Week 26- It's Pancake Time!

WARNING- Thursday's write up includes information about a bird dissection and pictures of a gizzard and heart. There is no blood visible but if you're squeamish maybe give it a skip.

Monday 16th February-

There were no classes on today seeing as it's President's Day, I did however have to work. I signed up for another shift on Mondays so that meant I was at the Zoo from 11am- 9.30pm. I got held back late at work because the kitchen wasn't fully clean and had to help out. Luckily Shannen came in and collected me seeing as there were no buses running on the holiday.

(Pancake) Tuesday 17th February-

Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday is celebrated in Ireland on the day before lent begins. Typically this celebration involves eating pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not a bad tradition really! You get your fill of sweet food before your supposed to give it up for 40 days. So I made some pancakes for Shannen and myself before our rangeland class at 11am. That evening at the Wildlife Society there was a bat biologist there to talk to us about his work in Alaska. He illustrated the dangers facing bats, including white nose syndrome. He also spoke of the difficulty of catching and tracking bats. Any radio transmitters have to be less than 0.5g because bats are so tiny. For dinner I made some more pancakes with bananas and blueberries cooked into them, yum!

Wednesday 18th February-

Typical Wednesday with class and double work shifts, except this week I didn't have to try and read a recreation behaviour paper during lunch. We're not having a typical class tomorrow, so no paper due.

Thursday 19th February-

I started off the day dissecting a rock pigeon at 8am for my ornithology lab. We worked in groups of four to pluck, slice, identify and remove various parts of the bird. I had already studied bird anatomy last semester so didn't find it too hard identifying the muscles and organs we will need to know. We also learned to identify Montana owls, grouse and swifts. After lab Shannen and I went to the UC and worked on assignments. I finally decided what I want to do my ornithology proposal on and it involves owls and shrews in Ireland. We reviewed three papers in rangeland and then had an hour and a half after class to work on some more assignments. Our Recreation Behaviour class was on in the library today for an information session on how to use library resources. I was skeptical, thinking it would be your stereotypical "Here's how you find research papers". I was very wrong :P We learned some great hacks that will make assignments much easier, especially a tool that will format your references for you! No more long proof reading to check whether the volume number is bolded, or the jornal title is italicized for me! That evening Kate, Aoife and Bridget called over to talk about plans for a weekend trip to Seattle. We're going to go on Thursday 12th of March so that we get three nights there. I can't wait to see a west coast city and the Pacific Ocean for the first time!

A gizzard is full of pebbles and is used to grind food.

A bird heart.

Friday 20th February-

Had my usual genetics class, ornithology class and work shift as a cook's help today. That evening Bridget, Shannen and I went to the UC cinema for two movies; Disney's Big Hero 6 and Mockingjay. It's unreal how cheap it is, just $4 for two movies, $3 for a large popcorn and $1 for a drink! Not like going to the actual cinema. I hadn't heard much about Big Hero 6 but it was great! Had me laughing and crying, along with most of the other students there. I'd already seen Mockingjay but it was worth it to go see it again.

Saturday 21st February-

I got up early today (no sleep ins here :P ) so that I could try and do my three research papers and proposal assignment for rangeland, my genetics homework and also study. I have three exams next week, with ornithology on Wednesday, recreation behaviour on Thursday and genetics and evolution on Friday. Add to that the fact that I work 18 hours a week and that leaves very little time for study. So weekend study session it is! To have a break that night Sarah, Shannen and I watched Mulan. Nothing like Disney movies after a long day of studying!

Sunday 22nd February-

Got up again and spent most of the day studying. I got through half of the ornithology lectures and summarised all of the recreation papers so twas a successful day. That evening Kate, Siobhan, Shannen and I went to Walmart for grocery shopping and stopped in at Dairy Queen on the way home for a treat.

Walmart's getting ready for Easter...

Safe to say another busy week at UM in preparation for the Hell Week that's to come. Thanks again for reading- Fiona :D

Week 25- Movies and Mountains

Monday 9th February-

Had my usual 8am Genetics class and 10am Bird class and started work after that. When I finished work I signed up for a new shift on Monday evenings and dropped my Sunday night shift. That means I can relax more on Sunday but from now on I'll be in college from 8am-9pm on Mondays. That evening we had a big movie night with Savannah, Dervla, Eoghan, Mairead, Caitriona, Aoife, Desiree, Kate, Siobhan, Dave and Barry. We watched the Silver Linings Playbook which is a great movie. You can definitely see why Jennifer Lawrence got an Oscar for it.

