Fallen now is Babylon the Great!

Yesterday and today were my first days going out in the field by myself. It turns out that GPS can be a jerk sometimes. But I did find where I needed to go eventually, after much cursing.

I have blisters on my big toes on the sides where they rub up against my boots. I also have similar blisters/pressure points on the balls of my feet and pinky toes. I'm assuming I'll just get callouses. And my shoulders were sore after today - very stiff after carrying that heavy backpack. Know what I could use? A back or shoulder rub. Both, actually. The soft mattress that I sleep on doesn't really help that situation. I prefer harder mattresses to sleep on, which is why the dorm mattresses at UWEC are basically perfect for me.

So far, I've only had the misfortune of having to take one cold shower. The water was hot today! Yay! Actually, it was REALLY hot. I had to turn the heat down for once.

My roommate Jamie is on a trip to Brazil at a mammal behavior conference to present her possibly-publishable study on how parasites affect animal behavioral patterns. I think it has to do with timing stuff. Not quite sure, but that's quite the awesome opportunity. I told her to take lots of pictures. :]

So by the way, we ARE getting a fourth roomate. She already lives here in Gothic, but I guess she's switching cabins. Not sure what's up with that, but she seems nice. She stopped by last night with Aaron (a guy I met at the free orientation dinner - we were explaing our reasearch to each other) to check out the cabin. I told her about the fire extinguisher...cuz really there's not much that's exciting about our cabin... haha.

I wasn't as sore after climbing that mountain as I thought I was going to be. I was actually more sore after climbing Washington Gulch for work. Maybe I really do get in shape fast. *shrug* Either way I'm getting sleepier the more that I sit here, so I'll probably head to bed earlier than usual tonight. It's only 9:15 and I'm yawning!

I learned at the orientation dinner that apparently we burn an extra 300 calories daily just by being here. That doesn't include the fact that my job is to hike or that some people climb mountains or go mountain biking in their spare time. That's pretty hard core. From what I understand it might be just to keep our red blood cell count high enough, heart and respiration activity, keeping warm, especially at night...normal homeostatic efforts. Crazy stuff. Makes me feel not so bad about eating ice cream!

Song stuck in head: "Beast and the Harlot" - Avenged Sevenfold