Week 3 - There's more than one way to skin a cat.. Literally.

WARNING: Just as a warning to any of you who may be a bit squeamish. Monday's post may not be to your liking as we did our first dissection in class, I'm not going to describe it in detail nor will I be putting pictures of it up, but I just wanted to warn you.



Monday September 8th

Had my first class of the day at 12 pm where I got back the assignment on the graph I handed in last week. A plus means 100%, a check means 85% and a minus means 75%. I got mine back and I got a check on mine so I thought I did great getting 85%! Then when Dr. Breuner explained the marking scheme 85% is generally only average, even though I only made one mistake I was still marked down to average. The system here is a little different but nevertheless I'm still delighted with my mark!

 I had my Vertebrate Design and Evolution class at 1 pm where we discussed the origin of vertebrates and then at 2.30 pm we were having our first dissection lab. Seeing as we're moving onto the topic of muscles, we obviously needed something to work on in order to see these muscles on a vertebrate animal. So we used cats. I really did not want to do this lab knowing I would be looking at a dead cat. I was intrigued and wanted to know where the cats came from so I asked Kris. She told us that they came from a Humane Society who unfortunately put down cats that aren't adopted and are then sold onto a biological company who further supply schools and colleges for science experiments. These cats were supposed to come skinned but unfortunately, they got the order wrong and our poor cats came with their fur still attached. So naturally, seeing as we're not able to see the muscles through the fur, we had to skin our cats. I for one was not very impressed with this idea, and I really didn't want to go ahead with it. Fiona made the first incision and opened him up, so I would then carry on. Don't worry, I'm not going to describe it anymore! Basically, Fiona was a little squeamish so I had to do a lot of the work and seeing as we were only using one scalpel to begin with it made it hard so we decided to go and get a second one and we were able to work away side by side, slower than everyone else though, but we got most of the work done. It gave us a whole new light on the saying 'There's more than one way to skin a cat.' By the end of the lab, Fiona had come around and was okay with working on our kitty, while I was thoroughly enjoying myself the whole time. I'm slightly worried I enjoyed it so much. Kris then gave us a presentation on her cat and told us what our homework was then we all cleaned up the desk areas and left for home.

Some of the muscles we looked at in class, found this image on Google Images just as an example.

I got home and cooked up my dinner and relaxed and watched some Whose Line Is It Anyway. At 8pm Fiona, Elliot, Dave, Siobhan and I then went out to the dollar store that's on Brooks Street where you can get absolutely everything in there for only $1. We got all the essentials that were needed and then we headed out to North Reserve Street to the Walmart to do the rest of the shopping. I came home and worked on the muscle assignment a little bit before heading to bed.


Tuesday September 9th

Went into college for 9:45 am because sign up for the Yellowstone trip was at 10:15 am. Met Fiona in there and I also met another Irish student Eilis! Glad to meet some more Irish it really is lovely. We got signed up and paid our $85 so we were delighted! From here we went over to the library to print off our sign up for our one credit class of Hunter Check Station. I'm really looking forward to this class! Basically, we go to a Hunter Check Station (the one we've picked is in Darby), and we monitor the species, sex and ages of all the animal that are leaving the reserve with the hunters. We learn to be able to tell the sex, species and ages of the animals which should be really cool! And I was talking to one of the girls in my Habitat class and she said when she did that class they saw a wolf being carried out of the reserve, which is really unusual! When we went to the office to hand these in we picked up a couple free posters of Owls, Frogs & Toads, Salamanders and Bats of Montana - to decorate our rooms a little bit! We then headed over to the University Center where we got tickets for the Griz game on Saturday. They're free - NICE! I really hope I can go, next week I have two exams on Monday - one of them is worth 20% and I also have two assignments due in.
Went to Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management today and we got handed back our assignments which we handed in last Tuesday and I was so shocked to see i got 10/10 in it! Delighted! Basically just did about niche theories in this lecture and then headed home.

 Met Jak on the way back and he asked were we going to his ice hickey game tonight. I originally hadn't planned on it but I decided I would simply because I've never been to an ice hockey game, and I vowed to get most of my work done this evening so I could go.

The hockey game!