Tuesday 10th February-

I had my Rangeland and Recreation Behaviour classes today, which went fine. It was UM's birthday so we enjoyed piano music and cupcakes in between classes. That evening at the Wildlife Society there was a guest speaker who works with satellite tracking golden eagles in the Rockies. It was really interesting to see where the eagles migrate to, some up to northern Alaska for summer and down to South America for winter.

Me with Bertha, the Forestry Departments moose!

Wednesday 11th February-

My long day of classes and work so on campus from 8am-9pm.

Thursday 12th February-

Today began with a bird lab where we looked at bones, which was grand seeing as I'd already learned bones from last semester. I did find a bone with a really weird growth though, which could have been from a healed break. It was such a nice day that after class I decided to climb up Mt. Sentinel. When I got to the top of the trail I headed around the back of the mountain on crooked trail. It's so pretty up there and so close from Lewis and Clark. The people you meet are so friendly too and more than welcoming if you ask to pet their dogs :P . I should have stayed up longer though because by the time I got down there was beautiful sunset.

The odd bird bone

 

Friday 13th February-

I had my classes and cook's assistant shift. When I got home Kate was visiting so we watched a movie. I put on Cloud Atlas, one of my favourite movies. It's a great movie that brings together six interrelated and interwoven stories spanning different time periods.

Saturday 14th February-

Whooo Singleness Awareness Day! :P After working on some homework for the morning Shannen, Kate, Caitriona, Aoife and I decided to head up Mt. Sentinel to where I'd gone Thursday evening. After a while Shannen wasn't feeling great and headed home. We continued on along the Crooked Trail until we came to a forest and stream where we had a picnic. After that we headed home. Shannen was feeling better so we went out to Walmart for some shopping. On the way back we noticed that Dairy Queen was open after being closed all winter so naturally we had to drop in for Blizzard ice creams :P . Best Singleness Awareness Day ever!!

Aoife, Caitriona and Kate

Love is made of Pepsi apparently!

Sunday 15th February-

I worked on assignments for most of the day and got a lot done. I didn't have to work tonight after dropping my shift which was weird after working it almost every weekend since I got here. That evening Kate called over for a study break and a movie. We started to watch Annabelle but we didn't like it so Kate suggested GBF, which was pretty funny.

Thanks again for reading, sorry this week's post wasn't exactly very exciting. - Fiona

Week 24- Flannel..Flannel everywhere

Monday 2nd February-
The second week of lectures started today, I had Genetics and then Ornithology and after that three hours at work. When I got home I did my reading for my Recreation Behaviour class tomorrow. That night Shannen, Bridget, Joe, myself and our friend from last semester Sofia and her boyfriend went to the Badlander Bar for a table quiz. The special theme of the night was Scotland, so there was a picture round of famous Scots and a music round too. We didn't do too bad for our first night and came fifth overall :P

Tuesday 3rd February-
My Rangeland Ecology class was cancelled today because the lecturer was out of town so that meant no classes until 2 o'clock! I still got up at 9am to finish reading my Rec paper and start my assignment on why there aren't many trees on Rangelands. I just had an hour and a half of college before I was home again. I finished off my assignment and headed to the Wildlife Society meeting with Shannen, Joe and Alissa. They taught us how to swing dance for the evening. I thought it might be similar to Irish dancing... I was wrong. It was hard to begin with but eventually I got into the swing of it! :P Ah see what I did there ;) So punny...

Wednesday 4th February-
Today essentially consisted of two classes and two work shifts, so I was on campus from 8am - 9pm. I'm beginning to see a theme to Wednesday's write up! :P

Thursday 5th February-
After 8am bird lab I had my classes on Rangelands and Rec Behaviour. I had to have read a very interesting paper on why people choose to recreate where they do and the evolutionary significance behind that. I'm glad I'm taking this class which is a little outside my major but still very relevant. That evening Desiree and Kate visited and we decided which hostels to stay in for Spring Break. We also booked a visit to Alcatraz. Pretty much everything is booked for San Francisco and Las Vegas now! Desiree had to leave but Kate, Shannen and I practiced our swing dancing for the Forester's Ball tomorrow night! It pretty funny but we got the hang of it... kinda

