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...

oh that stugeon's lucky it's endangered

So yes, after ranting about my cultural identity back to sturgeon... I will hopefully be seeing quite a bit of them over the next three years (me getting my PhD sorta depends on it). Google Atlantic Sturgeon, and you will find that they are big and ugly (and look a bit like they've escaped a Jurassic Park movie) and quite endangered - it seems people got greedy exploiting them for they're meat on the one hand (which apparently tastes quite good, I wouldn't know, I believe that fish are friends not food), and taviar on the other - really? Fish eggs? Whose brilliant idea was that?
Unfortunately for them, they're not a cute as seals or as charismatic as dolphins and whales (dooooooo youuuuuuuuuu speaaaaaaaaaakt whaaaaaaaaaaaales?! I picked some up conversing with the ones migrating down the East African Coast) so they haven't exactly gotten around to replacing Pandas as Greenpeace' new poster child. On the up side, New York and a couple of other States up here are currently working on management plans to help restore populations (this is also quite fortunate for me and my thesis...).
Part of the problem is that Atlantic Sturgeon need about 20 years to mature and reproduce, so we can't just stop fishing (which you're already not allowed to do, but they still get caught by accident) them for a few years and all will be well. Sturgeon's life cycle is similar to that of salmon, in that the females migrate up their natal river (i.e. the river they were born in) to lay their eggs... the young then migrate back towards the coast, usually live in estuaries for a few years and the spend their "juvenile/subadult" stage(s) in coastal aggregations- several studies have shown that protecting them at that stage will have the strongest effect re-establishing populations.
In order to protect them, it's kinda helpful to figure out where they can (still) be found, and what their fine scale migration patterns are. One of the guys I'm working closely with figures that out doing accustic tagging: We pull the sturgeon out of the water, make certain measurements and then surgically implant an acoustic tag (I'll get to this in a bit, that's the funny part of the story so if you don't want to know all the science-y stuff skip there....it starts with "okay, here's he funny story") and toss it back into the water.
So while he's figuring out where they're going, I'll figure out where their coming from. This is actually a kinda cool method - basically while the sturgeon are being measure and tagged, I'll snip off part of their fin, extract the DNA and sequence a little piece of their DNA. I'll be able to use this sequence as a sort of license plate: If you look at the combination of the first few letters on a German license plate you know what city/county the car is from. If you look at this sequence the combination of basepairs will tell you what river they're from. Kinda cool, huh?
Okay, so when we pull a sturgeon (hopefully more than one) out of the water trawling we weigh it (I think the heaviest one I laid eyes on til this point was about almost 30kg so over 60lbs), then we lift it on a measuring board and make some measurements (the longest one we got was 1,4m which is over 4 feet long - and remember, these aren't fully grown yet). Then we scan for a "pit tag" and inject one if it hasn't been tagged yet (that way, however else pulls it out during trawling surveys knows where else it's been), put in another tag We'd do this with three people, our "sturgeon hunter" (that's how he's labeled his gloves) would make the measurements and all that stuff, we had one person taking down all the data on the clipboard and I had the important job of watering the fish (you want to keep the stress levels as low as possible, we're trying to save these fish, not kill them) and holding the fish down the fish when it gets clipped for an ageing sample. These are powerful fish, basically all muscle, fast swimmers (remember, they can migrate UPstream!) and if you remember how tall/short I am and how much I weigh (yes, I know officially you don't know that since I'm a lady...) you'll understand why I view sturgeon wrestling as a completely acceptable alternative to rugby.
Keeping in mind, mine vs. the fish' measurements I was kinda surprised when I was told "Okay, Shannon just transfer the sturgeon to the trough while I get the accustic tags". Maybe because I play rugby with his girlfriend :-) Anyway, a common way of lifting them is grabbing the tail with one hand and supporting the head with the other, something about flipping them on their back/upside down makes them very docile. Unfortunately, I lack the arm span to that with the ones that are a bit larger, so I've developed my own method of cradling them to lift them into this V-shaped wooden trough we use to do "surgery" - getting them in there is als a bit difficult because it on top of a table and so the top rim is about at my should heigth.
Anyway, so we disinfect/locally anesthetize a bit the make an incision about 2 finger-breadths wide, pop in the tag and suture it shut. Yes, I'm writing this like it's the most normal thing to do, but I'll admit - I was surprised the first time I saw one of the accustic tags! They're a bit longer than my middle finger and thicker. It's less popping, more wedging and a little bit of swearing to get the d... f... &*!$## thing in.
(okay, here's the funny story).
On about the third fish we were tagging (this was before I had optimized all my lifting out, transporting etc. techniques), which was also one the larger ones, one of the other girls on the cruise was trying to lift the sturgeon out of the trough. Being my usualy helpful friendly self, upon seeing her struggles I asked if she needed a hand, then stoopd on my tip toes in order to get my hands under the sturgeon (which she was holding by the tail and had so far only managed to flip on it's side)... yes, of course the sturgeon chose that moment to snap up.
You should have seen the "oh crap"-faces on the two girls watching , as they're eyes widened when I took/staggered to steps back from the force of the sturgeon-head butt/sucker punch which caught me just above the chin.
Oh, that sturgeon is luck it's endangered - and my firm belief that fish are friends, not food :-)

the current state of SBU collective mind...

