Fear and Loathing

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Hey all!

Don't be concerned by the title of this entry.... nothing bad happened or anything. 😊 It is simply a reference to the fact that the opening line of the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas mentions Barstow CA, which is where I went for the start of this internship! 😊 Sadly, I did not remember this on my own... it had to be pointed out to me. I am failing at my Johnny Depp film knowledge...

Anyway, the first few days have been incredible. On Sunday I just relaxed, talked a bit with my housemates, and spent a few hours lying out by the pool (because yes, this apartment complex has a pool and mini-gym and everything. craziness), which was lovely. It felt more like a vacation, with sun and palm trees and just lazing around reading. At night we all went out for dinner... it took a while to find a place that was open, but eventually we stumbled upon a chinese food place that was open. It actually was really good! Among the 6 of us, we ordered 4 dishes and shared. They are all vegetarians (and one is vegan) and I basically am as well, so all the dishes were vegetarian. They were all quite delicious! And reasonably priced. with tax and tip, we each payed $12. It was a nice night out. All of the housemates seem very nice. One will be leaving in a few days because her internship is over and then another leaves in about a little over a week. So then there will just be 4 of us. I do not if any new people will be coming in or not. We shall see!

So, monday I got up at 4am. yikes. Got ready and we drove over to the office at 5am. It was a bit hectic with everyone running around and getting things. Me and the other new intern stayed longer than the others so that they could tell us some information and we could fill out some paperwork, etc. So we didn't leave til around 8am. Phew. By that point I was already exhausted! lol But anyway we drove down to near Barstow, California, to some parts of the Ft. Irwin military land where they are doing research. I was dropped off at one site to work with 2 others. The minute I got there this crazy guy on some odd vehicle drove up and was asking who we were and did we know we were on private property. We apologized and said we would leave. He proceeded to follow us, making sure we actually left and taking pictures of our cars, etc. They were like, welcome to the desert weirdos! It was amusing. Apparently Kristina (one of my bosses I suppose) has talked to him at least 10 times and each time he asks who she is and who she is with. Ah well. Anywho, we left there and drove to a different site and I used the tracking equipment to track down one of the tortoises! Luckily, I had the practice in australia so I basically knew what I was doing. Let me just say, tracking tortoises is SO much easier than tracking bats. haha Which is no surprise. So yeah, we found the tortoise easily, and I got to hold him while they got a blood sample! very cool! Then drove a bit to a new site and proceeded to eventually track down 3 more and get samples. It took a while because I think the one receptor we were originally using was having some problems. We couldn't pick up signals. When we eventually switched to mine, it went much faster. I held the last tortoise (and took a picture of him after!) and for the other 2 I got practice writing down the data. We were done by 3:30 and then we headed to the house in Barstow. We were the first ones there so I got to snag one of the few beds! 😊 Showered and went grocery shopping and ate and then just relaxed and read for a while before collapsing into bed around 9pm.

Up again at 4:30am and we left by 5:30. This time I went out with Claire (the girl from West Windsor)! She is very nice. We went to a different plot on Ft. Irwin and proceeded to track down and bleed 6 tortoises... all in less than 4.5hours! It was crazy fast. I did the tracking for 5 of the 6 and it was so straight-forward. It helps that since it is getting towards summer, they are not moving much and so they are basically at the same GPS points as they had been previously. Also, let me just say, I am super lucky. The weather both days could not have been better. Monday the hottest it got was about 93degrees, and it didn't feel bad at all... there was a breeze. It was totally manageable. And today was lovely! I actually had a light jacket for most of the morning, as it was in the upper 50s, low 60s. It didn't get much past 76degrees before we finished. Excellent. So, day 2 was pretty awesome as well. Some of the views were absolutely stunning. Its hard to capture on film, but I tried. I'm sure I will have many more opportunities as well. I also saw some cool plant and animal life. I got to hold most of the tortoises and also had more practice with writing down the data and entering it into the PDA. We were back at the house around noon and packed up and left by 1:30 because we had finished everything that needed to be done! Craziness! So I got back to the office around 4pm and shortly thereafter was back at the apartment!

So far, it is pretty great. I really loved the field work. Of course, the unnaturally cool weather certainly helped. We'll see how I feel when it becomes true summer weather. 😊 I'm going to make some dinner now, but I'll try to write again soon!

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Photos

Tortoise
this is the same one as the other picture, in his burrow. This is one of the ones I held while they got the blood sample.