First Week of College

Monday 25th August-

Today was the first day of classes. My morning began at 6.45am because I have class at 8.10am every morning besides Thursday. I got the free student bus, the U-Dash, into college. This is very useful as Lewis and Clark apartments are around a 25minute walk from campus. I was nervous as I haven't gone to college alone since that first day of orientation 2 years ago. I thought I would be early arriving 15mins before class started but the room was full already. There are about 40 students taking the mammalogy class. Classrooms here are not like the lecture halls I'm used to. They are smaller, more like the size of a secondary school room. There was none of the usual chit chat before the lecture either. Most people were busy organising pens and papers. Those who did know each other chatted about what they got up to over the summer. The lecturer introduced himself and the two teachers assistants who run the labs. He talked about projects he has been involved in before giving an overview of the syllabus. We also received our first assignments. They sure do mean business here. My assignments are to review a paper on a species of my choice, compile a list of all the mammals in Missoula county and also to write 10 journal entries on squirrel activity over the next 10 weeks. My next class, Conservation of Wildlife populations, started at 9.10, which is handy so you don't have to rush as much to lectures. This class also seemed very interesting. Again the lecturer introduced herself and her work. She then talked about problems facing wildlife populations before finishing early. I had three hours off before my next class so I headed food shopping. At 1.10pm-5.30pm I had a class/ lab on Vertebrate Design and Evolution. Shannen is also taking this class. It's a really small class of only 11 people, so the lecturer and teaching assistant got everyone to introduce themselves so they could learn our names. The lab was difficult as we had to identify all the bones of a cat (our model vertebrate). Not only do we have to know what bone is what we must also know what all the lumps and bumps are! But I'm assured once we know the cat, all other vertebrates will be easy. We got the U-Dash bus home and made dinner. Shannen suggested we go for a walk so I said we could go up the path on the south side of Mount Sentinel, the one Elliot, Siobhan ans myself had come down before. We saw loads of white tailed deer along the way up. Can't wait for my camera to come. We paused several times on the way up to enjoy the view ( and maybe catch our breath a little too :P ) We watch the sunset as we walked and it was twilight by the time we reached the top. Another group of students had climbed up the north end of the mountain. We contemplated walking along the fire road to them but decided it was too dark. While we overlooked the valley below we heard a hawk screeching, which was so cool. We waited until we could see stars then decided it was time to be heading down.

My timetable.

The Forestry building where two of my classes are.

Playing with cat bones.

Missoula at night.

Tuesday 26th August-

I had my mammalogy lab today at 8.10am which was really great. We learned the difference between mammal teeth. Teeth are the main distinguishing features of mammal. We will learn the dental formulas for all the mammal species found in Montana. Today's lab was focused on racoons and bears. I learned the differences between black bears and grizzlies, which apparently you can't go on by size as bears continue to grow throughout their lives. The labs here are different, you are given a task to do and you just work away until you finish. My next class was a computer lab for Wildlife Conservation. This was supposed to be an introduction to excel but since I haven't used excel for anything more complicated than graphs in 7years, I found it quite difficult. Me and Shannen had our class on Habitat Conservation next. The lecturer had us each do an introduction about ourselves and what experience we had in wildlife biology. I talked about my experience at Coolwood Wildlife Park in Killarney and also how our farm is part of the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme. What I thought was a good bit of experience paled in comparison to most of the American students, who spend their summers working for various wildlife agencies. But as one student pointed out, he can't work for free and afford college. One thing that shocked me was that every single Wildlife Biology undergraduate gets hired after their degree. This really surprised me as few Zoology students find jobs easily in Ireland. This class is going to be very interesting because we will be going on fieldtrips to various Montana locations. We will be meeting landowners and learning what conservation means to them. I will enjoy getting a local perspective on the topic. When we got home my portable charger and mini speaker had been delivered from Amazon. I was delighted but disappointed my camera had not arrived. I went to work on my assignments until I heard the doorbell. My camera and all it's accessories! I opened it and set up the camera. The zoom is incredible in it. It's such a good camera for so cheap.

