casual ultimate » graduate school: my landbound cruise, part 1

you know you’re in the ivy league when there’s actually ivy growing inside your house. tomorrow i leave again for a week-long orientation trip to the wilds of connecticut, so i thought i’d post a general update on the the ultimate academic lifestyle. last night, at a keg party being held in the forestry school building, one of my new classmates described our 2-year masters program as “a landbound cruise.” that’s pretty accurate thus far, given this three-week orientation consists of driving out of town, hiking in the woods, swimming in picture perfect lakes, making s’mores around the campfire and drinking microbrews purchased by the school. oh, and we’re learning and meeting eachother and stuff.

everyone in the forestry & environmental studies program is awesome - varied backgrounds, ages, experience, nationalities, etc. and of course everyone is super nice because we’re all on our best behavior trying to make friends. my housemate haley and i have bonded over intensive house cleaning and target/ikea shopping. not that miss casual will ever be replaced, but it should be noted that last night haley returned from a trip to the wine store with a bottle of cava. yesterday i found an amazing rails-to-trails bike path and was out for two hours - you’re my inspiration, tbrizzle.

last week was the first week of orientation. we headed out of new haven in a van without power steering for the yale myers forest in union, ct. this orientation module (called ‘mods’) was focused on ecosystem measurement. here’s a picture of me measuring tree stand density with a angle meter. it’s a long story how it all works, but we got to use a bunch of fun toys with names like hypsometer, biltmore stick, clinometer, etc. the mod was run by several t.a.’s in the program and supplemented by lectures from forestry profs. the food was awesome, cooked by a ph.d. student from sri lanka, and we stayed up late every night around the campfire. unfortunately no one in the group was interested in tossing the ol’ disc around….i think it’ll be some time before i find a pickup game. i did meet a ph.d. student who plays on the connecticut mixed team; they might need practice players, hopefully i can hang.

this week i’ll be going to a spot called great mountain to practice my gis mapping and orienteering skills. i hear this week will also involve softball and more swimming. should be tough. the jacobs brothers are in town and i’ll be drinking non-piece beers with them come thursday night. i miss you all and can’t wait to hear about cooler. how’d you do, mr. briefcase? who won the ladies division, team angelina? if machine didn’t dominate i’ll be disappointed. love you guys, keep it real in chitown.