Plankton!!!!

Okay.
So we didn't start off with super exciting 20-foot sharks. We got started with the itty-bitty-tiny stuff: Plankton.
Plankton by definition is tiny stuff that can't actively swim - they kinda drift around, float from here to there, go with the flow. Catching phytoplankton though can be a bit more challenging that you think. It involves big nets with a very fine mesh size. Because the usual phytoplankton people had a bit more to do with the whole oil-spill drama down here in the Gulf, the shark people were helping them out by picking up the last few of their usual stations.
After we'd sailed to a station we would first through a big, long net attached to a square metal frame over board to collect Neuston (stuff that lives a the air-water interface) by dragging it just under the surface. After 10 minutes we pull it back up. The net is formed like a pyramide with a filter-tube on the bottom - we hose down the net to make sure everything gets stuck in there.
Then we prep the "bongos". It's to big circular wooden frames with long net-hoses attached to them, again with a filter-tube thingie on the bottom to catch everything. We drop those and the pull them out as well.
Once we've got all of that we go to the back of the ship were we filter out the water and put all the "goodies" into jars - of course everything gets carefully labeled. The plankton stuff is mostly just green gook. The Neuson can have teeny-tiny crabs and fish (we're talking the fraction of a size of your fingernail). Before we close the jars we add some formaldehyde to preserve everything (later it will be transferred to ethanol).
I was holding up one of the more "exciting" jars checking out the contents. When I realized some poor grad (or more likely undergrad) is going to spend hours if not days identifying all this stuff under a micrsoscope.
Well, I hope they have fun with that. I'll be content to stay on a boat!

Why always me?

So here I am in the middle of the Gulf. It wasn't too easy getting here though.
I took the train from Stony Brook to Jamaica then hopped onto the Airtrain to get to JFK. There I hopped onto an airplane to Charlotte in South Carolina. We were late taking off, and then getting in we played the famous game of taxiing all around the runways - they gave the familiar "check your front pouch for layouts of the airport" so that we could find our connecting gates. As time ticked down and my comfortable two hour layover dwindled I caught myself thinking - well I wish it was an airport like O'Hare or Frankfurt or even JFK which I "know", that way I'd should be able to find my gate more quickly.
When I finally got off the airplane with half an hour to find my gate I learned two things:
a) I have been to Charlotte - it's the airport with the rocking chairs in one of the main concourses.
b) Running all those sprints the past two weeks in rugby practice has paid off.
I got to my gate even before they were boarding and before I knew it I was in an itty-bitty airplane headed to Gulfport. I even managed to get there with my checked luggage and all!
I met up with my Aunt and Uncle and we headed towards New Orleans. I had a great weekend of catching up with my family "down South":
We paddled through the bayou (no alligators, just a few crabs and cranes).
We drove through New Orleans (surprising how closely together you have nicely renovated houses/properties and ones still bearing Xs and numbers put there by the military).
We walked through downtown New Orleans (I like it... I should go back someday to explore more).
We even walked down Bourbon Street (Been there, done that. I'm good now - and I certainly don't need to go back during Marti Gras!)
And then too soon we said good-bye.
The shark survey is run out of a lab in Pascagoula, MS and so there was a van driving from there to Galveston, TX were we joined the OREGON II for the final leg of the survey which should take us back to Pascagoula by the end of September.
Now I've seen a lot of Louisiana and quite a bit of Texas and after 6hours we made it to the port. Ports nowadays are "pseudo-supersecure": There are all kinds of rules and regulations (quite strict actually) about who can come in how and when and we'd all forwarded are names and ID numbers to the ship who put us on a list which was then given to the gate. Guess who was the only person who somehow didn't manage to be put on that gate list?
Yes, yours truly. We spent almost half an hour going over lists and talking to the ship and finally the security guard said: It's no big deal. I can let all of you through, the young lady (yes that's me) will just have to stay here until you've added her to the list and emailed it to the gate.
Yes, I did eventually make it onto the ship but not before I spent half an hour sitting in the guardhouse watching football, flipping through "Guns and Ammo" magazines and feeling very Texan.

Off shark counting...