Finals are in full swing... matter of fact, I just spent the past two hours copying the exam for the class I'm TAing for. It not only takes longer than you would initially think, it's also more complicated than one would initially think: Two version + a second part that's the same for everyone. Part of it double sided, the other part one sided... and sweet talking the the copier to staple everything.
Which brings me back togetting back.
So, I was wandering down the hallway and just as I passed the laundry room. A girl came out carrying a huge basket of clothes.
Yes, I know you're wondering what this had to do with anything ....
Well, she apparently she decided to clean ALL her clothes. Because all she was wearing was a towel (and a friendly smile).
As I continued down the hallway I had this random picture of her in my mind, diligently studying, dressed in a towel.
At least I like to think she was wearing that towel while she was waiting for her laundry to finish!

Showers...

To those of you reading this who know me from back in the day when I was young and off to sea, "three minute showers" probably brings back memories. For everyone else, a quick explanation.

Ships have tanks for fresh water so in order to keep the amount of water used as small as possible we had the so called "three-minute-shower-rule". Which works pretty much like you think it does: The water was only allowed to run for three minutes during our shower. Hop in the shower, water on, water off, soap up, water on, wash of water off... aaaaaaaaaaaaaand finished. Yes, for those of you who were wondering, this is one of the reasons why when somebody says, "Shannon, you coming? We're leaving in 10 minutes!" And I say, "Yeah, sure. I gotta take a quick shower", I will actually be there in 10 minutes.

Anyway, I noticed that during long voyages when we were running low on water (or if there was no appropriate fresh water available for a while) all of the sudden the showers turned cold. Very cold. And suddenly, everyone found it much easier to take three minute showers. Hop in the shower, water on, shiver and think ?!@x#!?!, water off, soap up, hesitate a moment knowing it's going to be REALLY cold, hold you breath, water on, wash off, water off - go drink a hot cup of tea.

I think my dorm has a similar system, though admittedly it doesn't involve cold water. And yet there is a limit to the length of my showers. The drain appears to be the limiting factor: The longer you shower the more the water level rises, past your toes, ankles,...

We asked about getting it fixed and were told it wasn't an emergency... Ha. I'll show them an emergency!

It makes me laugh everytime

After already having established that Long Islanders are a class to their own when it comes to traffic it came as a bit of a surprise when I came across several backed up cars on campus and discovered why all these people who usually don't even stop at red lights where standing around.
Geese.
Lots of them.
The sort of migrate around campus creating havoc because they never use the crosswalks (Stop at crosswalks IT'S STATELAW) and like to cross streets on a regular basis.
One by one.
With just enough distance in between them that nobody can cross the road. At least not the cars. It's just as funny as it sounds. All these ducks waddling across the street and no honking, no yelling, no squacking - no nothing to make them go faster (or slower).
What joy, what fun!

I almost ran over the Greek alphabet

The other day I needed to print some of my reading material for the week and decided to zip over to the main campus. The moment several Greek letters stepped out onto the path in front of me I probably should have realized that something was going on.
I recieved a definite second clue when I came up to the Student Activities center. The plaza in front of it was fuller than I had ever seen it - and there were even more (different) Greek letters running around. That, and on a small stage three people were standing yelling out various combinations of Greek letters (had I not known better at this point I probably would have assumed they were going through physical equations!) to which from somewhere on the quad several people would start yelling at the top of their voices...
Suddenly, it made sense why Fraternities and Sororities are called the Greek system :-D

Yaaay...

Apparently, Friday was Freshman move-in day. Of course, I didn't know - which is why I was surprised to find a) a LOT of cars lines up and down all the roads around the dorm areas and b) -
well, b) pretty much fullfilled any American stereotype that had remained standing up until that point.
b) there were cheerleaders on the curbs cheering the incoming cars.
Yaaaaaay.
But they had quit by the time I was cycling back on campus. Probably because it had started raining and continued doing so for most of the weekend.
So, how was my weekend? Well, mostly wet.
The sun did come out on Sunday afternoon. Which is why I went out - and went on a bike ride which seemed to cover most of the island, but in reality I just discovered a bunch of roads that end. Somewhere.
Aaaaaaaanyway, on special request from my Dad, here's pictures of my new "wheels".

Pretty cool, huh?

see what I mean?

This one reads - Welcome to Stony Brook and the beginning of an incredible journey.

Things I've learned so far...