Friday 6th February-
After my morning classes I headed home for lunch before my work shift. I was peppering chicken fillets and grilling them in batches. I don't think I've ever seen so many chicken breasts in my life! After work I hurried home and got ready as fast as I could before the Forester's Ball. It's a pretty casual event so you dress country or like a lumberjack, meaning lots of denim and flannel shirts. I went to Kate's apartment along with a lot of the other Internationals for a while before the Ball. The Ball was being held in the gym and students had been building it all week. The inside of the gym was amazing! It was like a small logging town had been built indoors, with log cabins all around the main dance floor. There was a jail, a photo booth, a barbers, a shop, a saloon and a chapel! There was even a giant slide! It was so cool. You got free fizzy/soft drinks at the saloon all night all it cost you was a kiss to the bartender :P You could get free chilli too for dancing around a pole. The band was really good and even though I didn't know most of the country songs I still danced away. Our friend had Shannen and I arrested and put in the jail for three songs. Everyone was having mock weddings so myself and Shannen got hitched for 24 hours before you ditch em. At 10pm the can can girls came out and did some very cool dancing in corsets and tutus. They were joined by some guys who promptly had the pants pulled off them :P We met up with two of the new international students Catriona from Ireland and Aoife from Liverpool, who are great craic. We were swing dancing all night and even learned a bit of line dancing. Also we made full use of the slide and indoor jenga! It definitely rivals the Balls we're used to at home! When we got home after 12, Shannen, Kate, Bridget and I decided we'd go to Denny's for some late night snackage.

Shannen, Desiree, Sarah and I

 

Saturday 7th February-
We'd decided to go to the Rattlesnake Wilderness for some hiking today after we felt guilty about being the only ones in our Recreation class that had never been. Unfortunately it was a day for ducks in that it was pouring rain. Instead we stayed inside did some homework. That evening Shannen and I finished Game of Thrones season 3, aka The Red Wedding! Safe to say Shannen was not impressed!

Sunday 8th February-
As the weather was better today, Shannen, Kate and I headed out to the Rattlesnake. Unfortunately we didn't even think that there would be ice on the trail. We couldn't get very far and so just wandered around by the river for a while. I tried to cross the car park to the trail map to see if there might be a less icy one and of course slipped and fell on my arse! I was fine though. After that we decided to come back another day later on in the spring. It does look like a beautiful area. We decided to try out Ihop instead seeing as none of us had ever been. I got unlimited pancakes and enjoyed all the different flavoured syrups. That night I had my usual Sunday vacuuming shift.

Thanks again for reading, hopefully I'll be able to keep up with the weekly posts now- Fiona :)

Week 22-23 - New York, Return to Missoula and Back to College

Tuesday 20th January-

I got up at 3am to head into the bus station in Philadelphia when my uncle was going to work. My bus to New York was at 7am so I just hung around 30th Street Station for a while. I slept for most of the trip seeing as I'd gotten about an hours sleep after staying up with my aunt. When I got to New York, I lugged my suitcase to the subway and got on the train to Queens. I tried to ring Shannen to let her know I wouldn't be long... but I'd forgotten to refill my phone credit! I couldn't ring her and she couldn't ring me! I frantically connected to the station wifi and sent her a message. The train pulled out just as the message sent. At the next stop I got wifi again and sent to meet up at Dunkin Donuts (the only place I knew in the neighbourhood). To add to the drama my phone's battery was dying and on about 6%  . Luckily at the next station I got a message saying she was on the way and would meet me there. Panic over! Moral of the story always make sure to arrange a place and time before traveling! When we got to Shannen's house I dropped off my bag, had lunch and headed back into Manhattan. We wandered around Central Park and found some of the statues before heading back to Times Square for a while. We had an early night because I was wrecked and Shannen was jet-lagged having just arrived from Ireland Monday night.

Bedtime stories with Hans Christian Anderson

Alice in Wonderland

Taking on a grizzly

Wednesday 21st January-

We headed to a restaurant where Shannen had worked before during the summer for lunch. After that we went up to the top of the Rockefeller Center. I'd been up the Empire State building at night, but it was nice to see New York during the day. You don't realise how huge Central Park is until you're up high. That evening we went to a Queens butcher shop which had lots of Irish products. I was able to get puddings (the meat kind not the chocolate kind), Flahavans Irish porridge (oatmeal), some Cadbury's chocolate bars (have since been banned here!) and taytos. We had a nice dinner in Queens before heading back to Shannen's house to pack. Safe to say my bag was bulging with all the stuff I'd accumulated on my 6 weeks of traveling!

