Leave port tomorrow!!!

So we are officially leaving the port tomorrow, which we have been ready for since last Wednesday - the boat wasn't here yet so we couldn't leave....This past weekend I we visited a museum and a spice farm. The owners of both places were related/went to college with my boss. The only thing my boss informed them about me was that I am an ice hockey goalie and know how to drink. So needless to say, they gave me a lot of booze for a very low/nonexistent price. At the spice farm, they treated us like VIPs with a special meal, playing with snakes, and sitting on elephants ( all in the pics...).

I'm uploading all my pictures now, because we are going to have very terrible internet access on the boat. In order to post to this blog I need to send them in e-mail form to Stewey (teammate in NYC) and she'll post them for me. I might be able to send out more e-mails, but still uncertain on that. I've also been given a warning not to talk/smile to the crewmen on the ship or they will get the wrong impression....So basically I just keep my head down and earphones in - great!

Still NOT on a boat....

We were supposed to board the ship on the 25th, but apparently someone more important than us needs to use the ship, so we are going to do our research on an actual fishing vessel (I'm praying every night that it won't smell like the lobster boats at Cook's corner...). We've been working 9 - 5:30 everyday at the National Institute of Oceanography, and those hours + humid heat = very tired Keebler....We've eaten at some gross restaurants, some great restaurants, and almost everything in between - I found out that it's really easy to tell the difference in quality. Hopefully, tomorrow we will have everything packed and ready to board the ship, so I can actually sleep in before my bosses take us out to explore India...I'll let you know when I get on the boat (with lots of pictures!!!)

Touch Down

So I just landed in India...15 hours later. Got to watch some fun movies on the flight and recover a little more from my adventures Wednesday night (still sore...). I left my stupid water bottle on the plane, and I'm kinda upset about it. The drive to the hotel was terrifying - he was legit a worse driver than I am (seriously!). Apparently you are supposed to drive on the left side of the road, but I've inferred from my taxi driver that that is a suggestion, because we drove allllll over the road, into incoming traffic, almost hit some dogs (which I was ready to fight the driver over), and honking at every moving object....but we got to point B, so I guess I can't complain too much! Got to the hotel and the view is amazing (I've already posted the pictures), and there's great TV on as well. We are right across the street from the National Institute of Oceanography, which is the institute we are working at before we get off the ship.

Almost there!!!

So the same night I wrote my last post, I CAUGHT A BLOWFISH!!! It was the most unexpected thing, and definitely a highlight to this cruise. I caught it with the giant net, but they made me throw it back because it was rare and we felt bad for it when it kept puffing up....but on the way back to the water, I think we knocked it out because it made an awful sound when it hit the surface...I hope it's OK.
Little did I know that touring Costa Rica would consist of working on the boat, packing and cleaning, while making tiny day trips when we have time...we'll make it work though.

I just posted more pictures, which if you click on them will direct you to my captions as well....Ok, that is all, I have soooo much data to work on...and then our 2 AM cast. Oh and I just noticed this blog is an hour behind, so there's no point trying to nap, dang!

Down to the Wire - and tastes like it

Six days and a wake up!! We are all planning our trips, which all include stayin at an all-inclusive hotel in which the science party will have one last hora together! Then we plan to zip-line (and see the rain forest), white-water raft, and SLEEP!!!! But we are planning the logistics now...

You can see every night people get more excited to get to the end of the road (or water in this case) every day. The food is also coming down to the wire, and the meals have become a highlight just because of the nap I plan after every single one. The hot tub failed last night in taking away my aches and pains, and I cannnnoooooottttt wait to sleep in a real bed!!! Well, I think I have work to do or something...and then we have the last cast in cycle 4 and then on to our last cycle. I am taking pictures of everything now, so I can explain everything that we do on this boat, and I'm getting some good action shots of me working/filtering water, so be excited to see them when I come home!

same old same old

There really is nothing new to report or talk about. We are on a pretty consistent schedule of filtering water and running our incubations. They have a hot tub on board, which is pretty much a big box of warm sea water - but it takes the aches and pains away of constantly working or sleeping in the hardest beds known to man. I'm pretty much done fly fishing, because we caught all the numbers of different species (which out here means two) that we need to cut open. The one fun activity we do have is decorating styrofoam cups that shrink to very tiny size when they are dropped to 3000 meters, because of the pressure. That's about it!!! We are 8 days and a wake up away from being on land....but seriously, no one on board is counting ;)

We are traveling to our new cycle...yay, time to SLEEP!!! Soo underrated! I just walked outside the boat with another student and somehow stumbled our way to the front of the ship without falling overboard in the dark. As the boat is moving, you can see shiney "lightning bugs" in the water - bioluminescence! I'd take a picture and show you, but I don't think that a picture would really depict what I saw...and I'd be afraid to drop my camera overboard.

I get back to the states on the 30th and then I'm going to spend a week in Norristown for the week, before going back to Maine. So, family, if you want to get together before I'm back home (probably Christmas) talk to my mom now!!! K, I'm gonna go get 8 HOURS OF SLEEP!!!! WOW!