 I received an email from Sarah Culloty - the head of BEES in UCC letting me know we were up on the BEES website about studying abroad. We were delighted to be able to promote what a great experience this is for students! I worked on my muscles assignment and got it finished so I had my dinner and at 8:35 pm  we left to go to the hockey game. Fiona, Elliot, Sarah, Barry and I all hopped into my car and headed over. Met up with all the Internationals and had a blast cheering on for Jak's team. Being the coolies that we are - didn't head out tonight cause we have so much work to be doing - so we went to Big Dipper on the way home and got ice cream! It's so good.
Then we headed home and myself and Fiona stayed up chatting for a while before checking the time at 12:40 am and headed to bed!


Wednesday September 10th

There was quite a noteable temperature drop today. The season for long pants and hoodies is coming!

 Dr. Breuner decided she wanted to test out what we could remember from the last lecture we had so she asked us all to close our notes and she called on random people in the class to recite what they could remember from Monday's class. I didn't get called on - this time! She then gave us out a mini group assignment to do in class given the formulas we just ran through. This time I didn't escape and I got called on to explain the first part of the equation - which we thankfully got right! We then proceeded on with the lecture and we even finished up a few minutes early. Went over to my second and last class of the day in the Health Science Building for Vertebrate Design and Evolution. Here we talked about embryology of vertebrates which is quite interesting. We were also given details of our field trip to the Bison Range on Saturday with our class and we also got given our research project assignments, both Fiona and I got the project on Perch Compliance in birds that we requested. Bret also dropped some subtle hints about possible exam questions. Finished up at 2:30 pm and headed home. Made lunch and then I FaceTimed my sister for a while to see how she was getting on with her first week of classes in University College Cork. Fiona and I then went and cleaned the whole apartment because it wasn't exactly clean and we put all the dirty dishes into the dishwasher because we didn't want to wash them. We both then retreated to our rooms to work on the forever growing pile of homework that never seems to vanish.

I started the assignment Bret gave us on choosing a clade of our choice and research a bunch of different topics on them. This took quite some time, but right now I've thankfully got most of it done with! It shouldn't take me too long to finish it up. It's looking like I'm going to be able to go to the Griz game on Saturday night! I worked at this assignment for a couple of hours and then Fiona and I sat down to watch the Disney movie I have been longing to see, Tangled.

Thursday September 11th

Today was the day I got to meet my Missoula International Friendship Program family and I am way too excited! We had our Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management class this afternoon from 12-1 pm. Dr. Dreitz gave us information about our upcoming field trip next Tuesday. From here I headed home and tried to study for the exams I have coming up. Naturally though, I fell asleep for a good bit and missed the group meeting we were going to have about discussing travel plans for Thanksgiving.

I made my dinner and then got ready for the meet and greet. It was being held in Caras Park, Missoula, beside the carousel and we were being given free ice cream from the Big Dipper also. The Meet and Greet was due to begin at 6:30pm until 8 pm. Fiona, Preethy and I left Lewis and Clark at this time as it was only a 10 minute drive to Caras Park. We arrived and there was already a big gathering of students and families. We signed in at the student table, and they directed us to go to the woman in a yellow hat and yellow balloons. Her name is also Shannon and she's my MIFP! Both Fiona and I signed in with her and Fiona chilled with us while she waited for her family to arrive (which didn't take long). Shannon then brought me over and introduced me to her husband, Craig, and her daughter, Grace, who were already in line for the Big Dipper ice cream. Their son, Callan, was helping to serve the ice cream so I also got to meet him too. We got our ice cream and this amazing chocolate sauce. Dan then arrived and we all chatted and laughed for I would say the best part of an hour. Grace wanted to go on the carousel so all of us, except Callan because he was helping to clean up, got on the carousel, which was good fun! There's a mini challenge also where there is a dragon who has rings in his mouth that the person on the outside horse can try and get and if you get the gold ring you get a free ride (even though the carousel was free for today). Dan was on the outside horse and he got I think 4 rings, and I think Grace got 4/5 also.

It was such a nice evening, very relaxed and I'm very happy I got such a nice family. Everything finished up at 8 pm so we headed home and because it got quite cold this evening we had hot chocolate to heat us up a bit before heading to Elliot's to print off our homework that is due in tomorrow.

