Winding down?

Ahhh! Totally crunch time!

This week, I FINALLY finished my experiment! Woohoo. As much as I enjoyed it, I was getting slightly bored/tired of moving 200+ baby crabs from one well to another EVERY DAY. We called an end to the experiments because I needed to analyze my data. I spent the better part of Monday and Tuesday running statistical analyses with Dr. Sulkin. I now have lots of information about stage survival, mortality, and duration. I just have to organize it into tables, graphs, and figures to put into a presentation. The presentation is on Wednesday next week, but my advisor wants me to finish it by Friday so that I can work on writing my paper next week!

Oh yeah, did I mention that we are supposed to have a draft of a scientific paper ready by the time we leave Shannon Point?!

Sorry – that’s a little overdramatic, but it is a lot of work. On top of making and practicing the presentation, I’m not sure when I’m supposed to write this paper, especially since I also have to pack and clean my room and stuff. Dr. Sulkin said that most people don’t get the paper done by the time they leave, but it is better to try because it will be hard to be motivated to write it in the “real world.” We’ll see how it goes.

While, I will be sad to leave since I’ve had such a great time here, I’m excited to go home.  A lot has happened since I left – Dad got a job, Mum passed her Pharm. Tech. exam (yay!) – and I still need to get ready for school to start about a week after I get back! I can’t wait to see my family and friends, but I am also really excited to get my wound fixed. I’m scheduled for yet another CT scan pre-op exam on the Monday after I get back (8/19) with surgery on Tuesday morning. Unless they see something glaringly obvious on the CT scan (which they haven’t on any of the previous 3), they will essentially be “going in blind.” It will be an exploratory surgery and I’m under the impression that they will just keep cutting until they find whatever is causing the problem. This might seem scary, but I’m not worried. My surgeon is great and I trust God to help him find the problem.  There was talk of putting a wound vac (a device that creates negative pressure in the wound to promote faster healing) on after the surgery, but I don’t think that will be decided until we are in the OR. It should be a day surgery again, so I’ll be back home that same day. I’m praying that it will all be resolved within the first few weeks of school so that I no longer have to change my gauze twice a day like I have been for the last 5 months. It’s just really annoying.

Anyways, that was a bit rant-y. Oops. I’ll be back in MN on 8/17. See ya soon!

Where has all the time gone?

Last weekend was jam packed with "firsts."

On Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early to go down to the lab and feed my crabs. And by bright and early I mean 5am. Yeah, I know. Ew. You might ask, "Why so early?" Well, the answer is Vancouver. A group of 5 of us decided to head up to Vancouver to celebrate one of the research group's experiment being completed. We had to catch a train at 9:21am in Mount Vernon, which is about 40 minutes from here. We wanted to arrive at the train station around 8:45. We had to leave at 8, which meant that I had to be at the lab at 6 to feed my crab babies. We got to the station just fine and had a nice train ride. It was the first time that I have ridden a train (that I remember). It seems like a great, but time consuming, way to travel.

We spent the day in Vancouver checking out the Vancouver Aquarium (another first for one girl in our group who had never been to an aquarium before!), navigating the bus system, and having fun! However, the trip was short lived. We spent the night in a hotel and boarded a 6:40am train back to Mount Vernon. It was pretty tough to get up early for that one.

Once we got back to Shannon Point, some people from the Canada trip and some who were at Shannon Point got ready to go to Friday Harbor. There is a ferry terminal just around the corner from Shannon Point, so we walked to that and took the ferry over to the San Juan Islands. It was my first ever ferry ride.

Friday Harbor was great! It is so beautiful there. We got some lunch first and then we went to the Whale Museum. Even though it was really cool, it was also kind of depressing to learn about the history of whaling and using whales for entertainment value. Then we got some home made ice cream, which cheered me up. :)

I was only able to spend a few hours in Friday Harbor because I had to get back to the lab to feed my crabs for the day. So, Shad and I headed back on a late afternoon ferry. When we arrived in Anacortes, we didn't really feel like walking back to Shannon Point on the road, because it is very hilly and tiring, so instead we decided to try the beach, which is quite easy to walk at low tide. Unfortunately for us, it was high tide! But it was ok. There was some splashing and crawling and stumbling - it was an adventure.

