At least today proved more eventful than..gee, the past, 2 weeks or so? I had to get up early but luckily it was for a field trip I was actually anticipating. We went to EE Wilson wildlife area which was first established as training grounds for WWII. 1700 acres. In the past game birds were raised there. Some species still are. I saw a large pen of ringneck pheasants. Much of the area is open to hunters too, we saw one with two weimaraners on our way in. First off we went to check out the deer being used for hair loss syndrome research. Thus far researchers have discovered an old world species of louse is the cause, and it mainly affects does and fawns. The louse itself isn't the cause of mortality, but with excessive grooming the hair falls out making them more susceptible to diseases and exposure. Sounds like it's majorly affecting blacktails, like in one area 2,000 tags were issued previously and it's been reduced to 300! So the manager and a student assistant talked about it. The student kept saying "blacktail and mule tail" which was annoying. It's like I knew he knew what he was talking about, because occasionally he'd just say "mule" but still..So we got to go in groups of about 15 at a time to look at the deer. There were five or six adults at the far end of the pen, but one mule deer fawn was inside the feeding area and just walked right up to everyone and allowed itself to be petted. It turns out the deer are going to be euthanized after the research is completed, but considering this could help save who knows how many hundreds or thousands of deer in the wild, it wasn't too disturbing.

Next we got back on the bus to go to a wetland area. We saw a line of bicyclists followed by what appeared to be a perfect melding of bike and bobsled. It was so awesome, I wish I'd gotten a photo. (Ended up seeing it again, randomly enough, as I walked back to the lodge). We walked into a marsh that is currently under restoration. The entrance to this open meadow where we were standing is often under water, and it was under 15 feet during the flood of '96. There's a man made pond that is being naturalized, and the manager informed us that it holds an impressive population of western pond turtles, which are on the decline. Our last stop was a fish hatchery and research facility near campus. It started raining a lot en route and continued when we arrived. Freezing cold too. Adorable golden retriever! Saw some sturgeon and 1-2 year old chinook salmon.

Not long after I got back Michelle stopped by my room and asked if I wanted to go with her to her taekwondo class as it was "bring a friend day." I said "I'll pass." But then I got to thinking, "wait, what the hell am I doing? Absolutely nothing. I have nothing going on, I'm going to be bored, I may as well." So I went downstairs and she hadn't left yet. It was a ways away and we took bikes. I haven't ridden a bike in so long. It was difficult keeping up and slightly scary due to traffic but fun anyways. So much easier on the road than it is on the canal trail (peddling through glacial silt). The class was only a half hour and we were basically the only ones there. Not something I'd do on my own, but not bad. An improvement over those self defense classes I took in middle school where we were literally drug around and had to practice yelling for help.

Since I've done very little except homework. I did vacuum the room again, and stored away some unnecessary and space consuming items. It's quite nice being able to manipulate one's living space (at home this was impossible-excessive clutter!).

Oh my gosh, I've just discovered the world clock on my cell phone. It's 11:40 here, and 10:40 AM Sunday in Abu Dhabi!