What this American Girl is Made of

April 11th, 2014

Wednesday

Something I have quickly learned while being here is that Americans are usually the but of the joke. Well the Aussies had a whole other thing coming today. It was Resi Footy night. The day consisted of class and studying,  but at 5:30 it was game time! After we had walked over to the oval, I started stretching a little bit while I was listening to music. Evan looked over at me and said "Katie you look like you are going to kill somebody." I busted out laughing and one of my Australian friends couldn't believe how intense I looked. He said he was a little intimidated ;) That's my game face for ya!

Here is a picture from half time. I was on the white team. We had the fewest players but we still ended up winning. I mostly played defence and had some really good plays. It was so much fun! Afterwards, like true Australians, we had a BBQ. Here are some pictures we took...

 Part of the Winning Team

Footy Faces

 Nothing but smiles!

The rest of the night I hung out with friends and relaxed!

Thursday

Like I told Jack, my lecturer, last week, I only like to ruin one day out of the week with GIS. And Thursday is that special day. All of the daylight hours were spent in class and behind the computer. Luckily, Thursdays are Uni Night downtown so we all ended up going out in the evening. Dancing, laughing and simply having a good time is the perfect cure for Thursday day.

Friday

Friday morning started early with a little more studying for my algae quiz in my marine biodiversity prac. The quiz was much easier than I was expecting so that was a plus. Then we got to look at annelids. Learning about these little beasties reminded me of when I would save all the worms my parents dug up in the garden back home. I told this to Evan and he said I was such a nerd. I laughed and responded with "at least it keeps life interesting." I have never been all that interested in annelids but today was fascinating. It was like being in a sci-fi world. 

These are Ficopomatus

 They live in groups like this on rocks and other substrates in the rivers. We studied these on our first field trip. You can see the worms in the tubes. They are the black fuzzy looking things sticking out of the tube.

Here is a picture under the microscope of the worm outside its tube. 

Here is a video of it moving around. I also got to watch one feed under the microscope!

This is a Sabellidae or Feather Duster worm. The common name perfectly describes what the worm looks like.

It is a larger worm than the last. This worm is bigger than my hand.

 Here is a Syllidae

Video showing how it moves

This was the most fantastic worm to watch... a spaghetti worm (Terebellidae)

 Without the microscope

Spaghetti tentacles

 Strange Beauty!

The other cool worm we saw was a Aphroditidae worm (sea mouse)

dorsal view

 ventral view

We don't really understand how it got its name, but our lecturer said it might be due to the psychedelic "hairs" that cover its body. I still think Aphrodite herself would be upset having this worm named after her... I mean if you had to pick a worm a least pick a polycheata like this one 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/546624473494488850/ 

Last but not least, here is the worm we found in our sample from last week...

 We think it is some sort of Syllidae

After class I finished up some homework before the afternoon seminar. The seminar was "Integrating next generation DNA sequencing with ecology: seal scats and stickleback SNPs" by Dr. Bruce Deagle. I was brave enough and asked a question at the end of the lecture too! Jack teased me as we were walking out and grabbing a scone saying that was the only reason I came. All the lecturers really like picking on the foreigners but I retorted saying I had a good question at least. 

The rest of the afternoon I spent working on a project at the mouth of the Hopkins River for Fishcare. We are doing a study on how much rubbish is washing up on the beach and around the rivers and trying to determine where it is coming from. So we have to set up quadrats at our different sites and collect the garbage with in it and analyse it. 

The first try took us awhile... but we eventually were able to make a square ;)

Closer look at the set up

 The whole group

Working hard!

I am really excited to be helping with this study. It is really great to be able to use everything I have been learning in college and give back to the community. Hopefully we can learn how all this litter is getting into the water ways and we can help fix the problem!

 A katydid

A neat bug to share a name with

When I got home Nick had a surprise for me... it was a bug he had found on his car. I know I am a nerd when my friends save me bugs to look at because they know I will think they are cool. I love it though! Why not get excited about all the little things in life that make the world beautiful!

I  am an American, an athlete, and a nerd (and proud of it)! These Aussies may think I am a "typical America" but they have no idea what has hit them yet!