Just a few more days in Poland

My time in Poland is quickly coming to an end and I'll be heading back to South Africa early next week. My time here has been interesting--definitely a very different culture than the one in which I grew up. Michal has been a great host and we accomplished quite a bit with the experiment, let's just hope the data tell a good story. We went to the Old Town today, which is the original part of Torun. Absolutely amazing architecture and a very cool feel to the place, along with some neat history (it's the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus, which is the statue in the foreground of the picture). I took a bunch of pictures, but can't upload most of them until I get back to SA.

I will only be back in Pretoria for 2 days before I turn around and head to the Namaqualand for 12 days. I am unbelievably excited about that because it's still my favorite place in southern Africa. Unfortunately, during that time, contact will be a bit limited.

Hanging out in Poland

I've been in Torun, Poland for about a week now working on a bank vole project. The project is going well and the voles are definitely easier to work on than mole-rats, although cleaning cages everyday does take considerably longer.

Poland has been interesting so far--I've had a couple of new, and umm, interesting foods since I've been here. It's been nice to experience, but it's not a diet I would want to live on long term. We took a drive to northern Poland last weekend so I got to see a fairly nice chunk of the country. The landscape roughly resembles the Midwest, with a lot of farms and small woodlots. There were a lot of neat old buildings and small, rustic towns along the way. I'm still trying to get away for a few days to see either another country or another part of Poland. It looks like we are going to try to catch some bats if the weather warms up, so I may get my first European species on this trip!

Coming to the end of a busy research schedule and the beginning of a lot of traveling

Just a quick update. The last month has been filled by an ongoing research project on mole-rats that has meant most of my time has been spent feeding animals, cleaning cages, and fixing everything that the mole-rats have chewed up. I leave next week for Poland to do a superficially similar project on bank voles, which will hopefully cause less trouble than the mole-rats. I get back to South Africa on the April 28th, but turn around and leave for the Namaqualand on the May 1st for 12 days. Ben and I are capturing freckled nightjars for an extension of the project we did out there last year and we are adding a project on elephant shrews this year. The Namaqualand is still my favorite place in southern Africa, so I can't wait to get back out there.