Coyote skull- Canis latrans.

Grizzly bear skull- Ursus arctos.

Grizzly bear front paw mark.

Amazons famous over sized packing!

Wednesday 27th August-

Today is my birthday! I turned 21 so I can finally go out here! It didn't feel all that special seeing as I've been able to go out and get drink since I was 18. Also I celebrated my 21st just before I left home so it felt like I'd already been 21 for a while. I had Mammalogy and Wildlife Conservation this morning and straight after those I worked in Foodzoo from 10am - 1pm. I was working in the beverage section so this meant I had to keep all the drinks and glasses stocked and make sure the area was nice and clean. There was a bit of a lunchtime rush but that was fine. If you work more than 3 hours here you get a free meal but unfortunately I have my Vertebrate Design class right after work so had to rush to that. This finished up at 2.30pm. So, 8am- 2.30pm without a break, it ain't easy being an American college student! Because I'm working at 6.30am on Thursday morning I decided not to have my party tonight but have it tomorrow instead (getting wise in my old age). Anyways, I still wanted to celebrate somehow so myself, Shannen, Siobhan, Dave, George and Elliot decided to go to the Iron Horse for dinner and drinks. Despite a mix up with the buses we all made it there eventually. I decided to try the buffalo/elk burger, which Dave assured me was unreal. It was lovely and I was able to have my first legal drink (again). They have a really nice cider here called Angry Orchard for $4, which tastes just like apple juice. After dinner and chats we got the late night student bus home.

My buffalo/ Elk burger.

First legal drink! :)

 Thursday 28th August-

I got up at 5.30am to get ready for work at 6.30am. I had to walk to college because I haven't gotten my bike yet. It was ok though because the sun was just starting to come up. This morning I was working on the breakfast line. I have to set everything up and as students come in and choose their food I keep everything stocked up. Foodzoo is an all-you-can-eat buffet style restaurant so food disappears fast, keeping me on my toes! :P I worked until 11am and had an hour off before my next and only lecture on Thursdays, Habitat Conservation. I had my second shift at work right after my lecture. This time I was working in food preparation for 4 hours, which I really enjoyed. I was using a machine to slice cucumbers and tomatoes called a "buffalo chopper". The time went much faster in this shift as I could work away at my own pace. When I finished up at 5pm I was able to have my dinner for free which is a nice bonus. This meant I didn't have to cook before my party. Shannen and Sarah, the lifesavers, had the whole apartment decorated by the time I got home. Shannen had also made jelly shots :) . Jak, our neighbour downstairs, let us borrow his massive speakers which was great. When everyone arrived we played some Irish Kings and other drinking games. We had the music on all night and only got asked to turn it down once, so great success :D. The lads got me a cake called 50 shades of chocolate,which was delicious. I don't even know what time I got to bed, but I do know I had a great night and an unreal (2nd) 21st party! 

Friday 29th August-

I was paying for the party this morning in my 8-10am classes. Luckily we only went over some basic mammal characteristics. I had a half hour off before work so had my lunch. Today the college was throwing a big welcome back feast. All the clubs and societies gathered around the oval (basically the same as the quad but people actually walk on it here, shock horror!) There were cheerleaders and marching bands and the whole lot. I got to enjoy it all from where I was working giving out free hotdogs. I'm guessing I served between 300-400 hotdogs and there were 16 other tables just like mine so that's a lot of hotdogs served. They even had veggie dogs! It was really fun working outside but it was so hot, almost 28*C! When I finished up at 1pm I just had enough time to grab my bag from Foodzoo, pick up a hotdog and a snicker-doodle (a sugar cookie thing) and run to my Vertebrate Design lab. This is the lab where we were studying the cat bones. Today there were a number of different skeletons for us to compare to the cat, so myself, Shannen and our classmate Lillia worked together. I found myself being able to identify the bones much easier and it was good to work as a group. After the lab me and Shannen went home. Her car was supposed to arrive in Missoula from New York in the afternoon, but at around 7pm the trucker rang to let us know that he would meet us at the airport around 10pm. Sarah and her boyfriend offered to drop us out there, but the man rand again to let us know he'd be early. We got the green taxi to the airport. There are two taxi companies in Missoula, yellow taxi which has 7 cars and green taxi which has 2. Good thing there's student buses for nights out. We collected Shannen's baby (#EvaTheEnvoy) and went to Walmart. We went back home and planned our first road trip to Flathead Lake the next day.