1. People used to ask my parents why their children sound like they're from New York. I don't. I really, really don't.
2. When I was about 14 I was told not to worry that people said I dressed - differently. Supposedly I already at that age I dressed like a college kid: shorty, t-shirts, hoodies. So, not to worry, by the time I would make it to college, everyone would have caught up with me. By the time I made it to college, students in Germany still don't dress that way. And while my T-Shirts have become a bit more "cut" and my shorts a bit shorter - it seems as if anything more than halfway down your thighs is still quite long. And maybe I should start wearing flip-flops as well. Then finally I'll fit in.
3. Americans should do what pretty much every other country does: Each type of bill should have a different color. It makes life SO MUCH MORE SIMPLE. Really. Trust me.
4. For all the "let's go green" - there are some fatal flaws in the whole concept. For example: "Ride your bike, it's greener, it's healthier, it will make you fitter" is a good idea. And yet there are some small details which haven't been observed that would make it more easy, e.g. bike racks in front of shops.
More to follow...

You are following some of the brightest minds in the world

Here on campus there are several bus routes with big buses and little buses and some in between buses. The bigger buses have an "inscription": You are follwing some of the brightest minds in the world.
Actually there are signs all over campus with "statistics" reminding us how amazing this university is. How many inventions and patents have sprung from these bright minds, which ranking we are included in etc. I wonder - do these signs stay up all year, or just during the first few weeks of the semester in order to make sure everyone is properly brainwashed.
I few years ago, my previous university was chosen to be a part of this new program in Germany where they were picking "Eliteuniversitäten", which were supposed to be the top universities in Germany which were then endorsed with all kinds of money. And so a new one-liner became popular among the student body: "Konstanz, here studieth the Elite. And me".
What we don't have in Germany is University Sports. At least not the same way as here. The campus is almost empty but there are already signs everywhere. "You are in seawolves country". What does that mean anyway? Apparently, for one, I shall have to start wearing red if I want to fit in (at least on "Red Friday"). I get the whole, if we identify with our team we identify with our university and then we are united and united we stand and ... well I guess it makes everything better.
But really, do we have to turn everything into a "wolfie" this or that thing? The wireless net is "WolfieNet", there's a restaurant named after the Seawolves (apparently it serves extra large pasta portions), the convenvience store is the WolvesMarket or something, there's a hugh "Seawolves quilt" hanging in the middle of one of the lounges (Tradition's Lounge I think...) - I'm sure you get the picture.
Shame I never looked good in red.

I'm here now

So here I am. On my new island (please feel obligated to watch Braveheart if you don't get that reference :-D). I made it safely to campus only to realize that I arrived together with what seems like several thousand Chinese and Indian exchange students.
Seriously, if you walk past the Student Activities Center, which houses a huge dining room with a big window front coming from the West, you might think you were in India. If you approach from the East, you probably would assume you just reached mainland China.
At least I know I am instinctively navigating the Adiminstration in the right sequence because I have happened upon rush hour several times. A lot of them have come with friends, or made friends very quickly because they always travel in packs (that and the fact that they are usually clutching their passport is how you tell them apart from "normal" Asian-Americans) and, for example, when I went to get my student ID there was about 20 Chinese getting theirs. This had an unwanted affect on my ID picture. Thanks to my mother I am in possession of some passport pictures that actually look like me (if you have had the priviledge to view my driver's license or passport lately you will realize that yes, there was a time when Shannon had long hair or even better yet, my train pass which features me not realizing a picture being taken and giving a classic "huh?!" expression).
BUT, because there was so much going on the ID-printer person was sitting there with his eyes glued to the screen giving instructions: "Have you passport ready", waving one hand in the air (you kind of had to time it correctly to hand you ID to him), " have a seat", waving the other hand towards a chair all this time his eyes did not leave his screen "look directly into the camera and smile if you feel like it" (really, he said that, apparently smiling is optional) and "Hold" - then the camera clicked.
UNFORTUNATELY, at this moment there was some prett funny stuff going on outside with the other ID-person (a real life New Yorker in her fifities) trying to handle all these foreign student who could only understand half of what she was saying (to their credit, I'm sure their English teacher didn't have a New York accent - to her credit, some of those Chinese names are difficult to pronounce, i.e. you never really know if you pronounce them the way they're spelled) resulting in general confusion which I found quite amusing. That added to the "smile if you feel like it" comment resulted in another picture to be put in the category "Shannon's odd ID pictures" featuring a half-amused, half "I'm not sure if I feel like smiling" with sort of raised eybrows and not sitting quite straight expression. Plus, I wasn't sitting all the way straight and the camera was zoomed out quite a bit so it almost looks like I was sliding off the chair while the picture was being taken.
So much for planning ahead.
This also reminds me of the story of how we took a "Mystery Drive to China" when I was a kid... a popular story, which shall possibly be recounted at another time.