We got back to Shannon Point and, even though I was basically falling asleep on my feet, I had to go and feed my crabs. I kept myself alert by listening to Elvis. :)

Just as I was finishing up in the lab, I got a text from the other group that we left in Friday Harbor that their ferry was almost back and I drove over to get them using Sarah's car.

Even though I was dead tired, it was a great weekend and I'm really glad we did everything that we did. I am realizing more and more each day that there is only a limited amount of time left for me here - I come home in ~2.5 weeks! I feel like it is a rush to the finish line now, as I try to wrap up all my experiments, prepare a presentation, and write a paper, all while trying to spend time doing fun things with friends! I must admit though - I am excited to go home. I miss my family and the familiar surroundings. I also miss driving! I didn't realize how much I would miss that. I'm also anxious to get my wound taken care of when I return. I'll see my surgeon soon after I get back and we're hoping to come up with a plan that will permanently fix it, since nothing has worked thus far.

Thanks so much for reading - I hope you enjoyed it. To all of you who have prayed for my wound I say thank you and please continue!

P.S. MAJOR praise report: My dad got a job!!! If you know anything about this situation, you know that it had been a long time coming. And with the circumstances around the interview, type of position, etc. he should not have gotten the job, so we know that it was God's doing. Yay!

Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 16:9.

I need that reminder daily. Since I have been at Shannon Point, I've managed to convince myself that I should go to med school in Australia, take a year off to teach English in Japan, take a year off to travel, take a year off to work, go to grad school for a marine bio Ph.D. (possibly overseas), and go to grad school for a marine bio masters. In that order.

I keep thinking about all the things that I could do with my life and worrying about what the next step should be. Why is it so hard to just be content with what is happening now? Why is it so hard to be content with not know what will happen next?

The only explanation I can think of is that I am human. Also, I'm too focused on things that I want to do and not focused enough on what He wants me to do. He could have it in plan for me to do any of the things I mentioned - or none. I won't know until it happens, I suppose.

For now, I'm going to focus on shorter goals, like graduating from Northwestern. Then I'll tackle what to do afterwards. Maybe thats not the best plan, but at least I'll be able to keep my sanity along the way!


Well, after that mind dump, updates! Everything is going well out here at Shannon Point. I have all three of my experiments running currently. They seem to be going well. Even though larval crabs are not the most interesting thing in the world, but its a good overall research and networking experience.

I'm having a lot of fun with the people around here. The other interns and grad students are great people to hang out with. We have a lot of fun going to movies, making dinner together, doing puzzles, and just haning out in general. Next weekend, some of us are going to venture up to Vancouver for a night and then over to the San Juan Islands and Friday Harbor. It should be a fun time. I promise I'll try to take some pictures.

Thanks for prayer about the wound. It seems to be closing around the edges! While this is a good sign, it would be counterproductive for it to close all the way, because it is not really healing depth-wise. If it did close up it could become a problem because it would need to be cut open again which couldn't be easily accomplished out here. So please pray that it doesn't get any worse and that it can be dealt with when I get back.

Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. -- Proverbs 16:9

Molting crab babies!

I found molts today!

My crab larvae are coming along well in my experiment. All of the Unfed control group have died! While this sounds cruel, it is necessary for the experiment and they probably would have all died long ago if they were in the ocean anyways. Also, my non-toxic diet larvae have begun to molt. This means that they have passed into the second stage of larval development and gives me a comparison to the stage duration of the toxic diet larvae (a few of which molted today). I am excited to continue the experiment and eventually analyze the data I am getting to see what effect the toxins have. Next week I will start a new experiment that seeks to observe the differences in development of the larvae when there are differing levels of toxin present in the diet, which is also pretty exciting. I realize that this is super nerdy, but I am at a marine science REU, so :-P

As for general life stuff...