That's the car!

First drive :)

 Saturday 30th August-

Today was road trip day. First though I had to go to the Curry Health Center at 9am to get the results from my MMR blood test, which surprise surprise showed that I had in fact gotten my vaccinations. Shannen collected me and George and we headed for Walmart for supplies (George bought a chicken! :P ). Shannen went to Best Buy to get a new laptop as her old one had died a slow and painful death after 6years of use. I finally got my bike, which was only $80! We came back to L&C, made our lunches, picked up Elliot and hit the road. I got shotgun. The drive out of Missoula was lovely, there are so many small ranches nearby. There is a wildlife bridge crossing the highway at one point. Shannen was delighted to see it as she didn't think they actually existed. We entered Flathead Indian Reservation and had fun trying to pronounce place names as we drove past them. The first view of the Mission Mountains was incredible! They rise so high and are so sheer from the glaciation that happened here. Some even had some snow on the peaks. It was around 1hour30mins to Polson, a town on the south end of Flathead. We had lunch here. Flathead is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River. With a surface area of between 496 and 510 sq km, making it slightly larger than Lake Tahoe. The lake is a remnant of the massive glacial dammed lake, Lake Missoula, of the era of the last interglacial. It is famous for it's crystal clear water, which I can confirm lives up to it's reputation. From Polson we headed east around the lake to Finley Point. We drove around for a while and noticed many Irish surnames on postboxes, such as Mc Carthy, Long and Moriarty. We eventually found Finley State Park. There was a $5 entrance fee but this gave you entrance to all the other parks around the lake. We explored here for a while before going for a bit of a swim in the water. The rocks on the shore were covered with large spiders which moved really fast. The water was so nice though. The park ranger had warned us it was a bit cold for swimming but the lake felt like a heated pool! The rocks were very slippy though so you had to be very careful. There was a family of osprey in a dead tree along the shore. The chicks kept demanding food from the adults. This was the first real test for my new cameras zoom. After Finley we headed north to Wayfarers Park. We sat on some rocks overlooking the lake here and just enjoyed the view. There were families bar-be-queing here and lots of people on jet-skis. On the way back to Polson we noticed a weird smell as we drove. We couldn't figure out what it was until I spotted a dead striped skunk on the road. They really do have quite a smell for it to come into the jeep! I also spotted my first wild racoons, sadly a pair of dead ones. When we got home I got ready for Aoife's (one of the Law and Irish students) Thrift Shop 21st party. I had bought a hippyish dress earlier in Zootown thrift shop. I met up with the lads and headed in. It was such a cool party. Everyone made such an effort to dress thrifty! We did the usual; drinking games and dancing. I decided last minute to go to town.We went to Badlanders, which was kind of a bar, club casino thing. Drinks were really cheap, basically everything was $4! We stayed until the DJ finished up and got the U-Dash back to L&C. There was a bit of an after party going on so went for a bit. It was after 5am by the time I went to bed.

Not fun trying to pronounce that!

Irish surnames.

Flathead lake at Finley Point.

Osprey and their nest.

It's so beautiful there.

Me and Savannah

 Sunday 31st August-
Had a lovely sleep in. When I got up eventually, I spent the day working on my assignments. Me and Shannen decided that if we finished our assignments we would go to the National Bison Range, just north of us. Seeing as it was Labor Day there were no classes on Monday so we could relax for the day.