afieldnotebook

I know Mom (hi Mom) misses the days when I wrote more--I, for one, was perusing my own archives (as you do) and was kind of shocked by the sheer volume of wordy posts from when I was in New Zealand, for example. So let's see if I can do this anymore.

This week I had the opportunity to hop across the border (read: drive four hours) to Manitoba to visit Riding Mountain National Park which, along with Prince Albert National Park is one of my study sites for my research. I went with the principle investigator on the project my research falls under the umbrella of, and a post-doc on the same project, and we met with a First Nations group to talk about park management, as well as with some people who will--hopefully--be helping me set up workshops and things, when the time comes to set up workshops and things. It's good to get out, though I occasionally feel like I'm floundering around in these places and cultures I know nothing about (before the meeting began, we smudged with sweetgrass, but my years of feeling my way through liturgies at churches I'd never been to served me well). But that's the precise reason why it is so good to go to these places before I begin my research: if you're going to jump in head first, best to do it before the last possible minute.

Anyway, Riding Mountain: nice place. Saw some elk, finally. For someone whose research is ostensibly about elk in Canada, I've seen remarkably few elk in Canada (except at the zoo). Oh, and here are some pictures out motel room windows.