Time flies when you're learning

So far this week has turned out to be way more exciting than I expected... I knew I would learn a lot here, but I didn't realize I would get to see so much outside a classroom! The first and second full days here we went on mini-expeditions out on the lake to collect samples and learn about (and use!) equipment for limnology (the study of lakes). The third and fourth full days we went on full-fledged fieldtrips - yesterday's was to the Toledo Zoo/Aquarium, and today's was to Old Woman Creek (a fresh water estuary). The aquarium was pretty awesome - we got to see fish that most of us will probably never get to see again (short of returning to the Toledo Aquarium). Old Woman Creek has a fascinating story behind it's name. There is a legend that in that area a very Pocahontas-like romance unfolded, ending in the deaths of both an Indian princess and a white settler whome she loved. The princess' mother was so heart-broken that she threw herself into the creek and drowned, and the creek took her name for that reason, but her name was hard to pronounce, so out of laziness the white-folk just said that some 'Old Woman' died there, and it became Old Woman Creek. After hearing this story, we proceeded to take samples to observe under microscopes. So much of this class is hands-on that it makes the learning part very enjoyable.