopefully it could have looked as good as the instructor’s did. I found painting very relaxing especially on such a beautiful day we had. After lunch was the dreadful part. We hiked down a dirt path to a dock above swamplands. The water was mucky and gross. Due to my fear of bodies of water other than my pool in my backyard had me traumatized.  The water was deeper than it looked and went all the way up to your waist or neck. Although I didn’t actually go into the water, I did my part by standing on the edge of the water in what seemed like quick sand to help reel the net into shore with what was supposed to have fish in there. Unfortunately there was no fish for us to look at but I couldn’t help but question in the back of my mind why would a fish or any animal want to live in such awful conditions? Also, why would we choose this area to go neck deep into the Hudson River as opposed to an area that was cleaner?