My Final Word... YOLO

So here goes my last blog at the Sea Lab.  I know, I know.  So incredibly sad!  Try to hold back your tears. I know you'll all miss the blog terribly, but there's always Facebook and Insta stalking available. Oh, the joys of technology! So here lie my final words... about DISL, that is.

My time at DISL is over for the summer, and I'm leaving a changed person.  I may be leaving DISL, but DISL is not leaving me.  Not only am I leaving here with my super cool ray teeth, red drum vertebrae, catfish spine, and all the shells you can image, but I'm also leaving with wonderful memories, new friendships, a yearning for adventure, and a stronger passion for science.

A few months ago, I was intimidated by scientific research projects, but now I look at them with excitement and fever.  They're a exciting new discovery waiting to be found... by me!  And I can not wait to plan my Capstone Project for the Honors Program.  I'm not worried about picking a topic anymore, I just have to be able to settle on only one idea.

I now consider myself to be an adventure junkie.  Okay, so maybe not quite a junkie.  But adventure sounds like lots of fun.  I like it just enough to participate in questionable activity without thinking about it first. For example: You want to dissect a stingray? Give me your best hunting knife.  Swim with sharks?  Nothing new for me.  You want to explore a marsh? Call me crazy, but I'll be there.  What can I say?  Spontaneity is addicting, and that was my only form of entertainment on this island for two months.  So now I'm all like...YOLO!  (For those of you who don't understand the concept of YOLO, please utilize the gift that is UrbanDictionary.com.)

As for all the super cool people that I've met here- I'm definitely going to see them again. First of all, Anna and Angela go to UNA with me, and we're starting a new Marine Club at UNA, so we will still see each other frequently.  And for everyone else, if nothing else, a few will be back with me next summer.  But before then, we have an Auburn trip that we're trying to plan with everyone, which will be awesome.  And then (what I'm most excited about) we're going to have all of the Marine Bio clubs from each school plan a trip to go swim with manatees in Crystal River together.  Manatees (my favorite animal) and swimming with them and a reunion with a bunch of cool people all at the same time?!  Yes, please!!  But then again, what kind of YOLOer would I be if I said no??  Pretty pumped about that coming in my future!

So there you go.  Short, sweet, and to the point.  It's been real.  It's been fun.  But now I'm off to get back to my busy life.  I start giving campus tours at UNA on Monday, then back home for next weekend, then back at UNA for ResLife training, then LaGrange Society Retreat, then the school year begins.  So, obviously, still have a bunch of stuff to do; let's get to it!  Oh, and don't worry... I'll try to save some spare time for YOLO in my life. ;)

PS: Team Worm won best video.  What did I tell you?  Worm-Lovin-Marine-Biologist right here. Go Vermiforms!!  So maybe I still don't love worms, but you could say that I've gained a little respect for them... only the marine kind though.  Look at those winners!!

If you'd like to see our super cool video: 
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201462909392448

Nothing like a shark nudge to get you motivated!

So this week was pretty exciting, guys.  Definitely several blog-worthy occurrences, and you know it's a good week when that happens... fewer roach stories and more sharks involved. Whoops! Spoiler Alert!

But first: Our dissection this week was arthropods (i.e. crabs, lobsters, etc), and the super cool part was the Blue Crab dissection.  My group caught a huge blue crab in our trawl last week, so we got to dissect our own catch, which was awesome!  Our speciman was at least 2x the blue crabs our classmates were using, so we got to see everything really well.  And it was a live dissection so that we could see the functions of the organs.  Wesley discovered that the crab can shoot what looks like water (and definitely isn't) about two feet away.  To say this in a nice way... he got marked as territory before the dissection started. But hey, it's all for science!

Group Project Update:  Team Worm is still going strong, and our video is even stronger.  After filming for a day and editing for two days, it is complete.  And it's the best video on worms ever.  Seriously, Team Worm is also Team Awesome and Team Winning because our awesome video will be winning at the competition next week.  When the class is over, I will post the video for all of you.  I know you're all on the edge of your seats, dying to see it!  You only have a week longer to wait!

Beach Update:  So I haven't been to the beach for a while with all this studying and junk.  That has changed this week.  I spend half of Tuesday and all of Wednesday on the beach.  I love beach days!  They are absolutely glorious!  Including the beautiful red skin that I've acquired. But Wednesday was especially exciting...  [Enter sharks]

Anna, Hannah, Angela, and I went to the beach in the morning.  Sun shining, waves glistening.  It was perfect. We grabbed the best spot on the beach and proceeded to enjoy our relaxing tanning time. A couple fishermen also joined us.  One on either side of our perfect spot.  And then a kayak went out in the water fishing.  And then a shrimp boat went by, obviously fishing.  So our perfect spot was surrounded by all of the fishermen that exist on this tiny island.  But no worries, there's plenty of ocean for us.  We can swim and still be a safe distance from their hooks.  So when it was about time to get in the water (because it gets so flippin hot!), we go swim out to the sandbar.  Felt a few fish swim around us... a couple more...or were they the same...or were they fish...pretty sure that was not scaley...pretty sure that was fleshy...and it had a large dorsal fin... oh, look lots of bubbles...the swimming thing is eating...eating a lot... So we're smart future marine biologists and can put all of this together.  We're swimming with sharks.  Cool.  I mean, it really was cool.  But there's this whole thing about being eaten by them that made us want to leave.  We were definitely in their space, near their food (thank you, fishermen), and they were obviously hungry.  So we calmly swam away, looked from the shore, and saw that there were at least three 4-ft-long lemon sharks where we were just swimming.  Word to the wise (or just those who don't like swimming with sharks), don't swim in the middle of a bunch of fishermen.  That was my second encounter with sharks in the wild- Nice!
And then we see 6 dolphins following the shrimp boat- Yes, we see that pretty frequently, but it is still really cool every time.  Then a remora came to us up by the shore.  These guys are really cool!  They have suction-cup-like-things on their heads.  Seriously, if you don't know what I'm talking about, go Google it.  I was very impressed that we saw one so close to shore- a sure sign that sharks are around too, but we already discovered that one.
Then you know the drill: tanning, the sun is too hot, water.  And when we went in the water this time, we walked a ways down the beach so that we would be away from the fishermen and the sharks won't be near us.  Look at us smart kids, using our brains!  It's too bad that sharks are dumb and don't follow our thought process.  As soon as we swim out, I kick something...  It feels large and fleshy... "Guys, I just kicked a shark"... And Angela thinks I was just messing with her until... Buuuudumm buudumm budum badum badum. "Ahhhhhhh!!!"  The shark swims right under her, very close.  Close enough that the dorsal fin lifted her in the water ever so slightly. And that, my friends, is closer than anyone's comfort bubble allows.  She just got a piggy back from a lemon shark. Ummm, no thank you.  We all go swim for the hills, or the beach rather. Who knew we could swim so quickly?  And with rip tides... very impressive, if I do say so myself.  Nothing like a shark nudge to get you motivated!  When we got to the shore, we saw those lovely shark dorsal fins to prove that we weren't going crazy. And then dolphins come, right on que, to make us happy again and want to stay in the water.  But we weren't about to swim out again.  Being near hungry sharks twice in one day is enough for me!

