For those of you know don't know, I am now sitting in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico at the Marine and Coastal Ecology Research Centre, where I am going to be analyzing humpback whale acoustics for approximately 3 weeks. Tres exciting, no? Oui! Okay, enough French.
More details on the actual science once I do some more of it, and when I have a better idea of what we're doing. This post is more to turn on the alarm for another one of my little wake-up calls to aspiring Marine Biologists; and that is the whole point of this blog anyways (that, and so I can stop trying to explain what I do to my parents).
This post, my dear friends (and random readers... I know you're there, leave a comment!), is too discuss my present living and working arrangements. Which is a far, far cry from my situation back in Sarasota.
Disclaimer: This is NOT me complaining at all. This is an experience that I am more than excited to have and I think it'll make me a better scientist in the future. This is simply comparing one research site to another, and a way to look at the variation of arrangements you have to be prepared for in this field.
Okay, so...
In Florida, I lived in an apartment that was about a 15 minute bike ride from the lab. Yes, I had to share it with 3 other girls and yes, I did have to share my room. It had a living room, a kitchen 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a little porch.
In Puerto Rico, 8 of us are in a 3 bedroom house. 2 of the rooms have bunk beds, where 4 people sleep, the master bedroom is for our supervisor and her significant other, and 2 of us (including yours truly) are sleeping in what could be considered the living room area on a couple of cots. Our kitchen does not have a stove, so we cook everything either on the propane BBQ, in the toaster oven (we've baked bread in it, guys) or in the microwave. You can't put anything in the toilet or it will clog the septic tank. This includes toilet paper. Used toilet paper goes into a little waste basket that gets cleaned out every night. There is no hot water anywhere. Kitchen sink, bathroom sink, washing machine, shower: all cold water. The internet is pretty weak, especially with 8 people on it at the same time. So no skyping, and no online TV shows or movies. And the house is also the "lab", where we all sit on our computers and do the analysis, and where all the field gear is stored.
In Florida, the lab was in the corner of the Marine Mammal Research Centre. It had half a dozen offices, an AV room, a storage room or two, a little kitchenette and a conference room.
In Puerto Rico, we sit outside at a dining room table with our laptops and do everything off of programs we've installed or downloaded. Our gear is stored in the front porch (which has to be kept locked at all times), or anywhere else we can find room for it.
In Florida, we had pretty set office hours. Sure, when we were in the field you had no idea what time you'd be home for dinner, but on lab days we came in at a certain time and for the most part left at a certain time.
In Puerto Rico, we are supposed to start work at a certain time (and we're pretty sure we'll be able to do it), and we're supposed to only work to a certain hour, but seeing as we're all around in the evenings anyways, it's easy to try to wrangle some work out of us at night as well, even if it's just easy work.
In Florida, we were assisting in a study that had been in progress for over 40 years. The science behind it was near perfect, the methods near flawless, and our supervisors knew the in's and out's of all the programs we used for our photo-ID and any other analysis done.
In Puerto Rico, this study is less than 5 years old, and the acoustic analysis is a brand new addition. So our supervisor is learning right along with us, and we are being little guinea pigs for programs and analysis methods.
There are probably a million other differences between the studies, but those are some of the biggest. We all cook and clean communally, something we didn't really do in Florida, and the team is a lot more diverse than back at Mote. These are the realities of the job. You're not always going to be working in a well situated institute. Sometimes you are going to be working somewhere without running water or something like that. So consider all the differences I've posted. If you don't think you can handle it, I might suggest reevaluating the specifics of your career choice.
The title for this post was meant that even though it is a comparison along a scale, one is not necessarily better than the other (like a scale of 1 to 10, or white to black, etc.). Both types of field/living sites are exciting and offer pros and cons, just like yellow and purple. Plus I like both those colours :)
On a completely other note, those who know me more personally know that I spent about 11 days travelling around Puerto Rico before settling into the internship. For those who don't know me personally, you know that now. I survived it, I met some amazing people, and learned a bit about travelling around Caribbean islands. This is not the forum to talk about my travels, but I'm sure if I talk to you soon, you'll hear all about it!
Speak Loud!
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