a good day

Easing back into college life...the fact that it feels like spring makes it that much easier to be here. Nice catch up time with other speons in the grad lounge (grad students are so cool, we get our own lounge). Felt a little sad that I'm taking my own strange combination of classes, and won't be with my cohort of 1st year enviro. sci/ enviro. policy people that I had last semester- they seem to be clumped in the same classes, but i just gotta be different.

Came home to find my textbooks had arrived (just in time), along with some birthday cards, a stipend check, and the Green Gazette- the EnviroCorps newsletter. I was thinking of you ECorps, when I installed my low flow showerhead yesterday!

Met with the bible study group...seems like its been ages. Lots of catching up, and admiring 4 month old baby's new accomplishments. Now we just need to decide what to study next...

Thoughts on my "strange combination" of classes so far...mostly to see if my first impressions turn out right, but read on if you want:

Restoration ecology- how could this not be great? Topics that are near and dear to my heart, like wetland & prairie ecosystems, prescribed fire, invasive species. We get to take field trips (see some of The Nature Conservancy's handiwork- and plant trees with them!) We have no tests, and just 2 papers on anything related to restoration. Not sure I like the prof as a person (not just because he confused me with someone else), but he is a very good scientist, makes class interesting, and is a wetlands guy.

Aquatic chemistry- I might be dreading this if it wasn't taught by one of my awesome Limnology profs. He told us a very inspirational story about how he started as an invertebrate zoologist, realized environmental science was where the action is, had to go through a couple engineering departments to study it, became an aquatic chemist in spite of hating undergrad chemistry, and ended up with a job he clearly loves. Inspirational to me because my life has been strangely similar, except for the engineering part. Hopefully I end up with a job I love, too. As far as the chemistry goes...after getting a better grade than I deserved in Enviro Chem last semester, I'm hoping I can pull it off again. And maybe I'll finally understand alkalinity.

Public finance and budgeting- I'm taking it with the hard prof that no one else wanted, for scheduling reasons, but I think I'll survive. He is tough, but supposedly good if you really want to learn something. No "syllabus day" for him...jumped right into lecture. I found myself hanging on every word, not because it was really interesting, but because it's like a foreign language. Definitely an opportunity to grow and broaden my horizons. It might even be useful someday.

Water law- don't have it till thursday, but we already have a reading assignment. This is an actual law class, not watered down SPEA law. That means I have to learn legalese and use it to participate in class discussions. Not my strong point. More growing.