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

Week 2 - A fun filled week!

Monday September 1st

Labor day! This means no classes - whoooo! Got up nice and early today to finish off a very painful assignment on finding five definitions of conservation and comparing and contrasting them. Rotten to say the least, it took both Fiona and I hours of searching through sites to try and find some half decent papers that would be worth using. We decided, seeing it was labor day, we should go and do something fun. So at 12 pm we headed off on another road trip which was about an hour away to the National Bison Range outside Dixon MT. We had no idea what to expect today but it was somewhere both of us wanted to visit. Dave went rafting with the International Students and Elliot and Siobhan were both working so it was just Fiona and I for the day! I turned on Waze, the Sat Nav., on my phone and we headed off. About an hour later we arrived here and had only just pulled in the gate when we got to see a herd of Elk - great start to our day!

The herd of Elk with the young male.

The older and larger male that was wandering off from the herd.

We drove up to the visitor center to see what our options for the day were. We could get a day pass for $5 or a season pass which would allow as many trips to the Bison Range during the year for only $15, so we went with that option seeing as it would make for a nice day out if we were day at home doing nothing! We had a look around the tourist center, took some pictures and headed off on our journey. We spotted herds of bison on the hills but none very near to us at the beginning of our journey. Also within the first half an hour there were pretty high chances of spotting a black momma bear with her cubs if we had a good look around the trees with berries. Literally, any tree with any berry at all on it we parked up beside it and stared at it and the surroundings to find any chance of seeing a black bear - but no luck! It was quite a hot day also so we reckon she was keeping them in the shade. We did, however, spot some Pronghorn Antelope chilling out and munching on some grass.

Pronghorn Antelope.

We also spotted some Mule Deer, you can tell these are mule deer because they have white bottoms and a thin tail with a black tip.

There was a lot of White Tailed Deer also. The main way to tell the difference between Mule Deer and White Tailed Deer is their antlers and their tails. In Mule Deer their antlers are forked and they have white bottoms with a thin tail. White Tailed Deer have antlers that only have one branch with a few branching off that one main branch.

A male White Tailed Deer.

A young very cute White Tailed Deer.

 We continued our drive up some switchback trails up a mountain until we came across the Bitterroot Trail. This wasn't a proper hiking trail as it was only 1/4 mile but it had an absolutely magnificent view! We sat here and ate our lunch while looking down on some particularly stunning scenery.

Questioning life's mysteries as I look down on the valley.

A selfie with the Bitterroot Valley as the backdrop. Not too shabby!

Once we had our lunch eaten we continued our drive along the one-way road system to the highest point on the range at 4,700 feet. The view from up here was spectacular, we stopped for a bathroom break and then continued our journey on a 100 foot gradual descent down the gravel road.

The view of the gorgeous valley and the Mission Mountains in the distance.

Being the National Bison Range, we didn't actually see too many bison. I did, however, get a picture of a herd of bison munching on food on the hills. These guys are HUGE.

We headed home after this and made it back to Lewis and Clark about 5.30 pm. We collected Elliot, Dave and Siobhan and went to Best Buy to buy a printer between us because printing out all our notes in college is quite expensive and this is a more cost effective way to survive the year. We bought a very good printer, 5,000 sheets of paper and two ink cartridges all for only $25 each! If i may say so myself, not a bad deal at all!

There is an ice cream shop around here called The Big Dipper and it's kind of a big deal so we drove over there this evening to try it out. The ice cream here is unreal and for the amount you get it's such a cheap deal too! I got a double scoop (did not expect it to have so much ice cream!) of vanilla oreo and chocolate chip.

Vanilla Orea Ice Cream with Chocolate.

Tuesday September 2nd

I woke up nice and early this morning (about 9am) although, I do try to get up around this time every morning even though classes don't start for me until 12 pm, it helps me sleep better at night. I got the chance to FaceTime home for a while for a chat and also to wish my little dog a very Happy 11th Birthday. I miss my dog so much I didn't think it would be this hard. I eventually got registered for my home college this morning as well - very productive so far.

Went in for my class at 12 pm. We all handed in our first assignment of the year and carried on with class straight away. We started learning the different definitions for Wildlife, Conservation and Management as well as comparing these and also comparing various different definitions. We got given a reading assignment of reading two scientific journals for our next class which is Thursday morning. Dr. Dreitz ran through the various databases where we can access specific journals for wildlife related topics which would be helpful to us for future assignments.

