Welcome back home, Catamounts. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. Mine was blissful as I missed the snow-in up here in Cullowhee, and it was joyous to be back with the family for so long.
So with a new semester comes new professors, new classes, new people to meet and greet. Of course, there are a few of us meeting more new people as we add and drop the professor who drones on and on about whatever and the class requiring two hours of reading a night. But that opportunity is over, and you’re stuck with what you got! Like… Environmental Biology lab!
Today was another rainy day in Cullowhee (Ma finally won… I got some rain boots, which I proudly wore down University Way), and my Bio lab was scheduled for the afternoon. I went online and printed out my lab sheets to discover the lab was being held outdoors. What luck, I cried! Certainly my lab would be cancelled because of Cullowhee’s infamous rain! I could return to my warm, dry dorm for some movie-watching and popcorn-snacking.
I squeaked to Stillwell in my new rain boots, looking all innocent but secretly grinning at my good fortune. For once, the rain was my ally. I walked through the door, and the graduate assistant was just writing away as if class is actually going to take place. I was thinking as I sat down on a stool, this is weird. Isn’t she going to dismiss class? We can’t do a lab in the rain… I was wrong!
Out into the drizzle my classmates and I trudged! And for what important scientific purpose? To measure the circumference of trees in centimeters at shoulder height! I know, real hardcore stuff. I’m not bashing science, by the way, but come on… in the rain?
The rain wasn’t our only problem. It just so happened we were to be measuring trees growing on a slope. My beautiful new rain boots were forced to hike up a muddy mountainside. Let’s just say the rain boots are no longer as beautiful. Section one’s slope was steep, and after a hike across the majority of lower campus, section two’s slope “may or may not be covered in poison ivy,” said the graduate assistant, “and when I say ‘may or may not be,’ I mean yes.” Now, the class and I battled up a slippery slope with vicious poisonous vines ready to ensnare us to make us itch.
Instead of movie-watching and popcorn-eating, I returned to my dorm, pulled off my filthy rain boots, and collapsed in bed. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your spring semester 2010!
