Ok, ok... I know I've been in some sort of blogging black hole lately. I apologize to those of you who have been on the edge of your seats, checking daily for my coveted posts. Turns out, grad school is a busy place! So, since I really haven't seemed to write about anything except the weather and how it effects my hair, I'm going to give you a down-and-dirty summary of exactly what's been going on.
It's about a month into classes now, and I'm finally starting to get into the swing of things. As it stands, my schedule is as follows:
Monday:
8:30-9:45 - Fundamentals of Geospatial Analysis (GIS training, for those who were as confused by the title as I was)
11:40-12:55 - GIS Lab
1:15-4:00 - Ocean and Coastal Law and Policy (not as interesting as it sounds, so far... but this week we leave the coastal law and start looking at ocean law, including marine mammal protection act, endangered species act, etc. So I have high hopes!)
Tuesday:
10:05-11:20 - Resource and Environmental Economics. Yup, boring.
11:30-4:00 - usually this is when I work at the magazine for my assistantship (yes, I got it!!). It's good, but a lot of times I don't have enough to do... even though I'm currently working on 3 stories and 2 photo projects. It's a lot of waiting for people to get back to me... I forgot that's what journalism was like)
4:25-5:40 - Physical Coastal Processes, by far my favourite course. Interesting content, and the prof is ridiculously fun!
Wednesday: Repeat of Monday, minus the law class. Usually some grocery shopping and cleaning thrown in for good measure (when I'm not frantically working to try and finish off my GIS lab so I don't have to go back on the weekend)
Thursday: An exact replica of Tuesday, but I get the satisfaction of knowing that when the long day is over, I have the next 3 days off :)
Also this term over fall break I'm going to California on an amazing, whirl-wind tour of the coast with a "Marine Ecology of the Pacific" class. Yes, I'm going to California for fall break, and I get 2 credits for it. It's like Nerds Gone Wild. Grad school ROCKS!
My magazine assistantship is going really well so far. I remember after my first staff meeting texting to one of my friends that the most "at home" I had felt since I got here was sitting in the board room with my colleagues in the communications office. In one way, that was a little sad when I thought about it, because it made me realize that I really hadn't bonded with any of my fellow students yet. But in another way it kind of reminded me why I loved journalism in the first place, so I got over it pretty quickly. They're definitely starting me off easy, which I kind of understand. It's just a little frustrating when they give me "2 or 3 weeks" to write a short press release, when in journalism school I was taught to crank one out in about an hour. I did manage to get them to assign me a couple of other stories this week though, so I'm moving up... I may even be getting paid to blog soon! (Nothing final, but I'll keep you posted!)
Two weekends ago was the coastal student's visitation weekend/triathalon weekend in Beaufort at the marine lab where I'll be living next year. I drove the four hours to campus with two other girls from my program, and we arrived at 1:00 on Friday. When we got there, we were introduced to the professors and staff, and then met with our advisors. My advisors are AMAZING. They're both Canadian (the first I've come across so far!), they do marine mammal stuff, and my real advisor (Dave Johnston... but we work in Andy Read's lab as well, so he's kind of my pseudo-advisor) is new to staff, so I'm the only student he's advising next year. And he's super-stoked about it, which makes me even more excited to work with him. After the lab meeting, he actually took me on a quick tour of campus, then later that day brought his wife and 11-month-old daughter down to campus to meet me. I was then promptly invited to visit their home whenever I wanted, and told that any big Canadian holiday I was expected to go down to Beaufort and celebrate with them. Johnstons, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship :) Dave and Andy are also looking into finding me an internship in Canada over the summer, or one in the States that I can get paid for despite not having a work visa. Yeah, I think I'm going to like it there.
After the lab meeting, the weekend became more social. First up was a scavenger hunt (which my group didn't win, but got honourable mention and a Nicholas School nalgene bottle for picking up the most garbage), then a barbecue (with free beer, of course), then off to my "mentor's" house where I was staying with him, his roommate, his roommate's girlfriend, and another friend that came down for the triathalon that weekend. A few more of their friends came over, and we just spent the rest of the night hanging out and chatting. The next day was the triathalon (which I watched, obviously... do I look like a triathlete to anybody?? Didn't think so.) followed by another barbecue and more beer (which I passed on in lieu of water... it was H-O-T, and I was dehydrated already). Then.... BEACH! I ended up randomly joining a group of second-year people that I didn't know, and we all met up at their house to get ready then headed to the beach. Which was GORGEOUS. It was sunny, hot (but now with a nice breeze), the waves were big, and the water was bath-tub warm. We played in the ocean and lounged on the beach for a few hours, before heading back to the house and getting rinsed off. We met up with a few other people and went out for dinner, then headed out to my mentor's house for a kegger that he and his roommate were throwing. By this point most of the other first-years had already left, but I managed to find a few people I recognized. I was supposed to be staying with my mentor again that night, but by 1:00 I was wiped, and the party showed no sign of winding down, so I invited myself to my new friends' house to crash on their floor. (Luckily they said yes, so I didn't have to sleep in my car). The next morning I got up early, snuck out of the house (so as to not wake the other slumbering guests) and went to a coffee shop to grab breakfast. I ate it down by the harbour, looking out into the sound at the wild horses on the other island, and looking for the dolphins that I've been told can sometimes be seen. And I realized that I COULD NOT WAIT to move down there. Sadly, though, I immediately had to go and pick up the girls (plus one more) and start the long drive back to Durham. Next year, Beaufort... next year.
As a lot of you probably know, I am a brand-new aunt as of September 10th. Yes, I am now (and forevermore) Fun Aunt Robyn. And, being the Fun Aunt that I am, I decided to fly home last weekend to meet my new little Nephew. He is CUTE. I'm not just talking cute, or even Cute, he's CUTE. Adorably so, in fact. I got to spend last Friday and Saturday getting to know him, and watching Mommy and Daddy figuring stuff out (like how it's not the best idea to change a diaper on a leather couch... :P ). Being home was great. It was a much-needed break from the still somewhat-uncomfortable social situations, and I could just be my ridiculous self for awhile. (I'm still "censoring the crazy" a bit... just until people get to know me a little better. No need to scare them off yet!) I could have used an extra day or two, but overall 3 days isn't bad. Plus, Christmas isn't so far away!
Coming back was a bit of an ordeal... not just because my flight from Washington to Durham was delayed by TWO HOURS and I didn't get back home until 1:00 a.m.... but because I really didn't know how I was going to face going back to class. Yes, one month in and I'm already at that point. But a strange thing happened yesterday: I realized how many people I can actually talk to in the halls now. And I made plans to hang out with a few people later this week. And I realized that I'm actually settling in here, which is a nice feeling.
Anyways, I've written about a novel-and-a-half so I'm going to quit with the updating for tonight... I'm sure there's lots of stuff I left out, and I'm sure this wasn't the most interesting post to read, but I started this blog to let people know what's going on in my life. It's not always up-to-date, it's not always interesting... but hey, it's grad school! What were you expecting?
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