Day 4!

Hi! Today was awesome. But first I'll tell you about last night!

I stayed up until about 11 pm typing up my notes--all done! Yay! So, now I'm continuing to catch up on reading and stuff. That's what I did this morning. I guess last night wasn't as interesting as I thought it'd be. Hmm...anyway, moving on.

So, this morning I woke up around 7:50 am. Everybody else was already up. Super early risers! Like, we're talking before sunrise. Super cool. But yea! Then I showered, ate my Honey Nut Cheerios and then read all morning. We had the afternoon shift in the field today, so at 12:30 we went down to Laura's room where we then left for the field!

Note: my new camera has broken :( Each time it's turned on, the shutter has to open and close. Well, the shutter won't close so it doesn't feel like it can reset itself and I can't take a picture. Booo :( So, I called mom and dad and they're going to mail me my old camera, which is still a super nice camera. But, not waterproof. Blessing: dad has a waterproof camera, so when he and mom come at the end of the month I can use his for a little bit (maybe, hehe!). OH! And, I figured out how to mail stuff. There's a mail drop by the office. And any mail that comes to me will be given to Dr. Marsha Green. I warned her tonight that my parents love to send mail...and sure enough, she handed me a couple of letters. Thanks, Emily and Mom, Dad, and Cooper :)!!!!

Anyway, so we were out in the field and we got FANTASTIC data! We got a really great before/during/after boat period to plot! Here's a picture after we were done collecting data!

This is me! With the theodolite, which is just a really high powered telescope.

We got back to the condo and I ate a peanut butter (creamy) and jelly (strawberry jam) sandwich with a couple of fresh strawberries and tomatoes and big glass of water (I haven't eaten the passionfruit yet...partly because I can't figure out how. If anybody has advice, please share!!). It was a delicious meal. And then I worked on the data calculations! Between the mapping and the mathy-calculation part: I really, really enjoy the calculation part. It's so interesting to see the extreme differences in "down times" before/during/after boat periods. There was a boat today that was literally on top of a whale--we were so angry. The whale ended up doing vertical avoidance for more than 14 minutes before surfacing nearby. Stupid boat.

Oh my gosh, amazing factoid: for those who watch Whale Wars...my team leader, Laura Laut Van Asyma, is a Sea Shepherd! (I'll let that one sink in for a second). She was supposed to be on the boat right now as the "voice of the Netherlands" but she chose to do this instead and is going to be there next year! Seriously cool!!!!! She's so great.

So, tomorrow we've got morning field work (9 am-noon) and then we're going to work on our group presentation that we're giving tomorrow at 7 pm for class! Also, the speaker last night at the Sanctuary (David Mattila) was super interesting (he works globally with disentangling whales and the genetics of whale distribution (using the mtDNA: they figure out the approximate size of the historical populations based on the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA samples!)...so, he's going to be hanging out at the Sanctuary so I'm going to go over and talk to him about whale genetics :)

I just ate some crackers and colby jack cheese. Yummers! And, some girls are making a food run because the next food run isn't until next Friday! I've got them picking me up a few more things, just to last me (milk, OJ, bread, etc.).

Miss you guys! Hawaii is really pretty.

PS: it's really tough to get a photo of a breaching whale...especially since my (temporary) main camera is my cell phone. Also, during field work, it is scowled upon to use any form of technology other than binoculars and the theodolite. And sunscreen.

PSS: on my day off, I think another girl and I are trying to figure out if we can go ziplining! Or, there's a great snorkel place down the way! We might go snorkeling!

PSSS: Haley'Bug, the shower pressure is in fact awesome and a very important part of one's trip anywhere! If the shower pressure's bad, one feels dirty, which then impacts the pleasure of the trip. Unless you like being dirty, which is not that far-fetched a notion given that humans constantly feel the urge to go back to our primal roots of living in the woods and being all primitive!

Day 3!

Hi!!

As you can see above (look at the "hello" section immediately above this), I've started a facebook album that has more photos! So, click that link (or here) to view the album! You don't need a facebook profile to see it; it's the "public" album link. Yay!

Anyway! Last night we made our food run: I spent $100 and pretty much got most of my food for the entire trip...soup, frozen dinners, canned veggies, frozen fruit, granola bars, cereal, bread, etc. Hawaiian Bread is only $2 here! Is that cheaper than home? So, as far as food goes, then, all I'm gonna need to keep up on is cheese, yogurt, milk, OJ, and fresh fruit from the farmer's market down the way!

