day: 1

woke up around 8 am after a deliciously wonderful sleep, ate two bowls of corn pops (mm mm good!), chilled in front of the fire, and read the reading for today. THEN i went skiing with a couple of girls! skiing's fun. lots and lots of fun. after we got back (around 1:15 pm), i drank some water and...i think i ate something...hmm, can't remember. anyway, then we went to class at 2 pm. it's awesome: the classroom/lab station is right on the lake, not even a 5-minute walk from our cabin. we talked about the reading, about what winter ecology is, the research we're going to be doing on black carbon dust and albedo (the proportion of the incident light or radiation that is reflected by a surface; more black carbon, less reflection from the snow and more absorption of energy). then my partner and i looked up books to use for our research on zooplankton, did the reading for tomorrow, and made a fantabulous taco dinner! between 11 of us, we ate 3 boxes of uncle ben's mexican fiesta rice, 3 turkey thingies, 2 bags of shredded cheese, 1 large can of refried beans, 5 chopped apples, 3/4 of a gallon of milk, 1/2 tub of large sour cream, 1/2 large jar of salsa, and 3 packs of betty crocker brownies/mix. yup. pretty intense. guys cleaned dishes, and then we figured out meals for the week. then we played mafia (mystery game; duties designated via which card you draw; narrator tells the "who dunnit" story) and presidents (another card game). now i'm going to fall asleep! class is 9-noon/break 1 hour for lunch/black carbon research/mac&cheese for dinner. oh, and before i forget: cell reception is horrible up here; i'm pretty much ignoring my phone except for using it as an alarm in the morning. mom, dad, and cooper'booger: you win the award (world record honor, actually) of sending a letter to a student so quickly. thank you :) i'll send you one...as soon as i figure out...how. haha! alright, sleep sweet, world! ciao4now :)