Coming Soon:  My class is on the big trip to Port Saint Joe and St. Andrews on Thursday and Friday, but I cannot go because I will be at my dear friend's wedding.  Congratulations Katelyn and Todd!!  It's unfortunate that I'm missing the class trip, but my roommate, Anna, may or may not be writing a blog about the trip just so the world (aka the cool people that read my blog) can know how awesome it was.  I say "may or may not" because she really might or might not.  She was interested, but non-committal, so we shall see.  I, on the other hand, will be a dancing/ partying bridesmaid this weekend.  I'm sure something blog-worthy will happen there too, so get excited for another exciting weekend in Hailey's life recorded in the best blog ever (aka The Daily Hailey).

Turn Left

So it's been a while... And I'm sure you've all missed my oh-so-wise words this week, but I just haven't had too many crazy things going on recently.  I had my Midterm Exam on Friday, so I have been studying during all of my free time this week. Literally, all of my free time.  I even skipped a day at the beach to study... Hardest. Decision. Of. My. Life.  Oh, and the 4th of July... No fireworks for me.  I locked myself in my room memorizing all things invertebrates.  Why study like a crazy person, you ask?  Well, short answer: I'm Hailey Boeck.  More of an answer... On top of lecture notes and my lab drawings, I had a bajillion scientific names to memorize- Phylum Class Genus, and Species for each- all spelled correctly.  So, yeah, that took a bit of time. Though, the week wasn't a total bust. We did do a couple cool things in class!

Our dissection labs of the week were Worms and Mollusks.  So we got to cut open worms and identify parts.  Yes, I touched the dead worm in all it's 7 inch long wormy-ness.  Yes, I was very proud of myself.   And, no, I did not scrub all of the flesh off my hands when I was done.  I'd call that progress.  Progress towards my goal of hating worms less. 

We also went trawling on Independence Day! Trawling is dragging a net behind a boat and collecting species.  Being on a boat all day was really nice! ... After the first hour of hurl-fest, that is. I'm very happy that I don't get sea sick, but we were having some rough waves in the morning, and the boat was super rocky.  About half of the people on the boat were sick, including our professor.  But the collecting specimen part of the trip: very cool and less-sickly, which is always nice.  We collected shrimp, clams, muscles, squid, and a giant blue crab.  And we saw a HUGE leatherback turtle right next to our boat, which was awesome.

Since Exam day, it's been near non-stop raining here.  So because I can't have beach time, I decided to join the Doctor Who bandwagon.  And that has pretty much been my weekend.  But then yesterday, we wanted a break from Netflix and there was a short pause in the rain, so Anna, Hannah, and Angela and I decided to drive for a minute.  And then we decided it'd be a great time to visit the Indian Shell Mound on the island because we hadn't gone yet.

We made a bad decision.  We left the car, took the path, and not even 10 minutes later we got back to the car screaming. I know what you're thinking: Oh my goodness, what happened?! Well, let me tell you... man-eating creatures attacking us. Remember when I said that I hated bugs?  I still do.  And guess what, they still don't get it.  Bugs still love me. They think we're something that we're not  (You get cool points if you know what song I just referenced).  Anyways, these man-eating creatures are more commonly known as mosquitoes.  And I've decided that this shell mound (aka soggy, wet forest) is a breeding ground for them.  I have never had so many mosquito bites in such a short period of time.  And they bit me everywhere!  But most obviously, right in the middle of my forehead and another on the side of my forehead.  And they're huge.  And I'm going to be in a wedding on Friday.  So, obviously, I am trying every mosquito bite remedy in the book. Because if we're being honest, who wants to look at a two horned unicorn at a wedding? Oh, that's right... No one.  So why didn't we just leave? Why did we stay for the 10 torturous minutes that we did?  Well, we wanted to leave as soon as we entered, but this mound has about a million paths and we got lost.  We couldn't stop for directions because even if there were people to help, which there weren't, we were running through the forest to try to outrun the mosquitoes- which was in vain, by the way.  And there are no maps or signs or anything. But we decided to turn Right at all the forks and eventually we would get out, right?  We made a(nother) bad decision.  We always chose the right path to get to the wrong place.  Just like in Dr. Who, turn Left--You'll come out alive with fewer mosquito bites.  Just fyi, you'll thank me later.  But after running into every dead end, I finally turned left, saw the car and sprinted to it.  Running, screaming, and swatting my arms every which way to get rid of the mosquitoes.  I'm not sure if I was trying to scare them off, but I'm sure if a person saw me, they'd be terrified.  Really, my flailing was ridiculously out of control.  I'm sure this would have been very entertaining for all of you to watch, but unfortunately for you, I haven't gotten my own reality TV show yet. So the blog rendition of my life will have to do for now.

The Beast has Awakened

Quick life update followed by a tangent... Enjoy!

So I'm in Marine Invertebrate now, as you all know.  Very interesting class, but it is starting to be one difficult class.  This is a class that would normally be a whole semester (4 months), but it's squished to be a summer class (5 weeks).  But here at DISL, they recently shortened that 5 weeks to 4 weeks, which is what I'm taking now: a 4 month class squished into 4 weeks.  It's so information-y I'm gonna die!! So this Friday, I have a Midterm. Not excited.  But all the labs and field collections are still super fun!  This past Friday, Team Worm collected a bajillion species and we just finished keying them tonight, so that's exciting!  We got our species from Airport Marsh and the tidepool near the Public Beach.  We've also done lab dissections on coral, jellies, and worms.  But today we had a FOUR. HOUR. LECTURE. Straight through.  Because we had too much information, so we had to stay after class. For a whole extra hour.  I almost died. Four hours of sitting still in a dark room... Can't handle it, guys.  But when we were finally set free, we needed to reward ourselves for the torture we went through.  Especially because we have a midterm on Friday, so it's study week and too much lecture time.  We were going to get our normal milkshakes from the gas station, but then Coffee Beast was open.  [Commence Tangent.]