I'm off to the Gulf to count some sharks as part of a yearly NOAA survey. You can track my where abouts on the NOAA ship tracker - I'll be on the Oregon II.
For those of you worried about the whole shark-bit of this expedition, I was checking out a shark book and found this little tid-bit of information:
" According to figures published by the New York City Health Department, for every person around the world bitten by a shark, 25 people are actually bitten by New Yorkers."

High on happiness and adrenaline...

Last night around 11pm, I was sitting at the kitchen table with one of my finally-returned-housemates reading through stacks of papers with unbelievable energy and chatting when I realized: "I am totally high on happiness and adrenaline". I had just come back from a rugby practice which I will admit turned even my legs to jelly (the college team for whatever reason believes that I don't ever get sore... EVER!) but I was still going strong on a high from running around so much.
And most of you have heard the news - I passed all my comprehensive exams (qualifying exams for my PhD)! Yes, it is going to take some time to wipe this big grin off of my face. I realized that with the end of this semester I will have all my requirements complete: I finished my core classes and the comps and should know all about biological, chemical, physical and geological oceanography (or at least where to look for information in that area!), I've taken my required amount of extra classes, will be going out into the field (A LOT!) this semester which goes well beyond our field work requirement. And, which I am quite excited about, this semester I am doing my Teaching Practicum, which mean I will actually be giving two or three lectures in front of an undergrad class of over 100 students!
Which is what I dived into right after finishing up my oral exams and matter of fact I need to get back to...

the comps are coming...

Today I was on campus for a last Q&A's session before my comprehensive exams (for all who have asked: the written part is Thursday&Friday, my oral exam will be Wednesday). There was a crew of about 30 new grad students were there for their orientation, too.
Hard to believe that it really has been a year since I moved to Long Island to start my PhD! Time flies! Currently, time isn't going quite fast enough - I can't wait for my exams to be OVER.
My room is study zone central, it looks like a tornado struck, there are papers everywhere, stacks of books and binders, shoes, clothes...
Though I would like to mention that I do not have piles of dirty clothes all over the floor. When I have clothes on the floor, it's because while I still have it together enough to do my laundry, I don't get around to folding them... I'll bring them into my room, leave them on my bed to fold later, then later comes and goes and turns into bedtime, so I move all the clothes next to the bed, in order to fold them the next morning. And about a week later... well, I'm sure you get the picture.
So yes, all I have to do is survive til Tuesday next week (here's to hoping my allergies will die down!) and I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

When two people meet ...

I recently discovered that modern technology has altered the mechanics of meeting people.
For example when you are trying to meet up with siomebody cell phones seem to have eliminated the need for precise times and places. You no longer say: I will meet you at 2:30 in front of the blue building next to the black door with the white stripes. You say (or more likely text) “2:30ish, near the blue building. Give me a call when you get there”. The first person to get there text the other: “I’m here now, give me a call when you get here”. And inevitably meeting and greeting goes something like this – one person calls the other, both are on the phone saying stuff like – uh, I’m right next to the greenish door – oh, I just parked I should be walking towards you – there’s a red motorcycle parked to my left – and finally one person says “oh, I see you – turn around” and the greeting style is one hand on the phone one had in the air waving.
Then there’s randomly meeting somebody on the street and saying hi. You catch their eye, nod both walk towards each other and reach with one hand to pull out one of their earbuds and you say: Hey how’s it going? Exchange one or two sentences of small talk, pop the ear bud back in and continue walking down the street.

here's a good one

This Sunday the pastor was preaching on the "ought". As in what our lives "ought" to be, how God has so much more in store for us than we "ever asked or imagined". And how it is our job as well to make the most of opportunities we have now to be prepared for later.
He described it as think of two women chatting. One says: "I really need to start going to the gym. I met this really cute guy at the water cooler today". And the pastor said, this is why you need to focus on the ought and work on it now. It's too late - she's already met the guy.
Yes. He said it during the Sunday morning service.
Suddenly, I no longer feel bad about some of the jokes I've cracked during a service or analogies I've come up with... like the infamous rugby-sermon.
Though I still maintain, that had Paul known about rugby he would have definitely used it instead of "the body"...

But that's another story.