Pandas?!

I returned from Thailand on February 2nd. They gave me a nice send-off. During my time in the sanctuary I held an English class for some of the children, and the morning I left their bus made a special stop at my house to say goodbye :) Since then I have been busy unpacking, cleaning my field gear, and traveling to surrounding states to visit family and friends. I have barely had time to settle in and I will be packing again to leave for Virginia on March 14th. 

The other news is that I applied for a Ph.D. position at Michigan State University under Dr. Jianguo Liu. I was planning to apply to graduate schools this coming fall, so this was unexpected timing. I saw an announcement on the Ecolog Listserve posted March 4th, advertising the opportunity to join Liu's interdisciplinary and international team on biocomplexity. The major goal of the NSF-funded project is to study complex interactions among panda habitat, people, and policies. Research projects of the lab group members seemed to coincide well with my broad range of interests. However, I was tentative to apply without a Master's degree. I just have to wait and see if anything comes of this...