Week 13- It's CatGriz Week!

Monday 17th November-

My Mammalogy class was on bats which will be the topic for the next two classes as well. It was really interesting I just wish we had done lectures like this for more of the mammal groups. After class I went home and studied for our Vertebrate Design lab practical that afternoon. I was feeling confident after going over everything on Saturday. The exam went ok and there was an equal amount of questions on each topic. Bret came in mid-way through the exam with black bags for the cats. after the exam I said bye to Tiger (mine and Shannen's cat) and headed home hoping I would not have to smell formaldehyde for a long time. The CatGriz football game on this Saturday is a big rivalry game between UM and Montana State University. It's such a big game that students camped out Sunday night to get guest pass tickets. My housemate Sarah headed in at 3am and she was still 150th in the queue. I just needed a ticket for myself so I didn't have to go in until after college. 

 Tuesday 18th November-

I had my second last Mammalogy lab today which was learning to differentiate between Montana vole species. It was very difficult to find any differences at all and I'm beginning to see why most people fail the last lab exam. We got our term papers back (mine was about coyotes) and I got 53/60 so I was delighted. I don't have too much to correct so hopefully I'll get it done soon. After lab I tried to watch squirrels for my journal assignment.  It was -10*C and apparently biros don't like to work at that temperature. After about 20 minutes I had to give up because my hands hurt so much from the cold. I corrected my Grant Proposal assignment for Habitat Management that evening. My first one had been too broad so I changed it to focus on black-footed ferrets- one of only three species of ferret and North America's most endangered mammal. They were thought to be extinct until in 1981 a ranch dog came home with on in his mouth. Since then captive breeding efforts have brought the population from 18 to over 500. In order to survive this species needs prairie dogs, which are seen as pests by ranchers. Efforts are underway to try to change attitudes and show ranchers that prairie dogs are actually beneficial as they improve grassland quality. Pretty interesting to say the least. It was Siobhan's birthday so everyone called over to her place for a surprise. We brought her an oreo cream cake and had tea and chats.

"Om nom nom nom"

Wednesday 19th November-

At work today the celebrations were well underway to get everyone pumped for the big game on Saturday. A lot of the staff wore Griz jerseys of referee shirts and the marching band even called in to play a few (deafening) songs. It was pretty fun and definitely got people excited for Saturday. At home I started to work on my coyote paper. This final draft will be worth 40 points. Looper was on tv and seeing as I loved it first time round I watched that for the night.

Thursday 20th November-

It's Mockingjay day! I seriously cannot wait for tonight and this movie. my work shifts went fine and my Habitats class was short because the guest speaker forgot to show up! :P I wasn't complaining. I tried to get some sleep after work because the movie wasn't on until 11pm. After a quick nap Shannen and I headed off to meet Kate and James. Shannen was so excited for the movie whereas Kate and I were curious where they would split the book. There didn't seem to be a big crowd of people waiting when we got to the cinema at 10pm. We got popcorn and drinks which were absolutely massive but quite pricey. For $14.75 I got a large meal which was probably twice the size of a large meal in Ireland. We sat down in the lobby until Kate decided to ask if we could go in yet. Apparently there was a queue down the hallway so we headed there. There were about 100 people already there so we joined in. Good thing we did too because about 5 minutes later there was quite a queue behind us. We were left in at about 10.30pm and got exactly the seats we'd wanted. When we booked our tickets we'd decided to pay a little extra to go to the "Big D Experience" which was definitely worth in. The leather seats were high backed, extra wide and reclined! The screen was also the biggest and clearest screen I'd ever seen. There were quite a few ads as we waited. When the lights went dim at 11pm everyone went quiet expecting the movie but then the trailers started... 20 minutes of them! Fair enough I'd wanted to see most of the trailers anyways but I was not expecting so many. The movie eventually started and everyone quietened down. I won't talk about what happened because I don't want to spoil it but I will say it was pretty damn good. Fans of the book will appreciate the time given to the actual story whereas those who have who have just watched the films might be disappointed by the lack of big action scenes. Shannen was on the edge of her seat watch the end. I was happy with where they split the film because any less would have been too little and any more would be too much. Safe to say I can't wait to see part 2 next year!

A large meal is pretty damn large here!

The BigD Screen

Friday 21st November-

We didn't have an evening lab today so college finished early. Shannen, Siobhan, Desiree and I headed to Southgate mall and North Reserve Street for some shopping.  I found some great bargains and spotted some things I might go back for on Black Friday next week. That night the UC Theater was playing If I Stay, a movie me and Shannen had both wanted to see but missed out on. We met Kate, Francesca, Dan, Aoife, Orla, Ida and some of their friends there. It was a pretty sad but cute movie. By the end most people were crying. I even had to work to not cry. The very end left people confused because we didn't know there will be a sequel.

The river was completely frozen, it's thawing

The Mall's Poinsettia Christmas Tree

Saturday 22nd November-

I worked on my coyote paper and got most of my changes done on it before the game. Elliot, Shannen and I headed to the game at 4.30pm. We just wanted to go to the second half because the games go on for so long. We made it into the stadium for the last quarter and met up with Kate, James, Desiree and Dave. Grizzlies were winning 34-0 but the Bobcats brought the score up to 34-7 before the end of the game. We headed onto the pitch to get some pictures with the team for the craic. It's not until you stand next to some of the players that you realise just how huge they are! Later on Dave, Elliot, Desiree and I headed to Eoghan's neighbours house party. We played a few games of beer pong before Elliot and I headed into town to meet up with Siobhan and her friends at Union Hall. I'd been to this place before, it's pretty cool and had a live band playing. We stayed here for a while before heading to the Rhino, a more clubby place.

The tailgating outside the stadium

Desiree, Shannen, a grizzly, me and Kate

Me and Kate with the 'Brawl of the Wild' trophy

Sunday 23rd November-
I slept in this morning, had a bit of a sore head. I rang home and chatted for a while. The Foodzoo rang me and asked would I cover a shift at 5 so I made an early dinner and cycled into work. While I was working it snowed and rained so by the time I finished work at 10 the place was like an ice rink. Luckily my friend offered to drop me home so I didn't have to fall off my bike trying to get back.

Thanks for reading this week's blog. Hope you liked it - Fiona :)