Duke Marine Lab: The First Month
Before coming to the Marine Lab, I didn't think I'd really have to adjust. It would still be the U.S., and it would still be a college setting. The past few weeks have taught me that no matter where you go, if it's not home, you'll have to adjust. The Lab's wonderful: the resources, the people, the location all make it incredibly easy for me to learn. The lifestyle is something I'm learning to appreciate. Everything's more relaxed here. I don't call any of my professors by their titles, and the few times I have they've laughed. There are, so far, no all-nighters, no huge tests (although eventually there must be some). This atmosphere is not familiar at all but makes it very easy to just sit back and learn without worrying about the small stuff. Classes are extremely small and the small size of the campus makes for a very small community. Only around 15 undergraduates are in our program and along with a few students studying at UNC's campus nearby make up the 25 or so people here overnight. I have often been surprised at how being on a small island with a tiny group of people can make me feel more separated from the rest of the world than foreign travel ever has. It's been a learning experience, so far. I remind myself to get off the island, to talk to people who aren't from the Lab, and to return determined to learn how to relax and move at the pace people do here. The relaxed atmosphere, I've noticed, is not impeding my learning: I'm still studying and I'm doing more field and lab work than ever before. My independent study is taking up an incredible amount of time right now and is making me learn from experience, particularly mistakes, rather than lectures. The mistakes, things like temporarily misplacing a hermit crab or picking up a stone crab in a net before realizing that I don't know how to get it out without getting a finger crushed, have become jokes rather than serious problems. As long as I don't make the same mistake twice, everything works out. There's been work to do, but all of the work I've done has been incredibily enjoyable, and when I'm not working I have a wonderful group of people to relax with who have similar interests. I've never spent this much time with so many people who want to go into marine science, and it's useful to hear what they've done, what they know, and what they plan on doing. We're all learning from each other as we try and figure out how things work around here, since there's an incredible emphasis on independence, particularly in field and lab work. There have been some points where I've stumbled in the past few weeks, and this is certainly more of a foreign experience than I expected, but I am enjoying it more than I thought I could or would.