These past two weeks haven’t been as exciting as my first month here. Things are slowing down, or maybe we’re just settling into a routine. Either way, my time at work has been more calm than the beginning. I think I’ve settled into my own place here at the zoo and I can’t believe I have barely a month left. It doesn’t seem like enough time.
I was fortunate enough to help out with some field work last week. It was nothing too interesting. One of the UWI year long interns, Dani, drove with me to 16 sites around the city to check on camera traps. UWI does camera trapping four months out of the year (so once per season) and in the middle, they go out and check on battery levels and replace SD cards. One of the sites I was able to visit was their Humboldt Park camera. We had high hopes that were slashed down when we had no pictures of local celebrity, Chance the Snapper. :-(
This year, the Urban Wildlife Interns were invited to join REU interns at the Morton and the Chicago Botanical Garden for tours and workshops at each location. On the 24th, we hosted the REU interns and gave them a tour of Nature Boardwalk, provided a pizza lunch, and then hosted a workshop about the hiring process. For the workshop, Jazmin split us up into four groups and gave each group six cover letters and resumes, and asked us to look over all of them in five minutes and pick our top two candidates for a job at Nature Boardwalk, as if we were a hiring committee. It was a really interesting turn of perspective because often resume/cover letter workshops are for revising and improving those documents, and not learning about how they’re looked at or how folks are hired. I had a lot of fun at this event and I think it was a really unique learning experience.
Additionally, these past two weeks, I have successfully completed three Bat Walks. They’re so simple but I love doing them. I think it’s really neat to be able to see data in real time. It’s also pretty fun to walk around with a big ole pole sticking out of my backpack but I have run into a lot of trees. I have a set path that I walk for each Bat Walk and because I’m walking half an hour after sunset, it’s dark, so I’ve gotten another intern, Eden, to do the walks with me. I’ve loved being able to have this one-on-one time with her. Eden and I really hit it off at work, and we’ve just clicked. Our personalities are so similar and we can coordinate and lead effectively as a team. Part of this internship is learning how to work in a team and how to lead, which I wasn’t expecting, but it’s definitely a useful skill to hone. There are a lot of personalities to work with, and our days are pretty independent which means Eden and I are delegating and often leading the other five interns. I’m learning a lot but I’d be lying if I said things aren’t frustrating at times.
One fun tradition I’ve been taking part in while here is called the “Stand Up” meeting. It’s a short, weekly meeting for UWI where everyone present gives a short update on what they’ve been doing and what projects they’ve been working on, while standing up. I think it’s a really fun way to hear about what everyone else in my department is doing. I am on my feet for most of the day, so the standing up part isn’t as thrilling for me, but I imagine it’s great for those working in an office at a desk all day.
Finally, I’ve been getting really into Mitski lately. I don’t know if this is a good choice, but sometimes you need some Sad Girl Pop™ to bounce in your summer. So anyway, there’s no deep reason for this week’s Song of the Week, “Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart” by Mitski. I just really like when she sings “So I don’t blame you if you want to/ bury me in your memory/ I’m not the girl I ought to be” and I think she’s neat.
Thanks for reading, and as always, here’s a link to the playlist.
1 What the Echo Meter Touch Pro records when I run into a tree with the Bat Pack
2 Me, sporting the highly stylish Bat Pack, for a bat walk
3, 4 UWI recently acquired some tricycles to get around faster. The only downside is that I haven't figured out how to ride them, but I do get to ride on the back of them and it is an absolute delight.
5 Eden and I's shadows for the first bat walk
6 Some fun anti-bully art from a field site
7 The view from the Humboldt Park field site, post-Chance the Snapper
Riding up Stockton on one of the tricycles.