Listen, guys.  This is a big. freakin. deal.  BIG.  Coffee Beast and I go wayyyy back...  All the way back to my first week here.  Coffee Beast is a new coffee shop on the island aka increase of civilization on this island. You all know how I feel about civilization- it's glorious!  But when there's a lack of civilization, it's a rather depressing experience for me.  Well, this Coffee Beast place was supposed to have its Grand Opening on June 4th, my second Tuesday on the island.  Pretty cool.  I'll get to try this delicious coffee/ donut place.  On Monday, we drove by, noted the "Open on June 4th" sign, and planned our adventure there the next day.  Tuesday comes and the place isn't open.  But not only that, they changed their sign to "Open on June 11th."  So, it's a disappointment, but you know how construction is... Always takes longer than expected. So we just plan to return the next week.
The 11th comes around, anddddd they're closed.  Really?  Again?  And they didn't change the sign until the day-of. It's a good thing that there's nothing better to do on this secluded island then wait around for this coffee shop to open.  If there was, I'd be about as bitter as the coffee they haven't served yet.  So the sign now says "Open on June 18th."
Go on 18th, closed, sign says "Open June 24th."  Is this a trick?  Is this place ever opening?  Or are they just doing this to see how many people they can see drive through the parking lot with disappointment?  Because it was at least 4 people that were heartbroken on June 18th.  Add that to your count, Mr. Never-going-to-open.  But we're going on the 24th and they WILL BE OPEN. We're determined that they will be done.  So there.
Along comes June 24th, the day of truth. Are they open??  NO.  AND the sign says... "Open on July 24th." JULYYYYYY!!  What the what?!  That's not okay, guys.  I have been wasting my time every week to go to your supposedly "Grand Opening" and I won't even be there when it actually happens!  ... if it ever does.  But I'm bitter now. As bitter as the coffee they will never serve! And we decide we will NEVER EVER EVER go there.  Not even next summer when we come, whether they're open or not.  They won't get our business. We refuse!  They have disappointed us one time too many!!
Well, they opened today.  July 1st.  The FIRST!! What?!  So what do we do?  Stay strong with our "never going there ever" attitude??  No.  We freak out with excitement , turn the car around at the next possible U turn and swerve into the parking lot.  And we're all like... "YAYYYYYY COFFEEEEEEE AND DONUTS!!!!!"  We forgive and forget like nobody's business.  And then we raved about our delicious snacks, the awesome atmosphere of the new shop, and left saying that WE LOVEEEE IT!! And I'm okay with it.  We just witnessed a miracle. The Beast has awakened.  It's open.  Finally.  And we're way too over enthusiastic about everything in life, so why should this Grand Opening be any different?

And now that we have our sugar/caffeine highs, we're going through a 24 page Study Guide together.  You'd think it'd be silent note card-writing, fierce page-flipping, and maybe a couple soft tears of anxiety.  You'd never expect to hear so much laughing and outbursts and excitement over studying the differences of locomotion/ anatomy/ function/ characteristics/ etc among all Invert Phylums.  But we make our studying way too fun.  I mean, pedal pads relate to Spongebob and are a hilarious subject to discuss, just FYI.  Oh, and you can make a sound effect or re-write a song for absolutely anything.  Just try us- we got this.  Marine Bio Nerd Probs.  Anyways, off to study some more- song, dance, and all!

Grabbing Life by the Spiracles

Just to start off, I want to say that fun finds us.  We don't even have to look for it, and it's awesome.  If you don't sit around doing nothing, you'll be amazed with all of the fun experiences that appear before your very eyes.  So here's tonight's account of fun...

Anna, Angela, Hannah, and I decide to take a nice stroll on the boardwalk after dinner on Thursday night. We saw crabs everywhere and a dead floating red snapper in the water.  That is some cool stuff to us marine biology nerds.  And then we saw a bunch of fishermen on the pier, which means super cool fish to try an identify.  (Again, we're marine bio nerds on a secluded island.  This is our idea of a fun way to spend our free time.) And then there was a man who caught a Cow Nose Ray.  Super cool.  But he didn't want to eat it, so he was going to throw it back. This is a brilliantly sustainable thought, and I approve.  However, this fisherman then did something awful.  He took a giant hook and stabbed the ray, right in the middle of the thing.  This is not how you throw fish back in the ocean. I have seen this far too many times, and it's time to give a lecture to everyone on this planet.  Please allow me to enlighten you...

If you stab something with a giant hook, it will bleed out and die.  I know this sounds crazy, but it can and will happen to even the best of us.  The ray is no threat to people. Its barb is easy to avoid, and its spiracles are even easier to grab.  So there is no need to be afraid of it.  You caught it, you can release it.  When accidentally catching a ray, grab it by the spiracles (openings above the eyes- very easy to see), take the hook out of its mouth, and throw it back into the ocean.  Easy peasy.  Even I can do this without freakin out or being stabbed by its tail.  And the thing will live!  Amazing.  It's a waste to put a fish back into the ocean if you stab it with a giant hook and watch it bleed out on the pier.  It's going to die, so why bother throwing it back?? End rant.

Back to the topic at hand... There was a ray with no hope of survival and this guy is about to throw it back into the ocean to rot.  Not on my watch!  If it's going to die, let's not waste its life.  We shall use it FOR SCIENCE!!!  (You know, if you add "FOR SCIENCE" at the end of phrases, it makes them sound much more legitimate.  So next time you are doing something weird, say "FOR SCIENCE" and no one will judge. Seriously, it works every time.)  So we grabbed life by the spiracles and decided to dissect the ray.  At least we can learn some cool things from it.

Obviously, this ray is destroyed thanks to the fisherman.  But we're going to use it FOR SCIENCE!!!

How to dissect a ray:

1)  Cut off the tail.  Got to do this so that you are in zero danger of the barb stinging you and so that it is out of the way when trying to look at its insides.

2)  Carry the ray by spiracles and transport it to a place to dissect it.  In our case, walk down the pier, across the street while being stared at by crossing cars and boats, walk all the way across campus, to under the classroom, and place on a mat.  Yes, we looked really normal doing this, walking our ray dripping with blood.  And Anna was wearing a white shirt... Miraculously, nothing got on her. Not a drop of blood.  This, my friends, is an amazing feat.  Especially for us scientists who get dirty with absolutely everything we do.

Transporting our ridiculously heavy ray.

3)  Collect your dissecting tools.  Unfortunately, ours were locked up, so we used a couple of hunting knives that we carry on us.  (PS- Don't mess with us.)

4) Cut off fins.  These can be eaten, if you are interested.  Make scallops out of them.  I'm sure it would be delicious.  We, however, have no kitchen or anything to cook with, so the fins just went off to the side.  We did see that our ray was very muscular though.  It was impressive.

5) Cut along the side of the vertebrate and remove connective tissues inside to take out the gut.  The gut contains all of the super cool stuff: liver, stomach, spleen, kidneys, lungs, eggs, and it's connected to the esophagus.  This is also time consuming if done correctly.  So if you aren't using a lab (because it's locked) and squatting under a classroom like us, you will not only have super cool ray parts, but also super buff legs. (And super sore legs the next day- but that's what 2.5 hours of squatting will do to you!)

6) By now the ray is pretty much in a million pieces and looks like this... And look, Ma, no teacher!!  We did it all by ourselves.  We're some proud future marine biologists here.  Oh, and pretty beastly.  Some of this was hard to get with our hunting knives (scalpels really are much more suitable for this type of work), so we resorted to ripping some of this apart with our hands.  Not the best lab techniques, I'll admit.  But I like to think of it as excitement and dedication to our dissection.