Rockefeller Ice Rink

Central Park

Thursday 22nd January-

Today's the day I fly to Missoula! Well first to Boston, then to Minneapolis and THEN to Missoula! When I checked in my bag it was bang on the dot with 23kg (50lb). Our flight left JFK at 10am and we made it to Missoula at 7.30 pm local time (9.30pm for what I'd become used to). It was so cool flying over the great lakes to Minneapolis and seeing them frozen over. As we continued west the frequency of lights in the countryside slowly dwindled. Just goes to show how spread out houses are in the (Wild) West. I was so excited to see mountains again when we landed! There were a lot of college students arriving back on the same flight. My Missoula family picked me up from the airport and brought me back to my apartment, which I was grateful for considering the grand total of 7 taxis in Missoula! :P Once I'd semi-unpacked I headed to sleep for class in the morning. No rest for the wicked!

Boston

At the edge of one of the great lakes

Flying into Minneapolis

Leaving Minneapolis

Friday 23rd-Sunday 25th January-

I'd decided to take a class on wildlife handling and chemical immoblisation for the 3 days before college started back. I got the bus to campus and couldn't help but smile at being back. Class started at 8am and there was surprisingly a large number of students there. Our instructor was a Wildlife Veterinarian and specialised in canines. He was the vet involved in bringing wolves back to Yellowstone, so I was delighted. I learned so much about animal care and having consideration for the animal you are working with. It was a great class and I would recommend anyone to take it. Sunday night I was back to working at the Food Zoo, my usual 2 hour hoovering shift. 

Monday 26th January-

My first class, Genetics and Evolution, started at 8am. Gotta love those early starts. After that I went to Wildlife Population Conservation, which I was disappointed to learn I wouldn't be able to take because the class was full. Next was Ornithology, the study of birds. Kris, the TA from Vertebrate Design and Evolution last semester is teaching this class. That class was full too but luckily I was already registered for it. When that was over I headed into work for a 4 hour shift, which went grand. That evening I watched Game of Thrones with Shannen.

Tuesday 27th January-

My first class today was Rangeland Ecology, then Comparative Animal Physiology and then Recreation Behaviour, all of which are an hour and a half long. Since Comparative Animal Physiology seemed fairly close to what I'd already covered to Vertebrate Design and Evolution I decided to drop the class. That leaves me on 16 credits this semester, including wildlife handling which is more than enough considering I only need 12 credits. That evening I baked brownies for the Wildlife Society potluck dinner. They seem to have lots of plans for the semester which will be cool. I signed up to help prepare a wolf skeleton for the university to display.

Wednesday 28th January-

Today essentially consisted of two classes and two work shifts, so I was on campus from 8am - 9pm :P .

Thursday 29th January-

I had my first ornithology lab today which was a lot like mammalogy, in that we looked at bird bodies and figured out how to identify them. We're focusing mostly on Montana species so that we can see them on field trips. I had rangeland ecology and rec. behaviour later and had to have read papers for them as homework. I'll have to do this for them every Tuesday and Thursday because we discuss them in class.

Hooded merganser

Eared grebe

Harlequin duck

Friday 30th January-

Had two classes and then a shift working as a chefs assistant, which was great. It's  more fun to be cooking food then to be serving it :) . I finished up at 5pm and that evening Kate (who has now moved out of dorms and into Lewis and Clark) and Bridget (our downstairs neighbour) called over for a movie. Bridget had cooked Hawaiian banana desserts, which were delicious.

Saturday 31st January-

Today Shannen and I went to the Wildlife Society to work on the wolf skeleton. The wolf had been hit and killed by a car and at the time it was thought he was 4-5 years old because he was so huge. When he was aged using his teeth they found out he was less than a year old! So we spent the morning boiling feet bones and toes and cleaning them up, careful not to mix up the four paws. It's so cool to be involved in a project like this. Later that evening I got ready for Dave's 21st birthday party, which was a great night! We played beer pong, learned how to play flip cup and met Dave's new housemate, a typical Montanan cowboy. He even has deer antlers on the walls of their apartment. We headed downtown and had a brilliant time.

Wolf paw bones

A wolf in a box

Dinosaur cake

Superbowl Sunday 1st February-

I made pancakes for breakfast (well, more like lunch) for Shannen, Kate and I. Then I spent most of the day reading papers, starting assignments and worked my usual Sunday night shift.

Thanks again for reading- Fiona :)