Yesterday all the interns and grad students living at SPMC had Thanksgiving in July! It was tons of fun. We had great, yummy food and a wonderful time of fellowship. I made some bread rolls from frozen dough that expanded so much that they were ginormous! I cooked some of them in muffin pans, two to a hole, and they turned out looking like this:

I'm sure you can imagine what they were nicknamed. Yep - butt buns! It made for an interesting dinner... Just imagine, "Can you pass the butt buns, please?" Haha. It was great.

For all of you who have been praying about my wound, thank you! My dad called my surgeon and he gave me some advice about how to clean it and put the wick in and this seems to be helping immensely! Not only is there less fluid coming out each day, but it seems like it might even be closing a little! I still have to see my surgeon right away when I get back and we will probably end up doing exploratory surgery to get out whatever is irritating it, but as long as its not getting worse, I'm happy. Please keep praying! I know that God will eventually heal the wound, either by a surgery or miraculously. Your prayers are always welcomed and greatly appreciated. :-)

So little time!

Gosh, it has been a long time since I have written a post. Sorry for all those who have been expecting an update!

Even though I feel like I'm not too busy, the time still seems to fly here. I think the main reason is because I have made some really good friends and I really enjoy spending time with them. But I'm also busy doing other things like working in the lab, preparing presentations, cooking, laundry, etc. And then there are the fun things to do around town. There is a great Farmer's Market in Anacortes on Saturday and Wednesday. I have been a few times and got some great stuff - some local raspberries, ice cream, a bracelet, and a bag of the biggest sugar snap peas you have ever seen!

Daniel and me

There have been a few highlights of my time here since I posted last. On the 4th of July, a bunch of the interns went to the Anacortes 4th of July Parade. While it was long and not that interesting, I did make a friend. The cutest little boy named Daniel (aka Bubba) was sitting next to me. I think he was about 2. Even though he didn't know me, he sat right next to me, often with his hands on my leg, and would jump up to collect candy when it was thrown into the crowd. He also tried talking to me and although it was mostly gibberish, we managed to have a semi-intelligible conversation. The best part was at the end of the parade, when he had to leave, he came up to me and gave me a huge hug and sat in my lap! Through this encounter with Daniel, I was reminded that children are such a blessing from God. While we can teach them, they can also teach us about trust and naïvety and love.

Another highlight was going to an outreach event in Anacortes. Shannon Point Marine Center often does outreach for kids to get interested in marine science by bringing marine organisms to them. This Saturday, we went to the Kids are Best Fest and took 4 tanks with us. I was only there for the morning, but I got to see the joy and wonder on the kids faces when they saw and touched the live seastars, scallops, crabs, etc. It was so much fun!

That afternoon, I met up with Eric Schaberg's parents, Betty and Terry, who live nearby in Mount Vernon. They were the nicest couple! They took me all the way out to Coupeville (about an hour drive from Anacortes) so I could experience the small tourist town, see some great views, and have lunch with them at a tasty café. It was a lot of fun to get to know them and fellowship with them. Also, on the way back from Coupeville, we stopped at a produce stand and I got a 1/2 flat of raspberries for only $10! I used some of them to make Raspberry Chiffon Pie which I will be trying tonight. Yum.

Update on the crabs: Two hatched on the same day (Saturday, of course!) and I was able to start my experiment! This makes me a little more busy, but not that much, so I'm excited to get another experiment going in about a week.

