Monday March 2nd
We moved onto phylogenetic trees and Ryan, my TA, was teaching it today. It was pretty cool I made up mini trees with all my first cousins, 41 in total, for the two different sides of my family which is kinda mad!
For Ornithology we had Erick Greene a guest lecture who is very well known in the university and gave us a lecture on bird songs which is pretty interesting. He gave us some examples from studies he has carried out himself out on Mt Sentinel involving Lazuli Buntings.
Nothing at all interesting happened today, I FaceTimed Mom and Dad for a small while.. I posted last weeks blog and then started on next weeks. I like to try and stay on top of it when I have time. I submitted my Genetics Take Home exam as well as finishing off my annotated bibliography for my parks and recreation class. I have 4 out of 6 papers done and each has to be a page long and we have to answer a load of specific questions. WHOOO! So since I was in the productive mood I started reading my papers for my rangeland ecology class that's due for Thursday and I've started summarizing them too. To clear my mind, I watched an episode of Bones as well, I'm catching up at long last!!
 |
| Gorgeous sunset :) |
Tuesday March 3rd
Today we had rangeland ecology at 11am which wasn't all that bad. We started talking about water potentials so it's not overly complicated thankfully. Told Brady I wouldn't be in class the following week as we are going to Seattle so I got signed up for my presentation which is due the week after Spring Break on disturbances caused by grazing. During my hour and a bit off today I finished up my paper summaries, and started working on my ornithology for this week -_-. I have a lab exam next Thursday morning (the day we leave for Seattle) so I want to get prepared as early as possible cause the few days before we leave are going to be jam packed with making sure I've all my work for the weekend done with, the joys!
So today was kind of unproductive, I got home at 4pm and then took the next while off from work because I have a bad headache. I had dinner, chicken enchiladas which were so yummyyyyyyy! Then I started working on my Ornithology birds for the quiz this week.. They call this a quiz but it's a test we get 10-12 questions that all count towards our grade every week so it's a pain in the ass.. I didn't get much of it done though, Kate, Fiona and I went for Dairy Queen this evening and then Kate hung out for the evening, it was nice to get a break from staring at my laptop screen.
Wednesday March 4th
Nothing really that interesting happened today while in college. I got my genetics exam from last Friday back and I got a 78. Which isn't bad considering the average was 68 (which is a D over here). I partly expected to do crappy cause it was my third exam last week and I was so tired/not bothered and it's the first exam of the semester, and I never do that well in the first exam! But it's not the end of the world :)
I got home at 12pm and made myself lunch & showered . I did my washing aswell (very productive today!) Then I sat down and watched Pretty Little Liars before finishing off my Ornithology. I submitted my rangeland homework due for tomorrow, proof read my annotated bibliography for parks and recreation tomorrow. I also got my paper read for tomorrow's class and made a start at my genetics homework due for next Monday. I'm trying to get ahead with my work for next week so that when I go away next weekend I'm not falling any bit behind cause I can't afford to at all with the amount of homework I get..
I also did something very adult-like today. I went shopping for new windscreen wipers for my car since the ones I have are driving me mad with ages, I couldn't cope on a 7hr drive to Seattle listening to them :P So I bought ones that I believe from the book in the shop will fit. My friend Joe said he'll help me out putting them on when I got them so I'll probably do that tomorrow since I've to study my birds for tomorrow tonight :/
 |
| The diverse range of window wipers in Walmart :P |
 |
| The wipers the old man helped me pick out :D |
Our bird lab today was more relaxed seeing as we have our first lab exam next Thursday morning. We moved on and did some more new birds but we also talked about field methods in ornithology. In every lab we go through over 20 birds and then a 'special topic' for example, birds muscles, digestive system and so on..
Then we had the presentations in rangeland which was grand just listened away to them as usual. The topics this week were tough though it was all about water potential and all these weird things..
I had Libby's class after this where we went through the paper of the day and also learned a bit about experience based management. We also got out of class early (which never happens) and I got signed up for a meeting with Libby next Tuesday morning to talk about my final paper for that class.
