So...

I guess it would probably be a good idea to update this thing.

It's currently finals week at WWU. I've finished with my history and theatre finals. Tomorrow I have a biology test, Friday is a stats test as well as a lab report for my independent study class.

You know, I don't think I ever even told you my classes! I took 18 credits this quarter.
History 103: US History 1492-1865
Theatre 101: Introduction to theatre
Biology 204: evolution, ecology, and biodiversity
Math 240: introductory statistics

Next quarter I have BIOL205, MATH125 (multi variable calculus), and GEOL211.

Well I'm off to meet with my professor to look over my lab report due Friday!

Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego

Twitter

You can now follow the Western Flames on twitter! @FlamesRugby

Pictures from the last few weeks...

I Feel So Organized

Why would somebody need two planners and carry around a pocket notebook to jot down things to remember? If they are a full time student with a job who is the officer of two sport clubs as well as a residence hall officer, they may need them...

I feel so on top of things right now with the crazy amount of organization I've got going on. I have one monthly planner that I keep appointments and events in as well as a weekly planner that I keep track of homework in. Today I decided to buy a little pocket notebook so that whenever I think of something I need to get done while in the midst of some other task I can write it down to go back to later.

So far I haven't had much homework but I have been making sure to get everything done whenever I have some time.

My Five Seconds of Fame!

While chilling in Red Square today I was asked if it would be okay to interview me for Komo 4, obviously I said yes! The reporter wanted to know if I was aware of the professor who had been misappropriating tax dollars and what my feelings were on the subject. After the interview they had me just keep working on the computer looking natural and studenty and they videotaped me for another minute or two. Here is the final result:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/102919324.html?tab=video

19

Happy birthday to me!

Saturday

Kate and I slept in the basement of the cabin, they have a bunch of beds down there for visiting children and friends. The two dogs that came are there too and I quickly learned that after about 6AM if you give any indication of being awake they will jump on you to be let out. They quickly descended when I checked my watch at 6:45.

Once I was up to take the dogs out I was wide awake so I had no choice but to I curl up with a book. Pretty soon Kate's parents were up to so they showed me around the kitchen so I could get some breakfast. Around 8AM Kate's mom asked if I would like to go kayaking with her, I gladly accepted! The Novich family has some great kayaks, very light and easy to maneuver. We went paddled along the shoreline for about a mile and a half. A half mile out the land turns from residential area to forest and the forest has tons of bald Eagles living there during certain parts of the year. On Saturday we only saw a few though.

Later in the afternoon Kate took me out on the motor boat and taught me how to drive it. It's so easy; no pedals or lanes, and very little traffic! While we were out we checked the four crab pot Mr and Mrs Novich had put out earlier. I learned how to pull the pots and pull out the crabs. I already knew how to tell male from female, so I was ahead of the curve :). I think we pulled up about ten crabs but only four were keepers.

Once back at the cabin Mrs. Novich taught me how to pick crab (how to pull the meat out of the shell after the crab has been killed and boiled). Because I had helped with the catching and because the Novichs kill the crab by quickly chopping it in half (instead of boiling it alive) I decided to have some crab with lunch. Bad idea. It was really tasty while I was eating it, but I had the worst stomach ache of my life for the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening. A few hours after lunch I puked up most of lunch. That helped the ache a little but it was mostly too late at that point, my stomach had already decided to throw a fit.

For dinner I made some excellent pasta, a fancier version of our traditional family olives and noodles (for me and my vegetarian-ness, the rest of the family adds sausage to theirs). It was olives and noodles and garlic, onion, mushroom, and feta cheese.

At night the sky was GORGEOUS! Tons of stars! Across the water is an Indian reservation, and for a while somebody was setting of some giant fireworks :). Around 9 PM the family set up this outdoor theatre screen and a projector and we watched Secret Window. It's a Johnny Depp suspense movie, it was interesting.

Friday

This weekend was the best of the summer by far!

