So many names!

It started off with floristics, also known as botany (or just plants). I learnt that loads of plants belonged to the rose family, and I learnt a LOT of names of plants and flowers. I would work approximately from nine in the morning till half past eleven in the evening, but of course with breaks during the day. It's a lot to learn in a short amount of time, so I spent a lot of time testing myself and memorizing names.

After four bad days for the people with pollen allergy, we moved on to marine life, and therefore on to faunistics, zoology, or animals, whatever you want to call it. The first day, I studied plankton through a stereo loupe - it was very interesting to see the animals that live floating around haphazardly in the seawater. They have really interesting shapes, and are really tiny. The I moved on to naming the species of live material fished (or scraped) up by the students who were on the research boat that day. I saw, among loads of other things, red sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, and loads of worms.

Look closely at the pilot whale to the left,
and you can see her grey calf beside her 

The next day it was my turn to go aboard the boat. We were really lucky to see loads of pilot whales (they said there were at least a hundred). They were beautiful and cute - and quite large. They had followed schools of fish into the fjord, and according to the people on the ship, they would stay there the whole summer, feeding on fish and having a good time. I saw large males, females and mothers with calves. It was wonderful to see them swimming so close to the boat.

After another day with naming species and then a trip to the beach at low tide, we moved on to terrestrial animals. In other words, insects (and, of course, many other things that live on land). Loads and loads of flies, and one of my favourite groups, the weevils, or snout beetles. We took walks to capture animals in nets (like butterfly nets). Again, there were a lot of names to learn.

Everyone talked about a steep learning curve, and it really was. It was fun, but tiring, with loads of late nights with early mornings following them. Now I can name loads more of the living things I see around me in nature. Going for walks with me will be impossible, since I will most likely stop all the time to study some living thing (and hopefully name it correctly).