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| I know it's been awhile.... but I have lots of news and updates about my life. We will go in chronological order:
1) SPRING BREAK
I went diving for the whole of spring break with my class. We had lots of problems, especially at the beginning. The weather was horrible, windy, rainy, cold... and there were equipment problems (mainly mine!) as well as personal problems  . I ended up sitting out for the second and third dives because my BC was having a lot of problems. We got to do some pretty cool stuff though. Yay for SCIENTIFIC diving! I learned how to do transects, collect sediment samples, do fish counts, take data... It's suprising how much harder doing things underwater is! There are a ton of things you have to think about simultaneously (the first being your own safety). We got the day off for my 21st birthday back in Berkeley and I got to spend it with Heather and Eric just hanging around and resting up for the next few dives. No alcohol for me though.... alcohol + diving = baaaad.
The last few dives were muuuch better. We did our rescue dives at Del Monte, which were pretty strenuous and ffffreezing! We also did a night dive, and Sameen and I got to see bioluminescent microorganisms and also made up a nice hand signal for "making babies" when we disturbed two crabs mating. They weren't happy...
The very last dive was beyond awesome. I can't even describe how awesome it was. We got to dive INSIDE the Monterey Bay Aquarium!!!   We were all in shock. We got to go in the kelp forest tank and in the monterey habitats tank. I got to wave at all of the people visiting the aquarium from inside the tank! I also took a bunch of photos too. I have to say it was pretty fancy diving at the aquarium because we didn't have to change in the parking lot, dry off really fast while the rain was pouring, try to get all the sand off before putting our wet gear into the car, or even have to walk with all of our tanks across the beach! We got to get dressed in a beautiful clean, warm locker room, load all of our gear onto carts, then shower off in a hot shower before getting into a HOT TUB and sipping our sodas!!! hehehe
What it's like to be a fish in a tank:
Here's me, smiling as much as possible with all that gear on:
A wolf eel:
Rock fish hiding in a crack:
Rock fish closeup:
Sturgeon:
Leopard shark:
mmMMMmm salmon!
Anenome:
So yeah.. diving ROCKED! (I mean... KELPED!)
2) APARTMENT
I'm mooooving... like 2 blocks. Huan and I will sadly no longer live together . Instead, Heather and I found the most awesome apartment in all of Berkeley. It's beeeaaaautiful! It's in a bright pink building on Channing (I know there are a few of them..). I had seen an apartment on the bottom floor of the building and really liked it, eventhough it was kinda small. But when Heather and I went to sign the lease, turns out these other girls had already put money on that one! There was some confusing and the other girls got that one. So... I asked if there wasn't another apartment, and the lady says "as a matter of fact.." Turns out she spruced up an apartment upstairs for her granddaughter, but then her granddaughter decided to live in SF. So the apartment is available and it's awesome! Everybody come visit ok? we'll have fancy schmancy dinner parties and stuff.
3) MOOREA
I got into the Moorea course! So while all of your are here in Berkeley studying away in the fall, I'll be off on a tropical island in French Polynesia scuba diving and doing my own research project! hehehehe I am sooooooo excited! Only downside is that it means I'll have to be away from Eric for 9 weeks... sigh. He'll get lots of postcards 
4) SURF
After being turned down from uh... 5 or 6 internships, I just heard that I got one! I got the summer undergraduate research fellowship (SURF) at berkeley, which means I get to stay here this summer and figure out how to raise baby blue ring octopuses in the lab, which has not been done successfully before. Yay!
Alrighty then.... think that's about it for updates. When I move into my new apartment I'll get internet so I can update more often! Meanwhile you guys have to read really long messages in short bursts. | | |
| DIVING!
