Monday, June 25
Well, today is the first day of Boot Camp. I am so excited to be finally here with everyone! We first ate breakfast at 7am in the college cafeteria and then went to the UMW research center for the Great Lakes. Dr. Russell Cuhel is the scientist we will be working with this week, studying the zebra mussels.
At our "college class" on aquatic ecology Dr. Cuhel showed us many experiments involving salinity and density of the water. Many of the experiments showed how Lake Michigan goes through many phases in the different seasons. One model that I thought was really cool was the one where he separated the warm water from the cold water. After the water was separated he lifted up a slate and let the water mix. When it settled, the warm water rose to the top and the cold water settled at the bottom of the box. That taught us that cold water sinks and warm water rises.
After the aquatic ecology class, we went to Greenfield Park to start our observations and began to get used to the cameras. At the park, we were split up into three groups and there were three different stations we were required to go to and study. The stations were all different; turbidity, density, pH, current speed, etc. Doing of all the things at the park gave us a great opportunity to get acquainted with the tools, get to know the Argos, and of course get used to the cameras. It's interesting getting up at 6am and hitting the sack around 11 or 12pm. Dinnertime was very interesting because we went on a scavenger hunt to find the restaurant we were going to eat at. It became really easy to find because we just used a visitor map and it was on that map. While we were waiting for our food Allison, Ada, and myself went looking around because it was a very interesting restaurant. It turns out that Austin ended up getting stuck in one of the phonebooths behind a secret door. When we went in we had no idea that he was in there and when the door opened he was standing there and it scared us!
Tuesday, June 26
Well after today's activity, the Argos went to a Milwaukee Brewers game. It just so happened that they were playing the Astros. Since Allison and I are both are Astros fans, we painted our faces to represent them. I had ASTROS on my forehead, LANCE on my left cheek, and #17 on my right cheek. Allison had about the same thing but she had BIGGIO and #7. It was so cool walking into Miller Stadium and having all of the Brewers fans stare at you like you're the enemy I have always wanted to go to an away game to see what it is like. The game was really fun. Anytime and every time an Astros player would make a great play, Allison and I would get up and scream really loud and we would get dirty looks. It was so funny, everyone was laughing and we all had a great time. After we left, we ended up losing the game 11-5.
Wednesday, June 27
Today was so much fun. We got to snorkel!
Austin, Lewis, and Maria were in my group. We all had so much fun snorkeling and learning how to dive and being able to look at the bottom of the quarry. We had to figure out how the geological and chemical characteristics affected the location of the fish in the water. Also like every other day we had to measure the abiotic and biotic factors of the environment. After we got done at the quarry we all went to go eat at Culver's. That was probably the funniest dinners we went to all week. Here we all realized how funny Austin is. I sat with Chirag, Allison, Austin, and Conrad.
Thursday, June 28
Today was very interesting. We went out on Lake Michigan to study the mussels and take water samples. We had so much fun that day because it was Allison, Chirag, and I in a group. We took three different samples at each spot
Friday, June 29
Well today was probably the best of all. We found out our missions and I'll end up going to the Gulf of Mexico and the Louisiana Wetlands with Conrad and Chirag, with our teacher being Polly. I am so excited that I was put with them. Allison was put with Derek and Lewis, along with Randy as her teacher.