When done dissecting and learning all things about ray anatomy, it's time to clean up.  First, claim the skeletal and preservable parts.  I get the jaw bone, and I'm super excited!  Then the vertebrate will be shared by Hannah, Anna, and Angela.  And both Hannah and Angela got eyeballs that they are attempting to preserve in formaldehyde.  So that is all way cool!!

But clean up for real...

1) Dispose of unwanted parts.

Let's throw the ray parts back into the ocean!

We walked to the beach, praying we wouldn't step on crabs and then threw the remains into the ocean.  It's important to note that we did not go into the ocean.  It was pitch black outside, and we just threw bloody remains into the waves.  No thank you, I do not want a shark bite tonight!  But we decided that you could have the "perfect murder" here.  We cleaned up really quickly by throwing everything in the water, it was dark and no one saw us, and there was no trace of us when we left because footprints are washed away by the tide.  Just sayin.  This is gold for all you crime tv show writers out there. You're welcome.

2) Put the bone you want to save into a giant ant hill.  Seriously.  We put ours in an ant hill that is between 3-4 feet high.  You don't really need one that big, but you want the ants to clean the bones for you.  Less work for you, and you don't have to worry about destroying the bones with your beastly muscles tearing at the bones.

3) Wash everything!  It smelled real bad when we were done. Two and a half hours of cutting a ray in the hot, humid weather makes for a less than pleasant aromatic compound taking over your nostrils and getting all over your clothes.  And we also washed the ground really well. Don't want any critters coming for the little ray pieces.  That would not be any fun. 

4) Reward yourself with a milkshake.  After your very soapy, very long, very hot shower, of course.  

And that's how you do it guys.  If you ever find a ray stranded, begging to be dissected (dead), then call me up.  I see myself as an expert in this matter now, and would love to make you an expert too.  And you can get a cool ray bone! 

Did I mention that I hate bugs?

... because I don't think I did.  But I'll state it very clearly right now.

I hate bugs.

Just so the whole world knows, including all of the bugs that think it's okay to be near me.  It's not okay.  It's never ever ever okay.  I think this is very important to state clearly because so far, my week has been full of bugs.  And these heart attacks that I'm having can not be good for me.  They really must stop.  Also, I'm showing signs of paranoia.  For example, I think I see a black spot in the corner of my eye.  Most people ignore said black spot and at the very worst, turn their head to see what the said black spot is.  But not me, not after these past few days.  I see a black spot and a shoe appears in my right hand, a Raid can in my left, ready to aim, fire, and conquer.  This is an instantaneous, almost instinctual, reaction.  I repeat, not okay.  I'm turning into a bugbuster.

So you want to hear about the horrors I've been facing thanks to bugs... here it is.  I must warn you, though... The remainder of this post is not for the faint-hearted.  It may be disturbing to some of you bug-haters.  Don't say that I didn't warn you.

Monday 6/24/13
Happy first day of school!  Again!
And the Second Session starts off with a warm Marine Invertebrate welcome and the groupings for our projects. Each group does three projects: Hot Fact, Video, and Collection.  The projects all revolve around the topic for each group.  Anna, Angela, Hannah, and I all decided that whatever topic we were doing, we wanted to be in a group together.  And then we saw the list of topics.  Arthropods, Mullusks, Echinoderms, Vermiforms.  Of course, we want Arthropods: lobsters, crabs, etc.  There are hermit crabs and ghost crabs everywhere, so we could do some awesome crab collection.  Had it all planned out, and it was going to be perfect!  And then... Bum bum bummmmm. (Enter Terrible Tylers) Tyler and friends sign up before us. Another group got to it first. Such a disappointment. What ever happened to ladies first?  What happened to this so-called principle of chivalry?  Well, the lack of the former two, ended with my group getting the lovely topic of Vermiforms.  Cool, guys, really cool.  For those of you who may not know, those are worms.  I get to play with worms for a month.  I would have been okay with anything else, but worms... bugs of the sea... That's my luck.  Buttttt, it's still marine biology.  And therefore super cool.  Therefore, I will love every second of our dumb worm project and will leave this class a better marine-worm-lovin-biologist if it kills me.  On top of that, I do have a fantastic group!  We're going to kick the arthropods booties too, if you were wondering.

Tuesday 6/24/13
On to the worst experience of my life... The infestation of roaches.  Huge roaches. H.U.G.E.  It's a very good thing that Anna is prepared with Raid- that is a quality investment for all current and future DISL students, just fyi.  But anyways... Anna and I are chillin in our room trying to watch Game of Thrones and Modern Family when the first roach enters.  Que heart attack #1.  We both grab shoes and the Raid.  Anna is chasing after the monster like a crazy person spraying Raid as she goes. Good thing to know: Raid makes tile floors slippery, when wearing flip flops there is no traction on the slippery Raid, chasing and killing roaches is very difficult when you're slipping all over the place in panic while having a heart attack.  Just in case you ever come into this situation, learn from our mistakes.  And then we freakin lost the bug.  It ran under Anna's bed and we couldn't figure out where it went.  This is when the feeling of terror comes in.  Sure, the roach was doused in Raid, but do we know for sure that it's dead?  Will it ever come back?  Did it get enough Raid? These are all very scary questions to ask, and the only thing that would help us was seeing the dead thing.  Seeing a dead body is sometimes the only thing that can reassure me in times such as these.  But alas, it wasn't happening... Until 10 minutes later when it emerged from the other side of her bed.  But we were ready.  Yes, we had our mini heart attacks and onset of panic, but Anna's shoe hit that thing so hard, it was G.O.N.E.  Reassuring feeling sets in.  And it was only one roach.  We're so good!  These were LIES that we told ourselves.  Another few minutes, a larger roach came out.  The regular: heart attack, panic, lost it, terror, killed it, reassurance.  But by this time, our whole hall knows about our infestation.  Because we're freakin out. Obviously.  Oh, and then another freakin roach comes out.  Oh, and it's even. freakin. bigger.  NOT OKAY.  NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS OKAY.  But you know the drill by now.  That reassurring feeling though, it's weaker every time.  I don't trust my room and the bug-proofing we're doing anymore. But it's dead.  And now I'm hoping and praying that they're for real gone.  I guess we'll see.

I'm sorry to give you such a terrifying rant, but this just happened.  I am still very much on edge  over the whole thing.  And I am currently not able to sleep, waiting for more roaches to come out.  But no worries.  I will aim, fire, and conquer.  Sure, nuclear bombs won't kill them, but I will.

To Civilization!!

