Reading Break

Well I spent the first weekend of reading break at a Women's Retreat, and then the plan was to head to may parent's place on the sunshine coast. As most of you probably already know, things didn't really go according to plan. I had only just arrived when I found out that my parents had had a house fire earlier that day, so we couldn't stay in the house. Unfortunatly my parents lost pretty much eveything that was in the house, including Tyra who was in her kennel. So instead of spending the whole week on the coast, I returned to school on Wednesday. Here are some pictures that I took while i was over at my parents.

Retreat

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to join with a group of women from my church in Surrey and attend a womens retreat. The weekend was a nice time of rest and fun. The retreat was held at Hidden Fir Lodge in Abbotsford. The lodge is in the middle of a forest, and we were able to spend some time walking around, looking at the great beauty that was before us.

My Saturday Morning

This morning I took a little trip across the road and through the woods to a pond that has been dammed up by beavers in recent years. I was looking at the lichens on trees around the pond for an ecology project, and a friend of mine was examining the activity of the beavers around the pond. It was a great day to do this trip as the sun was shining. Here are some of the pictures that I took while I was there. The picture to the left is of a tree that has ferns growing on it, and the one below is some evidence of the beaver population that is active in the area. And here is the beaver lodge that has been erected in the last few weeks.

Christmas...and Mexico

Well my Christmas break was very busy. First I went home for 5 days, and then my parents and Heidi and I drove the two days to Vancouver with our two cars, the Honda Pilot and the Corolla, and the two canoes. Most of the people we went by probably thought that we were crazy since there was no water any where that wasn't frozen. In Vancouver we opened gifts at Nikki's and then flew to Mexico for a week. Mexico was a new experience for our family. Our idea of a family vacation is camping or skiing. We stayed at an all inclusive resort and did a day of tours where we saw some of the Mayan ruins and did some snorkeling. The ruins were really cool and they were on a cliff over looking the ocean and the colour of the water was an amazing shade of blue.
I was even able to get some scuba diving in, unfortunately I didn't think to get any kind of underwater camera so I don't have any pictures of what I saw but it was amazing. The colours of the fish and the coral were so varied, diving around Vancouver is nice, but in Mexico the water is warmer so the wet suits are thinner, and the visibility is also a lot better. The colours are also a lot better.
After Mexico the plan had been for me to spend a week hanging out at Nikki's place, but then I decided to ply back to Rupert again, so I could get more time with the folks at home. It was a really nice week. And the Sunday before I flew back to Vancouver was my birthday, so it was really nice to be able to spend that day in particular at home. I was also able to help with the packing up of the house since my parents were preparing for their big move.
Christmas was busy, but it was also a lot of fun. Hope you had a great Christmas as well.

Home

Well I have made it back. I arrived back in town on the 15th, and since then I have been trying to catch up on the sleep that I missed in the last week, with exams, and such. I stayed at Nikki's on Thursday night so that I was closer to the airport and then was woken at about 3:30 to the sound of 100 Km an hour winds that were ripping through the courtyard, so there wasn't much sleep that night. The power even went out, and I was really glad that my flight wasn't canceled because of the wind. But I'm back home now for a couple of days and have been able to get caught up on sleep. It's been great to be back, even if it is just for a short time, and I'm trying to see as many people as I can since my time here is so short. Wednesday my parents and sister and I head back down to Vancouver and on Saturday my family and I will be off to Mexico.

What's The Difference?

Well I thought some of you guys might like to know what kinda stuff I've been up to down here at school. So this is something that I put together for a blog that we had going to discuss ideas with Genetic research and other genetics related topics for my genetics class, we did the blog instead of a paper, and I think that it was a lot better.

So this is one of the posts that I made to the blog:

In an article in the October 9, 2006 issue of Time magazine called “What Makes Us Different”, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1541283,00.html the authors discuss the recently sequenced chimpanzee genome. It is believed the closest evolutionary relatives to humans are the chimpanzees, and that humans and chimps diverged from a common ancestor around 6 millions years ago. The recently sequenced chimpanzee genome would give evidence for the relationship between the two species. When they examined the chimp and human genomes side by side scientists were able to determine that between the two there is only about 1.23% that is different, and the majority of the differences occur on the Y chromosome. They also determined that of all the proteins coded for in human DNA 29% of them are the same as proteins coded for in the chimpanzee genes, and that in the proteins that are different they only differ by 1 or 2 amino acids.1
These findings lead to the question, what really makes us different from chimpanzees and other primates? Is it the few genetic variations in our cells, or is there something greater? If the evolutionists are to believed we are no more than a complex grouping of nucleic acids, amino acids and lipids that have managed to align themselves into the right package to facilitate life, and that the reason we are seen as a more “advanced” animal than the chimpanzee is because our DNA went through the right series of mutations. These mutations give us the ability to engage in agriculture, language, art, music, technology and philosophy, while our nearest relatives cannot. This line of thinking seems to indicate that had it been the other way around, and had the mutations occurred in the chimpanzee genome instead that they would be the ones that can do all these things, and that humans would be just another animal.
I have to wonder however if it is only the 1.23% difference in our genes which allows us to do this or is there something more? I personally believe that the main thing that governs our humanity comes not from the sequences of genes that differ from those of other animals, but that it lies in something not even governed by genetics. Our genes may play a part in allowing us to be human, they do after all give us the size of brain we need to be able to do all the complex things we do, however they are not the only component of our humanity.
The Bible says that “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27) this does not mean that our physical self looks like God, but that our soul is like God’s. This in my opinion is what makes us human and separates us from other animals.
So what do you think? Is our humanity in our genes or is there something else that makes us the creatures that we are?


1. What Makes Us Different? An article in Time (October 9, 2006). By Michael D. Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman

Hope you enjoyed the read, and feel free to let me know what you think.

One more final to go, so I better get to work.
See most of you soon.

One Down

Well the countdown continues.
One exam done, and another 4 to go.
Home in 4 days.