Parallel Universe

So I must be living in a parallel universe where people are allowed to destroy a city without any consequences. I was on my way to meet up with some friends to go to dinner and a movie last night. A couple of blocks before reaching my department, I had to stop in the middle of the street as a mob of 100s of toga-clad students just came running across the street in-front of traffic. I sat there mildly amused watching them pass while I missed a couple green lights. I get to the street my office is on and the road is closed so I can only go straight. I end up in the cross fire of an egg-throwing war between a couple groups. Haha, my truck is getting pelted with eggs as a couple are taking refuge from fire behind my truck. Then one of them opened up my back door and as I start swearing another came running by, hears me swearing and shuts it. I turn the corner and get to the next stop light and across from me another group is trying to rock a city bus back and forth at a stop light...like they're really going to tip it. And further up the street I see another 100 or so run across the town center octagon. I tell my friends that it's not safe to walk to the movie so we decide to meet at my house and get pizza. I headed home to wash the truck...which I figured out tonight that I didn't get it all cause there is egg in-between my door seals...my door was "egged" shut!

Thankfully, all I got was eggs. Students were throwing vomit and feces out their windows at other students and onto cars. Other cars were smashed up, store windows broken and garbage bins upheaved. Click here for the news story and photos. Only 3 people arrested!!! No one will be expelled...they want to act like this doesn't ever happen here, but it does every year...it just was a bit worse than normal. Any other civilized city in the world would not allow this shit! But this town just cleans up the damn mess! I am flabbergasted that the students can run over this town, be aggressive and destructive in such shear force of numbers that other residents can't even go to a damn movie cause it isn't safe! It's disgusting!

Getting my sanity back...maybe

The field course was fun. And very relaxed. The students choose very low-identification projects and thus didn't need much assistance in the lab...mostly just designing their projects and driving the different pairs to their study sites and I checked out the equipment. We were practically fighting over the chance to drop off or pick up a group of students. So I read a lot, went on some walks, went birding a couple times. After working so much for the last couple of months I didn't bother bringing any work with me so read a lot! I can't say enough about the phenomenal food we had while there...homemade soups, desserts galore, scones, lasagna, chicken, steak and mushroom pie...oh my! I've posted an album.

I've decided that I will absolutely not work on weekends for the rest of February (the last of summer). So for the first weekend, I went hog-wild at the farmer's market and then I tried out the physio pool on Saturday with a friend. It's 95F! It felt great on a cool day. I went to a barbie (bbq) at Rachel's on Sat night. Sunday I went to tunnel beach, this beach were some rich dude had a tunnel blown/carved out of the rock/cliff down to this tiny beach. A bunch of us went out for Mexican last night. Oh how I miss it! There's one place to go in this city and it's expensive. I had a plate of nachos with beef for $25! And that's without guacamole! Then we tried to go to "He's just not that in to you" but it was sold out! Crap. That was disappointing but we'll try again next Tuesday night (cheap night).

Not much else happening in my life but fish dissections, fish dissections, fish, dissections.

A day off!

So yesterday was my first day off since the beginning of Dec.  Now I didn't work all day every day for that couple of months...there were some days where I just came in to feed my fish and walked back out the door.  The last week was like hell.  I had a 2-day workshop, was training someone on helping dissect fish, field work, ended my experiment, euthanized fish and revised my first manuscript!  So my first paper on my Master's research will be published in the Journal of Parasitology.  It feels great to have that done.  One more to go from my Master's work...

Ahhh, but yesterday was fabulous.  I didn't do much of anything.  Slept in (until Wayne came knocking on the door for his mail, damn him!), then watched a movie in bed, took a nap, did some gardening and watched some tv.  All in all it was the best day I've had in a very long time.  If the wind hadn't been so horrendous, I would have also headed to the beach, but getting hit by sand hurts.  Oh, and yesterday was my quitting-smoking anniversary...6 YEARS!!  I can hardly believe it!  And in the last couple of months I've had more cravings than I've had in the last couple of years!  It must be the stress.  