The Forestry Building where I have my Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management classes.

This was my only class for the day so I was home by 1.30 pm. I checked my post box and my full drivers license had arrived! No more learner permit for me!! I made lunch and did my clothes washing. In Lewis and Clark, it's $1.50 to wash your clothes and $0.25 for every 15 minutes you use the dryer to dry your clothes. Not a bad deal really, but I don't find them to be all that great. Seeing as I was pretty busy with my first week of classes I haven't had a chance to properly organize and tidy up my room so I took this free time to do so. I put away all my laundry and hung up everything that needed to be hung up. I organized my desk some what - not very well (I tried okay ...). I then sat down to start a reading assignment for my Vertebrate Design and Evolution class which was reading a paper on Phylogeny. This paper made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. I'm hoping I'm not going to be the only one in the class with this problem.  I made an unreal dinner of roasted garlic potato cubes with fried chicken and red and green peppers, red onion, regular onion, peas and sweet corn, also all seasoned with garlic. If you can't tell - I'm quite the fan of garlic! I spent the rest of this evening just relaxing and chatting with Fiona and Sarah, while both Fiona and I worked on our blogs a little bit


Wednesday September 3rd

Woke up early again today and read one of my homework assignments to see if I could make sense of it a second time around and no luck. It was jibberish! I went to my first class of the day - Wildlife Physiological Ecology - where we had a catch up lecture from last Friday on homeostasis: something I had already covered in Ireland so I had a one up on the American students for once! We also discussed the way in which Dr. Breuner wants us to carry out our group assignments. Our whole class is divided up into groups of four in which we sit with and work with them throughout the year. The people in my group are really friendly, Robin, Tyler and Mike. We had out first mini group assignment where we interpreted a graph from the overhead projector, and noted our results. Dr. Breuner then called on a random group (not ours for today) and to explain what findings we gathered. From here I walked with Joe to our next class, Vertebrate Design and Evolution. I was only too delighted to hear that he also couldn't understand the assigned Scientific Journal we had to read. Once we arrived to class, we were relieved to hear that nobody really gathered the concept of what was being discussed. Bret our lecturer did tell us it was a bit advanced but he wanted to give us a bit of a challenge. We then began to discuss the main principles and ideas in the paper by using examples on the board. This class finished up at 2.30 pm so both Fiona and I headed straight home, I began to start one of our homework assignments that is due for this Friday. We have to draw a simple cladogram and then choose from 1)vertebral column 2) pectoral girdle 3)pelvic girdle or 4)limbs and explain how each of these have evolved and changed over time. Not all as bad as it seems really!

Every time someone in the apartment cooks in the oven it sets off the fire alarms here. We're not terrible cooks and there's no smoke in the apartment! We went down to the office to ask them what the story was and what we should do. So basically, the first solution was to change all the batteries in all FIVE fire alarms in the apartment, which we have now done. So all we do is wait until tomorrow to see if someone sets the alarm off. It's quite the nuisance also because you have to wave a towel frantically at the fire alarms to wave any 'smoke' away to shut the damn things off. Not sure if this actually works seeing as there is no smoke. It a mystery if you ask me :P Tried to work on the assignments I have due in for this Friday this evening, they're so tough! And I also have two scientific papers to read for tomorrow mornings class..



Thursday September 4th

So I woke up at a reasonable hour again this morning seeing as I fell asleep about 11 pm last night I was as fresh as a daisy. I read the two scientific journals on habitats for my class at 12 pm. Went to class where we discussed these papers a little bit and then I came home. I finally got around to catching up with Av at home and getting all the news and that and after that I FaceTimed my Mom for a bit to chat to her and get the news off her also. I then settled down to try and do my assignments after eating some lunch. Fiona and Elliot arrived over at 5.30 pm ish and I had not made much progress on these assignments. Lewis and Clark held a welcome back BBQ for all residents this evening also which was really nice and they also had a raffle to win some prizes which included items for the apartment. We all had our burgers, hotdogs, taytos, watermelon and potato salad before sitting down and doing some drawings on the sheets of paper laid out on the tables in front of us. Each table was provided with colors, for what purpose we were not exactly sure but we went with it and did some 'artistic' work and marked our territory as being Irish too! We sat around and had chats for a while, a lot of people are heading out tonight but unfortunately I have an exam and two assignments due in tomorrow so myself and Fiona headed home about 7 pm to work on these.

Free food at the Welcome BBQ.

