ok, but enough of that. today was the first day! it was pretty easy for a few reasons a) the weather was stormy and cold, b) lindsey and ashley (my graduate student mentors) had to direct the Notre Dame course-taking undergraduates since this week is their Research Week and they're starting their projects. and c) after all, it is the first day. we spent the day driving around to the different lakes (lots of lakes in da land o'lakes) and seeing which ones are allowed for fishing, swimming, boating, off-limits, etc. oh and the trees in this area are so wonderful! they're really tall, skinny, and shake in the wind. this field station is located on about 7-8,000 acres of land and I can't wait to start hammocking on them all. the only setback: this is MOSQUITO CITY. so many bugs and black flies! the black flies leave big red gashes on the skin. description: "Unlike a mosquito (which sucks up blood through a proboscis), black flies slash the skin and lap up the pooled blood." how vicious.
I really like my mentors, ashley and lindsey. I spent most of the day with Ashley she made a point to introduce me to everyone we came across, from other graduate students to her undergrad mentees, to program directors, to seemingly strangers she just knows from around. I think that ashley and I share a lot of interests (we listened to Elliott Smith in the car on the way back from the airport) and both went to a student-lead yoga. Meet Ashley:
My roommate, Alexandra, is also incredibly nice. She's Canadian. Last night, I got in from my flight at 230 am. I think I made a bit of noise (the door to our cabin-beachhouse-type apartment was squeaky!) and she came out to introduce herself and showed me the room. apparently she had gone to bed super early anyway because she was doing some work on her laptop while I dug through my luggage to find some sheets n'things. in general, everyone here has been pretty friendly, but alexandra especially has been super great, inviting me to play volleyball and filling me in on the local lingo. and everyone is so active! I guess that's the result of being out in the woods/lake, and in an area with incredibly slow internet connections, but there is always a game of pickup ultimate frisbee, volleyball, or kickball goin' on. apparently this one guy runs in the morning and lifts logs to work out. he's nicknamed Chuck Norris.
In the evening I also met my other housemates, Rachel and Katie. They are both friendly as well, but in a different way than Alexandra because they go to Notre Dame together. I think it will take some time to catch up because the three of them have been living together for 2 weeks already and they work in the same lab, so they see each other all the time. but, I had a fun time with them as I was trying to learn a popular card game that everyone in the midwest knows-- euchre. it is incredibly confusing and I spent most of the evening trying to learn the rules.
so now I am going to go research bluegill sunfish for my project! I've gotta figure out how much of the rusty crayfish they usually eat/what else is in their diet.
Also, y'all probably won't care, but I'm interested to see what I eat this summer since this is the first time that I'm going to be buying and cooking meals entirely by myself. if you wanna check that out for whatever reason, I created a separate blog dedicated solely to me and my food: http://fish-consinfood.blogspot.com/
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