I'm off to go pack for a week-long field course that I'm helping out with and we leave tomorrow.  We head to a camp in the Catlins, an area of native forest and beautiful rugged coastline with great beaches.  Too bad the forecast isn't great so those beaches won't be as enjoyed as they could be.  4 professors, 3 demonstrators (same thing as a teaching assistant...that's what I'll be doing), 2 cooks and 30 students.  They have lectures for a day and a half and then have to do their own projects...so basically I help them with equipment and experimental design and critical thinking...I'm so looking forward to it!

working working working

So I've gotten to the point where I'm working so much that I'm not being very productive.  But deadlines and live animals do not wait!  I have one week to finish revising my paper that was accepted for publication.  I have my fish to take care of daily...this is a constant stress as I worry my fish will all be belly up before the end of my experiment.  And I will be helping with a field ecology course in the Catlins the first week on Feb.  During which I will leaving my fish in the hands of a couple of labmates...scary!  Robert has promised me we can drive everyday to find cell phone reception so I can check in on my fishes.   After so many weeks, the chances of a disease hitting my tanks increases...a constant worry!  I can't wait until it is over!  Then maybe I can take some weekends off this summer!

Kitty kitty kitty

So here's the kitty living under our house.

I think she's been there for a couple of months.  She is extremely skittish and would run on any encounter with a human.  I started feeding her earlier this week.   She warmed up to me quickly!  I came home early yesterday to meet the guy putting a new window in.  I scared her when I walked into the garden but then she realized who I was and came back to watch me.  I went and got her some food and she let me pet her (I didn't see any fleas) and even let me pick her up!  She laid by the back door when I was in the house.  Her hair has been cut with a scissors in the past so she's obviously belonged to someone in the past...I'm guessing a student let her go at the end of the school year in Nov.  Anson says he'll more than likely be allergic since it's a long-haired cat.  I'm going to try to find it a home else I guess I could try to keep it as an outside cat but I think it will need a warmer place to sleep in the winter.  Maybe I can come up with some sort of outdoor cat box.  I don't know.

My officemates

Rebecca, Anson, me and Robert on our new couch

Tagging fish

Common bully in anaesthetic

Fish in my home-made fish-holding device

Now I'm injecting a tag...which is soft when I inject it but then hardens into a plastic-like line of color.  The color and location of the tag determines the fish number.

Then they get a day to recover and I infect them with my parasite.

Wow, where does the time go?!

Well, I managed to infect 120 fish by Christmas, plus 2 because a couple died.  I think I'm getting carpel tunnel from squeezing a pipet bulb too much!  Thankfully Christmas came along when it did cause I was getting burnt out!  The holidays were great.  I had a party on Christmas Eve with about 25 other foreigners and we did a White Elephant gift exchange (where you bring a gift from home).  And for Christmas dinner I went to Rachel's...other than that I was lazy.  And I couldn't ask for more!  All I've done is come in everyday to feed my fish and clean tanks once in a while.  I'm cat sitting for some friends now.  And am back to running...I was working too much to even fit in a workout!  But no more, I say!  This damn cold town, with it's damn cold houses has allowed me to put on too much weight this year and I'm getting to the point of not fitting into most of the pants in my closet!  This is a problem!  But it seems summer has hit this week (who knows how long that will last) and I'm getting back to jogging on the beach.  This mornings jog was great...I went to a different beach than normal since it's closer to where I'm cat sitting.  And the horse farm nearby was exercising the horses with those tiny one person carts.  Well, I'm off to feed my fish and then home to do some gardening.

More infections!

So my next experiment is off to a good start! I've infected 19 fish and have only 101 more to go!  And I'm behind on every other aspect of my project!  Arghh!  Too much to do, not enough time!  Luckily I HAVE to leave the lab by 6 tonight because I'm babysitting for one of the lecturers...great kids and they spoil me with a fabulous dinner!  But my life is now revolving around my snails producing my parasites and me getting them into fish as fast as possible!

Thunder Storm and 007 excite me!

Yesterday was exciting...we had a thunder storm!!  They are rare here and this was the first one since I've been here!!  I sooo miss the lightening and thunder!  It rains here so much that you get sick of it, but yesterday it was wonderful!  Despite the fact that by the time I walked to my truck, I was soaked and had to sit through the entire James Bond movie with wet jeans.  The movie was great and a large group of us went...or several small groups met up at the theater.  And ahhh, Daniel Craig.....sigh...