My long break seems to be over now...Well, I suppose my Spring Break was only a week long, but it felt like 3 weeks! We had the week of finals, which was stressful, but also low key. We had Spring Break. Then last week was the first week of classes. I had nothing due that week or the following week and two of my classes were cancelled. It was also another easy week! Then this week starts and it dawns on me...I have an assignment due next Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs! GOODNESS! None of them are walks in the park too. Let the schoolwork begin!
In other news, we had our first Group Project (GP) meeting last Friday. It was good. We talked with one of the guys from BLM about the project. They're trying to get the EPA to decide if the Cache Creek area is a CERCLA (think superfund) site so we're waiting for that. If it is, it'll change things a bit and possibly funding. There are a LOT of different facets that we can potentially look at it so it's our job this week to decide what we really want to look at and come up with our problem statement (it's due next Thurs). This quarter of 401A is writing a formal proposal for the project. So it'll be interesting. We're officially meeting every Wed from 12:30-1:30pm so that's another thing to throw onto the books. At least 401A doesn't meet often. It meets like once a week on average. I think once we get our problem statement worked out and all that, GP will be better. It's like we're in the arm-waving stage right now so it's a little unsettling.
The other classes are okay. Natural Resource economics is also a little frustrating because of the incredible math/excel/solver work and the project we have to do for that class. It's like a mini-GP! We have to come up with a question, find data, analyze the data, interview someone(s) in the area of our project, write it up, and present on it. Ugh. I think once the project is picked it'll go better, but it's just also that other on going thing we have to worry about. 206B is, well, 206B (stats). The lectures seemed to be better until today. It was just SO HARD to pay attention and stay awake. Plus, what he was going on about was a little "huh?", but maybe Wednesday's lecture will be better. My ocean class has our first "debate" tomorrow about wave energy. I'm PG&E with 2 other students so we're arguing for the wave energy project off of the SB coast. There are 9 total factions so it should be pretty interesting. Those mini-papers will also be interesting. I decided to skip this weeks (we have 9 total assigned and we only have to do 5) since I wasn't coming up with a topic to write on about wave energy. Next week is sea level rise so that should be better to write and more interesting.
I'm tempted to take a 1 unit class the week after 207 ends. It's called "marketing sustainability with new media tools." It's basically looking at these four values in businesses: environmental stewardship, corporate citizenship, product/service excellence, and financial strength. It's looking at how those values are combined and utilized together to create an "ecosystems approach within the organization." It sounded interesting and I need another 0.5 units to complete my unit requirements. I may skip it, though. Once 207 ends, I might be so tired of having to deal with 18 units that having another unit to do after 207 ends might just kill me. Bren tends to do a lot of these 1 unit classes every semester so I just might wait for another quarter.
The internship hunt is going horribly. I had a spark and then it died. I'm nagging someone at the Sanctuary through a former Bren graduate who seems helpful and 100% willing to help. It won't be paid, but he said the Sanctuaries have always been able to find some money for him here and there. So...that's helpful. Plus, to be honest, I'll work there for free because the networking will be invaluable down the road. So I'm waiting to hear back from them. COMPASS got back to me today (e-mailed them last Mon). Instead of the internship NOT being available, it's now the fact the coordinator is taking a position early May with Ocean Science Trust. So now it's whether the new person would want to take an intern on since they will be new and/or whether I would want to work with someone who is so new. I contacted the lady back and said I'd be willing to take the risk to work with someone new if they were willing and/or the executive director okay'd it. They do have a budget for an intern so I'm hoping...Anything would help even if the person is new! I mean, let's face it, starting something new together creates a bond, right? Maybe they'll like me enough they'll take me back when I come back! LoL Or, I don't know. I'm getting plain desperate for an internship now. The sad thing is most of our entire class is in my same boat. I need to nag the Aquarium Bren graduate again and Oceana. I'm so desperate that I may just call the Oceana line and talk with someone.
Well, with that, I should head to bed early tonight. I'm fighting a small cold (small congestion and running nose in the mornings with a small sore throat through the day), but hope it goes away very soon without getting worse!
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