Tricia- Terrapin Turtles!
Today I started my internship! At first I was really nervous and excited all at once. They have dormitory style housing available and I was really scared that everyone but me was going to be living there and I would end up being the odd person out. That so wasn’t the case since most people are commuting anyway.
Since it was the first day they gave us breakfast lunch and dinner but that will never really happen again. First we meet the staff, then the researchers. They had us do and ice breaker and ask another intern a question, then we had to stand in front of everyone and introduce that person (I hate ice breakers). I won’t start to tell you about the other interns yet since I really don’t remember all of their names.
Something funny happened today too. It reminded me of a SPC moment. Most bio majors know that sometimes Gannon Hall (the science building) has strange smells, chemicals, things can catch on fire, you know, fun science stuff. Nothing serious has ever actually happened but they do things for safety measures. Well as all the interns are sitting in the library getting ready to listen about the institute someone comes in and said: "Lab 3 is on fire we have to go outside." They had no idea why since that particular lab is no longer a lab but an office.
Here's what happened: the township decided to run tests by blowing smoke through pipes to see if they were in working order. This explained why that room was smoking since that sink had not been used in many years. The fire department did think to tell the institute they were running this test.
The researchers seem like a great group of people that have actually found out some really interesting things about Terrapin Turtles. These turtles are specially adapted to live in the salt marshes from Maine to Florida. These animals rise from the water to lay their eggs on land but when they do this they usually end up getting hit by cars. Part of my internship will be to help put up fencing on the coastal causeways (the roads that connect the islands to the main lands), and to go out a few times a week to do what is called turtle patrols. Turtle patrols are done at 12am and 5am and the purpose is to find terrapins on the road that have been hit so that we can extract the eggs. The eggs are incubated then released back in to wild about a year after hatching. There are lots of different research projects going on aside from just turtles such as a beach survey, horseshoe crab census, and lest turn (a shore bird) research.
As interns we are supposed to work a little on each project throughout the summer as well as come up with our own research project to work on (with the help of other interns and the researchers). The first week will be tricky just getting used to how things work but I am really excited to do this for the summer. I love doing research but I guess that just is because I have always had an interest in it. The hard part is actually thinking of my own research and the boring part is doing all the background research on it.
Even though I am interning I am working at Fashion Bug again too. This is a women’s clothing store where I worked last summer and over winter break this year. They seemed happy to have me come and told me they would work with my hours so I will be able to work and be an intern. I need to work to make money to pay for the gas to get me to the unpaid internship.
Oh! And I forgot that pollen sucks and I currently have a slightly stuffy/runny nose and a scratchy throat. One of the perks of living in a city, no allergies.
Pictures of the Wetlands Institute next time! And maybe a Terrapin Turtle if I can. Hopefully some of the other interns as well.
<3 Tricia