New Quay and me. Catch up part 2

Right, so where were we?

After Mom and Pops left, I had a month of hell. Four days after they left I had to hand in a 10,000 word lit review and pretty much had to hand in the rest of the work that was due for the first part of my course within a month. And so there was coffee, lots and lots of coffee. But, I got it all in and at the end of the day got the equivalent of a B+ on my course work. All that is left now was the thesis, and what a mountain of work that has been!

But, of course, the first thing I did after finishing my course work (along with the rest of my fellow students) is took about two weeks to dick about. Sarah, Beth and I went to the Beach, Manchester, and spent as much time as possible laying in the sun and having barbeques. It felt like the end of the year. Even though people will start drifting back to Anglesey come August, the lot of us might never be in the same place again as we all disappear to different regions of the world to complete our field work for our thesis.

And so I went, to South-West Wales. I spent 6 weeks in New Quay volunteering for the Sea Watch Foundation. Six weeks of going out on the boat photographing and audio recording the bottlenose dolphins and harbor porpoises that we came across. I figured out how to use a hydrophone, which is used to detect and record cetacean whistles. It was a very basic machine with a lot of bits and bobs that I had to figure out, a hand-made wonder. But it was fun. This work didn't go towards my thesis, but I now have practical experience working in my field. I made ties and interacted with people in my field. The internship was rewarding and purposeful, which is as much as anyone can hope to get out of six weeks.

I've also come to the slow conclusion that I am, in fact, a techie. I enjoy fiddling and tinkering with machines. Combined that with my love for marine science, and I think I'm settling into a career that I will enjoy. So yay. ;)

The big drama comes from actually completing my project. It's been a bit of headache. The details are tedious. I selected for my dissertation to use a pre-existing data set. Meaning that all of my research was computer based, analyzing audio recordings of the short-beaked common dolphing that were taken in 2004, 2005 and 2006. I was to be taking this data and relating it between the years as well as assessing the behavior of the dolphins. Only the data set never materialized. I spent a good 2 months trying to track down the data for my original thesis with absolutely no luck. Didn't panic, no much use in that. Instead I started contacting cetacean researchers from America, explained my situation, and asked if I could have access to data from their collection. That data, in addition to some recordings that were made off the coast of Wales this year, and what I was able to savage from 2005, has become my thesis. And in the end, my project has become much more interesting. I am no longer just doing temporal comparisons, but spatial ones as well. Comparing the vocal repetoire of the common dolphin from such different locations has, to my knowledge, not been done before. It is the Bottlenose dolphin that generally steals all of the spotlight. I am not a believer in faith, but sometimes things do happen for a reason. My project, because of it's downfalls and complications, has become a much more complete and complicated thesis. And as you might imagine, I do love the challenge of being able to pull it off. :)

And that's where I am now. It is early September and I have finally received the first bit of data for my thesis. Which means that I have an extension well into December. Possibly into January in order to give me a proper amount of time to complete my research. Which mean this girl here will be sticking around Wales for a wee bit longer than originally anticipated. Not that I'll complain. I have absolutely loved it here. The saddest bit is see the people that I have grown so fond of over the past year start to move off and go to the next journey in their lives. But like we all. And I know it's not that I'll never see them again, so it's not a real sadness. More a sadness for the end of an era (everything changes), but gleeful when looking at the life to come.

And so I write from my new house in Menai Bridge. I had to move out of my last lovely place because the lease ran out. I'm sorry I've been so bad at this. The outdoors as well as the research has kept me well distracted.

Love and Cookies,

Emily
50 High St. - Room 1
Menai Bridge

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