"Home" again.

Our trip to the Andamans has expired and tired and longing for solitude I returned to FERAL this week. The students who were staying at a separate campus have moved in here with us. This was a very good pragmatic decision, but unfortunately not all was so rosy. Upon return to what had been my home for a week already I discovered I had been exiled. One of the new additions had acquired my chambers by means of early slumber, and on the understanding that arrangements were not final I squeezed reluctantly into a tiny shared room. Now if you'll recall the size of what was formerly my room from the first post's photograph, and consider that I had already moved into it completely and made it my own space, and also consider that this was a newcomer to FERAL of a group who had bemoaned their circumstances until pacified. I make my point: why was I displaced with seniority on my side? In retrospect it could be cause I am not narcoleptic enough to go to bed at eight o'clock, but also because I don't feel I know this person enough to confront them about it. So the next morning I excused myself and removed all my possessions from my former home and felt just the slightest bit lost in this expedition.

I didn't come, obviously, to feel at home but abroad, but I think I have learned about my own need for a personal space through the loss of it. This loss has been temporary as I have dealt with it by getting extremely compulsive with my suitcases and organizing them. You might laugh but it worked surprisingly well. As well I have about three square meters of space in my shared room which is distinctly mine. This week has been otherwise uneventful. We have lectures in between tea times which seem to be the linchpins of this entire society and about five hours of free time every night depending on how much of a night owl you are. I have spent most of my free time studying entomolgy for my research project, which for those who don't know, is an enormous subject due to the diversity of insects and a bit daunting.

On my project, I think I have finally settled. For background there is a family of flies called Agromyzidae that make what are called leaf mines. In other words their larvae live inside a host leaf under the cuticle and eat their way through it until they have acquired enough energy to metamorphose into a full grown fly. These tunnels or mines usually widen as the larvae grow and undergo ecdysis (the process of shedding the outer layer to allow growth). The ones I am concerning myself with are those, probably few, genera which predate on mangroves. I will be collecting these parasitized leaves and identifying them to the most specific phylogenetic level, then measuring the length versus width throughout the leaves to find a rate of growth, then estimate leaf area needed to metamorphose The end game is to answer questions such as: Are certain species of fly showing host preference? Does the substrate affect the growth rate or amount of leaf needed to metamorphose? Plus it just sounded interesting to me. It's a new subject, I get the chance to test a hypothesis, I get to use a little statistics and maybe a little calculus. And I'm really impatient to get started.