Mulch is love.

I've spent the afternoon spreading mulch around some tree saplings with other members of Lincoln Environmental organization. Mulch smells like yum!

Epiphanies are coming to me in droves these days. Recent drama with the p-units has incited a streak of personal growth and realizations, and yesterday I realized that I love my degree with a fierce passion. There is nothing I would rather be doing with my life than devoting it to biology. I want to mulch trees, pin insects, zap DNA, dig up fossils, place birds in cladograms, eat beetles, measure water quality, translocate lizards...I guess knowing that I love biology is comforting, but my options only seem to have increased. And that is beautiful.

One more week of lectures, then a week of reading, then 2 weeks of exams.

And now...some words that generate confusion between me and the locals.

Pen: I say pen, they say "pin."

Peg: I say peg, they say "pig."

Fence: I say fence, they say "fince."

Tired: I say tired, they say knackered, pronounced "naked."

I mean, there are more than that, but you get the general idea. They talk funny. Or I listen funny.

One last bit of news: it appears that I will be traveling with 4 French girls and 1 German in a camper van after exams end, and before I began my pseudointership in the Waitakere Ranges. Am I a French magnet or what? WHAT?

I'm naked.

--Lizzie