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Published: June 28th 2011
I've never spent much time in Minnesota. In fact, the only thing I really know about it is that it's cold in the winter and has a rich Viking (Scandinavian) influence. So why did I go to Duluth?
This past semester, I put in for a LOT of grants, fellowships, and scholarships. One of my lab mates even came up to me and said, "Are you ALWAYS writing?" It sure seemed like it and it does makes you a better science writer which I know I have some work to do. I think my advisor agreed because after requesting a letter of support, he insisted that I pass everything through him before I send it onward. Of course that rule hasn't really stuck given that he's usually very pressed for time and I have applied to everything I could get my hands on that seemed reasonable. One day, I was kind of bummed out because I got notified that I didn't get a scholarship I was really hoping for but a fellow lab mate of mine and a friend of mine both did. I decided that it's better to say congrats to them and be hopeful for the next one
than be bummed out. So that's what I did and while I was in class that night with my lab mate, I got an email for a different scholarship saying "We are pleased to inform you..." which I have learned is the best intro to any letter. They, the International Association for Great Lakes Research (or IAGLR), liked my research proposal on Developmental plasticity in lake sturgeon and had awarded me a $6000 scholarship called the Norman S. Baldwin Fishery Science Scholarship. I was ecstatic. I got really giddy and couldn't focus on class any more. I handed my mini-computer to my lab mate and she was thrilled too and said, "You have to come to the award banquet now." The Department of Zoology was having a small banquet that night to honor all of the students for their awards throughout the year. I wasn't planning on going but since she won something also, I went with her and I'm glad I did. Many of my friends were there and once the place cleared out, the department chair said help yourself to the beer and food and shut the lights off when you're done with your foraging. So we sat
there and had our own mini-celebration while we went through old dissertations and talked about the week.
Besides funding for the American Fisheries Society conference I had gotten into for this fall, IAGLR also invited me to their annual meeting to receive a plaque and say thank you. It was kind of at a bad time, but was only a days drive from our field site. Needless to say, that was how I ended up in Duluth Minnesota. I got May 31st through June 2nd off and it was my first day off in 2 months! And it was much needed! I was exhausted. I had worked drift the night before with John which is fun, but you work until 3a.m. I got up around 10a.m. on the 31st, packed, fixed my hair, and took off from Onaway around 11:30. By 12:30p.m., I was wiped out again. It ended up being an 8 and a half hour drive and it was actually very pretty as I drove through the Upper Peninsula (locals call it the U. P.) where I had never been. I caught my first site of Lake Superior, the deepest and most distinct of the five great
lakes, and wound my way through the forest and small towns past a million "Pasties for Sale" signs. I've never actually had a Pasty, but I hear they're nasty so I didn't stop. After a whole day of driving, very brief stops for scenic pictures, and passing through Michigan, Wisconsin, and the edge of Minnesota, I arrived in Duluth and checked into my room at the Radisson.
The weather was getting nasty and our tall, round hotel shook from the wind. The view was pretty though. Duluth was a very old town and actually looked very industrial. It reminded me a lot of Trondheim in Norway as I passed over the bridge and went downtown to my hotel. I had a couple hours before I absolutely had to force myself to sleep so I took my longest shower in a month (it was about 10 minutes), enjoyed my bug free bed, and caught up on the last four GLEE episodes I had missed as the sturgeon sampling season started. It was nice to just relax as well but by around 11:30p.m., I could barely keep my eyes open and slept harder than I had in awhile. I was planning
on getting up at 6:30 the next morning, but I couldn't pry myself out of bed until 8a.m. My eyes were still slightly puffy as I got dressed, fixed my hair, and put makeup on (again for the first time in a month). I had picked up a map the night before and headed out to the skywalk to go to the D.E.C.C. (pronounced "Deck" by the locals) for the IAGLR conference. When I got there, it was easy to find the registration desk, pay my dues, and get my tickets for the banquet that night. The ladies at check-in were all very nice and I browsed through the program, trying to decide what talks I wanted to go to. First, I grabbed a cup of coffee and went up to one of the exhibition desks to talk to a man from Idaho. Eco-Analysts is apparently a small firm in Moscow, about 25 minutes from my home so we chatted a bit about the weather, what the company did, and how Idaho was going. He was really nice and said he was a little nervous as this was his first trip by himself. He seemed like he was doing well
though.
Next, I went and listened to a few talks about toxins in the lakes and felt a little out of place since lake eutrophication and nutrient cycling were not really my forte -- it's what's in the lakes that I love. Then I went to the keynote address that day by a woman who works on the lakes of the Great Rift Valley in Africa, a spot we had talked about and discussed papers on this past semester in Evolution class. It was nice to see her photos and hear her stories, but the microphone kept cutting out on her and I think the crowd grew weary for lunch. After her 1.5 hour talk, I went to the large ballroom for a business lunch they had given me a ticket for and ended up sitting at a table with some people from Canada. They were really nice, but had obviously all come together. The guy next me picked up on my out-of-place feeling and started chatting with me. He was currently working on his PhD in Switzerland, but had gone to a university in Canada so that's how he knew all of the other people. We talked about
Europe and how it was nice, but you get a little homesick for America. He asked all about Norway and my dissertation research I was doing saying how sturgeon were pretty interesting and how it all sounded really great. It ended up being a nice lunch.
