So many scared young faces.

The first day of classes was March 1, and I have one first year class (New Zealand Ecology and Conservation). I walked into the class and saw so many scared young faces who were experiencing the hectic, crowded environment that is University. Even though I also have two second year courses and a third year course, all the lecturers try to make the classes sound like the hardest class you'll have all year.

The stereotypes have been set for my lecturers. I have the wacky math lecturer for Statistics, and then the super outdoorsy Biology and Geography lecturers. My Invertebrate Diversity lecturer wears hiking shirts and pants and gets very excited when she talks about sea urchins since they are her specialization. My Hydrology lecturer was so excited to get to know our nerd herd by asking us our names and then favorite river.

For my Hydrology & Fluvial Geomorphology class I will be going on a four day field trip to Kawhia to do some river research. I am quite excited that the amount of money that is going towards my education is actually being put to use with field trips and frequent labs.

Right now I am taking a break from annotating a paper called "Habitat patches that cross marine reserve boundaries: consequences for the lobster Jasus edwardsii." Two other assignments to do as well for other classes, all due in about two weeks. Ahh!!

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