It started off normally enough with work. After a few hours I was contacted by a friend to see if I wanted to come over. Once I was finished in the lab I gave her a call and she came and picked me up (she was nearby shopping at Fred Meyer and it would take me an hour or so to walk to her house). Once there we chill playing N64 and Rock Band, we watch Moulin Rouge. After seeing it laying on the mantle, I commented that I had never seen Moulin Rouge before and apparently this was a serious gap in my movie knowledge that needed to be immediately rectified. It was a great movie! (All the songs in Moulin Rouge are medleys of other songs, this one is my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajuITcvjyPE )

At this point it is somewhere around 7PM and we're hungry. Debating various places to eat Boomers (a locally famous drive in diner in Bellingham) comes up. I hadn't been there before, another serious problem to be immediately rectified. The food is pretty good, it has solid 50's diner food that is brought out to your car. The burgers are supposed to be wonderful but I obviously stuck to a veggie burger.

On our way back to my place K- mentions that she has to go to see her parents at their cabin this weekend. I offer to go so she doesn't have to be alone with them and instead of staying home, I'm packing and soon on the way out!

It takes about an hour to arrive. The cabin is near Deception Pass and right on the water, the place is beautiful!

To be continued...

The Arboretum

Between the apartment complex that I'm staying at this summer and the campus is Sehome Hill Park, more commonly referred to as The Arboretum. Occasionally I'll take a walk through there and I've found that the more I go, the more I find. Here are some pictures!Trail...Barred Owl! I pointed it out to a biker and we stood and watched it for about ten minutes as it flew around and called back and forth to an owl we couldn't see

Downy Woodpecker! I saw several of these guys in different locations through the parkDouglas Squirrel. This poor guy i'm pretty sure was not long for this world. His tail was really ratty, he wasn't very concerned about the fact I was right next to him, and he kept bobbing his head like he was trying not to fall asleep. :(

Dinner

How to Make Dinner while at school:

Take a staple that goes well with anything: baked potato
Add some basic ingredients for filling and taste: black beans, onion
Then add whatever you need to use up in the fridge: shredded mozzarella, salsa
Mix and serve.

Voila!

First Day on the Job

Hello dear readers! It has been awhile, I hope everyone has been having a wonderful summer so far.

Today was my first day working at Western for one of my professors. My job this summer is in a marine invertebrates studying benthic organisms (critters that live in the sand around bodies of water). These particular benthics were collected from the Bering Sea.

My primary job this summer will be to help finish up last summers collection as well as begin this summers. What I mean is that I will be working to identify various animals that have been collected in the Bering Sea sand cores. The ones from last summer have already been sifted from the sand and been organized into basic categories. "All" I have to do for those is figure out what class or (if i can) species they belong to. The samples from this summer haven't even been taken off the ship yet.

Professor Shull (whom I work for) arrived back in Washington on Friday but the ship doesn't arrive in Seattle until tomorrow (Tuesday). I'm leaving bellingham with Professor Shull bright and early at 7AM tomorrow to get to Pier 12 shortly after the boat docks. Once there I'll be helping him unload all of the samples and equipment into a truck that can take it back to Western. The samples will then be treated with a dye that makes organic matter bright pink and thus can be easily picked out of the sand. And then more classification! Shull wants me to learn all about different aspects of the lab so while classification is going to be my biggest responsibility I'll be moved around some in order to learn more.

So far there is one other woman in the lab, M-. She's a lot of fun to work with and has been working with Shull for two years and so was a great help when I was getting started. It can be incredibly hard to identify something when you don't even know where to start! The lab is stocked with text books that can be used to identify invertebrates but until you understand how they work it can be difficult.

This summer is going to be a huge learning experience.

Spring Quarter

Hello! Spring quarter is more than half way through and summer is looking nicer and nicer. I finished up my midterms on Wednesday. Chemistry is giving me a hard time this quarter, I didn't do well on our last test, but according to everyone I've talked to and our professor class gets considerably easier from here on out. Hopefully I can get my grade above the D+ (approximately) that it is right now. I believe I'm doing well in all my other classes, though I have no way of knowing for sure right now.

The rugby team voted on officers for next year, and I was nominated and voted in as fundraising officer. With judo, one of our team captains is spending a year abroad so I am now a team captain/ co-president. We don't really have an official name. Luckily, a lot of the responsibilities of both overlap, I have to go to the same meetings for both and they happen at the same time, so I just go in a dual capacity.

