Yesterday I was so nervous about everything and getting in the ocean (Trisha and Edd have made very clear theat there are some deadly beasties in the ocean), but we got a bright start this morning and entered the ocean promptly at 6:30 before I even had time to wake up and think about it. :) It was rather cold, windy, wavey, and the visibilty was low... but it was still SO COOL. There were lots of little (harmless) moon jellies at the surface that you were swimming through the whole time and we saw lots of parrot fish and a school of big fellas. I should probably know what species they were because I have a test on species identification on Sunday..... haha school mode hasn't quite kicked in yet. XD The chef here is magnificent! He cooks good food that is good for you! It isn't just cafeteria style food, it's gourmet. *mwah* We had a tastey breakfast. Well, I assume it was tastey.... it had eggs in it so I stuck to cereal and toast.... BUT it looked great! We were planning on having a lecture after that, but our whole schedule was changed due to technical difficulties with the projector for our lesson. So we went and did field work! We analyzed changes in benthic cover according to distance by calculating the percentage of of various substrates in half meter quadrants along a 15 meter transect running from the reef crest into the lagoon. Do I sound smart yet? I also learned that when you get scraped by coral it's very likely to get infected because the living matter of the coral get in your cut and it decays. So you get decaying flesh in your wound. That's some zombie shit right there. Anyways, we basically guessed how much coral, sand, and algae was in a little square along a tape measure that we put along the bottom. Then we went back to the lab and worked on graphing and analyzing and writing a lab report. Pretty cool man. I could see how people did this for a living. Then I sat on the edge of the jetty (that mean's dock) and watched the sun set. The sunset is gorgeous and fills the whole sky!! But it also goes away really quickly. You can watch the sun (not directly obviously :P) actually move down towards the horizon and disappear. It really makes you think about our Earth floating and twirling in space... ... ... Also, I saw a really big loggerhead turtle come up to breath! It's been a good first day and I definitely feel a lot better from yesterday. Except I got bit by a spider in the night. It's right behind my left ear so it looks like a little alien put eggs in my brain. Oh well. ANSWERS FOR YESTERDAY'S QUIZ: Brekky means Breakfast Granola bars are called Muesli Bars. In fact granola in general is just called muesli. Dag mean a sheep's dingleberry And fanny is a swear word here. It is the equivalent of c*nt in the states. So, instead of fanny pack, you say bum bag. Two of you aced it! I don't know who! Good job whos! A quote that inspired me today: If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eyed Joe, I'd been married a long time ago. Where did you come from? Where did you go? Where did you come from, Cotton-Eyed Joe?" Okay but really, I wrote this poem for my poetry class this last semester. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not. Either way, here it is anyways!" a walk through the ocean
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Hey there, folks! Today has been a busy day, but I finally made it to Heron island with my class! It's blue as far as the eye can see in all directions and you can see the curvature of the earth. (Take that, flat earthers!!!) It's very humid and has lots of trees and birds... so, it's like a tropical island. I know right, crazy! But today was basically just to get us checked in and moved into our rooms and give us an idea of where stuff is and how the days will be from now on. We jump right into things to tomorrow and will be getting in the ocean bright and early at like 6:30. It's honestly a little hard to get excited because I'm so nervous, tired, and homesick. I've been in Australia for quite a while and I'm a little exhausted and would love to chill at home for a while, but I know I will love things once we get into it. I have to post every day, so I'll try not to bore you. I included a happy little test below. Answers tomorrow ;) If you need to contact me for important reasons, use my email. :) |