Just call me the brilliant botanist beast!  That's right, I just aced Marine Botany.  Final Exam and Presentation are both completed.  Heck. Yes.  Group Projects, though... Our group was obviously the best (I'm only a little bias), but the other two were also really great!  Can't say I wasn't disappointed when the Phyting Phytoplankton Group didn't do a musical, but nonetheless an entertaining presentation.  And the Mangroovy guys had a fantastic name- I mean, that's pretty clever, gotta give it to them.  You can tell that we had an awesome class!  But after all of our last minute project details and crazy studying, we had a weekend to relax. Yay! This was a Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday filled with fun!

Fiesta Friday! Went to Ole Maria's again this Friday for some churros, Wobble and Cupid Shufflin, and karaoke.  And Anna, Angela, Emily, and I sang "Livin on a Prayer" absolutely beautifully.  Oh, and have I mentioned that we have no pride?  Yeah, it showed Friday night.  But we really just had a great time making fools of ourselves.  But we didn't want the night to end, so we went to The Deep End.  (If you're looking for the part about me getting kicked out of the bar, it's right here.)  The Deep End is the bar that's on the island that has fun music and a floor to dance on, so of course we decided to try it.  No, we don't drink- not that old yet!  But dancing, I can do that all day, erryday, regardless of my age.  So dancing, I shall do!  Our group walked in and started chatting with each other, waiting for the band to start playing. The bouncer came to card us.  It was all fine and dandy.  We were on absolute best behavior, minding our business.  Not even being obnoxiously ridiculous or anything.  And then the bouncer approaches us.  We knew what was coming... But who would kick out such well behaved young ladies?  Apparently a bouncer that can't count.  He came back to kick 2 of us out, the two of us with 1993 birthdays- which is this girl!! Apparently we were supposed to be 21 to enter the bar.  Not 18 (like normal places aka my hometown: Atlanta) nor 19 (like everywhere else in Alabama).  So our ignorant little selves were kicked out.  And here's another little funny part:  my friend has a 1992 birthday and is 20.  That can happen, guys.  I know.  Crazy stuff.  But Mr. Bouncer didn't know that, and he was letting her stay.  Of course, when we knew we were breaking rules, we left.  For real though, that was the worst bouncer ever.  But we weren't going to be legit kicked out of a bar.  We left with our dignity, which can't be said for most people kicked out of a bar, just sayin.

Sui juris Saturday! Those of you who don't like dictionaries, sui juris means free, as in Freedom, Merrica, and CIVILIZATION.  SWEET CIVILIZATION!!  On Saturday... we left the island.  It was a thrilling experience, really.  It's been so long since we've seen the world!  It was all because we needed to go on our trip to WalMart.  But if we're going that far out, we might as well go to Mobile and spend the day there!  Yes, we do make good decisions.  Part of our good decisions included Target, Starbucks, and Wintzell's Oyster House.  At Starbucks, I made my first "Secret Menu" purchase, the Captain Crunch Frappuccino. (Thanks Angela!) And it just so happened that the Starbucks we were at was where the Captain Crunch Frappuccino was invented. I mean, who can say they had Captain Crunch where it was invented?!  Only people who go to that Starbucks and order it... okay. So maybe a lot of people can say that.  But I still think it's cool.  Also, Nicholas Cage was in Mobile, somewhere filming some movie.  So maybe we didn't actually see him... or even know where he was.  But we looked for him for a little, and we were still in the same city as him, so we practically saw him.  Got a famous coffee and almost saw a famous person... we're practically celebrities.  The possibilities are endless when you're in civilization!

Social Sunday! First, church, like every Sunday.  This week we visited the Methodist Church- super friendly people.  And then it was beach time!!  We were there all day, and I even fell asleep for a minute there.  Like a nap.  What?!  I forgot those existed.  This beach bum lifestyle... great stuff.  But then when we got back to the Sea Lab, all of the new people were here for the next session!  I LOVE new people!  So that was fun.  We have a couple new, very sweet girls on our hall.  We spent tonight coloring in my room (and Anna's room- b/c we're roomies now!! YAYYY!!!).  No, I am not 5 years old.  Yes, I am 5 years old at heart.  I will color without shame.  But not without interruption, apparently.  The boys decided that they wanted to show off for all the new girls and attack our hall.  They skateboarded through the hall with Nerf Guns.  Oh, and they toilet papered our halls too.  They are 5 years old- it's not just at heart... it's at brain too.  Anyways, boys, I hope you know this means war.

So that's this weekend in a nutshell.  Super excited for my second First Day of School this summer.  Tomorrow I'm starting Marine Invertebrates.  And I know a bunch of wonderful people that will be in the class with me, so I'm pumped.

Finals Week: Numero Uno

It's that time of year again... Finals Week!  I seriously can not believe that I am almost done with my first class at DISL.  It went by so quickly!  And I still have so much studying to do! Ahhhh!!  But writing this blog will serve as my study break.  Here's what one does during Study Week at DISL...

Procrastinate!  Do absolutely anything but studying! (Like write this blog post.)  Man, we're good at this here. I mean, all college kids are pros at procrastination, but here there's a beach.  Not even fair.  It's like the Sea Lab doesn't want us to study.  If they thought we should study, they wouldn't put all of us on a beach. Just putting two and two together here.  But no worries!  I plan on resisting the waves calling my name and killing my final and research presentation.  Kill as in obliterate and Ace, that is.

Which brings me to my next update... our Research Project.
Spent all day on Saturday weighing our leaves, charting out leaves, burning our leaves, and weighing our leaves some more.  That was to supposedly find biomass... Yeah, we TOTALLY RUINED this part of our experiment.  A word to the wise: ALWAYS clarify between the oven and the furnace. Apparently, we should have weighed before and after the oven, not before and after the furnace.  So we found organic matter of our plants instead of biomass.  If we knew earlier, I guess we could have done both.  Made it 200 tests instead of our measly 180. But we have enough data with those 180, I won't complain.  Especially because I got the best part of this project (note sarcasm here): Results!  Which means I get to analyze data, make it into pretty charts, and explain them during the presentation.  It really wouldn't be too awful, but I made 16 charts.  My apologies in advance, Botany class!  Believe it or not, I could have easily doubled that number with all of the data we've collected.

I would say that our burning juncus was a waste of a Saturday, but it definitely wasn't.  When Anna and I do research for extended amounts of time, the "crazy scientist" is brought out of us.  We've invented a new, eco-friendly eye black. You're welcome, world.

(We're serious about science.  This juncus eye black proves it.)

Back to the fun stuff and procrastination... on Monday after dinner, we (Anna, Angela, and I) went to the beach.  And all of our Zumba songs came on the radio!! So, of course, we stop tanning and start dancing.  In public. On the beach.  That's mostly normal, right??  Maybe not, but it was fun.  And we got a work out. And no one knows us here... it's not like I have any pride left anyways.  So it was a good decision.
And thennnnn... WE SAW A SHARK!  Actually, multiple sharks.  At least 4 of them.  We just came back to shore from swimming and the guys fishing right next to us caught them.  So we just swam with sharks. So cool! So cool! So cool! They were super cute, still babies.  But none the less, I swam with sharks in the wild! (another first for me!)  That's my story, and I'm stickin to it.