With my full belly, I next found my calling at the Goby session that was starting at 1:30p.m. Yes, I had found the fish people!! And I instantly found my niche in the corner as I heard a few hours of talks by researchers and grad students on goby ecology and how these invasive species has transformed the lakes quite a bit. It was all new to me and fun to listen to even if many people don't like gobies. After getting my fish fill for the day, I headed to the social hour and met a nice girl named Gillian who was going to start a Master's degree that fall. Then I headed to a table and sat with a random group of 3 people that looked like students. I sat quietly and drank my glass of wine for about 10 minutes until a girl came up and said, "I'm sorry, I
don't know you." This started a conversation that lasted for hours as I learned two of the guys were indeed students and she (Lori) was a post-doc at Purdue. We were joined by two professors also from Purdue and joked about how I was the only Spartan and we'd forget our Big 10 rivalry since I was out-numbered. Then two men sat on my right and one was a professor at MSU in the Geography department and the other a geologist in Lansing. The MSU professor was really nice and joked how we had to go all the way to Duluth to meet. =) The banquet started and most people kept talking as we got served a great dinner...I had the lake trout which tasted amazing followed by coffee and some kind of bread pudding for dessert. The waitresses also gave us some more wine and when I mentioned I was part of the sturgeon crew in Onaway, one of the grads (Charlie) said, "Do you know, John?" Apparently, he and John had done some work together and still talked every now and then. Then the Purdue professor on my left (ironically also named Cary but different spelling and a
man) asked why I had come to IAGLR since there weren't many sturgeon people. I told them of my award and they all decided since none of my lab or classmates were there, they would cheer for me. Unfortunately for them, after making this pact, they had to sit through one of the longest thank you speeches ever and the most depressing farewell message from the President of IAGLR who implied climate change would destruct everything, the world doesn't care about the lakes but one day will, and the infamous final words of wisdom: "We are all
Homo sapies but we should never be
Homo idiots!" (No reference to sexual orientation but rather biology humor gone wrong). It was definitely the quote of the night. We lost the 2 Purdue students as they bailed to go make S'mores, but the rest stuck it out through the night as I was one of the last awards called. They called my name and flashed the title of my proposal on the screen and what award I had won. My table enthusiastically cheered which was pretty awesome considering no one else in the room had any idea who I was and I made
the long walk to the stage, got my plaque, shook both the president and the scholarship committee chair's (Linda) hands, and went back to my rambunctious Purdue crowd. The banquet was adjourned about 10 minutes later and after getting Lori's info since she was also going to AFS in the fall, I walked with Cary and the Lansing geologist across the skywalk and back to the hotel.
It was around 9:30p.m. as we got back to the Radisson and Cary asked if I wanted to go get a drink to celebrate and that there was a man, a fellow professor at Purdue I should meet. So after changing into some jeans, I headed down to the Irish Pub and had drinks with some professors. I was by far the youngest, but they bought me drinks and talked research, also recounting that farewell address as one of the oddest. They were all really nice and joked around, asking about Kim and the program at MSU. Then Thomas Hooke, the fish man Cary said I should meet said, "How did you manage to get a scholarship for Great Lakes research when you work on a closed population not connected to the
Great Lakes?" My reply..."uh, fancy writing?" and a nervous laugh. He just laughed and said that was quite an accomplishment and something to be proud of. He was also going to be at AFS along with another researcher from Cornell who was sitting with us. After a couple hours, exhaustion hit again and I said I better call it a night, declined their invitation to walk me back so they could keep drinking, and headed back to the hotel. After changing, I put X-men on the TV and passed out in my bed. It had been a really good day!
The next day, I was woken up by house-keeping repeatedly before I finally gave up the fight at 9a.m. and started packing. I checked out by 11 and made my way back to Onaway. I made a few stops including a brief visit to the Great Lakes Visitor Center where I saw a sturgeon model, saw some pretty cool exhibits, and even got a couple free posters. Then I hit the road again, just me in my little ford with the window down and the radio loud. It was a LONG ride home as I battled a cold the
whole way despite the gallon of orange juice I drank and the cold meds I took, but I got near Mackinaw just as the sun was going down and caught some pictures of the best sunset I'd ever seen in Michigan. I made it back to our little rented farm house around 10:30p.m. and talked to the guys about how my experiments went and the infamous IAGLR speech before crawling back into my spider-infested room and falling fast asleep, doped up on cold meds. I'm glad I went to Minnesota, even if the timing was a little bad and can't wait to go to the next IAGLR meeting and hopefully present, even if lakes are not my forte! 😊
Note: Will update again soon with my pictures from my solo vacation to Mackinac Island last weekend.
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