Day 194 – A School of Fish

July 12, 2016 – I feel such an affinity for these jars of fish. They carry a lot of history for me.

Back in 1990 I took my Ichthyology class in the bowels of the Biological Sciences Building at UBC, and I studied these jars of fish.

Many years later I used that same lab to teach my Fish Health Workshop and it was a strange homecoming

Eventually a major renovation of the old building was to take place and I was actually the last person to ever teach a course in the old Fish Lab/Fish Museum.

The jars of fish were packed up and put into storage, before being moved to the new Beaty Biodiversity Museum and used by students in the new Beaty Biodiversity Research Centre.

And I was lucky enough to be offered the new lab space to put my workshop on in.

This is the third time I’ve used this space for my class, and it’s always such a comfortable place to be. It’s new, but it’s old, and it gives me a nostalgic trip back to my undergraduate years.

Putting the workshop on takes a huge effort and takes everything out of me. Long days teaching and just being “on”, long nights working on my material. I’m only on to day three of five tomorrow and I’m already knackered. I’m behind in my email, haven’t caught up with or even answered phone messages…..just no time right now.

But being around these jars of preserved fish is always a treat because it grounds me in where I come from and connects me to my academic roots.

It may just look like shelves of fish in jars, but they are so much more. They are a link to my history.

116 Photos in 2016 – 5. Schooldays