Day One

Before I complain about the bus, let me first tell you how my first day was.

AWESOME.

The NRC is GORGEOUS.  The building is brand new (only open a year) and has three floors for visitors.  Each floor is as nice as the next.  The ground floor has a right whale skeleton but she was pregnant so they have her baby's skeleton positioned in her.  They also have this earth that is visible from the outside of the NRC.  You would think it is a statue but actually inside is a lecture room, with balconies that reach out on the second and third floor.  There are also a couple of displays (not sure if the the word I want to use) that have living organisms.  The cool thing is that they don't even need to bring them to a vet, because they have vets on staff and a room where people can watch the vets take care of the animals.  The NRC also has labs that anyone can go into and do experiments or look at things under microscopes.  I think they're doing a great job with involving the public in science and inspiring a future generation of scientists.  Across from my lab is a specimen room, full of preserved insects, mammals, birds, and other organisms.  I am so jealous of their bird collection.  The study specimen birds are impeccable.  I wish my birds came out that good (I stuff birds, I don't remember if I wrote that in my first post).  The room also has this really cool table computer mammal identifier (they probably have a name for it, but I don't know it).  Basically, there are these innocuous looking tables that are sectioned off into a big blank section, a rectangular section under it where you put the specimen, and a rectangular section to the side to put the specimen when you're done.  Let's say you took the grey fox pelt.  You put it on the place specimen here section, and then BOOM, there is a projection in the blank section of the species.  Off to the side is a keypad projection that you tap to scroll through information.  There is more to the NRC but I'm going to move on to the actually museum now.

The actual museum is AMAZEBALLS.  Once again, there is a mix of biotic and abiotic specimens throughout the four floors of the museum.  I'm so glad I was told to wander the museum.  I enjoyed seeing all the stuffed specimens, which looked incredibly life like in their poses.  I especially liked an exhibit on the environments in North Carolina.  I passed by it a couple times on the floor it was on and the floor above.  My favorite thing about it was I saw something new every time.

Continuation....

(Still my first day) The museum had a very nice dinosaur exhibit, small but pretty informative.  I saw a pterosaur and I was pleased to see I the elongated finger and remember the purpose it serves(because I learned a little about them in vertebrate biology)  I also enjoyed the Arthropod Zoo too.  That is on the fourth floor of the museum.  Although I could not go into the butterfly room (it was closed), I still had a great time looking at the other arthropods.  My favorite organism was a Madagascar hissing cockroach, only because I was able to see it molt its exoskeleton.  That was really cool, I went away and came back to its tank a couple times.  It was creepy seeing the roach pale and soft looking, as opposed to brown and hard looking, but awesome at the same time.  There was also a one clawed lobster who was a cutie.  One day (hopefully this weekend) I will go the museum/NRC and take some nice pictures and write descriptions for more posts.  After I finished marveling at the museum I want back to the lab.  For the rest of the day I read up on bee flies except when I got lunch with the other two interns.  They're both very nice guys and are willing to help me out since they're more experienced.  It was a good day, until I had to take the bus back.

Let me first say, I have no experience with taking shuttle buses to move around on campus, limited experience with taking school sanctioned buses to locations off campus, and no experience with actual public transport buses.  After spending an hour making a bus schedule to bring with me the night before my internship, I made it to the bus stop to take me to downtown Raleigh.  The bus going there was no problem, I paid with quarters and sat in my seat wondering if it had set stops or only request a stops.  Luckily I didn't have to request a stop, as someone did at the street I needed to get off at.  The problem was the bus going back to my apartment.  I was going to take the same bus, but I had to get it early because I would have to then walk to a shuttle bus stop to take the shuttle to my apartment, and the shuttle stopped at a certain time and I didn't actually know where the stop was, I just had the building it should be by circled on a map.  One of the other interns, X, had taken the bus before he got his car and told me where a more direct bus was, and when I should get it.  I got lost on my way to the stop, since I am directionally challenged when it comes to map navigation.  I missed that bus.  Luckily, X was headed in the same direction as my apartment and offered me a ride, which I gladly accepted.  I also learned the bus trip planner website I used isn't really that good, since the route I originally wanted to take yesterday did not come up when I texted the bus company with the station number.  Whatevs.  I know the bus I need to take now and hopefully I can actually make the return trip.

Besides buses, Day One was great!  I'm going to give Day Two its own post, so this one won't be incredibly long.