Hello All!

My meeting with Alison Jolly was fabulous and two hours later at her seminar she remembered who I was and which forest I was going to and reminded me to check a memorial out in front of the audience. So I felt like I *hopefully* made a nice/lasting impression to her.  She gave me great tips about identifying ring-tailed lemurs which I felt very honored because she is THE ring-tailed lemur expert who has been studying Lemur catta in Madagascar since 1963! She also reminded me so much of my grandma that I almost wanted to hug her. She was very kind and optimistic and loved all of our project ideas.  Most conservationists have sort of a negative outlook on the world and feel we should continue to try to save the world, but that it doesn't really matter because the earth has been destroyed to a level that we can no longer save.  SO, it was refreshing to see a primatologist who was so optimistic.  She also had some great ideas for my education project that I'm hoping to create and take to Madagascar.  I'll be handing them out to the 3 villages that surround the Petriky Forest to help raise awareness of conservation (AKA in hopes that they don't eat my study species).  I can also put this as a chapter in my dissertation which will make the thesis stand out a bit = hopefully to help me get a good grade!

In other news, I just found out this afternoon that some people who are in charge of BBC Natural World are coming to talk at our seminar on Monday night.  They are also wanting to talk to those of us heading to the field and POSSIBLY coming out to video tape us.... This means that ALL of my dreams could come true in a 3 month period.

#1 : Go to Africa - Madagascar counts.
#2 : Study primates in the field
#3 : Have my own reality/documentary about primates - Not that it would be my own show BUT it would be amazing if they came to watch me in Madagascar because not only would it raise attention to a forest that has never had any data collected in, Madagascar is the HOTTEST hot spot in terms of biodiversity and everything (plants/mammales) is endemic to it.  It would raise so much awareness of conservation I would pee my pants!

Now, I need to calm down, because this is just rumors/office gossip and I haven't even met them yet, but you bet I'll be handing them my proposal while dressed semi-fancy!