Seeing as we were shattered and cold we didn't have the mindset to do any study, so we sat down and watched Spirit, because I have never seen it. After this, I hopped into bed and did some studying for the mini class test I have tomorrow for Wildlife Physiological Ecology.


Friday September 12th

Today Dr. Breuner brought her dog into class today. She told us on Wednesday that what she normally does with exams is bring her dog into the classroom so people won't get too stressed out and can pet a dog if needed. So on Friday, she brought Chloe into class for a while to introduce us to her seeing as we have a 20% exam on Monday morning. We then had a break from 1 - 3 pm. Our usual Friday labs don't happen anymore now that we're starting up our research projects, we have to go out to the University Flight Lab which is located at Fort Missoula. Here we had a talk on our project and we also got to meet the birds we will be using. We also got a tour of the building showing us all the very cool equipment that is used in their research.

The Field Research Station at Fort Missoula.

I also got invited over to my Missoula families house this evening. Dan and I headed over shortly after 5 pm for happy hour! We chilled out on their front porch and chatted with other students from China and Germany that Shannon and Craig know. I stayed until roughly 9.30 pm, I had to be up at 5.30 am for my first field trip tomorrow morning. But, instead of going to bed early, we decided we wanted to go and try see the Northern lights as they were supposed to be visible tonight. We drove to Blackfoot River and parked up on a dirt track with other International students. The lights were supposed to be peaking between 10pm-12am. By 12am we didn't see any lights so seeing as Fiona and I had to get up early in the morning we decided to head home. I dropped Kate off at the University Center on campus and headed back to Lewis and Clark. We got home and into bed for about 1am.

Saturday September 13th

My alarm went off at 5.30 am and I really didn't want to get up but I knew I had to. For our field trip today we were going to the  National Bison Range. We left Lewis and Clark at 6.30 am and walked to campus as the city buses don't start running on Saturdays until 10am. We arrived on campus at 7am, bang on time. We met Bret and Kris and loaded into the two University minivans. We first stopped at a Cafe in Missoula for everyone to get coffee. Seeing as I don't drink coffee, I got hot chocolate which was absolutely delicious! We then headed for the Bison Range.

We pulled in the gate and we spotted herds of Bison on the hills. We all looked through our binoculars as Bret set up the scope for us to get a clearer picture. We also looked into the trees to our left and saw some Elk over there also. We started on the trail spotting some Red Tailed Hawks sitting on some fence posts as well as some Mule Deer. Soon, we came along a herd of Pronghorn Antelope which we admired in the distance. As well as a male just a couple meters away from us on the road. We also did some bird spotting in the skies along our journey, spotting plenty of Mule Deer while trying to keep an eye out for the Black Bear and her cubs - unfortunately we had no such look. We traveled up hill around some switch back trails and saw some more Mule Deer before coming onto the Bitterroot Trail. We got out of the cars here and walked a little bit, spotting some Elk in the distance through binoculars and also some Bighorn Sheep high up on the mountains. Already a very productive day in animal spotting!

The Pronghorn Antelope on the dirt road ahead of us.

A Bighorn Sheep through the scope, taken on my phone.

We continued on the trail up to the highest point on the range. Here we walked up a mini trail to try and see the Bighorn Sheep at a closer distance. The elevation here really gets to me but thankfully I wasn't the only one out of breath. After a quick 2 min catch up we finished the trek and got to the top. Right down below us there was a herd of Bighorn Sheep just laying in the sunshine. This day has just been absolutely fantastic so far! We swapped drivers here, Bret hopped into our car and Kris into the other one. We continued on the trail back down the mountain where we did some more bird watching and also some Bison watching. Along the trail down we saw some more Mule Deer and then... in the distance we saw TWO COYOTES!! I got way too excited about this. Waaaaay too excited. We watched them playing through our binoculars while running off. We continued our drive and spotted a lone coyote. This had to be the best day ever. THREE coyotes in the space of five minutes. We watched this guy before he moved off and we followed Kris and the others along. We pulled up alongside a massive Bison who we named Big Eddie, just lying on the side of the road and off to the distance on our right there was a massive herd of Bison chilling out with some of them rolling around in the dried up mud/sand. Through our binoculars we spotted FOUR more coyotes creeping down the hill into the herd of Bison. I seriously didn't think this day could get any better!

