As a part of my PhD research, I wanted to have some samples from a lake with an anoxic layer. You know, just normal stuff. Anyways, this is when I was so thankful to be a part of such a large (and friendly) environmental scientific community over here. I talked to someone to talked to someone else who recommended that I contact someone who sent me to someone else. And within 24 hours I had a trip lined up to go out on the Rotsee with a field lab class! (And I was also offered access to some other samples that had already been taken during the summer.)
Just to clarify, this Rotsee is in Switzerland, near Luzern. It is not the more famous Red Sea in the Middle East.
As the day approached, I procured the help of my colleague Rachel, who, thankfully, had done field work before, so she actually knew what was going on more so than I. I sold it as a day out on a boat in a lake in Switzerland with lots of sun, etc., since the weather was supposed to be quite nice.
Of course, we woke up that morning (freakishly early, I might add), and it was totally foggy. And cold. Heh.
Anyways, part of the fun of doing field work in Switzerland is that we were able to just take the train to the field site. We hauled our large American-style cooler with sample containers and other supplies on the trains and trams and buses. We definitely got a lot of stares from people lugging a huge cooler around at 7.30 in the morning, as it looked suspiciously like a cooler full of beer.
Of course, it would've been worse if they actually knew what was in the cooler, as it was full of strange looking science equipment and lots of needles. We made it to the bus stop of the field site, and then managed to wander around for quite some time looking for the lake. We ended up down by the lake, but at the wrong end. Thankfully the lake is only 2.4 km long, so we just walked until we found the boat launch. Again, wandering around at 9.00 in the morning in the woods down by a lake with a large cooler definitely weirds out people you meet.
We met the field work class, and the organizing scientist was nice enough to let us go out first so that the water column was as undisturbed as possible. The boat totally reminded me of a bayou boat. And definitely took on water quite nicely. We had to bail out the boat with beakers every so often when it got too deep in the boat. I was super thankful to have Rachel with, who really knew what was going on and was good at sampling.
We successfully got our samples after about 45 minutes on the lake, and then we trundled back to Zurich on the train and were back in time for coffee after lunch. I think only in Switzerland can you make a field sampling trip on the trains and be back in time for lunch. Of course, we were lucky in that we didn't need huge sample volumes. And that is the story of my first field work trip!
Just to clarify, this Rotsee is in Switzerland, near Luzern. It is not the more famous Red Sea in the Middle East.
As the day approached, I procured the help of my colleague Rachel, who, thankfully, had done field work before, so she actually knew what was going on more so than I. I sold it as a day out on a boat in a lake in Switzerland with lots of sun, etc., since the weather was supposed to be quite nice.
Of course, we woke up that morning (freakishly early, I might add), and it was totally foggy. And cold. Heh.
Anyways, part of the fun of doing field work in Switzerland is that we were able to just take the train to the field site. We hauled our large American-style cooler with sample containers and other supplies on the trains and trams and buses. We definitely got a lot of stares from people lugging a huge cooler around at 7.30 in the morning, as it looked suspiciously like a cooler full of beer.
Of course, it would've been worse if they actually knew what was in the cooler, as it was full of strange looking science equipment and lots of needles. We made it to the bus stop of the field site, and then managed to wander around for quite some time looking for the lake. We ended up down by the lake, but at the wrong end. Thankfully the lake is only 2.4 km long, so we just walked until we found the boat launch. Again, wandering around at 9.00 in the morning in the woods down by a lake with a large cooler definitely weirds out people you meet.
We met the field work class, and the organizing scientist was nice enough to let us go out first so that the water column was as undisturbed as possible. The boat totally reminded me of a bayou boat. And definitely took on water quite nicely. We had to bail out the boat with beakers every so often when it got too deep in the boat. I was super thankful to have Rachel with, who really knew what was going on and was good at sampling.
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| Rachel and the cooler. |
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| The lake was quite scummy for a Swiss lake. |
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| Hello, fog. |
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| The bayou boat. It just needed a fan-thing on the back. |
We successfully got our samples after about 45 minutes on the lake, and then we trundled back to Zurich on the train and were back in time for coffee after lunch. I think only in Switzerland can you make a field sampling trip on the trains and be back in time for lunch. Of course, we were lucky in that we didn't need huge sample volumes. And that is the story of my first field work trip!
