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Published: February 13th 2011
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Happy Darwin Day World! Yes it is February 13th and a day celebrating Darwin here in Spartyville. Actually, Darwin's 202nd birthday was yesterday and the 152nd anniversary of the Origin of Species, but the MSU Museum was celebrating today. So I dragged my friend along after bribing him with some breakfast and we took to the museum halls. After checking out some stuff on the 1st level, we headed upstairs and ran into the Graduate Women in Science where they had a stand where you could color a scientist and hang it up. A friend of mine and I are in this little group and she drew a funny picture of her staring a computer while I passed since someone already did an awesome fish one. Next we headed into the hall and ran into the fossil (or rather caste of the fossil) I was way excited for - Tiktaalik!! This "fishopod" was believed to be an intermediate species between fish and tetrapod with its gills, ribcage, mobile neck, and flat-like head. Super cool. But the real cool part was that the presenter was Michael Gottfried, the paleontologist that I had tried applying for a year and a half earlier who
studies shark fossils in Africa. He was super nice, very talkative, told me and Mike all about Tiktaalik's body, and then said congrats on still getting into MSU and good luck with my sturgeon research.
As we wandered along, we ran into some friends from previous classes, part of my cohort at the awesome hyena table, and some former biology students of both of ours. We learned about mammal body structure, petted snakes, made small talk with the rock enthusiasts, got some stickers and frog stamps on our hands, and then descended into the Bug House room. Well this was the only down part for me because as we wandered, I saw a glass display full of pinned spiders and quickly surpassed them to see the beetles! Only while I perused the beetles, Mike turns around and says "Oh maybe they'll let us touch the spider" and I turned around to see I was within 10 feet of a HUGE live tarantula. I'm surprised I didn't run or scream given my arachnophobia. Instead, I swiftly turned and said "walk away" and began shaking trying to get my nerves to relax. I rounded the corner next to the stuffed Muskox
and shook all over as Mike caught up. That was scariest thing ever. I quickly exited the whole room and wouldn't look at any more bugs at all. Well after looking at some masks, some cool murals and time lines, eating some birthday cake, hearing "Darwin" talk about some flowers, and looking at the store, we headed out and walked back towards the cars, scaring a black squirrel along the way and trying to identify the bird noises that Mike swears was a chickadee and demanded to know how I couldn't know what a chickadee sounded like! It was a nice hour and a half at the museum (minus the spider encounter)!
2011 has been good so far. I ended 2010 by flying back to Lansing before New Year's. It was a long ride home, but I met an undergrad on the plane that I talked to for hours and he made me kind of excited to be heading back to Michigan State. A few nights later was New Year's Eve and while the company was nice, the choice of drink was not. I don't have cable at my place so we ended up missing the ball drop and
you-tubing it 5 min later and celebrating with a toast then. Only for some reason it seemed good to toast the new year repeatedly for like an hour by shooting fireball whiskey and playing low-budget monster movies. Yeah...that was not the best idea and with a day of work on the 1st, it was definitely a LONG first day of the New Year. I didn't have much to do during break so I joined a gym and hung out with a friend and watched movies and played video games a lot. I also spent some time on campus. One day while I printed off some articles, the printer said "paper jam" so stupid me opened it to check and saw the insides were moving. It wasn't a jam -- it was cockroaches!! A whole nest of cockroaches!! I slammed it shut and the article still printed with a little cockroach coming out on the paper. Gross!!
This semester has been keeping me pretty busy with my 2 classes, 1 seminar, and LOTS of research, but I still go do fun things. My friends started weekly Family Dinners where we all bring a dish, share some good wine, and just
have nice relaxing Thursday nights for a few hours. It also gives a chance to kind of chat since the weeks keep us all a little busy. However, I probably won't be hosting since it's not really ideal to invite people into the Scripture House!! I've also been swimming on and off although I haven't felt like going to the gym lately, joined the EEBB soccer team and played for the first time ever, and have been enjoying going to Starfarm concerts at the Green Door for the past month. They've been playing a lot and it always cheers me up because I get hit on every time I go there. The week before last, a really nice guy just danced near me then gave me a big hug and said he hoped I was having a good night. Random but flattering! 😊
And professional-wise: I finalized my committee now that I got the Argentinian quantitative geneticist. I get to go to the EEBB seimars every Thursday which is nice since I didn't get to last semester and can now indulge in cookies and tea and hang out with my cohort a bit more. I just gave 2 talks
on the Gilman scholarship and study abroad to eager undergrads which has been very cool. I've been dubbed the plasticity girl with all my fishiness which has been kind of nice. And this past weekend was prospective student weekend so got to lead a girl around and am really hoping she joins our lab since she was super cool! We had a big wine and cheese get-together at MSU and then a big BEACON dinner and then ended up grabbing a drink with other grads and their prospects which was all really cool to be a part of! Then yesterday, I volunteered at the 6th Grade Girls Math and Science Fair and shuffled girls around.
Other than that, I've just been doing research and planning for my upcoming field season. I also experienced by first blizzard where we were basically trapped in our house since the road wasn't plowed for about 24 hours. Now it makes sense why scientists spend ALL their time doing research -- we're a little lost without it. Besides planning for my summer research, I've also been making other plans -- got a new place for fall, applying for a Michigan resident license soon, got
a P.O. Box, and made some plans for spring break to get out of town which will be so nice!! I'm going to need a break by then!
What's coming up for this grad student: my first committee meeting, more lab work, I lead discussion of a pupfish paper tomorrow, the Fisheries and Wildlife GSO symposium where I'm giving a presentation on my research, Spring break ("I'm going home"), should be hearing about the NSF Pre-doc grants come early April, and before I know it, the field season with the sturgeon!! Better get back to work now. Happy Darwin Day!!
~Kari
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