Overwhelmed!!

There are so many things to tell you all!! Hehe. It is great out here! The environment is lovely, the conference is so much fun and there are sooo many things to learn! Today is only the first day of the conference and I am already overwhelmed with all the science that I can learn and be part of. The atmosphere is very laid back and everyone, including the professors, are very friendly and is very helpful and encouraging.

After several opening talks this morning, they have a panel discussion on how the LTER network influence their career paths. It is a good idea to have such discussions especially for graduate students who are close to the end of their graduate career or are unsure if they would like to go into non-academia or academia path. It also gives me an idea of the types of career I can have that still involves field work or that allow contribution to social sciences and decision makers.

After lunch, they break out into several working groups. The working group that I attended is on potential inter-site comparisons of carbon studies within the LTER network. It is definitely a great topic for workshop and we had a group with great dynamics. We are all interested in using soil respiration data to better understand the factors that drives differences in soil respiration we see from all the different environmental regimes at the LTER sites. So it gave me the opportunity to propose the incorporation of microbial growth efficiency into soil organic carbon model. Hehe, I know you all don't know what I'm talking about, but it is super exciting stuff!

The day ended with few more talks and poster session about all the LTER sites. I also met with a Singaporean who asked me if M'sia would be an interesting place to start an LTER. Hmmm...my opinion, I think it is an awesome idea! But starting an LTER requires tons of work and lots of connections. He seems pretty hype about it so maybe if he starts one, I can get a job in M'sia some day! M'sia will definitely have good representations of tropical forest ecosystem with high soil organic carbon turnover.

As I was walking back to the lodge, I looked up at the sky and wow!! I have never seen that many stars before! There are millions and millions of them! It is also sooo dark that I get to see a bunch of meteor shower. I was so mesmerized by it that I didn't make a wish until after I saw four or five of them. Hehe. Now I wish that I could go camping. Hehe...it is too much hassle though. Am just glad to be here. I could definitely see myself working out. :) Below is a picture of how dark the place is. The lights are along the sidewalks but it is so tiny and low that it is still dark enough to see all the tiny tiny stars that our eyes usually can't see when we're in the city.

Hehe, I am still so excited about this place that I am definitely not blogging coherently here. Will blog more about the place and post more photos when I calm down. All the interesting stuff that goes on in all these different LTER sites that I get to hear about is overwhelming too. Will have to digest them at some point this week. I also haven't taken as many photos since we are indoors most of the day. Will definitely have more photos when John gets here and we go out hiking.