Öland: an island off the south-east coast of Sweden, known for the unique Great Alvar, a vast limestone plain reputed for its biodiversity and rare orchid species, and of course, the famous summer residence of the Swedish royal family. And within it all, me, on a research station looking at insects.

Welcome to my experience of learning about fascinating species and missing the bus at least five times, in a place where buses are rarer than serious Tinder dates ; ).

By now, I have been here for a few weeks working in a lab at Station Linné as an intern. Station Linné is a field research station that has existed since 1963, originally under the leadership of Uppsala University.  The largest research project currently being conducted here is the Swedish Malaise Trap Project (SMTP; the Swedish Malaise Trap Project). The project has collected 80 million insects and has created a network consisting of more than 100 researchers in more than 20 countries spread over 4 continents. But there are also many other projects going on, many in collaboration with other researchers, museums and companies. Station Linné also supports and develops new projects in sustainable development, nature and the environment.

          

Seeing as I study Ecology and Sustainable Development at LiU, coming here to the Station was a really cool opportunity for me to actively work in a company collaborating on so many different projects. And so far, the work here has been really exciting and fun! In my first week I had a course where I was taught how to determine the genus of basically any insect and sort them taxonomically correctly. I take part in weekly company meetings and little side projects like preparing the moth Saturnia pavonia to hatch, or checking different traps and looking through camera trap footage. Soon after my course I was able to have my own little research spot in the lab and work independently at sorting, labelling and identifying insects.

     

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The general working atmosphere here is also great! The people I work with are all very nice and fun to be around, and games nights and little outings have become a regular feature. It has also been really nice to discuss different projects people have going on and get insight into more scientific work.

The island in general is beautiful. I love seeing the ocean every day from my place here at the station, the stunning sunsets, sunny days and beautiful deciduous forests surrounding the research station. But as I teased in the beginning, the bus times are pretty atrocious lol. Busses are far in-between (I am dramatic, it is like once an hour), and it takes about 50 minutes to get to Kalmar from where I am staying at the Station. So a night out or a cinema night in Kalmar has to be planned pretty well if you do not want to miss the bus by one minute only to wait one hour for the next one (Like me).

The view from my room!

   

Kalmar has also been very fun to explore and the city is really cute, especially now, that everything is blooming. Overall I am truly enjoying my time here, getting insight on this particular work and living on a small island for the first time in my life! If you have a free weekend you should definitely check out Kalmar and maybe also come to Öland for a little nature getaway!

Anyways, I hope all of you are doing well, and I will talk to you again soon. Thanks for reading, //M

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