ZESL A&P 2019— Tats (@tttttatin) July 14, 2019
This image was taken the morning after some of us got shit drunk (some = me). pic.twitter.com/uBmx0EeBoX
It's September 2019 and I'm currently on my 5th term as a graduate student of UST. I have already completed my academic requirements so right now I'm totally focused on finishing my thesis. So about that, I'm a member of the unofficial research group called UST-ZESL (unofficial cause we're not YET recognized by the university). ZESL stands for Zooplankton Ecology, Systematics, and Limnology. So our research topics mainly revolve around freshwater ecosystems. As for me, I study zooplankton ecology. A perfect example of a zooplankton would be Mister Krab's arch-nemesis, Plankton, from Spongebob Squarepants.
Plankton (source)
Scientifically though, zooplankton are suspended animals which rely on the movements of the wind or current. Specifically, my study focuses on copepods which are micro-crustaceans closely related to shrimps. They are the natural, or organic, food source of fishes and are present in almost any body of water.
Here's one of my baby for your reference HAHA you got that right, they are 1 mm or smaller
So basically what I do is collect this little animals from lakes where they have been previously found and measure their growth and reproductivity. So far I have visited somewhere around 13 lakes in Luzon but I still need to visit a lot more! I'll be posting the lakes (and my adventures) I visited on a different post so you can surely look forward to that hehe but here's a sneak peek!
So aside from fieldworks, I also do laboratory works which involves sorting my babies into tiny vials and actually measuring them using a computer program. Most days I stay in the laboratory from 12PM up to 9PM just to work on this as well as trying to write manuscripts for journal publications.
Being a graduate student is a totally different lifestyle. Yes unlike medical students, we don't really follow a strict class schedule or do duties and stuff, but we still have to be smart with managing our time since we don't really want to be stuck in grad school forever! We want to graduate on time too (which rarely happens)!
But whenever we have down times, or we just badly need a break from all the white walls of the laboratory, the microscopes, the journal readings, writing papers, and our microscopic animals, my colleagues and I go out to drink.
Mostly we drink around UST (cause it's near and cheap) but we also go to Tomas Morato and other drinking joints in Manila and QC. One thing we keep on joking about is that drinking is an inherent part of being a graduate student. It's like part of the training. And it's actually quite useful too! Most research proposals/studies are done while our advisers/professors/collaborators are holding a bottle of beer in their hands! As we all know, we all get a little confident when we drink and apparently, our brain becomes active too! I have experienced it firsthand as I told my thesis adviser that I wanted to work on a scientific paper while feeling buzzed from the Vodka and Tequilla shots we were drinking! HAHAHA
This "training" is also useful whenever we go to conferences since most researchers really like to spend their downtimes drinking. We get to socialize with the "celebrities" of the science community and it just really feels amazing, REALLY!
So that's just about it for my graduate student life. In summary it revolves around: fieldworks, laboratory works, writing of scientific papers, attending conferences, and drinking. LOTS OF DRINKING.
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