Late last night, the other half of our lab group flew in. They are all here to mainly work in UAA\u2019s lab, using fish caught in the area. Matt Wund is the lab\u2019s postdoctoral research fellow. His work is based around studying how different populations react to the selective pressures of new environments. Anna Mazarella, a junior biology and studio art major, is here to not only help out in the lab, but to take as many pictures as possible. Jeff is a junior psychology major and joins Sophie and me as a rookie to Alaska. His first few weeks, he\u2019ll be working in the lab with Matt and Anna, but eventually he\u2019ll be working with Kat Shaw, a doctoral student at the University of Connecticut who graduated from Clark with her fifth-year Master\u2019s in 2005.<\/p>\n
The four of us had to explain a few things to our new counterparts: we have developed our own peculiar language in the two weeks we\u2019ve been up here. Lauren calls it \u201cA-lab-skan.\u201d For example, the night we got back into Anchorage we had some fortune cookies with our dinner and one of the lottery numbers on the back of someone\u2019s fortune was 4. Lauren mentioned that it was mildly amusing because 4 is an unlucky number in Japanese culture, and I remarked that I had heard that was because the word for the number 4 was very close to the pronunciation of the word for \u201cdeath.\u201d Well, this was hilarious to us at the time. Who designs a language system where you count \u201cone, two, three, death?\u201d And ever since we do not say \u201cfour\u201d anymore; we say \u201cdeath.\u201d So we became a \u201cfearsome deathsome\u201d with \u201cdeath\u201d chairs around our kitchen table\u2026 etc. That\u2019s right. You can never take us too seriously up here.<\/p>\n
Also decided to label ourselves using the military phonetic alphabet due to the street names surrounding Wolf and Kings Lakes, which are all named Echo, Sierra, Tango, and so on. Lauren and I are Alpha Team \u2014 making her Alpha Leader (Alpha One) and me Alpha Two. Jana and Sophie are Bravo Team \u2014 Jana being Bravo Leader and Sophie, Bravo Two. And because the other three are not in the field, we emphasized their difference by passing over Charlie and labeling them Delta Team. Matt is Delta Leader, Anna, Delta Two, and Jeff, Delta Three. This has led to some very interesting phone conversations. Especially because we spelled people\u2019s names out using said alphabet and thought it was hilarious that Matt became \u201cMike Alpha Tango Tango.\u201d Which quickly led to us calling him Captain Tango Tango.<\/p>\n
Maybe you all didn\u2019t need to know that. Poor Matt.<\/p>\n
– Rachel<\/p>\n
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