Slip sliding away
I know, so soon so soon. I have actually had a couple exciting things happen in the past week, so I wanted to write about them and post some pictures. For starters, I am heading to the Veterinary Leadership Experience conference tomorrow in Spokane, WA for a week. It was an opportunity that was open to application for all students at the end of last semester – I remember seeing the email but didn’t apply at that time
. Last Friday one of the deans called me into his office and said there had been a last minute dropout and he asked if I would consider applying for the spot. So I did, and now I’m going. I don’t know exactly what to expect, besides a lot of “leadership” and “team-building” exercises (greeeeat!), but I do know it will be a really good networking opportunity and a chance to meet vet students from all over the states. Every school will be sending two students and a faculty member, so I actually think it could be a lot of fun too. 
In other news, I got to go sea turtle monitoring last Tuesday night. Basically, there are large numbers of leatherback and hawksbill sea turtles who nest on several beaches on St. Kitts, and there is a professor at Ross (who started her research and the entire project when she was a student!) who is now working on her PHD monitoring the activity of the turtles during the nesting season, which is now.
To complete the research, large stretches of beaches have to be monitored for 10 hours a night to make sure no nesting females are missed when they come up on the shore to lay eggs. They crawl up on the beach, pit out a spot, dig a really deep hole, lay 100-150 eggs, pat sand delicately over them, fling huge amounts of sand on top with their back flippers to conceal the nest, then go back to water and swim away. 
It takes about an hour and a half and it is absolutely breathtaking. And as you can see from the pictures, they are HUGE. Wow. Oh, and while they are laying the eggs, they go into sort of an estrogen induced trance, so thats when the blood samples are taken, health and tags checked, measurements made, and the nest site is marked with GPS. Really cool to watch the team work- hopefully by monitoring on a regular schedule this semester I will eventually be able help with the work-up. Good times. 
Yesterday we had another fun day though- I finally got to hike the d’os dane pond trail! That's the same trail I started with my dad but didn’t actually do a lot of because it took us so long to find the trailhead. It was Jenn, Maria, Renee, Brooke, Elizabeth and I who went – 2 hours up and about 1 ½ back down. I included some pictures, though it is probably hard to appreciate how steep and very very very muddy and overgrown the trail was.
It was an experience for sure. We were looking way down on brimstone, so those who have been here can at least understand that. ☺ Next up is the volcano hike, which apparently makes this one look easy, and I think it is about 3 hours up. Can’t wait – maybe sometime in late July before the finals push. 
The first two pictures are from the midway point - one of the hill we were about climb and one of the view looking down, then Renee and I at the top, and then me on (in) the trail on our way down - mud mud mud!
Anyway, that’s my news. Talk to you when I do!
. Last Friday one of the deans called me into his office and said there had been a last minute dropout and he asked if I would consider applying for the spot. So I did, and now I’m going. I don’t know exactly what to expect, besides a lot of “leadership” and “team-building” exercises (greeeeat!), but I do know it will be a really good networking opportunity and a chance to meet vet students from all over the states. Every school will be sending two students and a faculty member, so I actually think it could be a lot of fun too. 
In other news, I got to go sea turtle monitoring last Tuesday night. Basically, there are large numbers of leatherback and hawksbill sea turtles who nest on several beaches on St. Kitts, and there is a professor at Ross (who started her research and the entire project when she was a student!) who is now working on her PHD monitoring the activity of the turtles during the nesting season, which is now.
To complete the research, large stretches of beaches have to be monitored for 10 hours a night to make sure no nesting females are missed when they come up on the shore to lay eggs. They crawl up on the beach, pit out a spot, dig a really deep hole, lay 100-150 eggs, pat sand delicately over them, fling huge amounts of sand on top with their back flippers to conceal the nest, then go back to water and swim away. 
It takes about an hour and a half and it is absolutely breathtaking. And as you can see from the pictures, they are HUGE. Wow. Oh, and while they are laying the eggs, they go into sort of an estrogen induced trance, so thats when the blood samples are taken, health and tags checked, measurements made, and the nest site is marked with GPS. Really cool to watch the team work- hopefully by monitoring on a regular schedule this semester I will eventually be able help with the work-up. Good times. 
Yesterday we had another fun day though- I finally got to hike the d’os dane pond trail! That's the same trail I started with my dad but didn’t actually do a lot of because it took us so long to find the trailhead. It was Jenn, Maria, Renee, Brooke, Elizabeth and I who went – 2 hours up and about 1 ½ back down. I included some pictures, though it is probably hard to appreciate how steep and very very very muddy and overgrown the trail was.
It was an experience for sure. We were looking way down on brimstone, so those who have been here can at least understand that. ☺ Next up is the volcano hike, which apparently makes this one look easy, and I think it is about 3 hours up. Can’t wait – maybe sometime in late July before the finals push. 
The first two pictures are from the midway point - one of the hill we were about climb and one of the view looking down, then Renee and I at the top, and then me on (in) the trail on our way down - mud mud mud!Anyway, that’s my news. Talk to you when I do!
posted by meadfried at 12:02 PM
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