Last Saturday I participated in my first Judo tournament. It took place in Bellevue and was a lot of fun!! I lost all four matches, but I learned a lot and made a good showing especially considering I was the least experienced of the four of us in the division. This tournament is odd in the fact that it gives away two third places and because there was four of us I got a trophy! It only says "third place" so no one but me (and now you) knows that it was actually "second third place" and it was out of four. It loks prestigious: Third Place at the Seattle Dojo Tournament :)

I got an internship this summer! One of the members of the Club Judo team is an environmental science and oceanography professor so I asked him if he could ask around for a job and he offered me a place in his lab! I will be able to get internship credit, and all it takes is a little paperwork. I'll be living and working at WWU for the second half of the summer.

Holocaust Memorial - Palm Desert, California

Holocaust Remembrance Week

The 2010 National Days of Remembrance are this week, April 11-18. The Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Ethnocide Education invited holocaust survivor Noemi Ban to speak at Western yesterday. The event was free, but it was not easy to get into. Luckily I knew about this event a few weeks in advance so I pre-ordered a ticket and was able to get in before all the people who didn't. Noemi is an amazing woman, the amount of misfortune she went through and how lucky she is to be alive is amazing. Some of the stories I remember:
In Buchenwald:
- On arrival at the age of 25 she was separated from her family (mother, grandmother, younger sister, baby brother) to go into a group of other young women to be stripped, shaved and thrown in a cold shower after which dresses were thrown at them and if you were lucky the dress was your size or too big because there was no trading and those that had too small dresses had to fit in. After a few days it was learned that "or else" from an SS guard meant death, don't second guess them. Noemi came to learn later during her stay at Buchenwald that all those sent in the other line were not lucky enough to have showers with water.
-Noemi's father had already been sent off to some labor camp a few weeks before.
-For breakfast and dinner they were given a piece of bread along with a cup of coffee. Lunch was a thin soup that everyone drank from a single bowl that was passed down the line. After initially refusing to drink the soup because no one wanted to use that bowl the guards gave the typical answer: "drink, or else" Noemi discovered shortly thereafter that you HAD to drink this because it stops menstruation. An aside: Here Noemi told us that she knows at least three women (and she's sure there are many more) that weren't able to have children after the war was over due to this brew. She then told us about her two sons, five grandchildren and six great grand children.
- After breakfast and before dinner all the residents had to line up and stand for three hours where they were counted. Those that passed out while in line were thrown onto the backs of cars never to be seen again. Noemi actually fell unconscious once while in line but the three women around her reacted quickly and held her up for nearly two hours until she woke up again. The SS never noticed. Those women saved her life.
- Once while getting water, which was brought in one big bucket and fought over by everyone, she and the few others who spoke and understood German overheard the guards say they were worse than animals for reacting so. She and the few others that heard stopped drinking water for the next four months. They only had their two coffees a day. Aside: Here Noemi tells us that whenever she thinks about this she gets thirsty; luckily the people that invite her know this so there's always plenty of water for her.
-After about four months at Buchenwald, she and eleven other Hungarian women are sent to Berlin(?) to work in a factory. They build bombs by following color-coded instructions: blue wire to blue marker, brown wire to brown marker, etc. Part of the components were actually explodable and should any of the women drop it the factory would explode (including the Germans guarding them in the other room). They actually considered dropping it on purpose knowing it would take the guards with them, but decided they'd rather live. After fully completely one bomb to be sent off it hit them that they were building bombs that would be used against those trying to help them so they planned a little sabotage...Discussing everything in Hungarian so that the guards wouldn't understand them they decided to mix up all the colors so they didn't match anymore. Any time the guards would come check on them they would work fine, but as soon as they left chaos would consume. An aside: here she tells us that she actually never knew if what they did worked until a few years ago when at this point in her talk an old man listening to her said that he knew. He was part of the American forces moving toward Berlin towards the end of the war and Germans were dropping bombs right and left but none of them ever seemed to explode. So even if not all the bombs were those built by these women, they weren't the only group to plan some sabotage.
- During transport away from camp where all the factory workers were kept the guards changed out of their uniforms and into civilian clothes. These 12 women knowing that something was happening one by one escaped from the marching line of all the factory workers and into the nearby woods where they met up with an American soldier who informed them in his horrible German that this part of Germany had surrendered and they were free!
-At the medical facility Noemi found that she weighed about 60 pounds!