Today: I'm putting the powerpoint together for my Research Project.  It's already 44 slides, and I'm not even done yet.  Really, Botany class, I'm so so sorry.  I wish it didn't have to be this way, but what can we do??  You're just going to have to survive through it.  But at least you don't have to present it!  And we're all science nerds... which means you will all love every second of the 4 hours we'll take to present our findings!

I'm going on a (Snorkeling) Adventure!

Overnight trip to Florida with my super cool Botany class?  Yes, please!

On Thursday and Friday, we went on an adventure!  Thursday was Port Saint Joe and Friday was Saint Andrew's.

At Port Saint Joe, we snorkeled in the 2-3 ft deep seagrass beds.  Obviously, this is ridiculously shallow, so we were literally in the habitat... swimming through all of the sea grass as if we were a part of the ecosystem there.  That was really cool.  This place was full of life! Rays, welks, sand dollars, sea urchins, and starfish (Anna even found a super cute, baby starfish- no bigger than your thumb nail).  Sea grass beds are nurseries, so there were tons of cute, little fish everywhere.  But that means that it's also a great place for food, so there were some large fish that came in the sea grass as well.  Those guys were fun because we played tag with them.  It was pretty clear, so it was easy to see them, and they swam so fast- it was a fun game to try and touch them. As I've said before, scientists are really just a bunch of adults that act like kids.  I wasn't lying.  But this was seriously a way cool experience- felt like I was literally part of habitat.There was also a trench in between a couple sea grass beds.  It had so many cool things!  Whelks racing each other, spider crabs, hermit crabs... It was just full of sea life!

We snorkeled for much longer than we were supposed to, and because of that, we did not get dinner until 9:15pm.  We were dying.  But we went to this wonderful fish restaurant and ate entirely too much delicious food.  Yes, marine biologists eat fish, for those of you who have asked.  And we like it.

Then... Beach Party!! Chillin on the beach with Dr. Just, trying to see the glowing dinoflagellates in the ocean, listening to music, and discussing super nerdy/sciency things.  We also came to the conclusion that Marine Biology is only 20% seriousness and 80% is enthusiasm, which I definitely have.  Just said that there's also a bonus 5% of crazy, which I'm pretty sure my friends and I have in abundance.

Then to Saint Andrew's on Friday!  This location was 20-30 ft deep with the deeper side behind the jetties.  Because it was exceptionally deep, I got to use my fins for the first time!!  Those things are huge and heavy, but man, do they work!  I got a fantastic work out and moved very quickly though all those waves (while looking super legit in my gear, I might add).  So what did we see?  A couple rays, a toad fish, some UNA-spirited fish (Roar Lions!) aka little purple and yellow fish, a suh-weet glowing jellyfish, and a barracuda.
YES!  A BARRACUDA!!  Sooooooooooo awesome!!  It was 4 feet long, and just a few yards from my face.  I was LOVING it!!  And I was too busy thinking about how cool it was, that I didn't even think to be afraid at the time.  But for real, I was right next to a barracuda... in the wild...I love marine biology!

Then the drive back to DISL.  With some super cool experiences and absolutely wonderful memories!

Laboratory Marathon. We go hard.

Let's research the marsh, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's collect juncus, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find canopy height, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's measure elevation, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find water nutrients, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find salinity, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find the density, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find the percent cover, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's separate live and dead plant matter, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's study the soil organic matter, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find the biomass, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

The "they" stated above is me and my research project group.  The "they" is also synonymous with "crazies," "over-achievers," "people who rather not have lives," or "juncus-haters."

Juncus.  It's really a compound word.  It's a pile of junk (junc) and makes you want to cuss (cus). Alright... Maybe I've overstated that, just a little.  But WE ARE RIDICULOUS.  Today was supposed to be study day.  But no.  I woke up, ate, and got to work with Anna on the project.  At 4:30pm, we were done with that crap.  Not done as in accomplished/finished.  We wished.  Done as in fed-up. And we're only taking a quick break for dinner.  We went back to work right away and left the lab just a little over 9pm.  So it was a long day, to say the least.  At least 8 hours doing lab work.  We go hard. But good news... WE'RE FREAKIN DONE!  With this step anyways... Soil Organic Matter is COMPLETELY DONE!!! Weeeeeee!! And our plants are sorted and ready for 48 hours in the dryer and then oven time this weekend.  It was super important for us to finish today though because our Botany class is leaving for a trip tomorrow morning at 6am, so we have zero time for our project the next couple of days.  Accomplishment! Such a lovely word.

Oh!  And just a fun fact for you all: Anna is an animal killer.  First she viciously stomps a dragonfly to death, and then she runs over nutrias.  It's either "natural selection" because they were too dumb to get out of her way or she's a "botany saver" because nutria endanger local wetlands and she rids the world of them.  Just a heads up to all you wildlife out there: Stay away from Anna!!

The Island is Sinking

Monday, June 10, 2013

Dauphin Island has been crying since Angela left on Sunday.  Coincidence? I think not.  It's not just rain though.  It's sheets of water drowning the island.  Roads are literally inches under water.  I'm pretty sure the island is not an island anymore... it's completely under water.  So that's pretty exciting.  Anna and I are passing the time with some super cool, new Zumba moves. 

In class we did some Visum, looking through microscopes. I mostly did not find what we needed to, but my slide was full of crab larvae.  It's pretty cool looking, actually! Maybe it'll come in handy for my Invert class next session.

After class it's to the lab we go to work on our "Super" experiment.  I say super as in large/over-the-top rather than ridiculously awesome (though, I guess it is ridiculously awesome as well).  We're working on our Soil Organic Matter (SOM), but there was a crab in one of our test tubes and no one in our group could find the thing. Guess we'll just have some more SOM in that tube. What can ya do?

Late night adventure: This is a very random story: (Only read if you care about our dessert catastrophe)

We decided to try the new coffee shop because its grand opening way "today."  Anna was going to satisfy her coffee addiction, and I was going to eat a delicious bear claw.  It was all planned out... until it was closed... for a whole week longer! It doesn't open until next Tuesday and they just changed the sign today.  Not cool!  But then Anna and I decided we'd just change our plans and go try the snow cone shack nearby.  Worst idea ever.  That stuff tasted awful, and that is saying something because I am not a picky eater at all.  I'm talkin dirty-icy-no-flavor-except-the-bad-after-taste snow cone.  I rather eat juncus than this stuff.  (If you don't know what Juncus is, please educate yourself with my prior post: Journey through the Juncus Jungle.) If you did read my post on juncus, you understand the seriousness of the terribleness of this snow cone.  I can not wait to go back to Miami Ice in Florence!  They have REAL snow cones that taste almost like heaven.  But back to Anna and my grave situation... we needed a dessert and two places have already disappointed us.  So let's go find civilization and dessert in one!  Across the bridge we go... and there's a bait shop and a couple restaurants that are already closed... at 8:30 at night.  Really? So that was a waste of half an hour.  But there is a restaurant called the Islander, that we think closes at 9 and it's 9... But we're going to try it anyways.  We're that desperate. And we were right.  They closed at 9, but they graciously sat up anyways.  And we got THE BEST bread pudding ever.  It was ginormous, gooey, warm, beautiful, wonderful, craving-satisfying dessert.  Word to the wise: Islanders is a Yes.  Snow Cones are a NO.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The rain stopped.  Class in the morning.  Beach in the afternoon.  Walk on the beach after dinner.  I wasn't kidding when I said I'm Beach bummin it. Love it!!  