Joe came to help me put the new wipers on my car and Dan also gave a hand while he was there. Turned out that one of them was too big so I was easily able to change that in Walmart. The new wipers work like a DREAM! No noise off of them and they also wipe the screen incredibly clean. I'm a very happy camper now :P
Fiona, Kate and I went and got McDonald's today. Because we got these vouchers for McDonald's where you get 2 for the price of 1 so that's cool. We just kinda chilled out and chatted here for a while before coming back home and helping Kate find a battery online for her camera. We reckon the battery has completely given up cause her camera is non responsive even though it's been charging up for two days :/
 |
| Standard food picture. |
Nothing really too exciting happened in college today. Was in from 8am - 11am so not too bad. I came home and got to FaceTime Av and Mom for a while and then Kate and I went and got ice-cream cause the weather here is currently CLASS! Like 11C out. No cold, just clear blue skies with SUN! Hoping it's going to stay this nice for next weekend in Seattle :D Tonight Fiona and I had a couple of our friends over to play cards against humanity and have some drinks.. Kate, Aoife and Bridget came over beforehand so we could all try and plan out what we wanna do when we're in Seattle :D Then at 9pm Joe called over and not long after that Sofia and Mike came over so we had a couple games going that were good craic. Sarah and Austin got home a little later and sat in for a few games too. This game is honestly the best invention ever and it has to be played more often! I kept getting bad cards for a lot of it but I was still able to win a couple rounds, tying in for 3rd place I think? :D
 |
| An example of a card in the Cards Against Humanity deck. |
Saturday March 7th
Another glorious day in March today, 12C. I also got the best sleep of my life which was well needed after the past two weeks of barely sleeping. I had to spend today doing a bunch of assignments that are due throughout the week because (like I've probably said 1 million times already) I won't be here next weekend which throws the cat among the pigeons slightly :P
This evening, Fiona, Kate, Aoife and I went to see Monsters University at the UC Theatre on campus. I absolutely love this movie so much so glad we went to see it!
 |
| Popcorn for $3 :) |
When we got back, Fiona and I watched two more episodes of Game of Thrones so now I'm over half way through season 4. And I love it. I'm still having trouble remembering names of people because I've watched so many episodes in such a short space of time - it's a lot of information :P
Sunday March 8th
The clocks went forward last night and I still managed to wake up early, 9.45 am. Oh well, I stayed in bed until after 11am sometime.. Had breakfast and then went straight into doing work for this week. Whoop whoop! Fiona informed me in the afternoon that ABC Family was playing Twilight.. And seeing as this movie is my guilty pleasure I couldn't resist watching it while trying to work on my Rangeland Ecology proposal at the same time.. This evening, Fiona, Kate, Eoghan and I went to Big Dipper. Eoghan got my me ice cream as a thank you for bringing him over Oxtail Soup and M&M's. When we got back, Fiona, Kate and I took a walk on the golf course behind Lewis & Clark before lying down on the grass and watching the stars come out slowly (romantic I know!).
Tonight, Fiona and I watched two more episodes of Game of Thrones Season 4, episode 7&8. ANOTHER PERSON DIES! Are you seriouuuus man -_- .
 |
| Kate and I at Big Dipper <3 |
 |
| Fiona and I at University Golf Course sunset :) |
Monday March 9th
So another Monday, another 8am start except it's 7am old time so it's really painful.. I tried my best to stay awake in this lecture. Learning about the Hardy Weinberg Theorem so it's really not all that bad since we did it before, this time we have a one up on the American students cause they haven't done any of this yet. An hour off and then my ornithology lecture. I then hung around campus for 2 hours cause I was having a meeting with Kris to talk about how a grant proposal works cause I've never done one before. I got home than and relaxed for a while cause I was so tired.. I didn't nap though, I FaceTimed Mom for a while and then chatted with some of the girls from home as well as setting up some FaceTime dates for this week :D Again, nothing exciting happened today, got some assignments done and Dave called over for a couple hours this evening too for a catch up :D
Tuesday March 10th
Had my meeting with Libby this morning at 10.30am. We talked through some ideas for my final paper and then I headed off to my rangeland ecology class at 11am.
 |
| T-Rex skull in the Clapp Building. |
Wednesday March 11th
Okay so this is my last post for this week as my next post will be my 25th so ye will get to see some of Seattle in my next post :) Nothing too fascinating happened today. I got the results of my take home exam back and I got 100% in it so I'm delighted! I put a lot of work into the take home cause It makes up for only getting 75% in the exam so all is good. I got back from class and put a wash on straight away so I can pack my bags for Seattle this evening. Have to pack up extra clothes cause Washington is known for being a rainy state (just like home!) :P I got to Facetime Aine for a chat so that was nice to catch up :D I finished my assignment done this evening and spent it studying for my first ornithology lab exam which is tomorrow morning at 8am >.<
 |
| Took this picture on campus today while waiting for the bus home :) |
Thank you to everyone as usual for reading this weeks post. I haven't been up to anything too exciting just cause the workload here is a lot.
See ya next week!
- Shannen