However horrible her story was I really enjoyed hearing about it directly from a survivor. She made sure to tell us too about one of the reasons she talks about this is that were part of the last generation who will be able to hear about the Holocaust from those that were in it. Before too much longer they won't be around anymore.

Spring Quarter

No snow yet! It's apparently somewhat of a tradition around Bellingham for it to snow somewhere around spring break. So far this year it hasn't come to pass, and sadly I don't believe it's going to. Weather here is mostly wet and windy with the occasional sunbreak.

Spring quarter was off to a nice start this week. I absolutely love the way my schedule is this quarter! I was worried for a while because the only chemistry class that would fit with the schedule I wanted was full and the professor is one of the best so his classes get picked up fast. All through spring break and I was worried I would have to shift classes around, but Saturday afternoon when I checked there was a single spot open in his class and I got it! So now I have class Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:30-2 with a break between 11:20 and 12! I have no class on Tuesday and chem lab Thursday morning. I wasn't sure how I would feel about having classes one after the other, I mean, I know I did it in high school but come on I wake up now at the same time school used to start, things have changed. I love it though! It allows me to stay in school mode through all of my classes. I don't get distracted and flustered like I did before when I would have a two hour break between class when I would tool around and watch TV on the internet.

This quarter I'm taking four classes, adding up to 17 credits. Here's the low down:

Political Science 101: Government and Politics of the Modern World
I'm not quite sure about this class yet. I'm not opposed to it right off the bat, but I'm not exactly sure what the class will entail. My idea was something along the lines of: "This is so-and-so's government and this is how it looks, this is how it differs from ours, and this is an article written from the perspective of so-and-so and how they view Democracy" So far though we've watched an episode of the Simpsons to find political themes to show how politics can be hidden in just about anything we watch, read, or listen to.

English 101: Writing and Critical Inquiry
This is not a class I'm looking forward to. I'm mostly just thankful that C-, the grad student that teaches it, seems nice. Because English 101 is a required freshman level class, most of the students there don't want to be there and the grad students that teach it don't want to be there either creating a super wonderful class (please note that sarcasm was intended). English 101 is also known for the fact that it's essentially impossible to get an A. Last quarter C- gave one A and three A-'s, the English department is really good at reminding the Western populace that technically a C is average, even though when you get one you feel like you failed. Writing composition is not my strongest subject, hopefully I can learn something without failing in the process.

LUNCH!

Chemistry 123: General Chemistry III
I'm really bummed that the teacher I had the last two quarters for chemistry isn't teaching the third and final installment of the gen chem series. I really liked the teaching style he had, and he's great to go to during office hours. Over the quarter he learns nearly everyone's names; something incredibly hard to do in a class of 100+ students. Ah well, the professor that I signed up for is thought to be basically the best chemistry teacher here. Professor Peyron's teaching style is something I'll have to get used to, but is not too incredibly difficult a thing to do.

Philosophy 107: Logical Thinking
The room that this class is in is more geared toward having someone give a presentation than teach a class. The chairs are super comfy and the lean back a little so you can lay back and see the front of the room super easy because the floor is slanted. Luckily I'm not a person prone to napping or I could foresee a serious problem...Like all the classes we haven't started doing too much yet, but what we have done do far is interesting. Right now we're learning the basics of logic, arguments (A=B, B=C, so A=C) and the different ways people can get mixed up. For instance, an argument or premise (the statements that make up the argument) can be valid even though it is false; an example:
-All Canadians are born in Washington
-I'm Canadian
-So, I was born in Washington
The argument is true: I was indeed born in Washington, It's valid: if everything was true it would be correct, The premises are false though. So this argument is valid, but it's not sound. I just thought that was interesting, it can be valid without being right.

In other news:
Rugby- A bunch of the team went down to Utah for the challenge match against Santa Clara, if we won we stay in Utah for regionals... and we won! Now they have to win at least one of the two games at regionals to qualify for nationals.

Judo- I earned my green belt!

Grades- I got all B's last quarter. My college GPA is currently 3.05, pretty average.

Internship Updates

I got my first reply from the REU internships I've been applying to yesterday. Shannon Point Marine Center has sadly not hired me. However, they did get an astounding 119 applicants for 8 positions, very few of whom were unqualified. They had to narrow down the field by limiting it to marine science majors with at least junior status, of which I am neither. So, I have two more REU's to hear back from, one should come in the next few days and the other I'll find a out about in mid-April.