Though getting to the beach was fun on our nice, flooded island.  Rule #2, always have good tires on this island.  Wait. That was Rule #1; I always get those mixed up.

Andddd.... I GOT A TANNNNN!! Angela said so, so it's obviously true.  Everyone should note that this is a MIRACLE.

And I got to Skype with my wonderful Yogini. Day made!

Tourist Day Photo Roll

Saturday, June 8, 2013
AKA Tourist Day!

Yup, we went there.  Dauphin Island is a super cute little town, and it needed to be documented. Please note that it only took us a couple hours to document the entire town.  Here's a mini photo roll of the day:

1.  In front of a lighthouse that doesn't actually work.  

2.  Found the faucet that leads to the ocean!

3.  Surfer Crossing.  Surfers always have the right of way.

I also had a couple friends visit me!  Shoutout to Brittany and Sami!  It was so great to see these wonderful girls and their sweet families and catch up a little bit. It felt like a little bit of home came to Dauphin Island.

It was a great day in Perdido Bay!

It's Friday and that means.... Field Trip Dayyyy!!  So this past Friday, my Botany class went to Perdido, Florida!  It was about a 2 hour drive (including the ferry) to arrive at a beautiful beach with white sand, crystal clear water, little shells everywhere, the whole nine yards!  And we saw this beautiful scene...

Nice, right??

We stopped, put some sunscreen on, changed into our gear in the pavilion, and then Dr. Just told us to load back into the vans. Wait. What?  Apparently we're not at our destination quite yet.  But no worries, Perdido is beautiful; we're probably just going to an inlet for some more seclusion and fewer waves.  Well, that's exactly what happened; we stopped to snorkel at an inlet.  But this inlet was not like the photo above.  No, sir.  It was muddy, murky, cold, and surrounded by...wait for it... juncus.  Because we didn't get enough of that junk on Tuesday! But I wasn't bitter. This was the first time I got to use my brand new, super cool snorkeling equipment, and I was going to enjoy every minute of that dirty, freezing water!  I mean, look at this gear...

 You can NOT be sad when using such beautiful equipment.  It's impossible.

(And yes, I am obsessed with Finding Nemo... Just in case you were wondering.)

So we go out to the less than perfect waters and collect sea grasses until our hearts' content.  We sifted some of the Thalassia or "Turtle Seagrass" from the sediment so that we could look at the roots and then brought our findings back to the pavilion that we started at.  So we didn't get to snorkel there, but we did get a nice view for a while there.  At the pavilion, we counted leaves, measured the length of the root, and counted nodes for Thalassia to find out how old the seagrass was. I received a congratulatory fist bump from Just for counting 73 nodes on one of my roots.  Apparently 4 year old sea grass in this inlet is amazing. What can I say?  It was obviously "super seagrass"... there's no other explanation.

When we were done with all of that fun stuff, we had some extra time before we had to leave.  Yay for efficiency and team work!  So we got to go to the beautiful beach after all!! And then back to the lab!

Side note: We drove through Orange Beach, and I just want to say that it is awesome there. There are things there! Like stores and stuff. Almost forgot those existed. So, if you're looking for a new vacay destination, Orange Beach looks like a good choice to me!

But back to reality... I'm at Dauphin Island after a day in Perdido.  We decided to take a walk on beach, which is a pretty regular after-dinner ritual for us.  But this time, we found a trigger fish washed up on the beach.  And that is some exciting stuff right there. One of my UNA friends, Angela, needs to catch 40 different species of fish for her Vertebrate class. So what do we do?  Pick it up and carry it all the way back to the Sea Lab.  Because that's totally normal behavior. But the whole walk back, everyone and their mother (literally) stopped us to look at the dead fish. Very sweet, friendly people here, I might add!  Oh, and we saved a dog's life. That was cool too.

Now what to do after such an eventful walk on the beach...Smoothies and Movies! Because it rhymes.  But that didn't actually happen... We did, however, have some milkshakes that brought boys to the yard. Or not... But only because we don't have a yard- we have a beach.  And mermaids were there (Anna & Angela will back me up on this one), so it's all good.

Journey through the Juncus Jungle

So my group did not like my title idea, but I still think it's brilliant.  The alliteration just makes me want to read all about that Juncus!  And it would definitely stick out in a Scientific Journal, just sayin.  But on to the explanation because I'm pretty positive that no one knows what Juncus is...

Juncus is found in marshes.  It looks like grass that is as tall as me, but its ends are like needles and they feel very stabby. This is what my group project members and I walked through for 5 hours on Tuesday.  We decided our project would focus on Grand Bay marsh in Mississippi, about 1 hour and 15 minutes from the Sea Lab.  We gathered data on 9 different criteria in 20 different transects to see if there are any conclusions we can draw about the plant dominance and diversity in the marsh.  Oh, and this is a 3 week project start to end- data collection, data analysis, presentation ready.  Yes, we are insane.  But we have a really cool project, so it's all good.

Our fun day in the marsh:
Started at 6am!! Each of us took our designated equipment for the test we were supposed to run at each transect.  My job was soil organic matter (SOM), so I collected dirt. It was almost like making mud pies in test tubes.  Science is really just a bunch of adults that want to act like kids forever, I'm convinced.
So let me tell you how this juncus stuff works... It stabs you. Literally everywhere.  And we walked in it for almost two miles, two very stabby/muddy/hot miles.  I have little cuts everywhere, covering my legs and getting my arms pretty bad too.  But when we were done for the day, our cut legs were covered/coated/slathered in mud.  Trying to clean all of that dirt off... it stung just a bit. But even with all of that juncus attacking, the horseflys that tried to eat us, and the mud monsters sucking us into the Earth, it was a super cool experience!  Do I want to work in juncus marshes for the rest of my life, probably not. But I just finished my first field research collection ever!  This is some legit Marine Biology going on right here! (And another positive: The mud was a great exfoliate; even with our bajillion cuts, our legs are super soft.)

My muddy, Juncus-lovin research group!

