End of July - Updates

Hard to believe school starts in two and half weeks! This summer has flown by for sure!

The internship is still going well.  I finally have an idea of what I would like to pursue in terms of research.  I want to compare mosquito biodiversity between the school's nature preserve and areas in the next county over.  Time permitting - I want to do some molecular work with the samples we had collected this summer.

We have continued to set out and pick up traps in various locations, collected ovi-traps, and went to "investigate" complaints and find new areas to trap. Last week, we got to go to a graveyard and find larval samples. It was interesting to check out the graves themselves as we looked in the urns for any standing water.  (I talked with C.S about the names and graves - and she mentioned bringing the older names back). We have also gotten to learn more about a type of mosquito treatment and been able to treat some areas with a mosquito dunk, also known as Bti (a bacteria that is used to prevents the mosquito larvae from becoming adults)

With this internship, I have gained a new mentor, C.S. I am glad that I have gotten the chance to get to know her better recently.  She really knows her stuff on mosquitoes.  She fields all my questions and has taught me so much this summer in regards to mosquitoes.

I also got the chance to help at Vacation Bible School this past week.  I was with the my normal bus route I help with during the school year and another route in the evenings.  It was great to see a lot of the kids and teens on route 5 (the normal route). The other day, one of the teens (who always seems distant Sunday mornings) - came to me when the kids were playing games - she gave me a hug.  After, I got to know her a little better.  She is about to start high school and has mixed feelings about it (I remember the apprehensive feeling about high school).

I also got the chance to work with 6 year-old boys again for 3 of the days and then helped with the 6 year-old girls the last night. The 6 year-old girls class had 5 of my bus kids - and they were super glad to see me.  During the last night, I had 2 by my side the whole night, and then 2 or 3 more during and after game time by me.

Lastly - I got to go to North Myrtle Beach with my friends.  And this was my first time booking a hotel - and there is all kinds of things I didn't realize were important in purchasing a hotel (taxes, check-in ages, and rates for weekdays and weekends).  Overall, the hotel was nice.  We got to go to the beach (although not many people were in the water - sharks, jellyfish galore, and levels of bacteria being through the roof), we swam, went to Boardwalk (a shopping and activity place), and ate at some different restaurants. Johnny Rocket will be forever my favorite place to go to in Myrtle - the staff actually stops and breaks out into song and dance!