In the meantime, I have been having fun looking up internships with the Students Conservation Association (SCA), an organization that works to get young adults outdoorsy, science based positions within the nationally owned lands; National Parks, Naval bases, Wildlife Refuges, etc. These applications are actually fairly easy because you simply sign up on their website and check the internships that you're interested in. Then you do the application (which after the REU apps is a breeze) then SCA sends your application to all the intern directors from the positions you indicated. I have indicated interest in 20 internships (they suggest that you apply to as many as you find interesting in order to increase your chances of being accepted). The most interesting internship I have found is at the US Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I'm not sure if I'm quite qualifies for this one, they want a lot, but I figured I'd apply; what other students (or anyone for that matter) can say they've studied wildlife in Cuba. Thus far my application has been forwarded to one Forest Service park (which is pretty good seeing as I only applied a day or two ago): the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. I have to call them within the week to set up a phone interview.

Finals Update:
They suck. Calculus melted my brain this morning, but after a scare of not remembering how to do several big problems I was able to slow down and figure it all out. I think I'll do well...

I'm Not Dead Yet

My sincerest apologies for not writing in so long!

Tomorrow WWU students begin finals week. I sadly have to be here for all of it, my last final is Friday morning so I don't get to leave early like nearly every other student gets to, the bastards. I'm feeling pretty good about all of my finals, of course I've felt pretty good about every test this quarter and still all I get is B's. Hopefully there will be improvement when it comes to finals.

On Saturday Western played WSU, winner goes to regionals. Both teams were undefeated going in, and the game was intense! The Flames (WWU) took an early lead and kept it through the first half. During the second half WSU eventually took the lead and won the game 15-14. Everyone was playing at their best and all of us on the sidelines were yelling so hard we were nearly passing out. We all believe that we should have won, but the Sir (rugby ref) missed some stuff that allowed WSU to get ahead when they shouldn't have been allowed to. Ah well though, they can't see everything (though that Sir is crap).

I have been trying to carry my camera around more lately so as to get pictures of whatever is going on in my life. Here is some of it:

A sculpture in a yard on High Street. I pass it anytime I go into downtown. I personally am most amused by the leash. (though that may be for theft)

Flowers that I bought at the Coop to brighten up the room a little. It was a particularly spring like sunny day. The little tree on the left is Tanya's.

Closer...

On Wednesday I finally hiked to the top of the arboretum. At the top there is a radio tower.

At the base of the radio tower is a shack where you can hide from zombies...

A- going through the "Tunnel through Time" in the arboretum

The lookout tower at the very top of the arboretum.

Me! At the top

That's all for now! Ta ta!

Busy Day

Saturday: Two rugby games and a judo tournament. Friday afternoon WWU's Judo Club (Club meaning club sport, an official sport of WWU, on the same level as rugby) got together to put together the Washington State Judo Championship being held in the Wade King Student Recreation Center. We had to take down a small wall that protects the bleachers from the court and move the practice mats onto the floor. Because we didn't own enough mats another judo dojo a few miles away brought up some of their mats. The men's rugby team came and sped the process up by helping us move mats into their proper places and quickly bringing mats in from cars outside. We were working on set up from about 4-8PM.

Then bright and early Saturday morning I arrive at 8:30 to offer a little last minute support before weigh ins start and before I had to be out on the field for rugby warm up.

9:30AM- Head out to the turf field to set up for the rugby game and begin warm up.

11 AM- Kickoff against UW. I didn't play in this game, but it was a good one to watch, we won with a score of approximately 30-7

12:30PM- run off to get some lunch to scarf before heading back to the rec center to see how the tournament is going. I arrive in time to see the tournament change from the kids to adults. A few minutes before I had to leave, my friend has a match that he wins in the first ten seconds!

2PM- warm up for the game against Oregon State

3PM- Kickoff. It quickly becomes clear that we are not going to win. OSU is a Division I team, and thus tends to have better sports teams. While we have tied them twice this season our hearts just weren't in it on Saturday and we lost by a considerable amount.

4:30 PM- End of the regular game play and my part is done. We're playing a third half but I'm not in it so I go back to the Rec Center. I arrive shortly after that tournament ends to discover that one friend won his division, and the one I saw win in a few seconds got third! State Champions!!! I also arrived at the perfect time to help clean up. And that's what I was doing until 8PM.

