Time sure flies, everyday something new and exciting happens. Life is great, my studies have been very interesting and challenging. The past week I was in south eastern washington right off the columbia river for a few days. This trip was mostly about spending time in the field observing animal behavior and also getting to know the class and teachers. They wanted to see how responsible and grounded everyone is for the prospect of traveling abroad in spring. We had one nice sunny day during which I went to watch the salmon spawning. These fish were giant, weighing up to 50 pounds, and put up an incredible fight to swim upstream through the crazy white water. We also saw the native people of the Yakima Tribe fishing with nets and heard some intense stories from them about people falling into the rivers... I got to spend a lot of time with my class which is full of amazing people all specializing in some form of biology or ecology. We also got to explore a river by the cabins we were staying in which had many layers of beaver dams. The dams were so strong we could walk out on them and there were multiple ones all over the river because after a few years they need to find a new location for a dam in order to gather food for the winter. I also saw many salamanders (at least 100), tons of different frogs, and a few unique species of snakes. During the trip we had a few lectures from the teachers about the differences between haploid and diploid mating systems, its very complex and if you are curious just check it out here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploidy . . The trip was a blast and i also got to drive around the cargo van and make stops for huckleberry milk shakes.... This curent week has gone by quick, and I have also been working in the rec center more. This week I worked the front desk and also the basketball game last night. I was in charge of the shot clock which involves resetting the clock during the game. Not bad at all... I have also been doing lots of rock climbing in the gym and still getting lots of bike riding in. I did my first project analysis today which involved extrapolating data out of photos and recordings and inputting it into an excel spreadsheet. Iv already learned a lot and am very excited to continue doing field research and devising my own studies. My credits from NOLS finally got carried over this week, and i now have an additional 11 credits (16 is a full quarter)! Here are some pictures from the trip http://www.flickr.com/photos/23083581@N02/sets/72157625177370117/ . http://www.flickr.com/photos/23083581@N02/sets/72157625177370117/ .
here is a movie of the salmon spawning up the river http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=452196328370&ref=mf
