Merry Christmas

This year has gone entirely too fast! How can Christmas be a week from today already? I hope everyone has a happy holiday and a merry New year!

Where have you been?

I think I'm worn out and just don't know it. Either that or I've gotten very lazy. September is gone, as well as October. We're into November already and I feel like I've just blinked and missed a lot of time.

School is going great. My class has been fabulous with only 11 students. We've done a lot of things you couldn't do with a full class. Lots of hands on and discussions. The students really seem to enjoy it. I've been approved to teach it again next semester. I've decided not to teach a lab next semester so I can actually have two days off each week, not that I'll know what to do with it. I'm getting evaluated this week and next in both lab and lecture just to make sure I'm really teaching what I'm supposed to.

Work is amazing. I am so lucky to have this job. We went to Asheville last week and went to the Western North Carolina Nature Center. We learned about a cool program called Frog Watch and then met with other educators from 11 different zoos and aquariums in North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. It was amazing to talk with people who are working in the same field as I am and see what they're doing differently as well as the same. I got a lot of great ideas for some new projects at work. We also went on a wolf howl at the Nature Center. You howl at the wolves and see if they call back. We didn't hear anything or even see them.... the keepers forgot we were coming and put them up for the night.... oh well, we got lots of great pictures the next day. This one's a coyote but I thought they were more adorable.

One of the projects I got a lot of ideas for is our new million dollar stingray touch pool we're putting in. If there's anything you've ever wanted to know about stingrays or wanted to be able to do with one, let me know and I'll pass on the ideas. We have a template for any new exhibit we come up with and it includes a specific team of people. I'm the developer for this exhibit. My job is to create the educational story behind the exhibit. I got to be on the team since Ripley's had Splash with the Rays. Tomorrow we're going down to Ripleys Aquarium at Myrtle Beach. I'll actually get to get in with the rays. I always had to do the educational side of things in Gatlinburg. So I'm looking forward to it.

The other project I'm working on is the Coastal America partnership. My students are amazing. We've gone up the river on a boat to see how saltwater intrusion will impact our area and yesterday we went to Baldhead Island to look at the maritime forest. They were amazing. They got it. They connected with the issue and saw how changing climate is going to impact us, here. And they are so eager to do something about it. Our film is going to be awesome! The federal coordinator for the project likes what we're doing so much that she wants to share it with everyone else. I do too. We're keeping a blog and a wiki. Make sure you check both of them out and follow what we're doing. These are some amazing kids!

In other news, I finally bought a washer and dryer. I feel like a real grownup. They'll be here Saturday. Life is good as usual. I'm going to Florida to be with the Family and home for Christmas. Can't ask much more than a great job and people who love you. I guess you could, but that'd be greedy :-)

September already?

Some how I completely missed August. School started. UNCW forgot to open my class for students to sign up for until the day before classes started. So I only have 11 students in my class. I like it, it's much more intimate. Lab is going well. I've decided not to teach another lab next semester. I've requested to just teach a lecture in the evenings. I've also decided not to take any classes. I could take two classes, teach, finish my project, and work full time to graduate next semester. That seems silly. The only reason anyone wants to finish in two years is so they can get a job and run off somewhere new. Since I'm sticking around I'm going to take my time. Makes sense to me.

I went to Florida to visit Colleen last month. It was a whirl wind trip but we had a lovely time. Her school is beautiful. We went on a car trip to a very cute little beach a couple hours away. We all had a great time.

Work is going fabulously. I'm finally moving along on my project with the students I'm taking to DC. We're creating a documentary on the effects of changing climates in the Cape Fear region. We're going to interview locals who have grown up in the area to talk about how they've seen things change in their lifetime. We're going to work with a lot of the different environmental agencies around. Especially the ones where I know people :-) I've applied for a grant to purchase a hi def video camcorder so we can do all the filming ourselves. I'm getting really excited about the project. I've already got our group signed up for an eco tour on a boat up the Cape Fear River. I love my job. My office is finally painted (teal) and I just bought a beautiful fish to go on the wall.

I've finally buckled down and decided to have my college tshirts turned into a quilt. I'm using Campus Quilts to have it done. The results are lovely and it's silly to keep putting this off. I've been talking about this since before I graduated the first time. So if anyone is thinking of doing the same thing check them out here.