Ok! Now I'm hanging out in the library.. because it's too stormy to walk home. I might melt. I went diving this weekend with Stephanie, Becky, Derek, Maya, and Jim (grad students from Roy and Sheila's labs, Steph's fiance, and my dive professor) in Monterey. It was sooo great! We had good visibility and did 2 dives at the breakwater on saturday and one at lover's point on sunday. I got to see 2 harbor seals under the water! Maya and Jim went back to Berkeley saturday after our second dive, so I stayed with Stephanie, Derek, and Becky and Becky and I did a nice almost hour-long dive on saturday. We got out just as it started raining right before this huge storm rolled in.
Here are some photos!
A bat star trying to eat a sea anenome.
Tons of Metridium (sp?) sea anenomes.
A giant sunflower star. Apparently these guys can get to be 1 meter in diameter!
A beautiful shiny gold and purple snail. This is a bad picture though 
Sea Pen
These pictures are from my third dive, after I figured out I could turn on my flash and get better pictures.. go figure!
Another sunflower star.
An unidentified invertebrate.... any ideas?
yes.. sometimes vertebrates are cool too..  but only because they look exactly like KELP!
Mmm sea cucumber!
What a pretty little chiton!
Decorator crab defending himself from my camera
A bat star and a hermit crab (look closely....)
Vertebrate number 2.
poo! it wont let me put any more up!! | | |
| HEYA
Hello everybody who still might happen to look at my xanga every once in awhile. Yeah.. sorry about not updating ever or being online ever. My internet in my apartment is still screwed up so I have to bug Huan to use his computer all the time.
Hmmm let's seeee what's new.... Since last time I updated, I had a wonderful time in Washington DC with my family. I met up with my mom, dad, brother, and grandpa and we spent 5 days there seeing all the sights. And I really mean ALLLLL the sights! One day when I'm on my own computer on the internet I'll post pictures. I have lots of nice pictures from monuments and important buildings and memorials... the works. For now though, just use your imagination. The best place we went was the library of congress. It was gorgeous! Every inch of the building is painted or carved and every painting or carving is symbolic and significant. Sorta bothered me that none of the names on the ceiling of famous philosophers/writers/artists/musicians/poets were women... but what can you expect from an old building. At least the paintings were all of women right?
The best thing that we did in DC was meet with senator Bayh for lunch. He was my dad's college roommate before he became senator and so he invited us to lunch in the senate dining hall (with a big sign outside saying "senators only".. I felt so special). So we're eating and at the table to my left is Barbara Boxer and behind me is Hilary Clinton. Not to mention all the other senators in the room.. my mom knows all their names but I dont really. Call me unpatriotic. Vote Bayh for president by the way...
So after that trip, Eric and I went skiing in Utah with his dad, cousin, and sister. It was so great! I had such a great time, especially the last 2 days when there were no people on the slopes, a fresh layer of snow, and I was actually getting good enough to go on double blues and blacks and lots of moguls! It was awesome.
Uh.. so since then it's been mostly school. I'm having a good semester. I really love my invertebrates class. We go on field trips  . And my GSI is Stephanie, who is super cool. She was my GSI for animal behavior and she's a grad student in my lab. Biomechanics is eh.. I know a lot of people in the class so that's nice. And the material is actually really useful. But it's boring and it's a lot of math. Scientific diving rocks.. need I explain why. And Ive been doing stuff in the lab too. The wunderpus died (tumors!!) but I have a digueti now. She hates me. I disturb her too much and then she inks at me. Oh.. and no more daily cal! A few photos every now and then, but no more long hours and stress and stuff anymore! I have evenings! I have sundays! it's great.
No roommate anymore . Just me and Huan. It means I get a really big room all to myself, but I miss those slumber-party-like nights talking and/or singing with Blaire or Heather or Cally or Ash. My fish don't sing.
That's my life. Call me. We'll hang out. | | |
| MERRY CHRISTMAS!
from washington D.C.
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| For Blaire, who wants more updates because it's not like she's my roommate and gets to see me all the time and ask what's up:
Today I solved world hunger, flew to the moon for lunch with a killer whale, came back and cleaned the apartment. Oh and I got you a bobble-head.
That is all. | | |
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