Another semester finished (almost)

I made it through another semester at ETH, this one was much easier than the first semester even though I took the same number of credits.  The main reason for this was that I wasn't taking physics but also I had two 1-week field courses after I finished my exams and two of my courses just weren't a lot of work, nor difficult.  So this semester I took: Sustainability in Water Supply, Water Resources and Aquatic Ecosystems, Functional Plant Ecology, Conservation Genetics, Ecology and Evolution: Seminar, Disturbance Ecology, Policy and Economics of Ecosystem Services, Evolutionary Biology: Field Course, and Vegetation Ecology Lab: Field Course.  

The only things I have pictures of are my field courses, but they are more interesting anyways.  The first field course was located in Ces, a preserved village in the Italian part of Switzerland.  It was a 2 hour fairly steep hike to the village.  We (all 22 of us) stayed in an old house, there was no electricity nor warm water.  There was running water in the kitchen for cooking and outside for washing.  The toilet (only 3 for the whole village) was a composting toilet.  The village is maintained by volunteers who live there for the summer, mostly young hippyish folk.  It was like camping, sleeping was comfortable but people stayed up pretty late so no one got a good sleep even if you tried.  The food was pretty bland, lots of carbohydrates, and vegetarian, but I did get a lot of vegetables and the coffee was good.  For the work part, we had to develop a project (with proper scientific design), collect data, analyze it and make a presentation.  My group looked at the microhabitats of the alpine marsh violet in a bog.  On Thursday, we ran laptops off of a generator and did the statistical analysis, it was a long day but I learned a lot because I don't remember much of statistics.  The most challenging part for me was that most conversations were in Swiss German, it doesn't seem to be rude here to talk in your own language excluding people who don't understand.  It may be because they are all young.  I wasn't the only one excluded; there was also one girl is Swiss but from the French part and a German girl, neither really understand Swiss German.  We did our project together and hung out most of the week.  I still have to write a report for this class, which I will start working on just after I finish this blog post. :)

The village of Ces.

Sunna outside of the house we were staying in.

The house we slept, ate, and worked in.

Highland cattle and the horizon. 

Ces from the waterfall.

Doing statistics by candlelight at the dinner table, it is the middle of the day but it is dark away from the windows.  

The cook in the kitchen.  

My bed is the red mattress on the floor.

Washing basin on the left, milk cooling on the right. We got 1 heated shower on Wednesday and we also took one very quick bath in the waterfall. 

Carnivorous plant in the bog (Sundew or Drosera sp.)

Collecting Viola palustris for measurement. 

"Measuring" Viola palustris

Fieldwork completed!

The 2nd field course the next week felt like luxury in comparison.  We were in Zernez, near the Swiss National Park (there is only 2 national park in Switzerland).  There we stayed in dorms but we were a group of only 12, and one of the benefits of being unpopular is no one wants to share a room with you.  So my French Swiss friend and I had a room for 8 to ourselves.  Also our group was given the hotel conference room to use both for work and socializing.  That worked fine for me as after dinner which usually last a few hours, I could have a bit of time to myself and go to bed at a reasonable hour while all the young Swiss stayed up.  We also had a 5 course dinner every night and a great breakfast.

The entire class taking a break for lunch. 

The first day we went on a short hike with a few stops for short lectures along the way. 

At the top.

 The next day was in the hotel with lectures and planning our projects, but in the afternoon some of us went to the study site so we could start the field work.  This is what greeted us, my group was looking at tree saplings so we were still able to do what we wanted to do.  A few others were reconsidering their herb vegetation projects.

A little snowball fight before getting to work. 

I guess looking at flowers is still possible...

This is our study site, my group spent our time in the forest straight ahead and to the right. 

The next day the weather cleared up, I didn't take any pictures of our field work because I lent my camera to one of the other groups.  

One of the groups finished working for the day.  

The Swiss military practicing. 

As soon as I finish one paper I have summer holidays!  I am fortunate that I do not have any exams in September as is the norm.  So I have 3 months with no studies.  I'm looking forward to family visiting, our city hopping vacation to Sweden, Estonia, Finland (and hopefully Russia), and many other fun activities.