'Big Eddie'

We watched these coyotes have a stare down with some of the younger Bison. Then they all creeped up to one of the really young ones that was lying down in the grass, we honestly thought they were going to try and take him on! The young Bison just stood up and stared them down, they then playfully ran a small bit in our direction and split up before rejoining and running up onto the hills. By this time we all had gotten out of the car to watch this through our binoculars right beside where Big Eddie was lying down. We kept an eye on him because he had stood up when we got out of the car. I spotted a cute little chipmunk here also. We could also hear this grunting noise coming from the trees below us, but we were not allowed to wander too far away from the car, seeing as it's forbidden to get out of your car in the Bison Range, only in designated areas. We figured it might have just been another Bison.

The extremely cute chipmunk.

The other car had gone ahead of us so they missed out on the whole show! We drove on to try and meet up with them until I asked Bret to stop the car because there was a lone coyote, yes. Coyote number EIGHT! He was foraging in the long grass about 5 meters ahead of us. I got way too excited and used Fiona's camera to take some pictures because her zoom is better than mine. We watched him for a few minutes before he scampered off and so did we. We met up with the others who were after spotting a five point Elk chilling under the shade of the trees off into the distance. We took a look at him for a while through our binoculars and through the scope that Bret had set up. It was also close to the time of mating season for the Elk so you were able to hear the males bugling, which to me just sounded like a terrifying scream.

The incredibly cute coyote.

 We then headed to the picnic area to have lunch because we were all starving at this point. We chatted about a variety of incredibly random animal related subjects. It's so nice to be in a class with such a bunch of friendly people where we all get on quite well! After filling our stomachs, we then went up to the visitor center where we got to go into the back room and have a look at some of the very impressive skulls that were there and quite a range of other specimens! As you can see below, I 'tried on' one of the antlers of a Bull Elk. We then went to the visitor center which was outside the main gates where Bret bought everyone some Buffalo Jerky. Something I had never tried in my life. Peer pressure of course got to me and I tried some. It was quite tough and had a really strong taste to it but it was actually quite nice! It has the weirdest texture to it though. On the way home I tried the spicy jerky which was actually nicer than the original one.

 

We were back to campus for roughly 2.30 pm and one of the guys in my class kindly dropped us to Lewis and Clark because we would have to wait a whole hour for the next city bus to come, or walk. I got home and got straight into bed and slept for about 2.5 hours. It was fabulous! Fiona was heading to the Griz game tonight but I had so much studying for my exam on Monday I couldn't go! I got to FaceTime my Mom for a small while and then I also rang Dad for a chat for a few minutes. I was in the middle of doing some study when Nicole asked if I wanted to FaceTime. I was so delighted we chatted  for over 2 hours having a major catch up! It was great. And also like 6.30 am Irish time when she went to bed, whoops!

The Vertebrate Design and Evolution class with Bret Tobalske and Kris Crandell at the highest point on the Bison Range.

Sunday September 14th

 I slept in late today then eventually got up and did my laundry. I have my first 20% exam tomorrow for Wildlife Physiological Ecology as well as a quiz on the muscles of the cat. I spent most of my day studying for my Physiology exam before heading to Walmart about 2.15 pm with Dave, Elliot, Siobhan and Fiona. We gathered some food and I had to buy a scientific calculator because I would need it for the classes I would be taking here. It only cost me $10 where you'd pay E15 or so for one back home in Ireland, crazy! Came back home and did more study for the evening. I also finally watched the Amazing Spiderman which was absolutely incredible! Andrew Garfield makes for a very good Spiderman! I headed to bed about 11 pm because I was still tired from the day before and I wanted to get up early tomorrow to go for a walk and do some study. 



Such a fun week was had! I was kept busy with all my assignments and studying for quizzes and exams. Next week I finally get to go on a trip to Yellowstone National Park and I am way too excited for it!!

Thanks for reading!

- Shannen