Sun-downer

Since it was Sunday and I didn't have a field asst to help me today.  I went on a couple game drives with Tom, Kirsten and little Morgan.  We saw a giant dung beetle rolling a ball of dung.  Other new species I saw today were Hippos, heartebeast, bushbuck, and oryx (which are beautiful horned antelope)

The group of grad students went out on what they call a sundowner where they go to some sort of look-out rock and drink beer (Tusker Lager is the preferred) and talk.  I'm lucky b/c it's a very fun and nice group, and just the right size. Supposedly sometimes they do sunuppers at 5am and then drink mimosas, champagne, and bloody marys.

On our way to the sundowner we went buy a hyena den that had three little pups playing around and nursing on their mom.  Quite cute.  We also saw a slender mongoose slink by.

I wrote and email to Mom and E, so to save time, instead of re-writing in my blog, I'm just pasting here.

Hey Mom and Elisha,

Today is Sunday, which is kind of an off day for most people since the field assistants have off, but not necessarily for the grad students.  So we had a longer breakfast.

The talk was mostly of Todd.  He's sort of a celebrity and character here.  I think I am lucky to have him as my advisor!  Everyone just loves him and thinks he's so funny and nice.  They were trying to guess his age (I think mid 40's), especially since all the young girls here seem to think he's so hot.  I told him on ratemyprofessors.com he was listed as chili pepper hot by the students and they got a kick out of that.  But apparently he's the life of the party here.  Most the other professors stick to themselves at meals or don't even come to them and Todd sits at the grad table.  He also hosts the biggest parties (he usually has the nicest house here...Jenga House, though he might not this time b/c he'll be at river camp). It will be interesting to see how much he is around the Research Centre this time since he will be spending most of the time teaching.  They also said he leads a group called Todd's Bootcamp where he leads people in all sorts of physcal fitness stuff that apparently is quite tough.  And Kirsten said when he's here without students he goes on game drives most nights and will jump rope for an hour up on the old airfield where a lot of the animals are.

One of the best things about Todd here is that he seems to have a lot of clout and can get what he wants and needs.  There has been lots of issues with the permits for research in Kenya this year.  Mpala Research centre has been denying anyone to come who does not have a permit, so there are several researchers stuck in Nairobi or Nanyuki unable to come here.  Everyone is amazed that I was able to come without my permit in hand yet.  They all said Todd is really good at getting what he needs and bluffing until he has what they want.  I feel like Todd has been in Kenya long enough that he knows what's going on.

Everyone is excited that he is still with Kat, who he brought last year as they said Todd seems to have a new girlfriend everytime he comes, but they really liked Kat.  They told of a funny story back before their was internet here how he was having relationship issues with his girlfriend back at home.  He'd have to type up an email, save it on a floppy disk, send it to Nanyuki, where someone would wire it back to the states.  She'd then reply and they'd print out the response and send it back here, so everyone sort of knew what was going on b/c the guys bringing the letter back would read it.

I also found out, though he'd probably never tell me, that he pays for his field assistants' kids to go to school.  High school is not free in Kenya and is quite expensive, especially on a field assistant salary, so he does some special things for his employees' kids.

Anyways, people are pretty excited for Todd to come, and they all think he's just a cool guy.  So it kind of makes me feel good to know that my advisor is such a rockstar here.  And of course he's been super supportive in helping me deal with my stresses rightn ow.  Just like at UF, I am again feeling quite outclassed by the other grad students here.  They are here from some pretty big-named schools.  There are a couple from Yale, a few from Princeton, Stanford, the Smithsonian, Dartmouth, Columbia, and UC-Davis (Davis is probably the best ecology school in the country...it's where Todd did his PhD.).  Kirsten and her husband did their PhD's at Notre Dame.

There are a couple of people here who have a bit of a mountain west background though.  Jake has a few students here (he's a prof in Laramie), though they are from the east originally. 

Elisha, there is a gal here from CDA who I believe is going to the U of I, but not sure.  She is very excited to meet you b/c she can't wait to have someone who understands how awesome N. Idaho is.  She says people here give her a lot of crap for being from Idaho saying it's just potatoes, mormons, and neo-nazis.  Everyone here is excited to meet you, but I think she especially is excited.  I think I told you the girls here are big into watching Game of Thrones, and she's hoping you will like it so you can hang out with them when they watch it.


Hakuna Matata!