Week 10: Final Exams

Hello everybody,

So this week was finals week after coming back from two weeks in Kenya. Overall, this week was pretty stressful and not super exciting but still an adventure nonetheless.

On Tuesday (I was a day late in posting last week's blog) we had a final review session which lasted only 30 minutes and was basically the professors listing the topics for each class. Considering that each exam was 50% of our final grade, I was expecting a little more support on the materials I was going to be tested on. Finals included: WE (Wildlife Ecology) Wednesday morning, WM (Wildlife Management) Thursday morning and EP (Environmental Policy) Friday morning. Today I spent all afternoon either napping, filling out a small assignment for WM and playing volleyball to delay studying. Finally I studied after dinner but I find that I'm a good last-minute studier anyway.

The WE final went from 8-10am on Wednesday. I thought it was a little rough but I think I still did well enough to get a good grade in the class. The setup was unlike any final I've ever taken: half was a short answer section and the other half included two essay questions. After the final I "rinsed and repeated"....studying and doing things to procrastinate studying. Overall, I'm not a big fan of the grading scheme either. Since SFS goes through the University of Minnesota, we use their grading scheme, which means that a 95% is an A instead of a 93% like at Penn State.

The WM final went from 8-10am on Thursday. I felt a little better about this one than the WE one yesterday. In the afternoon I submitted forms to get my study abroad credits to transfer to Penn State...it'll take about 2-4 months to get these classes onto my transcript. I also took a three hour nap, bought some snacks at the duka and tried to learn some guitar to further avoid studying.

On Friday morning before my EP final I scheduled my classes for next semester. I got into all of my classes no problem!!! I will be taking 7 classes (the most I've ever taken) for a total of 17 credits. The EP exam including a lot of writing but it was not too bad. For every exam I was always one of the last people in the room - I'm a slow test taker and took the whole two hours for every exam when many people were done within an hour. After this exam my directed research (DR) group met with Dr. Kiffner (who is our research professor) where we analyzed some feces samples in preparation for when we actually collect samples later this month. I typed my EP paper a majority of the afternoon because I couldn't motivate myself to finish it (who assigns a paper after finals anyway?!?). Then in the evening we went to Happy Days: a bar/restaurant in Karatu. We all got dressed up and I wore a button-down shirt that the local tailor made me, jeans (which I've yet to wear), my crazy penguin socks and some bracelets that I've accumulated over the semester. I also styled my mustache up into a handlebar mustache! I didn't drink like most everyone else but spent time at the campfire in front of the facility, pet their cat, and witness a hedgehog scurry through the bushes.

Saturday morning I had cook crew early in the morning but was not woken up by my alarm. At 6:50, I woke up to tapping on my shoulder and a little voice saying "Matt wake up!".....IT WAS LENNY. In case you don't remember, Lenny is Dr. Theisinger's 6-year-old son who lives here on campus. He walked into my banda and then into my room as he tried to wake up all of the guys. I was the only one who actually got up, and I spent about half an hour before cook crew sitting in the hammock and playing with Lenny, who was leaving to go to Germany today with his mom and brother to visit family for the next few weeks. I felt really happy that he wanted to spend time with me before leaving, and I will definitely miss him while he is gone. I just still couldn't believe that he actually walked into my banda!!! Saturday was our free day, so I spent the morning at African Galleria: a fancy touristy facility that has a huge art gallery and sells everything you could imagine including Tanzanite (mom I MIGHT have bought you some...we'll see...). Then in the afternoon, I went for a hike up a hill in Karatu that had beautiful view of Lake Manyara and the surrounding land. After this, I walked around the shops in Karatu before getting some fresh juice from a local stand. I tried to get lemon juice and sugarcane juice to make lemonade (which I had been craving forever) but they combined my order with Luke's, so we both ended up drinking a juice concoction consisting of watermelon, pineapple, orange, lemon and sugarcane juice which still tasted amazing surprisingly! Then, we went to Lilac Café in Karatu where I ate.....wait for it.....grilled cheese (another thing I have been craving forever)!!!

The view from the hike in Karatu

GRILLED CHEESE!

Sunday was spent doing DR prep since we leave for our research expedition to Makame Wildlife Management Area tomorrow. I'll be camping with the rest of Kiffner's research group (there's 10 of us) for 6 total days, however, 2 of these days will be spent driving since Makame is an 8 hour drive away! As far as prep goes, my group made and printed data sheets, analyzed our trial feces samples once again to develop our techniques, and went shopping with Kiffner at the Karatu market for metal bowls and plates to be used during our analysis. We also got our research proposal grades back.

Tomorrow we leave bright and early for Makame, and I am very excited to camp one last time while in Tanzania, especially with a smaller group setting. I still can't believe that I only have one month left in Tanzania...time flies when you're having fun!

Thanks for reading!
Matt