Coloring+Candy+Playing in Mud=Science!

Ecology is definitely growing on me, which is great!  The graphs and math that were semi-frustrating to me the first week make all kinds of sense to me now! I feel SO much better about life because of it.  And we're getting into field trips, which is always my favorite part!  We spent half of this week out in the field.  To top that, Kelly (my professor) is awesome! She's sweet, super helpful when we don't understand things, and very encouraging.  She also made some of our lectures this week awesome by letting us color and giving us candy (yes, I am 5 and still appreciate such things!)... but really, who doesn't love coloring?!

So here's my week in a nut-shell (if bogs can be considered nut-shells):
Last weekend: We went to civilization and it was glorious!! :D  Craft shopping and going to Starbucks and the mall and IHop for dinner.  It really was just lovely to see things outside of our normal 7 miles!  And we made this quality video too... If you give a girl a pinwheel, what else do you expect her to do?!

Wee! We! We! Weeeee!

(sorry it's sideways- technology doesn't like me)

Monday! Field trip to Point aux Pins to get ALL the blue crabs! Woo!
For those of you who haven't handled a blue crab before, it's important to note something:  Blue crabs are nasty little boogers that will pinch the snot out of you. Really.  They are fast and vicious. And each group was to collect and measure 100 of them. Oh, and the waters we were walking in are infested with sting rays.  So we're just looking for things to attack us at this point (Don't freak out, Mom, I'm halfway kidding!). Well after a hot few hours in the sun we accomplished a lot: Morgan and I dragged a seine that tangled on itself resulting in zero crabs, but it was a QUALITY work out; a classmate thought it was a good idea to walk barefoot in stingray infested waters and was told in a motherly tone to "Shuffle himself back here!" (Go Kelly!); and my group still managed to seine well over 100 crabs! And we measured all of those bad boys (and girls, mostly girl crabs actually) without one pinching catastrophe!  (It helps that we only had two huge crabs and the rest were babies.)

Tuesday! I met with Dr. Drymond (the super cool shark guy from a couple weeks back) and we talked about Graduate school.  He was very helpful, but I left less decisive than I came. There are just SO many options!! I mean, I could always join the Peace Corps too.

Wednesday!  Not super exciting- we mostly attempted to study for our first Ecology Exam on Thursday.  Kelly had a review session for us and then we "studied" for a few more hours.

Thursday!  This was the longest day of my life!  Not it a bad way, but it definitely had enough packed into it to be a week of activities.  We had our first exam in the morning, followed by a lecture, quick lunch break, then field work, field work, and more field work, and then I had clean up duty. But even though it was exhausting, it was a great day!   
The test: ended up with an A on it, which was a miracle.  Most of the class did not do as well as they were hoping, but now we know how tests are in this class and we won't need to give ourselves heart attacks next time.   
The lecture: The best lecture OF ALL TIME!  We learned foraging techniques by running after candy that Kelly strategically placed on a bunch of picnic tables.  We had a minute to collect as many piles of candy as possible.  Snickers were 10 points, Starburst were 4 and Skittles were 1 point each.  Clearly, I went for the chocolate every time- it's delicious and "nutritious" (according to our game).  So next Snickers you eat, 10 points to you for being awesome- calories shmalories!
The field work: We went to Ferry marsh to do two experiments.  One studying oyster clusters as homes for crabs and one studying predation.  What we learned about oyster clusters: They're sharp and will cut you (like Bon Qui Qui).

I'm also pretty sure we found the largest oyster cluster in the marsh- it displaced about 1.5 Liters.  Just another reason my lab group rocks!
The predation experiment is a few day long experiment.  We started Thursday and set everything up, but we also check it on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  We tied hermit and mud crabs to fishing line (like leashes or nooses- however you'd like to think about it), and we check each day to see if they're eaten.  If they are, we replace them with another crab.  Half of the crabs are in fake seagrass and the other half is in open water.  This might be the first Ecology experiment that actually goes our way without hiccups... we shall see!  But I'm excited about it!

Friday! MURRICA!  Happy birthday, America!!  Yayyyyy Freedom! We had class, but after that I watched White House Down.  Quality movie!  Channing Tatum, guns blazing, and Murrica... what's not to love?!  And of course, we go to the beach for fireworks! We also went to listen and dance to country music because there's nothing more American than that.  It was a lovely evening! I'm so glad we have a day to celebrate living in the land of the free because of the Brave!  We are truly blessed to live in a country with the freedom to live how we choose.

Saturday: My sister's 24th birthday!!!!! Woot! Woot! Have the best day ever! 14 days until Mexico :D

What's coming up:
Over night trip to Panama City!! And some lecture and lab and such too, but WE'RE GOING TO PBC!  This is thrilling, and I can't wait to tell you all about it!