After cleaning, the three of us students that stuck around through the whole clean up (and didn't have significant others to make dinner for us: D-) went out to Denny's where we ate ourselves sick (or just about).

Sunday was a big day of nothing. Nice and chill. I hope to be participating in the next nearby Judo tournament. I've was given crap all Saturday for not participating in this one. I'll be up for promotion soon too! From white belt to green belt. :) Though as my senseis like to say: Unless you're a black belt, you're a white belt.

Vegetable Lasagna and Sweet Potato Pie

One of the great things about living on campus is not only do you not have to clean much, or pay rent, but you don't have to cook as long as you have a meal plan. Sometimes though I begin to miss cooking something. The dorm kitchen is fine, but sometimes it's nice to have a place to yourself. I got this feeling earlier in the week and asked some of my friends if I could borrow their kitchen and we could all make dinner. I decided on vegetable lasagna, and yesterday we all went on an expedition to Fred Meyer to buy the ingredients, then walked back and got to work. The lasagna was SO good! One of my friends, D- had never had homemade lasagna before so she was super happy, two others said it was the best they ever had, And one guy said he was falling in love with me with every bite :). So this made me very happy!

Now that we've basically stuffes ourselves sick, we decide to play Twister, which was hilarious! A- was the champion, with her center of gravity so close to the ground (she's short) and her rather unfair tactics. It was all in good fun though. But after a while we all begin to want dessert. One guy gets up and goes to his backpack and pulls out a magazine page with a recipe for sweet potato pie. We were all for making dessert so he and A- ran to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients, and we whipped that together. It was super good too! It was kinda like pumpkin pie with marshmallows on top. I had never had sweet potato pie before, so I was a little iffy at first but I'm so glad I tried it!

Today though was a rugby day! We played Western Oregon University. They were a good team, and they played great, but we were better! The final score was 50-0! We had practiced hard this week because even though last week we won our game against Eastern Washington 81-5 we played INCREDIBLY sloppily. Eastern sucked, so we just played down to their level, and just jogged around the field and all around didn't try hard. We definitely upped the intensity this week, expecting WOU to be up to our caliber.

And finally, THANK YOU MOM! For the wonderful Valentine's Day package.

Applications and Central

I am now officially done applying to the summer research internships. I ended up applying to four of my originally planned seven. So now,we wait...

Yesterday, the Western Flames played Central Washington University at Western. We had already played Central at Central earlier in the year and won, but they hadn't gotten a ref so we thought the game didn't count and agreed to a rematch at Western. At the match yesterday CWU was bringing the heat, it was one of their main goals to beat us this year. But, we won! I sadly wasn't playing this game but I had so much fun on the sidelines watching and explaining what was going on to those standing nearby. Some of my friends from the Judo Club came to show their support for the team and for me, saying that they had to make sure to support the only girl Judo player. I believe the final score was somewhere around 19-3.

I got to play in the unofficial third half. It was a lot of fun, but most of us on the field for that half were rookies so the game was a lot less pretty. We won in the final seconds with a girl breaking through the Central defense and sprinting down the field to score a try.

So much rugby...

So, last weekend the Flames went down to Stanford for the Stanford Invitational. I sadly wasn't able to go but I'm so proud of our team! We tied two games and lost four, but we never lost by more than three tries (translation: touchdowns). That may not sound particularly good but we were playing Division I teams (we're Division II), with coaches, who regularly go to nationals and members of some of the teams are on the US team. We did pretty sweet.

I got the new and improved schedule for this quarter, and it's a busy one! There is something rugby related going on every Saturday from now until mid-March.

The Schedule:
1/23- forwards clinic at Magnuson Park.
1/30- CWU @ WWU

2/6- EWU @ WWU
2/13- Western Oregon U @ WWU
2/20- UW and OSU round robin @ WWU
2/27- (possible) clinic with the Mudhens (Seattle's womens team)

3/6- Seattle U @ SU
3/13- WSU @ WWU

Hopefully:
4/17-18 - Nationals!

