What I'm Actually Doing

You know those pictures on Facebook that have a type of person (e.g. swimmer) and the following labels with pictures to describe what different people think they do?  What my mom thinks I do?  What my friends think I do?  What I think I do?  What I actually do?

Well, I think a lot of my friends and family have no idea what I'm doing in Kenya.  To be honest, I wasn't really 100% sure what I was doing either, until I got here.  I'd say I'm only 98% sure of what I'm doing right now and I'm doing it right now.  So... here's what's up.  While in Kenya, I'm taking 4 Princeton University courses in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Civil Engineering.  The first course is on African Mammals.  Everyday, I wake up at 6:30 AM in my luxury tent.  Then breakfast is at 7 AM.  Usually we go out to the field around 7:30 or 8 AM.  Over the first week we've done two field projects:  one involving elephant damage on the acacia tree; the other involving acacia ant mutualism. Everyday while we're driving we see animals, but sometimes we go out on Game Drives, the purpose being to see as many cool animals as possible.  So far, I've seen too many animals to count.  Probably the highlights have been ostrich, cheetah, giraffe, and baboons.  Some of my comrades have seen a lion, but my car was behind them and didn't get to see it.  We take special safari cars out (convertible vans) so that we can see out the top.  Last night, we went on a Night Game Drive, but didn't see much other than impala, jackals, and hares.

Sounds fun, right?  It is.  To be honest, it's some of the most fun I've ever had while doing school.  The other students here (Columbians and Princetonians) are all really cool.  And my roommate Devika (aka Doctor Drevika) is so fun!  We have a set of over 4,000 roommate rules and provisions that ensure maximal The only downside to this wonderful experience is ALL THE FRACKIN' WORK!  It's Sunday.  We are supposed to get Sunday off but everyone is working on lab reports or reading articles for tomorrow's discussion.  I'm hoping that this intense work load is only the first class.  I'm okay doing this for 3 weeks. I'm not okay with doing this for 3 months.  MEANWHILE, IN PANAMA, my Princeton roommate Clare is STRAIGHT CHILLIN' in the rainforest.  They have one project for one course.  We have 4 projects for one course.  Also, they have internet and Clare posts awesome photos of the rainforest.  Sorry for the lack of beauty in my posts; we have limited bandwidth here so posting lots of pictures is not allowed.  But I'll try to sneak one in... elephant eating on the other side of the river across from our campsite.  Picture literally taken from just outside our dining tent.

So, basically... I'm tired.  I've very tired after my first week at Mpala.  But this experience is so amazing, I can't even believe I thought of passing this up.

P.S.  Still haven't been bitten by a cobra.  Yay!

P.P.S.  I'm going to try to blog more, but it's hard because of ALL THE WORK!  Stay tuned for a philosophical post about nature coming up soon.