So that's a quick and dirty update. I'm going to the Panthers/Buccs game this weekend with my friend Sarah, I've thought about wearing my Bears jersey just because. Then the next weekend a couple of my good friends are coming down for the weekend. It should be great! For now though, I need to put together some powerpoints for tomorrow night and start working on their review sheet for the first test next week!

Where did the time go?

I am so far behind I don't even know where to begin. Here are the highlights:

1. I'm teaching a lecture at UNCW next year as well as a lab. This will put me on the path to eventually becoming a college professor way down the road. 
2. I got instate tuition for this year :-)
3. I adopted an adorable kitten (not the one I originally planned on) named Seraphina, Phi for short. 
4. I went to Tennessee for the National Marine Educators Association Conference and got to see lots of wonderful people including Steve Flack and Tammy Browning. My presentation went very well.
5. We went to Ober Gatlinburg and saw bears, otters, and rode the alpine slide.
6. I went to Dollywood Splash Country for the first time. It was actually a lot of fun with decent lines.
7. I've been asked to work with a local high school teacher to put together a group of students to take to a Student Summit on Climate Change in Washington DC.
8. Becky came down to visit and we had a wonderful time. We went on a very interesting bird walk with Audubon North Carolina.
9. The Glow Worms (my volleyball team) is actually doing very well for a change. We're playing our end of season tourny tomorrow and then changing our name to the Isotopes.
10. And lots of other things. 

Up coming:
UNCW Alumni after work, going away party for almost half of our education department, Carolina Beach Beerfest with proceeds going to the Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project, and off to Florida for 4 days to see Colleen before school starts.

And at work today I got to watch them carry a 7 foot alligator through the aquarium. It took one aquarist per foot. Then we had someone bring in a baby sea turtle off the beach. That is very very illegal. They were worried it was going to get eaten. I wanted to start singing the circle of life.... cold, but true. Both it's fins are broken so we don't know how long it will survive..... But on a lighter note, some pictures.
Miss Phi:

Glossy Ibis on our bird walk

Looks good doesn't it?

Great Smoky Mountains

The bear looked like it tried to escape and fell to his death

The cute otters

I met Eugenie Clark, shark lady. This is me with her best friend Diane Nelson, the water bear lady

You'd think I had never been to Ripleys before with all the pictures I took

The new penguins:

Huma huma nuka nuka apua'a or the picasso trigger fish

Love it!

lazy girl

It's been almost 20 days since my last post and since I started the new job. Sometimes I worry that I'm never going to make the transition from being part time to full time. I feel like I should just automatically know what to do and have big projects to finish. I've written up two programs since I've been there. One was my interview presentation on freshwater mussels (which are much more interesting than you think, especially when I dress someone up like one). The other is on climate change.... It's just a few simple need to know facts about what's going on in our world and why but the majority of the problem is things we can change to help the problem. Whether or not you believe the world is changing it doesn't hurt us any to make some lifestyle changes. So I focused on that part of the program, especially because we don't want to horrify all the kids with "we're all gonna die!" One article I read pointed out that when we learned about the hole in the ozone everyone freaked out... but we quit using cfcs and it's disappearing.... we can fix things if we don't leave it too long.

Today I started working on a new program for teachers. We really don't offer much for teachers to bring their students on field trips. We don't get many high schools and I think a lot of it is that we don't offer the programs. So I'm working on changing that. I was going through the North Carolina Standard Course of Study today trying to look at what goals we can cover at the aquarium. I started thinking about a program on fisheries. I'm pretty excited about it. I think it will be a great program. It will cover 1/6 of the biology goals in one field trip. Go me! ;-)

Today I met with a high school teacher who's doing an internship with us this week. It's my job to help him come up with a lesson he can teach at the aquarium. He has a great idea and shown me some neat new technology. I'm pretty excited to put it to work, especially because I put it in my workplan to use more technology in our programs. I think this will work well with our smart board.

Nicole came down to visit this weekend. We had the most beautiful visit to the beach.

The water was absolutely flat and I played with my waterproof digital camera.

Kathryn was there too. All three of us went to high school together and now we're all in NC. Go figure.

In other news, I'm waiting for a new kitten. I decided to get charlie a friend. We've been waiting for him to go to the vet and get checked out because he just got there the day before I went to visit. The lady is bad about returning phone calls. Hopefully I can get him this weekend. I'm calling him Spartacus.