As a side note - for those of you who don't know, I have an open wound on my chest from a small complication from my surgery in December. Its been there for over 2 months now and refuses to heal. I've seen my surgeon several times and an infectious disase specialist and they're both stumped. I'm indefinitely on antibiotics, because that seems to help a little, but the wound seems to be getting deeper in the last week. This is not good. All you prayer warriors out there, please pray for healing and protection from infection (haha that rhymed) at least until I get back to MN and they can do surgery to fix it! I would hate for this to throw a wrench into my summer plans and force me to return before the internship is over or something. Thank you!

Thoughts from the last few days.

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted! Sorry.



Our view for lunch

I have been very busy since I last wrote. On Thursday last week we took a 5 hour boat cruise all around the San Juan Islands. It was great! The weather was really nice (PTL) and we saw some amazing things. On our way out we saw some seals and the fin of a minke whale. It was so cool. By about 11:20 we had reached a small island where we did about a 5 min hike to the other side and ate lunch. It was beautiful! It was sunny and there were sailboats and I was with friends. I wish we could have stayed longer, but there was more cruising to be done!




A cute little lighthouse we saw along the way



We cruised for another few hours and then we saw the most amazing thing: a killer whale pod! Being able to see a pod of the huge, amazing, beautiful creatures in the wild was fantastic! They were so elegant. It was also kind of sad though. There were a lot of whale watching boats around, but no coast guard or bay watch. This meant that none of the whale watching boats followed the rules about how close they could get or what they could do around the orcas. There were actually boats speeding through the pod at full speed! It was so sad that they were harrassing these animals and I wish there was something that could be done. Since we were following the rules, unlike everyone else, I didn't get any good photos with my little camera, but my friend Christina did and I'll get them off of her some time soon. :)

Friday was just another lab day waiting for my crabs to hatch to no avail.

On Saturday, we all went to the Anacortes Farmers Market. That was a lot of fun and I got some great fresh produce, including huge sugar snap peas and some local raspberries. Then, on Sunday, a group of us went out to a Thai restaurant in town. It was tons of fun and I got some great pad thai.

When I went into the lab today, I was greeted by the sight of crab larvae! On of the crabs had hatched her eggs over night! I quickly told Anna-Mai and Dr. Sulkin. They were both excited, too, but there weren't quite enough larvae for me to begin my experiments yet. Instead, I used this brood of larvae to practice moving the larvae around one-by-one and feeding them. It was fun. Even though I accidentally stabbed myself with a glass pipette that I was working with. I'm ok - just a little scratch.

On a side note, I have been constantly reminded of God's presence in these last few days. Not only have I been immersed in His creation in nature, but I have experienced His faithfulness in the group of people that He brought here. I keep thinking about how grateful I am that He brought this specific group of people together. They are all very kind, but some have different views than me. It is a nice challenge to stay true to His word while other around me don't. But despite their views, they are really interesting and kind people that I am glad I know. That doesn't really sum up well the way that I am feeling, but thats where I'm at right now. Wish I could articulate better.

Beautiful mama and baby deer that were less than 5 feet away from us! They were so cute and were washing each oter.



Boats, ROV, etc.



Sea pen

Yesterday we went out on the research vessel to use the ROV (remote operated vehicle). We went to a couple different sites all around the San Juan de Fuca Straight and looked at the ocean floor. At one site with a silty bottom we saw some sea pens. These beautiful cnidarians are very common around here. They burrow part of their body into the sand and filter plankton out of the water using their feather-like projections on the side.

Kelp forest

 One of the other sites we visited was a kelp forest. On the way to that site, I saw something with a white head swimming in the water. From the ears, it looked to me like a laborador. I forgot that we were in the ocean and not in a Minnesotan lake! It turns out that it was a juvenile harbor seal. Unfortunately, he disappeared before I could snap a picture, but I as excited just to see him.

When we pulled the ROV out of the kelp forest, there was a sea urchin attached to it. I took a picture of me with it for Dr. Winslow, because she LOVES urchins.

