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