I was finding myself falling asleep while trying to finish off my Vertebrate Design and Evolution assignment so I decided to walk to the gas station and pick up a can of Red Bull to keep me awake and motivated. Now I just have to sit down and learn the bones in the cat body as well as all the little lumps and bumps that are on each bone for the quiz tomorrow. It's not that easy! And Fiona and I worked with our classmate, Lillia, last Friday in deciphering the bones but right now it doesn't seem to be that easy to recall them...


Friday September 5th

So today I had to wake up early and finish off my assignment for my Wildlife Physiological Ecology module. For some reason, I was better able to understand the graph I was to do my write up on today - rather then yesterday. Fiona sent me a text that she was in the Zoology lab with one of our classmates, Joe, going over the bones of the cat for our quiz today. I got the U Dash into college and met up with them to do some studying at about 9:30 am.

My Wildlife Physiological Ecology class started at 12 pm. In my group of four, Tyler and I did graph one, while Robin and Mike did graph two. The way Dr. Breuner works these exercises is for Tyler and I to discuss what our findings from the graph were and to make sure we were on the same page, while Robin and Mike discussed their ideas on their graph. We then all formed our groupings together and taught each other the two graphs. Then Dr. Breuner called on one group to teach their thoughts on the graph to the class. No body from my group was picked today, but someday we will be picked. In the University of Montana, they are big into public speaking and interactions between the classes so they really try to reinforce it.

My next class is when I was having my bone test at 1:30 pm. I walked over to the Health Science Building and some of the guys in my class were already sitting outside the classroom looking over the bones. More and more people from my class started filing in. Soon we were all chatting about bones, and mocking the Irish - this seems to be the all time favorite thing to do. When Kris arrived we all went into the lab and sat down to start the quiz. I honestly thought this quiz was going to be so tough, I was seriously nervous simply because there was so many bones to learn! Kris gave each of us out Index cards where we had to write our names and student numbers on and on the back benches in the classroom she had the different bones laid out with arrows on them. We then all walked freely around them, looking at each one and each labelled part, we wrote down what we thought was right. Kris also had one extra credit question with two parts - allowing us to redeem ourselves some bit if we got one of the questions wrong. Once everyone had their index cards handed up, Kris ran through the answers, turned out I only got two out of the six wrong with wasn't all that bad for my first quiz! I think a lot of people were on the same boat so everyone was happy.

We then moved onto looking at Vertebrate skulls. We had our lab handouts and we began trudging through all the terminology and looking and identifying the different parts of the skulls. Only to ask Kris for help when we were stuck on something. We looked at a Mountain Lion skull, Alligator, Fish, Loggerhead Turtle and Human. Pretty cool and so very relaxed. I do love this class.

Mountain Lion skull.

The Fish skull we looked at.

The Alligator skull and I.

Me and the incredibly heavy and huge Loggerhead Turtle skull.

We came home from our lab and had some dinner. The University have their own theater where they show two movies every weekend. This weekend the movies were Maleficient and Godzilla. A group of the International Students all wanted to go and see Maleficient, so we did at 7:30pm. The tickets in were only $3 and a large popcorn was $3 and a fizzy drink (soda) was only $1. Such good value! And a brilliant movie! I don't actually like Angelina Jolie but she was absolutely fantastic in this movie and it took such a brilliant twist also. A must see for any Disney heads out there! Siobhan, Elliot and I then went out to Walmart to stock up on food for our trip tomorrow :D



Saturday September 6th

We had a 5:30 am rise this morning to make sure we were well prepared for the bus at 6:30 am where we started our journey to Glacier National Park. We met up with the other bus load at the International House and began our 3 hour journey to Glacier. Mostly people either slept or just chatted on the way up and Mary from the Foreign Student and Scholar Services was a brilliant tour guide giving us all the historical information on our journey whenever it was required. We drove along the East Coast of Flathead Lake - which I had already done the Saturday beforehand but I didn't get to appreciate the scenery as much because I was driving so I took the time to appreciate it today. We also chatted to her ourselves about the different things we were interested in.

The BEES students from UCC with a beautiful backdrop.

Speaks for itself really, it's gorgeous here.