After we left the kelp forest we went to Deception Pass. I visited this pass last week with Kailey, but it was a whole different experience seeing it from below. Also, the currents are extremely strong there. The wind and the tide were going in opposite directions, so there were some standing waves that made for a bumpy ride. No seasickness though :)

Tomorrow, we are going out again for a 4-5 hour boat cruise. We will stop and go hiking for a little while on one of the islands and we are hoping that we will stumble across one of the 3 pods or killer whales that live out here. I hope the weather is nice! It looks like it will be cloudy, but as long as it isn't raining, I'll he happy because I can still take pictures.

Crab update: They are still alive! I made sure they were in seawater this time ;) The eggs still haven't hatched, but it looks like they will early next week, which means I will be able to start experiments soon! For now, I am just monitoring my crabs and rotifers and working on a presentation I have to give next week.



Oops.

This post is titled "Oops" for a very good reason - I inadvertenly managed to kill all of our crabs! Ahhh! I walked into the lab this morning to feed my rotifers and check on my crabs only to find all of the crabs upside-down and floating in their incubator. It turns out I had managed to find the ONLY hose in the sea table room that has fresh water when I was changing their water on Sunday. Yes, the only hose. It was kind of one of those Homer Simpson d'oh moments, if you know what I mean.

But, life goes on. I was assured by Dr. Sulkin and Anna-Mai that these things happen and that we can always collect more, but I still feel kind of stupid. I felt better, though, when I looked at the tide chart and realized that I could probably collect some more crabs this afternoon. So I made plans to go out to the beach at 2:45 and get some more crabs!

And you know what? It was WONDERFUL! This time, the sun was shining and the rocks were dry and warm. Anna-Mai, Kailey, Crista, and I were able to chat and enjoy the weather and each other while searching for the crabs we needed. It took us less than 10 minutes to replace the 10 crabs we lost! They were everywhere. All you had to do was turn over one rock to send 6+ crabs scurrying away! It was a good test of my reflexes to try and grab the little suckers before they could escape under another rock. Just to be safe, we collected 23 crabs - more than doubling the amount we had before. Once we got them back to the lab, we found that 4 will most likely hatch their eggs late this week or early next.

If you can't tell, I am having a blast here! It is so fun to constantly be around people who are all excited about marine science. We have great hang out times either playing board games, watching movies, or just hanging out. And the work isn't bad either. It's not every day that you get to play with crabs and other interesting marine invertebrates.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to be going out on the research vessel and learning how to use the ROV (remote operated vehicle) just for fun. Pray that we will have nice weather so we can really enjoy it! The weather looks a little iffy right now, but Washington weather is never set in stone.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading my posts. I hope you enjoy them! For those of you who tried to comment previously but couldn't, I have fixed the problem so comment away!

Got crabs? ;)

Yesterday, Anna-Mai and I went out on the beach at low tide to search for Hemigrapsus oregonensis aka the green shore crab. Of course it was raining (thanks, Washington), so we had to suit up in giant yellow rain coats. I have included a picture of me here for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunatley, due to the rain, I couldn't take the camera with me to capture the action of the hunt.




















We grabbed a bucket and made our way down to the beach. All we had to do was start turning over rocks and grab any green crab we saw. Sounds easy, right? Not so much. Not only do you have to bend over/kneel while trying not to fall over on the rocks (which can be pretty tiring for your legs), but you have to turn over every rock (of which there are thousands!), grab the crab before it can scurry away, identify its gender, and check for eggs if it is female and put it in the bucket while it is trying to escape. And to top it all off, we did this in the rain. It took a while and the help of two other interns that joined us, but we eventually found 10 egg bearing females. Here's what we were looking for:

The black, spongy looking part on the abdomen is the eggs.

Also, these crabs range in size from a fingertip to a the pip from the middle of a peach, so at times they were hard to catch. Also, there seemed to be an abundance of males, which we didn't want.

After we collected the crabs, we took them back to the lab and looked at some eggs from each individual under the microscope to see how developed they are. It looks like two will hatch next week! Soon we will have larvae and will be able to start our experiment.

