ashinalicante

[ashinalicante]

Internnship!!!

It's been a while, I know. I have a lot to catch you all up on! Right now, I want to talk about my internship-- and let me tell you, it's been a journey and a half to get to this point.

I spent the better half of last semester searching for different internship opportunities and reaching out to companies (alone and through my advisor here at the University, and with the help of the people in my program back home). This..didn't work out too well, to say the least. People were slow to respond, if they did at all. In the end, my zoology professor, whom I had reached out to, emailed me with an opportunity to help a grad student out on her thesis project. I met with my professor to hear about it and accepted right away. After all, I needed to start this internship in the next two weeks (at that point, it was right before my final exams).

Fast forward to now.

I am really enjoying the work I am doing so far. I have met with the grad student three times in the lab so far. The rest of the time, I've been working in an office room in the Facultad de Ciencias Ambientales (the environmental science building), working on miscellaneous projects and tasks for my professor.

I've done a lot so far in the office room in the few weeks it's been since I started! I've:

learned how the faculty library works and organized books there

researched specific fly species on a database, double-checked the accuracy of the names and made labels for specific species

printed those labels on card-stock and redone glass cases with those species, so the faculty has a good reference for native fly species of South Africa

learned how the paper bibliography section works, so I can take out reference materials as needed

sorted and filed reference materials that hadn't been returned to their proper file folders

editing the English grammar of a thesis chapter from the university

researched current studies similar to the thesis chapter that I am editing

written a comparison (in Spanish) of the thesis chapter and two recent articles of similar studies

read a different published scientific article on flies related to their use as eliminators of organic waste and a source of protein for fish farms

used a published catalog of the Afrotropical region to compile a list of all fly species in South Africa and make labels for them

Unfortunately, my professor is out of the office for the time being. She's recovering from an accident she was in.

However, I am getting a bit more lab time. I've been learning how the grad student’s study is set up, and she's teaching me about the flies as we go.

I'm really enjoying myself so far. Working in an internship is a welcome change from sitting in a classroom.

[ashinalicante]

Guess who almost started crying in the ride back to her apartment

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Tram doodles

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...............how much loss in 3 weeks...............

[ashinalicante]

Ah, my professor bolted after class got out

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Hey sorry I've been awol, it's hard keeping up 3 blogs at once

[ashinalicante]

The plan for today? Explore the university

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Oh and btw one of the first things ppl started commenting on when starting up small talk w us (as students from the US) was guns. Like they literally were just like, so America,,,guns,,,,scary, no?

[ashinalicante]

So I spent approximately 8 hours at a BBQ last night, and then spent all of today lazing around. It was a good day

[ashinalicante]

Murphy’s Airplane

A.k.a. Everything that can go wrong on a plane trip will go wrong on a plane trip

As some of you might know, getting from home to Alicante was a bit of a struggle for me (well, that might be an understatement). I’m not going to bore you with all of the details, but here are the highlights:

Flight 1

There were mechanical problems, had to take a different plane, left an hour later than planned, on arrival there was trouble taxiing the plane to the terminal

Flight 2

Practically sprinted to the terminal, made the connecting flight with time to grab some food to eat on the plane (phew!), TV panel on the airplane stopped displaying--but still played my music 

Flight 3

Getting through passport control and security is super fun in Spanish when you're tired, but it worked out alright, Terminal was almost empty when we first got there

Waited at baggage claim for almost an hour, turns out our bags were left in LA (they came 2 days later)

Took a taxi to our apartment without any problems

[ashinalicante]

Hey all! Now that I’m settling in to my new place and just being here in general, I’m trying to post more regularly

[ashinalicante]

Actually I’m v glad it’s back now. It’s way too hot to sleep in my room without the little fan going

Lol power went out for a bit but it’s back now

[ashinalicante]

Lol power went out for a bit but it's back now

[ashinalicante]

Yesss!! My luggage finally got here!

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Score one for broke college students!

My meals here so far have been: cheap pizza by the slice, some ham and cheese sandwiches, and some Kraft mac n cheese (courtesy of my parents' packing)

[ashinalicante]

Also, heck yeah! My dad packed a few boxes of mac n cheese in my carry-on suitcase!

[ashinalicante]

First day in Alicante!

I slept until about 11:30, and all that's on today's agenda is walking to El Corte Ingles (big department store) to buy some clothes to last until my suitcase gets here (yeah, the airline left our bags in the US).

Overall, the weather is very nice here! It's bright and cloudy outside and, with our windows open, it feels pretty nice in the apartment. There's no escaping the humidity though, that'll take some getting used to.

More to follow, but today's shaping up to be much better than the day of travel getting here.