Here's to new adventures

I miss these little guys!

Well the next adventure I am going to be headed on has been in the works since summer. While finishing up my amazing summer at Duke studying lemur social cognition I met a new incoming graduate student. Through this new friend I made a connection with a professor who is headed to Indonesia to study orangutans. I am excited to say that I will be joining this professor to spend 7 months researching how orangutan mothers and infants interact during a bout of tool using by the mother. I am extremely excited and have been working very hard to complete the required permit application (there are over 10 documents that need to be submitted). It’s a relief to have the permit submitted but it has to be reviewed before I get the verdict. Please send me your positive vibes while I wait out this nail-biter. 

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have also created a twitter to share the details of my preparation, and subsequent trip follow me at https://twitter.com/#!/RickiOldenkamp. But don't worry I plan to continue the blog as well and I’m back in the updating mode so check back to find out all the nitty gritty details of how to plan a research trip.