Nah, I'm not a volunteer. I'm a grad student with a lot to prove...

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Well it has been about two weeks since I arrived in my new little home known as Lansing, Michigan. And there are a couple of things I have learned quickly about Michigan. #1. You do NOT go anywhere downtown, West, or Southwest of Michigan Ave alone, especially at night! #2. East Lansing is like this invisible line marking a swift change from ghetto Lansing to more upscale college community and the merge into ritzy, gorgeous homes. #3. It's flat.

It has not been all bad since I entered Spartanville, but it definitely didn't start on the right terms. I arrived on August 14th, tired, hot, worn out, and needing to get out of my car. I was so exhausted because it took me four days to drive over from my parent's house in Idaho. The drive was nice and not too long, but definitely WAY more boring than my roadtrip down from Alaska. I left on Wednesday, August 11th and had a VERY long first day as I was kind of sad about leaving. It's always hard to watch my parent's depressed faces when they know I am leaving. And the fact that my stepdad just wanted to keep talking and drinking coffee made it a little hard to leave. Nevertheless, I drove off, suddenly alone again and drove over Lolo Pass and into Montana.

Since my car was still heavily packed, gas mileage sucked, there were heavy thunderstorms the whole way blowing my car all over the road, and road construction and an accident severely delayed my trip through Montana. But that night, I upgraded to a Kamping Kabin and listened to the wind howl against the hot night air. I was a bit sad until facebook reminded me that I was driving through South Dakota the next day and could run into an old friend from Norway. A couple messages later, it was a done deal (thank god for facebook). So Thursday morning, I was in better spirits knowing I was going to meet up with someone.

That day was LONG too as it was extremely hot and once I hit the South Dakota border, I ran into tons of bikers. There were 700,000 in the area for the Sturgis, S.D. bike rally so old men, topless women, leather, gangs, harleys, and so much more just everywhere. I weaved through the Black Hills up to a small town where my friend, Leslie lives. We first met in Bodo, Norway last fall during our exchange and she was the first person from Norway I had seen again since leaving last December. Needless to say, it was an awesome reunion and we talked all about Norway, the friends we left behind, and how some things in America are just not the same anymore. I was sad to leave, but gave her hug and headed on my way. I decided to go see Mount Rushmore again and followed a line of bikers the whole way up the monument. The monument is nice, the faces are cool, but as you walk along the Presidential Trail, it makes you wonder how much wildlife would be abundant if this dumb wooden trail wasn't there. I even saw a chipmunk, a marmot, a mama and baby mountain goat, and a WHOLE LOT of tourists. I took some pictures, walked around for an hour, then headed off, anxious to be back on my own. It took forever to get away from people though, but by that night, I was settled into a small camp ground next to 1880 town in the quiet South Dakota landscape. The horses were our neighbors and the night breeze was nice as I sat out on the picnic table and made some calls, anxious to update my people about the day.

Friday was nice as I hit up the Corn Palace in South Dakota, barely missed a tornado in Minnesota (and panicked as the radio weather man said to find shelter now), and spent a nice night in my tent in a campground in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin. The campground people were nice though, I was next to a cute family, and it had finally stopped raining for awhile. I got a good night's sleep, but was anxious to leave and all packed up by 8a.m. I headed off for Illinois and got kind of annoyed the whole way as I hit a toll road and had to pay almost $10 worth of fees through Illinois and Indiana. Plus I hit Chicago and the traffic was insane, my directions were vague, and I was nervously gripping the steering wheel the whole time. I got out alive and was pretty excited when I hit Michigan! And I was pretty anxious when I pulled down Francis Ave and up to the little house where I would be living. But life wasn't all sunshine as I looked at a partially unfinished house, a giant mound of dirt as the backyard, and all these wornout people.

Needless to say, the first intro was a little overwhelming. My roommate is nice...anal, a little O.C.D., quirky, but nice. There are definite differences in age and opinion some times, but like I've been told, you don't have to be best friends with the people you live with. That first week was the hardest as my room wasn't done, I didn't feel like I could unpack my car, there were people there all the time, and I didn't have internet or know what was going to happen with my funding. Luckily, I turned 23 on Wednesday (August 18th), had a nice dinner and a movie with my new roommate's sister Hannah (who is pretty cool), then took off to the field site Thursday. I had met my new advisor a few days before and he turned out to be a pretty awesome guy. He's huge -- tall, 6'6" so he towers over me, but super nice, very helpful, always there when needed, and slightly geeky about his fish. I took off to his field site up at Black Lake in northern Michigan and spent two days there helping with data collection, cleaning, checking out the baby sturgeon and meeting the site crew. During one open-house day at the hatchery, I was helping Kim's son clean some cups when a lady asked if I was a volunteer on the project. I laughed and said no, I'm a grad student with a lot to prove and hopefully I haven't disappointed yet.

I was a little sad to come back to Lansing on Saturday so I drove up north in the morning to Mackinaw City where I saw Lake Huron and sat on a bench, thinking about things. It was peaceful, calm, reassuring, and I made a mental note on needing to return with my tent and fishing pole some day soon. I got back into my car and drove the 4 hours back down to Lansing. That next week was packed with orientations to teaching, seminars, meetings, lab training, and more. I found out my stipend would be delayed, got internet in the house, finally got a bed, finally unpacked my car and felt I actual had a more private space as everyone cleared out, got a desk, and got to finally organize stuff and feel more at home. I even got a lab coat (hehe), a lab notebook, a drawer in the lab, keys to everything, a cubicle in the grad room, keys to the Biology lab I'm teaching, a GTA parking permit, and a ton of resources for on-campus stuff. It's been a whirlwind of knowledge, meeting people, and getting organized.

Last Friday, I was looking forward to relaxing and went to F.A.R.T. where I finally got to meet more graduate students in my classes and department. Kim was really nice as he saw how awkward I felt and stuck by my side, introducing me to people until I struck up conversations. Then he slowly wandered off. He and I are going to sit down and talk through some thesis ideas in the next couple weeks once I read some more. But for now, it's classes and I teach my first lab tomorrow. 28 students and my UEA (named Mohammadali but he said I could call him Mo if I want) will all be anxiously listening to me tomorrow afternoon as we get to measure trees. Should be intense!! 😊

With all this knowledge, I also found out last night I got selected by the Gilman Scholars Board to be a representative at a conference/workshop in Chicago at the end of September. I get an all-expenses paid trip to go talk about my experience and advocate at a Chicago university for the award. I'm pretty excited!! 😊 Well, better head off and eat something now before my next class. Today is the real beginning of my graduate school career and it's going to be intense, but I'm pretty excited and feeling confident after my first class, not intimidated and scared. And the roommate stuff, ah whatever...she's in a different department. Today, I'm just going to be optimistic and excited to be a new Ph.D student in the Zoology Department (but really down in Fisheries and Wildlife) at Michigan State University! =) Will keep you all updated on this new adventure...

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Photos

Teddy (my favorite)
He actually established the Tongass National Rainforest in Alaska

Comments

[Duh]

hehehe
mmm look at those fish...looks yummy...

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lovin' hearing about your journey.