We arrived at  Glacier and first went to the souvenir shops by Lake McDonald. We pottered around here for a bit then boarded the buses again up to Trail of the Cedars - such a gorgeous little trail. From here we had a picnic lunch by a little creek which was absolutely fabulous and poor Dervla had this massive beetle land on her leg and pretty much scared everyone with the size of him! We boarded the buses back up again at 1:30 pm and headed down to get on the famous Red Bus Tour! We made sure to get all on the same bus together. We being - all the Europeans, one New Zealander and two Japanese girls.

Trail of the Cedars.

UCC students perched on a log at Trail of the Cedars.

A panorama of the creek we sat by for lunch.

All the Europeans in the Red Jammer Tour!

Our journey began and our tour guide Steve was fantastic, he talked the whole journey about the historical geological features in the park giving us some fascinating information. Below are a variety of the pictures I took along the tour of Going to the Sun Road.

We drove along Going to the Sun Road which finishes off at Logan Pass, at an altitude of 6,646ft the views were phenomenal! I wouldn't be able to write enough words to do our trip justice. The views were just spectacular and very disappointingly we didn't get to see any wildlife on our trip apart from a ground squirrel which wasn't very impressing...

One of the views at Logans Pass.

 There is still some Glaciers in the park but not as many as there once was! One such Glacier is Sparry Glacier and it's moving at an incredible speed of 6 inches per day! This is incredibly fast for a Glacier. The water here is also crystal clear as it comes from Glaciers, with a turquoise/green/blue color to it, due to all the minerals in it. The picture below was just supposed to prove that my new hiking boots were waterproof but the water is actually so clear it's very hard to tell I'm even standing in any. Apart from the few air bubbles. Absolutely incredible! We finished our trip at McDonald Lodge which is absolutely stunning! Out the back there is a lake with a dock where our group sat for the last hour just taking in the absolutely breathtaking scenery, while dipping our feet in the crystal clear water. A school of fish also swam passed us - so I guess technically wildlife?!

The absolutely spectaculer view at Lake McDonald Lodge.

One of the buses we were on had to be jump started so we had to wait 15 minutes for this to happen before we could leave. We left Glacier at about 7:40 pm. We were stopping for dinner on our way home, in Charlie Wong's in Kalispell a Chinese restaurant. I wasn't too pleased that this was the choice of dinner we had as I don't like or eat Chinese food. There was also only a set menu to choose from so I couldn't just simply order a plate of rice and curry. I ordered the Chicken Chow Mein which came with a good portion of rice, sweet and sour chicken, noodles and some weird vegetables that I didn't even try.

My dinner minus the Egg Roll which Elliot gladly ate.

I slowly picked at it but left a lot of it behind me. I'm lucky I packed extra sandwiches just incase I didn't like where we were stopping for dinner. We left here and began our journey home again. I think pretty much everyone fell asleep on the bus home until Mary woke us up about 10 minutes outside of Missoula. We got dropped off right at Lewis and Clark at about 11:30 pm. I got in home, checked on what the Internet was doing all day (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram) and then I crashed just after 12 am.



Sunday September 7th

An absolutely fantastic lazy day was had today. I woke at 11:30 am. I had breakfast and then FaceTimed my Mom for a while. After this, I began tidying my room. I did a load of washing and arranged my study desk and my wardrobe. Dave called up for a while and filled me in on the crazy day he had yesterday at the first Grizzlies home game - they won too so it was great! I also showed him what he missed out on in Glacier National Park. He stayed for about 3 hours just chatting then he went home and I cooked my dinner and watched some videos on YouTube. I then retreated to my room where I finally watched the season finale of Pretty Little Liars! WOW. Soon after, Sarah arrived home from her weekend away so I helped her bring the TV up to the sitting room and I connected it up and set the channels up. We get 69 cable channels here in Lewis and Clark compared to only having 13 in Farranlea in Cork last year with half of them not being any good or not even working. We have another test for Vertebrate Design and Evolution on the skull tomorrow evening so I spent the night learning the skull and also trying to finish up my blog post. I was really excited to start writing a blog but it takes a lot of time and seeing as our workload here is so high it's also quite hard to find the time to be able to just sit down and type for a while. Nevertheless though I will keep it up because I enjoy it and I also feel it will be nice to look back on when this year is finished. I had to call over to Dave and Elliot's to print off class notes, timetables and assignments which were due in for this week. Went home and started learning my skull for my second class quiz tomorrow!




This week was a crazy busy week so I apologize for bombarding with pictures! Next week I get to meet my Missoula International Friendship Program family and also go on our first field trip with college!

Thanks for reading and I hope you're enjoying the posts so far!

- Shannen.