I don't know how many snickers and giggles I've invoked when people ask me about the class I'm TA'ing for or when they see me with the textbook for the class. So far, it's been a pleasant class to TA for, particularly the outdoor lab section, but then again, I haven't had to drive the dreaded 15 passenger van yet. I like handling trees and the gadgets associated with measuring them and trying to quantify a forest. It was also cool learning how to use a few less familiar gadgets including Biltmore sticks for measuring dbh and tree height, although I think there's certainly a bit of discrimination against shorter people. Thankfully my arms are just long enough to use a standard set of Biltmore sticks -- the standard length of one of those sticks is the same as my compound draw length (25") but I could certainly use a peep sight to help line things up with it! I also got to familiarize with myself with the height pole, another device where being a bit taller than 5'2" really helps. Lectures are painfully early in the morning -- 0830 hrs but at least they're short and sweet and the professor has a way of being entertaining, even if it's inadvertent from his thick accent and occasional absent-mindedness. All I have to do is come up with a euphemism for this class for when I chat with my more... gutter-minded... friends or for when my accent (or lack thereof) is going to make it hard to catch. Forest measurements might be a good nickname for the class. All in all, though, it's a class I wish I had taken but TA'ing for it is nearly as good!
Now if the classes I'm actually taking were this much fun! So far, the grant proposal writing class is masochism mixed with a good dose of Machiavelli and the land tenure/administration looks like pure self-abuse with its lack of cool gadgets, being outdoors, and non-quantitativeness.
No comments:
Post a Comment