I'm also taking an online grad class this week. This is so I can drop my Monday class next semester. The head of my program has asked me if I want to teach an actual class this semester instead of the lab. I guess there's 1000 students on a waiting list to get into the class. The biggest I'd be able to teach would be 200 students. It'd be a night class so I can do it around work and they'd give me all the lectures and powerpoints since I won't have time to make them. But I'd be teaching a college level class. I think it's pretty cool because I think I may want to teach college somewhere down the road and this will be a good way to really decide that. It's not for sure yet because the school has to approve it... so keep your fingers crossed....

So life, as usual, is pretty wonderful. :-)

New Job

Today was my first day at the aquarium as a full time employee. It's the first place I've ever worked where I've gotten promoted as opposed to hired fresh. So it was an interesting introductory day. Everyone I've worked with in the past was really glad to know that I was hired. It was a great day. I spent most of it going through what the last educator left for me. I'm going to move into the office pretty slowly since I have to paint the office before I really settle in. It's currently lime green. It definitely keeps you awake.

In other news, we've started playing volleyball again. We actually won a game last night. I scored about 6 points on one serve. It was pretty fun. I went to a winery called Noni Bacca on Sunday with my friend Velu. It was a lot of fun. They do free tastings every day but they had free food on Sunday. After that we met up with some girls at Fibber McGee's. They were doing half price bottles of wine so the girls had a good time. I was driving but still had a lot of fun. Earlier in the weekend my old roommate Dan and I checked out a new bar called Whiskey Creek that's very close to both of our houses. We may go again with the rest of the team after volleyball tonight.

I chopped off my hair before I came back to NC. It's really cute and much more comfortable. Mom and I had a great time at the farm and I wish I had had more time at the lake but my trip home was wonderful. So now I'm going to work on getting into the swing of things at the Aquarium. Live is so very very good. I quoted one of my favorite authors the other night. She talks about the full cupboard feeling: the way you feel when it's snowing outside but the cupboard is full of all your favorite things and you don't have to go out in it. I am so happy lately. I sat in the pool reading the other day and watching the wind blow through the palm trees. It doesn't get much better than this.

Home Sweet Home

This weekend was pretty low key following the announcement of my job. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday at work. We closed early on Sunday to have staff bonding on the north end of Carolina Beach. We drove out onto the beach with a truck full of surfboards and paddle boards. I was going to try out the standup paddle board but the wind was so rough that even the surfers who have lots of practice were having trouble so I opted out.

Monday morning I got up bright and early to fly home. Yesterday we spent most of the day catching up. I also got to see the new house my parents bought. Today we got to do a lot of work on the house. I raked, dug up weeds, helped my dad cut and put up bead board in the new bathroom. The house will look great when we're all done. I'm looking forward to the party this Saturday. Erin comes home tomorrow and then the gang will be all here :-) Stay tuned for all the Ennes Family Adventures.

Ta Da!

So on to that news I've been alluding to for a while now. I am pleased to announce that as of today I am the newest full time educator at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. I had my interview a few weeks ago and felt really good about it. I had to give a 15 minute presentation on anything in the world. I chose freshwater mussels. It was a great presentation if I do say so myself. I taught the director of education something new and turned Ruth, the other educator, into a mussel. She loved it so much she asked if she could have the program. So I've been reading into everything they've said for the last couple weeks trying to figure out what they were saying. So I start June 2 after my trip home. I get my own office and I even get to paint it! It's currently neon green. So we'll have to calm that down. So YAY! When I graduate I get to stay in Wilmington. I am so happy. I've tried to downplay this and not get too excited because I was afraid to jinx it. But worry no longer!

In other news, today was Painted Bunting day at the Aquarium. Dr. Rotenberg, who I'm working with next semester for my project, was catching and banding painted buntings today. They caught one before I got there but it was already banded. Here are some shots from the day.

The hand painted sign showing a painted bunting

The cage we use to trap the buntings, it's similar to a crab trap, easy in, hard to get out.

The tools used to band the birds. each bird gets its own combo of 4 bands for id

A male painted bunting chilling on the ground. They like shrubs so they don't hang out on the ground often.