This is the cliff we stand on! We stand where the plateau is, not on the precipitous edge.

Today was great. Woke up around 6:45 am, showered (was done by 7:07 am...w00t!), ate Honey Nut Cheerios with 2% milk and a glass of Simply Orange Orange Juice. I then did some of the readings for tonight. At 8:15 am my team walked down to Laura's room (team leader from the Netherlands!) and we drove out to the cliff where we then studied whale movement 9 am-noon. The whales weren't too active today and they were pretty far from shore. On Tuesday we saw a lot of mom-calf action, and today the most action was (we think) a mom whale tail slapping at least 30 times after another couple of whales breached nearby. Hypothesis: the mom whale was threatened by the breaching whales and was tail slapping to warn the breaching whales away from the calf.

Note: breaching whales are the most magical sight ever. You think they're great on television...see one in person and it's life changing.

Anyway, so we did research and then stopped at the farmer's market! I spent $14 and got a passionfruit (never tried it...), a solo papaya, strawberries, apple-bananas, a kiwi, cherry tomatoes, and a red pepper! And then we went back to the condo for lunch and I had a salad with an apple-banana and cherry tomatoes, a cheese/bread sandwich, and a glass of the most delicious 2% milk ever. Then Laura came over and we learned how to plot our data on a map! Lots of math and logic and figuring our of before/during/after "boat time" with the whale action. The final result of our data each pod is the statistic of "X whale behavior/minute/animal", X being a number--the numbers we got today were 0.30 and 1.50. Super cool! I really like it.

Now I'm gonna heat up something to eat (I love microwaves...God's gift to man, except for the whole cancer causing aspect if you put your face too close to them, or something...is that right?) and then at 5:30 we're heading over to the lecture (which doesn't start until 7 pm, but we've got such a big group they told us to get there early so we can get seats) and then we've got class whenever that's done until 9(ish) pm! Then I'm gonna stay up and read ahead so that (eventually) I can type up my notes into my computer and a) incorporate them into my blog and b) use them as a study tool/study guide.

Phew! Time to eat. Love! And I miss everybody! I love what I'm doing, but I keep thinking about how great it would be if everybody were here to share it with me :)

Can't wait to see you when I get back!!

Day 2!

Hey there, people! Today was a pretty lazy day. I woke up around 7, went to class around 10, ate lunch at noon, and then read all afternoon on the lanai! It was really peaceful. And now we've got class tonight 7-9 pm and then grocery shopping (finally!).

Sunset!

Tomorrow we've got morning field work and then the afternoon to read and class/lectures at night. On Friday we'll have afternoon field work--it shifts each day. Our midterm is next Tuesday and our "off day" is on January 15, when we will go on the Road to Hana! (I think...I'm not sure! Or snorkeling!). But yea!

Anyway! Here's a picture of what I'm looking at right now. It's really pretty, to say the least!

Day 1!

The view from condo 623 (aka: our team's condo!) :)

Last night around 11 pm, this is what I wrote: "I'm going to write more tomorrow because I'm doing this from my phone and the internet doesn't work on my bed and I'm too lazy to leave it (haha)...but! Today was awesome!! I saw whales! And collected data! And...well, I'll tell you more detail tomorrow because we have got freetime from noon to 7 pm :)"

This morning, around 8:12 am,  I realized that nothing posted!

When I took a walk down by the beach, this is what I saw!