Yesterday was FUN, but very tiring. Also, I stayed up kind of late watching a movie with some friends I've made here so I slept in until 10am this morning. Oops. It's kind of nice to have the weekend off and relax, though. I need to catch up on sleep and some of the reading my advisor gave me to do.



Algae and rotifers and crabs, oh my!

I have finally started research! One of my mentors, a very fun and knowledgeable graduate student named Anna-Mai, took me into the Crab Lab to show me how our experiments will be carried out. I got to see how we culture the algae to feed to the rotifers before we feed the rotifers to the crabs. I also got to observe and then try feeding the algae to the rotifers. And, in just a few hours, we are going down to the beach to collect some crabs! At low tide, Anna-Mai and I will be heading down to the beach, turning over rocks, and hunting for female crabs with eggs on their abdomens. Then we'll take them back to the lab to try to hatch some larvae!

To most people, this probably isn't that exciting, but getting crabs means we will soon get larvae and we will be able to start our experiments - something that I LOVE to do as a science nerd.

I'm so happy and blessed to have gotten this internship and I can't wait to get my hands dirty.

I'm here! :)

Well, I made it to Anacortes. All it took was 2 planes, 2 buses, and a van ride (all adding up to about 10 hours of travel) to get me here.

After finally arriving at about 6pm on Tuesday, I met my roommate, Elizabeth, and we headed over to the communal kitchen where the program was providing pizza for us for dinner. There we met all the other summer program students. There are 2 grad students that live in the dorms and research at the lab. They will serve as lab TA's for us, as far as I can tell. There are a total of 8 REU students. On top of that there are 2 COSEE students (not sure exactly what that stands for but they are community college students that are essentially doing the same thing that REU's are doing). We all met each other and got to chat over pizza before the first formal day of the program started.

Yesterday was our first day. We started the morning off with some breakfast, provided by the program since we hadn't gone shopping yet. Next, we had a little meeting to introduce ourselves (again) and meet all the Shannon Point faculty and staff. Then we had a tour of the facility. The lab is HUGE! There seems to be a LOT of room to work and a huge variety of top of the line equipment. I saw the specific lab where I will spend my time and it seems nice.

After the tour, we had private meetings with our advisors. My advisor is Dr. Steve Sulkin and he is interested in life histories of larval species, specifically crabs. He explained my project to me (which sounds awesome) and gave me a few papers to read so I am up-to-date on current research.

Then, we all gathered together (and by all I mean all students, faculty, and staff - about 30 people) for lunch in the commons building. It was nice to mingle for a little bit and get to know other researchers interests and projects.

However, we were shortly pulled away from lunch to go grocery shopping, since we need to provide all our own food. Finally, after one last less than entertaining meeting, we were given the evening to ourselves. I was fully prepared to go to my room and read my papers, but one of the girls who lives in a near by town and has a car on campus asked me if I wanted to explore Anacortes with her. Of course I accepted!

We went into town, which is quite small, and looked at all the shops. There are a LOT of antique shops around here. We stopped for a couple things at the pharmacy before and were about to head back to campus when she decided that I needed to see a few of the views from around here. The short drive was SO worth it. She took me to the top of Mt. Erie to look out over all the islands in this area and then to Deception Pass, a short channel between the mainland and Whidbey Island. They were both some of the most majestic and magnificent views that I have ever seen! I was once again reminded of God's power and creativity in His creation. Here are some pictures of me in front of the views. A camera just can't seem to capture the true beauty.

 View of Mt. Baker from the top of Mt. Erie

Islands

Deception Pass

Overall, I have had a busy, but exciting two days. I feel so blessed to have had the chance to even come here and for the blessing that God has given me when I got here - a Christian roommate, a friend who drove me all over creation just for fun, a great research project, friendly and kind people around me... the list goes on and on.

I'm ready to tackle the day!

P.S. Sorry this had been such a long post - so much has happened!

