Professor John Parnell has inadvertently done me a favor. I now know that I have no desire to be a taxonomist/systematist. None. John Parnell taught our last moduel, and right at the beginning of November he gave us one week to write a 6,000 word literature review on the systematics of a genus off of his list. You basically had to write about everything ever recorded about the genus - who discovered it, where, when, all the names it has, a detailed species description of its members, where it fits in to the rest of biology and why, create an original dichotomous key, discuss its economic/cultural value, what's being done to conserve it, acknowledgements, references, etc. It's the sort of thing that if you did it well it could be your thesis and published. As a matter of fact, we have another assignment like that - 6,000 words on a given topic - but that's due in February....5 months after it was assigned. You cannot do it and do it well in one week's time. Our class did nothing but work for a week and stress out. People started developing that slightly crazy look around the edges. I'm pretty sure I had a little of that going on, too. Those giving us marks (they're not called grades here) on the assignment are supposed to take into account (somewhat) the amount of time we had, but it's surprisingly hard to write that much just to get it done and not do your best work. Thankfully it's done now. And I got to write mine on a fungus and not a plant, which was slightly more interesting. I've spent the last week recovering and moving into a new module on conservation biology, and I was sick for a few days in there, but that's really all you missed.
Far more exciting than the last 2 weeks is what's coming in the next week or so: I get to go to IKEA tomorrow and work on actually decorating my apartment, we've started a Tuesday night class dinner deal, we'll be having Thanksgiving at my apartment, and next weekend we (our class - extracurricularly) are going to a cabin in the Burren, which is a cool place out west (see map below). Also Vivi found an open vegetable market on Saturday's not too far from our usual flea market, which has great deals and much better produce than the regular grocery. Speaking of the flea market, before we got there this weekend Vivi asked me if I was looking for anything in particular before we got there. I told her I needed a clothes iron. Guess who went home with a brand new iron for only 6 euro?! Apparently all I have to do is tell Vivi what I'm looking for before we go, and it appears at the flea market. Printers, irons.....maybe next time I'll ask for a sewing machine. Or a kayak.....
Far more exciting than the last 2 weeks is what's coming in the next week or so: I get to go to IKEA tomorrow and work on actually decorating my apartment, we've started a Tuesday night class dinner deal, we'll be having Thanksgiving at my apartment, and next weekend we (our class - extracurricularly) are going to a cabin in the Burren, which is a cool place out west (see map below). Also Vivi found an open vegetable market on Saturday's not too far from our usual flea market, which has great deals and much better produce than the regular grocery. Speaking of the flea market, before we got there this weekend Vivi asked me if I was looking for anything in particular before we got there. I told her I needed a clothes iron. Guess who went home with a brand new iron for only 6 euro?! Apparently all I have to do is tell Vivi what I'm looking for before we go, and it appears at the flea market. Printers, irons.....maybe next time I'll ask for a sewing machine. Or a kayak.....
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