Road Trip!!!
Hey All,
I know I havn't written in awhile, and I'm sorry. But hey, I'm kinda busy here in the Rainforest...what with writing annoying field reports, and then starting our DR's. DR's are Directed Research Projects, and account for about 30 % of our grade. Not a good time to slack off. My DR is the Weed DR. Yep, that's right, the Weed project. But not that kind of weed. Our project is about creating a computer key to identify the most common weed species here that influence restoration or agriculture. So that should narrow it down to, oh about 4000 different species. Thankfully, we are not responsible for all of them. Just the ones we find on site, and at our restoration site. But we still have to identify them (correctly), and then find a way to categorize them, and then make the computer program. The computer program part is the tricky part, see. Our computers here are somewhat ornery, to say the least. They don't seem to like the rainforest very much, and usually like to crash or eat disks, or just plain refuse to give up your paper. I had to hand a paper for Rainforest Ecology last week on a slip of paper telling Amanda what computer it was on and what file and she had to grade it on that computer. God I love technology. But I'm really excited about this project. Nothing like this has ever been done, and its really important that weed species can be identified easily and quickly, so we can get them under control before they eat our restoration sites. Wow....am I a dork or what?
We went to Kuranda this weekend, which was super fun. Kuranda is a "Rainforest Village" (meaning full of tourists and tourist traps) about an hour away from Cairns. It was fun to go and sneer at the tourists, cause we're not tourists anymore. We live here. HA HA. Anyway, I did all the tourist-y things like hold a Koala and feed Kangaroos. Yes, I know these attractions are horribly bad and as an animal rights person, I shouldn't participate in them. But all the money went towards conservation anyway.....(This is me trying to justify myself, by the way). Oh, and Krups, I got a picture with the Koala. Just for you Roomie! Jules, I tried to steal one, but then security tackled me, not to mention the Kangaroo beat me up....j/k.
Ok, plans for after break. I am delaying my return flight by about 12 days, give or take. Some friends and I are going to rent a campervan and drive down the coast for 10 days. I might spend a day or two in Sydney, then come home. I think I might be home in time for graduation, but I'm not sure. I know all you Hollins people are gonna be mad at me, but I really wanna stay and travel in Australia, just for a little while. I'll try really hard to get back in time. I promise. Oh, and the other plan is just to drop out of school and live here. Seriously.
I know I havn't written in awhile, and I'm sorry. But hey, I'm kinda busy here in the Rainforest...what with writing annoying field reports, and then starting our DR's. DR's are Directed Research Projects, and account for about 30 % of our grade. Not a good time to slack off. My DR is the Weed DR. Yep, that's right, the Weed project. But not that kind of weed. Our project is about creating a computer key to identify the most common weed species here that influence restoration or agriculture. So that should narrow it down to, oh about 4000 different species. Thankfully, we are not responsible for all of them. Just the ones we find on site, and at our restoration site. But we still have to identify them (correctly), and then find a way to categorize them, and then make the computer program. The computer program part is the tricky part, see. Our computers here are somewhat ornery, to say the least. They don't seem to like the rainforest very much, and usually like to crash or eat disks, or just plain refuse to give up your paper. I had to hand a paper for Rainforest Ecology last week on a slip of paper telling Amanda what computer it was on and what file and she had to grade it on that computer. God I love technology. But I'm really excited about this project. Nothing like this has ever been done, and its really important that weed species can be identified easily and quickly, so we can get them under control before they eat our restoration sites. Wow....am I a dork or what?
We went to Kuranda this weekend, which was super fun. Kuranda is a "Rainforest Village" (meaning full of tourists and tourist traps) about an hour away from Cairns. It was fun to go and sneer at the tourists, cause we're not tourists anymore. We live here. HA HA. Anyway, I did all the tourist-y things like hold a Koala and feed Kangaroos. Yes, I know these attractions are horribly bad and as an animal rights person, I shouldn't participate in them. But all the money went towards conservation anyway.....(This is me trying to justify myself, by the way). Oh, and Krups, I got a picture with the Koala. Just for you Roomie! Jules, I tried to steal one, but then security tackled me, not to mention the Kangaroo beat me up....j/k.
Ok, plans for after break. I am delaying my return flight by about 12 days, give or take. Some friends and I are going to rent a campervan and drive down the coast for 10 days. I might spend a day or two in Sydney, then come home. I think I might be home in time for graduation, but I'm not sure. I know all you Hollins people are gonna be mad at me, but I really wanna stay and travel in Australia, just for a little while. I'll try really hard to get back in time. I promise. Oh, and the other plan is just to drop out of school and live here. Seriously.