Updates for the summer

When schools out,
we ought to go out to play,
but, i guess it also depends on who your friends are.
where and what.

For almost the whole of May, June and July,
I have been given the privilege of mingling with field people,
doing COOL field work,
instead of my usual lazing and slacking.

As for my project,
after we got TRAINED and CERTIFIED,
I got to start tagging the frogs,

Initially, I was quite worried about the procedure and the chances of it screwing up,
I had lots of what ifs
and the frog blood which made me a little nervous.


And i am really grateful and thankful for Daniel, Anne and Yeatian for being so willing to help out during my frogging sessions,
because that was my biggest worry while Dr Bickford and Sam were away for the summer.

Also, on the night after my last paper ended, i caught some tadpoles with Shihui
and i became a proud mother of 15 tadpoles.
They were indeed my pride and joy and they really kept me going with their growth.
But it was with great pain and sorrow, i had to released them after i got some measurements because i couldnt continue going to the spider lab begging for flies after they became tiny little froglets, ready for the real world.

Also, Kae-ru which i captured and monitored for a few days, (its Japanese for frog)
He is a likely candidate of the many tadpoles from that area.

For the whole of May, June and July, either 3 or 4 of us, with occasional invited guest would go frogging or tadpoling.
every session is refreshing, despite the fatigue,
and when were are too foresfied, we forget the feeling of civilisation (private joke).

and how comfy the whole Bickford lab has become,
with Mark the squirrel, Abraham the duck, Basil the snake, Hugh the bear, Lewis the frog, Benedict the rat, and how the white board might even get its own name,

not forgetting Jen, our new post doc.


As for the coming semester,
i am looking forward to more frogging sessions,
while taking real Year 3 BIO modules.

i am eternally grateful for my UROPSes for giving me my semester doses of BIOLOGY in my BIO-poor Year 2 cores modules.
And of course Mr. Siva for introducing me to UROPS in my year 1 and Dr. Bickford for accepting me in my year 2,
apparently, one thinks i am "silly", another "weird".



Dateline: 23 October, 2009 --report to be submitted.


cant wait for the new semester to start to dread.
alicia

Ps: i will get some pix uploaded soon.