I'll start with what I did yesterday. Woke up at around 4 am Maui time, which equates to 8 am CST. I was still trying to adjust to the time change. Tried to go to sleep, but ended up just showering at 7 am. I woke up to the sound of waves crashing against the shore, palm trees waving in the wind...bliss. The condo is super nice--the bathrooms are really spacious and there's pretty nice water pressure! And then I ate breakfast and went for a walk on the beach and called mom and dad! Then we had a meet-and-greet with Dr. Green and the team leaders! There are a bunch of students from Albright and about 10 interns--all girls, only 2 guys (burly football players that hit on everything that moves). Dr. Green gave us an overview of the program, history of her work: did you know that she's the one who got the government to protect humpback whales in Hawaii?! She did the research, was a plaintiff in the lawsuit, and was the leader, backed by several animal rights organizations! She's brilliant. Anyway, we were in class until around noon and then we broke for lunch and then my team went into the field for 4.5 hours! We drove up the coast on the highway to Lahaina and parked at some cliff where we set up foldable chairs and the theodolite! The theodolite is basically a really high powered telescope that surveyors use to mark longitude, latitude, figure out distance using trigonometry, etc. Anyway, there are 5 people in my team: 1 person operates the theodolite, 1 is the information recorder of whale pod behavior and the theodolite readings and time everything occurs (I'm using military time! Be proud of me!), and the other 3 are looking and calling out whale behaviors while looking through the binoculars! It's super awesome. We saw a whale breach (aka: jump out of the water) yesterday!! And then a momma and a calf were chilling right in front of the cliff and the calf was trying to slap its pectoral fin on the water, but the calf was so newly born that it was all floppy and SO CUTE! Anyway, in addition to monitoring the whale positions, we're also monitoring any boat activity and documenting how the whales react to the sounds and presence of the boats. They always go away from the boats. So, with the data points we're collecting, we're going to plot the pod movement on a map (learning how to do that tonight, actually) and (using trigonometry) we're going to figure out the distance from the shorelines the whales were!

The view from dinner at Monsoon India!

After we got done with that, we came back to the condo and the 5 of us went down to dinner at Monsoon India, the Indian restaurant that's kind of like Chapatis, but more expensive. I got mildly spicy tomato soup, a house salad, and cheese naan. So, basically grilled cheese and tomato soup, haha! Whatever. It was delicious! And then after that we went up to the roof to check it out and it's AWESOME! And then we went to class from 7-10 pm! We watched a movie about whales in Hawaii and then we talked about a few of the articles we read. Super interesting!!

Food situation: well, the night I arrived we stopped at the grocery store and I picked up a couple of frozen tortellini dishes, frozen strawberries, oatmeal, milk, orange juice, and carrots ($50 later...wowza! A box of cereal (generic brand) is $8.58!)...but then they told us that they wouldn't be able to take us shopping until tonight, after class! So, we've been eating oatmeal a lot and I'm going to have my second tortellini dish for dinner before class tonight. So, it'll be nice to get some more food!

Today's plan: well, I woke up around 7 am, showered, ate breakfast, and am now typing on my blog! We've got class/lecture at 10-noon, and then free time noon-7 pm! The other 3 teams are going to be doing their field training/what we did yesterday. I'll basically spend the afternoon reading articles and getting ahead on readings! I might even write some postcards off of the jetty by the beach! :)

Anyway, that's all for now! Here are some pictures, too! I'll post more later or tomorrow <3

PS: ALSO!!! We found a gecko in our condo last night! Geckos are cool because they can stick to like, ANYTHING using Van der waals forces (chemistry) and an adhesion-release system in their grippers! YAY for science!!

Flying to Maui!

a picture of the sunset...smiley face. the condo is 90s (hehe!), my roomies are awesome, and I can hear the waves crashing against the shoreline...like...right outside my window. Bliss :) Food run, chillaxing, bedtime, and then waking up tomorrow bright and early to be all scholarly and stuff. <3

I'm @ O'Hare International!

hi, world! so, im sitting the airport...I've already chugged two waters and my flight leaves at 1110 am! I'm gonna sit and read the Quark and the Jaguar, which is an awesome book that unites the simplicities and complexities of quantum physics and biology. I love science. Also, here's a picture of me in the airport. I took it with my phone and am (actually) doing all of this blog update from my phone! Isn't technology great??

Aloha!!

5 more days! AAAAAAAAAAH! So excited.

I leave on January 3rd at 7 am and then arrive in Kihei around 6 pm! I'm so excited! I'm going to be at the Ocean Mammal Institute in Hawaii studying whale policies, ecopsychology, and like...everything about whales! Here's the website: http://www.oceanmammalinst.org/index.html. I'll be staying in a condo with 4 other girls! Bonus: rumor has it there is a laundry facility IN the condo! (Which means I won't have to walk a mile to do my laundry like I did last J-term!) We'll also be doing our own cooking...so, expect lots of food updates! And snorkeling! And photos filled with sunshine and the Pacific Ocean!

Mom and dad, thanks for this opportunity <3