This has been a good day...
Hard Core Logo: Joe hasn't slept in something like 32 hours. You'd think he was hauling a cross. (*sigh* oh, Joe)
Hello, my dears, hello. I am running on very little sleep at the moment, so this may not be particularly organised, but oh well! I just wanted to update and talk about what I've been up to, because today has been a lot of fun, one of the best days I've had recently.
Term ended on the 30th of March, but everyone on my course is staying another week to do a field course, the aim is for us to get some practical experience. Most of my friends have left, but Sushi and Susanna are still here, Susanna because she has an essay due for Monday and doesn't really want to go home yet and Sushi because she can't afford to go home and is going to go visit Susanna in the Netherlands later.
DI303: Field Course of Doom! We're basically carrying out 6 projects in different areas of the campus. We're trapping small mammals, and we have newt traps in some ponds, and there was an invertebrate survey involving pitfall traps. Lots of traps. We also did a Habitat Suitability Index today, which I'll talk more about in a bit, and hopefully we'll do a reptile survey on Wed if the weather is good, and there's another thing with newts tomorrow night. Yay!
Last night I joined lots of people I do not know in a "international multimedia viewing chat-thing", which meant I watched Men With Brooms, Hard Core Logo and Wilby Wonderful (all Callum Keith Rennie or Paul Gross films) whilst talking to random LJers over AIM. It was really fun, and I was so glad I didn't have to watch Men With Brooms on my own (I've only been able to watch about 3 minutes when I've tried before, it's that cringe-worthy). This did lead to me wanting to eat junk food, but I don't really have any in the house, so I had a pot of Greek yoghurt and a jar of peanut butter and was eating random things with them. Peanut butter and grapes= good, greek yoghurt and granola= good, greek yoghurt with peanut butter= not very good at all. This is the reason I am lacking sleep.
Then I had to get up early to go check the traps with my group, and it was like we'd won some newt lottery. We caught around 20 newts, and 6 of these were Great Crested Newts. We got to touch them and weigh them and they were wriggly and slimy and it was much fun. Also, we may have discovered a new female GCN (the department have so few GCNs that they keep photographic records of the patterns of their underbellies, and they'd never seen this one before) which means we might get to name it for their records. All the newts are named after actors, e.g. Brad, Dustin, Angelina, Gwyneth, so any idea for a new girl name would be welcome!
Then, still on a newt-y theme, we had to go and survey all the ponds on campus to assess their suitability as newt habitat. This involved much slogging around campus in wellies, with tape measures and maps and my legs are sore... When we calculated the results, all the groups had picked the correct pond, and then one of the lecturers mentions that when he does this for potential development sites, he gets paid £200/day! I feel slightly cheated... Later in the evening, we went on our birdwatching walk again, and I think I'm getting better at this bird-spotting malarkey. I saw a woodpecker! And a treecreeper! Twas very cool.
The best thing about this, really, is that our class is hanging out practically all day, like the French trip, which makes it easier to get to know people better. Recently I'd been feeling that no one on my course was really a friend because we only see each other in class, rarely for socialising. There are three other people in the court I live in that do Wildlife Conservation, and I never see them. I'd already been feeling crappy cos everyone here was leaving, people are back in Belfast and I'm not, and I'm missing stuff like Dublin, or probably even seeing some people, like Kat or Helen. But today, I came back here, and Phil, Tyrone and George from my course were playing football, and Sushi and Susanna showed up and we all faffed about a bit, which was nice.
I had dinner with Sushi and Susanna, and I don't know what I'd do without them, because this course is so tiring that by the time I get home I just want to sleep, but they make me eat and pretend to let me help with the cooking by letting me chop up vegetables or something simple that I can do when half-asleep. They are stars, as are all my friends here. I'm going to miss them like crazy when all the Erasmus people leave in June. After dinner, we tried some chocolates that were in Sushi's house for reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture. Sushi and I shared one, I was like "Why does this remind me of something you've cooked?" and she tried it, and we realised it tasted like Hoi Sin sauce. A Hoi Sin sauce chocolate, WTH?!
I came over here to sleep, but clearly I've gotten distracted by the internets. I will be home late on Friday night, and I cannot wait. *HUGS*