Getting Excited!

Me at the mouth of the Churchill River last year. I can't wait to go back!

With my last exam finished and the last assignment handed in, I'm starting to get really excited for the summer! I'm starting out in Waterloo, ON, then will be in Churchill, Manitoba for 2.5 months!

So for the next month, I will be planning out my experiment that I will be conducting up north and getting ready to spend the summer there.

So much to do:

• Take a First Aid Course
• Get my PAL - Rifle license
• Plan out the experiment
• Research everything related to the topic
• Narrow down the research question
• Figure out the methods
• Find out that the methods don't work according to the literature
• Research some more
• Figure out new methods
• Order materials
• Run a trial experiment to see how it all works
• Find out it doesn't work
• Go back to beginning and try to apply what I learned the first time through
• Frantically come up with something to bring with me to Churchill
• Continue adjusting until it seems to be working
• Make it work
• Go to Churchill and run the experiment
• Cross fingers!
• PALS (Paleolimnology Conference) to present Churchill work from last summer
• Add new data
• Re-analyze data
• Discover that the data is saying something completely different than I thought it had been saying
• Slave over powerpoint
• Travel to Montreal
• Present (woohoo!)
• Cross fingers that no one will ask a hard question!
• Prepare the podcast! I'm in Knowledge Integration at UW, which means I get to do a really cool thesis! I've decided to make a podcast about everything I'm doing in Churchill!
• Find a supervisor
• Find money/grant to buy or rent a good mic and recorder
• Figure out how to interview people
• Figure out how to make a podcast
• Get a friend to record some cool music
• And in a simplified version... Be ready to pump out podcasts every week as soon as I get to Churchill! (Yea, I'm optimistic! Or naive!)
• Prepare to go to Churchill
• What to pack?!? Is it winter or summer or...?
• Forget the most essential thing to bring, which is... which is... I can't remember...
• Throw a Polar Bear themed good-bye party