Off I go!

I'm leaving today! I'm pretty excited to finally be getting out of here, since I've been counting for more than 90 days! My flight leaves at 10:28am and I'll arrive in Anacortes by 6:00pm.

I'll post some updates and pictures when I get to Anacortes, but for now, a few thoughts...

I've been doing a devotion about characteristics/descriptions of God. this morning, the three words were Author, Afflicter, and Blessed. I was reading through the corresponding verses and I was reminded once again of the fact that God's Word truly is alive. The verse for Author was the well-known Hebrews 12:1-2. The second I read the first phrase ("surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses"), I became acutely aware of something that I was subconsciously neverous about. Though I didn't realize it, I am concerned that I will not be the best Christian that I can be while in Anacortes. I realize that there will be people around me that may not know the Lord and I realized this morning that I am nervous that I wont be strong and steadfast in my faith. I want to be an encouraging example of Christ, even in a scientific setting, and hopefully sway someone towards His love. I quickly prayed that He will give me strength to remain faithful to Him and that others will notice there is something different about me. I also prayed that if someone asked me about that difference, I would be given the words and wisdom to witness to them. I am encouraged by the second part of this verse that tells us to persevere through the trial with strength, like Jesus did.

So, if you would, please pray for this in particular, that would be much appreciated. I am a bit nervous, but I have faith that He will give me all the strength and resources that I need to be His witness this summer.

-Alannah

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." -Hebrews 12:1-2

Leaving Soon!

Well, it's almost time for me to leave for Anacortes! It's just 2 weeks away now. I've been waiting for this for months, but now that it's almost here I can barely believe it!

I got some information about the summer schedule and other participants, etc. this week, which of course made me even more excited! One thing that they suggested to bring was my passport so I can go to Canada while I'm there. Anyone know anything fun to do in Sidney or Vancouver, B.C.?

As I get closer to actually going, please pray that I have easy and safe travels and an overall good experience when I get there. Also, since I've never lived with roommates before, pray for that. I'll take advice, too!

I'll plan to post again before I leave and then once I get there. And I'll include pictures of the Marine Lab, dorms, ocean (I know you're jealous), etc.

Background Info

Hello friends! Many of you have asked if I would start a blog so that you can "follow" me to my REU internship in Anacortes, WA this summer, so here it is!

Let's start with some background info.

What is an REU?
REU stands for Research Experience for Undergraduates. This is a national program established and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to encourage undergraduate research, mostly for under-represented groups in the STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics) fields - i.e. minorities and women. As part of the program, the NSF provides stipends to participating students so that they don't have to give up a summer of working. Most REU grants also allow for funds for transportation and room and board for the students.

Where is my REU?
My REU site is in Anacortes, Washington. From what I have heard, this is a beautiful town, located right on the coast. On an island. In the Pacific Northwest :) Anyways, now that you are all jealous of me, lets talk about the marine lab. The marine lab is a campus of Western Washington University. It's called Shannon Point Marine Center (SPMC - yes, that is yet another acronym). SPMC has several marine labs and lots of equipment for the various research projects that are conducted there. I will stay in a dorm room on the campus.

Google maps view of the marine center if you want to feel REALLY jealous!

What will I be studying?
The answer to that question is "I'm not exactly sure yet." The research project will be decided on when I arrive at the SPMC. However, my advisor is Dr. Stephen Sulkin. From the information I have received from him and some of my own research, I found out that he studies crabs. Particularly, he seems to be interested in how nutrition affects the development of larval crabs (yes, crabs have a larval stage), so I will most likely have a project centered on that topic.

So there's the background info on my internship. I leave on June 19 and return on August 17. I'm really excited for this experience - mostly for the research but also for being "on my own" for the first time (since I live at home).

It's only 49 days away! Yes, I have several countdowns. ;)

Let me know if you have any more questions and I'll update again sometime soon.

-Alannah