That's a lot of rugby! But it will be SO much fun! I'm excited about the forwards clinic on Saturday. 9-12 is working on scrumming and 1-4 is working on line outs. The clinic is open to anyone from high school age to young at heart, men and women. I'm expecting to learn A LOT. It'll be interesting to meet other rugby players from all these other demographics.

Summer Internships

On Friday, the chemistry department had a seminar about research opportunities for undergraduates. While I'm not a chem major and lab research holds very little interest for me I thought I would go just to see what they had to say and if there was anything more applicable to myself. Some was about how to get involved with professors at WWU which as I said: while interesting, I don't want to do lab research; I'm more interested in field research. A second speaker there though talked about internships through the National Science Foundation, and participating universities that were available all across the country. These internships (called REU Research Experiences for Undergraduates) are 10-12 week paid internships of $3000- $5000 with food and board paid for. Some even compensate part of your travel costs. After that I was beginning to wonder if I could find an interesting chemistry program if I looked hard enough. And then the best news yet: she mentioned there were programs other than chemistry. My reaction: !!!! what kind of programs?!? Biology, Environmental Science? Further research after the seminar proved YES!!

After looking through the National Science Foundation's lists of REU programs I found seven that I'm going to try to apply to. The first application is due in three weeks. One of the programs is even Western's, at the Shannon Point Marine Center. With that one I wouldn't even have to pay for travel :). The one I most want to get into is at the Smithsonian, but because of that it's probably crazy cutthroat with applicants much better suited than myself; why not try though?

Some other interesting options I'm considering are volunteer positions in either Northern Canada (studying polar bears) or the Virgin Islands (studying local environments). There I would pay for my stay by working for the non-profit. Most of my work would be cleaning, and helping in their stores, but after a volunteer is more familiar with the local area they get to help with school groups and visitors who come through. the Virgin Islands program sounds the more interesting of the two because it does more of what I would be interested in which is teaching about the environment, AND the place I would be working is in the Virgin Islands National Park! As you may or may not know, I have wanted to be a National Park Ranger since doing the career project freshman year of high school.

Finally, I am applying for a job at Western, the Residents' Resource Awareness Program Coordinator. A 19 hr/wk job at about $15 per hour. I would work closely with the Eco - Reps of each residence hall as well as several other program coordinators in different areas in order to make Western a greener campus. If I get it I will start working at the beginning of next school year.

Winter Quarter

Today was the first school day of winter quarter up here in Bellingham, and so far so good. This quarter I have three classes adding up to 14 credits. Even with the credit count being less than optimal I'm still happy with the schedule I have because every class counts as a prerequisite for my major, General University Requirement, or both. I'm rather proud of myself for sitting down and figuring out what classes I could take that would count for multiple programs. The timing of the classes just worked out to get less credits than I particularly wanted. O well! I'll be fine. I think I have planned well enough that i can get most of my major requirements done by the end of the year!

So, my classes:

Chemistry 122 (5)
This is simply the next part of the chemistry series. I may actually learn something new this quarter though! Chem 121 was mostly a review of what I learned from high school. I signed up for the same professor as I had last quarter because I understand his teaching style and he's a really good teacher. I also like that he knows my name :).

Math 124 (5)
Calculus. Blah. The teacher, while easily distracted, is thorough and uses lots of examples. If I learned my lesson that it's actually helpful to study from Math 118* (pre-calc) and couple that with the fact I took calculus in high school last year, I think I can do well in this class.
*just a note, I did fine in pre-calc, I got a C+. I would just prefer to do better.

Economics 206 (4)
Microeconomics. I was not looking forward to this class. It's twice a week for two hours, and economics does not sound particularly fun. However in class today when the professor was talking about what we were going to be studying it seemed really interesting! While this class has some of the most pressure with it, three tests making up 75% of the grade, the teacher seems to understand students (maybe due to the fact he was a student not long ago) and has plenty of office hours in case anyone needs help.

Yay classes!

In other news...
Rugby this quarter is focusing on endurance. Fall quarter was teaching and learning the game so all of us rookies would actually know where to go. Now we need to work on being able to run for the whole game. A full rugby match is 80 minutes, and a good forward should run 3-5 miles in a game. We've only done well this past quarter because we are good technically and haven't played teams with endurance. That is changing this quarter, and now that we know what we're doing we have to improve. We went on a team run last night for about four miles. Team runs are going to start happening at least once a week on top of our normal three practices per week.