So now that the field collection is complete, we can start collecting some data in the lab, then start analyzing and putting the project together.  This weekend's project is to finish counting all of the dead and live leaves and measure live leaves.  From there, we have fun machines to give us some data.  It'll be coming together soon!

And now I am off to get everything ready for tomorrow!  We're leaving at 7:30am to catch the Ferry tomorrow.  We're going snorkeling in Perdido, and I am super pumped!  I get to use my brand new snorkeling equipment!!  So you all will get an update on that soon!

Double Decades

May 31, 2013

Yeahhh Buddy!  I'm 20!! Goodbye, teenage years, I'll never see you again.  But how does one celebrate their birthday at DISL?  Let me tell you...

First field trip to Airport Marsh and Fort Morgan!  Two local marshes.  And we got to collect different phytoplankton and name it and compare it and fun things like that.  Long story short, we scraped rocks.  And while most of you think that sounds terrible, I felt super sciencey, and I loved it!

Then everyone and their mother went to Fiesta Friday at some Mexican Restaurant.  There was delicious fried ice cream and super terrible karaoke... what's not to love about that?!

So after that crazy night out eating ice cream, a beautiful beach Saturday was exactly what we needed!  This continued on Sunday after we went to the only church on the island.  So glad that little Baptist Church exists.

**Update:  We discovered another road on the island, and it's a bunch of churches.  Really, they're all on the same road, which I think is pretty cute.  We have Methodist, Episcopal, and Catholic Churches here too!  Which means we're going to go "Church Shopping/ Exploring.   It's looking like there's maybe, just maybe, a little bit of civilization here.

Wake Up Call

Most of my first week:

If you go to UNA, you may or may not know that we have a Marine Biology program.  It's super small, and before coming to DISL, I felt like I was the only Marine Biology major on the face of the planet.  But on my first day at DISL, I found people who go to UNA. What?! What?! You mean that there are other people who are just like me and we haven't met before??  Well that ended very quickly.  We found each other and we shall never separate.  I love our little UNA group!  It feels like home.  And all we talk about is nerdy marine biology things.  Seriously, where have you girls been all my life?!  I believe the count of UNA Marine Biology majors that I know about is up to 7.  We are movin up, marine bio majors!  

Day before classes started, we had 20 DISL students go to the beach all day.  It was nice to meet everyone and it was tons of fun!  I learned how to play Redneck Golf.  Oh, and I'm a pro at it.  Florence is wearing off on me, y'all! ;) But while we were at the beach, someone saw a dolphin and as soon as he said something, everyone in our group stopped what they were doing and started talking about what the dolphins were doing/ why they were swimming that way/etc.  This is the moment that I felt I belonged here. Where else do you get enthusiasm like that?? Nowhere but DISL.

So here's my little wake up call:

This is not college.  Nope. Not at all.  This, my friends, is glorified camp.  Super small room, cafeteria food, spend your life outside, and the craziest one for me: no campus activities.  Now I'm not complaining at all!  I really love that I can bum it all day, erryday.  And having "nothing to do" here is just studying and going to the pool and the beach. I don't have to run around in a million directions like I normally do.  And while it took me a minute to adjust to that, I have to say, it's really nice to relax a bit!  I have time to...wait for it... read!  I've already read a couple books and a third one is in the mail coming to me. What is this? Awesomeness. Beach bummin awesomeness.

My Classes:

This is the First of Two Sessions that I will be taking here.  I'm in Marine Botany with Dr. Just Cebrian.  And next session I'll be taking Marine Invertebrates with Dr. Carmichael, but you'll hear about that later.  My current professor, Just, is just awesome! (see what I did there?) He is so enthusiastic with his teaching that learning is way more fun than it should be!  It's wonderful!  I never knew plants could be so exciting.  Class is only Monday, Thursday, and Friday for full days and Tuesday for a half day in the morning.  So Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday all day is beach bum time!  With class, I will be going on three trips, one being overnight.  I also get to do a group research project for half of my grade.  My group is six brilliant girls and we are going to rock everyone's socks off with out project.  I'm working on one of my goals in life: Be published in a Scientific Journal.  It's going to happen.  

Some of my spare time:

Shark fishing.  Yup, I went there.  We fished from the shore, so no boat was needed.  Unfortunately, I am a pro at catching Catfish. I caught like 10 of them before giving up.  So we were not successful at catching a shark this time.  But one of these days, it'll happen.  It was still fun to go fishing at night!  I've never done that before.

Lighthouse Bakery.  Really cute coffee shop.  Out of the sun, avoiding the lobster look. Delicious cinnamon rolls.  WiFi and cell service.  We spend a lot of time here.

WalMart. Guys, the closest WalMart is like 30 minutes away. The Stuggle.  Really though, we plan WalMart trips... But the road trip is always a fun one.  Especially with Macklemore on the radio and Anna and Angela jammin out with me.

Red Box Nights.  So far, we've had two. And we watch the cheesiest Chick Flicks ever.  It's good times.

180º to Dauphin Island Sea Lab

This blog is about to be totally redirected.  Those of you who read any of my past posts know that I started this blog for a requirement for a class I was taking through the Honors Program at UNA.  You also might have noticed that my last post was 6 months ago... Yeah.  Blogging didn't become a habit for me.  But I'm changing that TODAY.

If you're on my Facebook or have talked to me for more than like two minutes in the past couple of months, you should know that I'm spending my summer at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Dauphin Island, AL.  I know I've told pretty much everyone because I'm super pumped about it!  Here I will be taking classes for my marine biology requirements this summer and next summer.  Many of you asked me to update you on my life and what's going on at the Sea Lab, how classes are, what I'm doing, etc.  And I would really really love to call up all of you and chat, but unfortunately, that's impossible.  Not only is there not enough time in the day, but I have AWFUL reception here.  Not like my-carrier-stinks bad reception, but more like my-carrier-suddenly-dropped-off-the-face-of-the-planet-and-does-not-exist-anymore bad reception.  Seriously, when I get a text, it's a highlight to my day because I feel like I am still somehow connected to the outside world.  I would not do well secluded on a deserted island.  So if you do text me, I will get it eventually and it WILL make my day!  But if I don't reply for a day, you should know it's the reception.  I will reply as soon as I get a bar on my phone. Promise!  Don't think I've been eaten by a shark or anything like that.  But if that does happen, you'll get an update on this blog!  And now you're all going to hope a shark attacks me so that you can have something fun to read... sorry, guys, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Anyways...back to the topic at hand. I am putting all things DISL on this blog now.  Sorry for the random redirection, but I don't have a blog title more clever than The Daily Hailey, so it's just staying here.  I'll put a link on Facebook when I update this.  I will do it at least once a week, try to keep it short and sweet- only putting things on here that I'd think some of you might care about.  But if there is anything you want to know about, ask away!  Especially you future DISL students.  I know I came in blind, and I'd hate for you to have to do the same thing.

Adios for now!