And finally, one of the many flower shots I took today

Last of the American Girls

I spent today at the aquarium. I taught a bunch of 4 year olds about turtles and then bounced around the aquarium waiting to dive the 2:30. I was glad I had my camera with me because I was able to take a lot of fun pictures today. They moved the alligators back into their enclosure after 6 weeks of renovations. They're very happy to be able to get out of the water for a while. They started bellowing at one point which was really neat. I tried to get my camera in time to tape it but I missed it. It was crazy. The male's bellow is so low it does a rain dance with the water. The water on his back jumps out in drops. It was really neat to watch and listen to.

I spent a lot of time talking to husbandry today. I love hearing what they are doing behind the scenes and around the aquarium. We have a program where we give tadpoles to the local 5th grade classes and they raise them up to toads. We have to raise extras at the aquarium in case anything happens. It's a great program they use to teach the local students as well as to help a declining group of animals. We have all these tiny toads in varying stages of metamorphosis in the back.

We'll release them all once they're fully grown. That's just one of the many projects they have going on that the general public doesn't know about. We also have some animals behind the scenes that not everyone gets to see. This includes Wilson and Wilma, our wood ducks. The aquarium has a pair of wood ducks used for education. Their enclosure is hidden behind an exhibit but the staff is encouraged to go in and handle Wilson often in order to help him be a better education animal. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.

Yesterday and Monday were spent at the beach with a bunch of first graders playing on slippery rocks looking for animals and shells.

The tide was pretty high both days so we didn't find a whole lot except one crab and some sea anemones.

A lady came by and showed us a megalodon tooth she found on the beach. I was super jealous. It's on my life list: to find a meg tooth. I was debating going back after we dropped the kids off to look for one of my own. She said several people had found them. But as we walked back to the van I found a tooth of my own. I think it's a fossilized great white's tooth. I was thrilled. It was just sitting on top of the sand

It's not a perfect tooth but still pretty amazing. Life is pretty good. I have an amazing job.

The title of this post is brought to you by the greenday song I had in my head.

Strange Occurances

So I can't really say anything about the one thing that I'm really focused on right now but hopefully I'll know one way or the other soon. But until then, here's some silly things that have been happening in my life lately.

I turned in my final paper for my last class on Tuesday. Leaving campus I passed a golf cart driving down the sidewalk pulling a dolly with a washing machine on it. How trashy is that? I was going the wrong direction to get a picture.

I saw an Amish family at the beach hanging out under the pier. One of the girls even had her shirt sleeves rolled up. That same day I saw a crow sitting on someone's beach chair trying to get sun. There was also a couple of gay men taking glamor shots in several locations along our stretch of beach. They even brought wardrobe changes.

I served a sandwich the other day. When I set it down the girl looked at me and said "I thought I ordered a sandwich". I replied "you did". She picked up the top bun and says "I thought this was a bun". I looked at her with disbelieve and said "It is". Her answer was "oh". What do you say to that? Really?

I did a sleepover last night with a bunch of boy scouts. It was my second sleepover here at NCAFF and the other educator's second sleepover ever. We rocked it out. I thought the boys didn't pay any attention but today they kept asking me questions about things I had said yesterday when I thought they weren't listening. The parents loved my shark talk. (the kids did too).

The apartment is beautiful but there are still a few things I haven't found homes for so I haven't posted pictures.

I'm going home in a week. I will be there for 10 days. I can't wait to see my family. Colleen graduated from BSU yesterday and will be heading to FSU in the fall for grad school. Mom and dad are remodeling the new house. Hopefully it's done in time for the party in two weeks. I love my family and can't believe my trip home is only a week away. But for now it's off to bed so I can take some students to the rocky outcropping tomorrow at the aquarium.

Finished!

I finally printed off my 15 page paper that's due tomorrow. It marks the end of my first year of grad school. It was a pretty amazing year. Hopefully next year will be as great. Things are pretty wonderful around here. I'm working at the Surfhouse still. I'm now a manager with keys and everything. I start teaching camp at the aquarium pretty soon too. So it'll be a nice busy summer with lots of money rolling in (yah right ;-D)

I'm headed home to Indiana for 10 days at the end of the month for Colleen's graduation party. I'll hopefully be able to go play at the farm and the lake. I'm also going to the Sox game with my sisters. It's the longest I've been home since I moved to Tennessee.

I'm also waiting for some news. I'm not going to say anything til I hear for sure but keep your fingers cross and think good thoughts for me. The decision is being made tomorrow.

But for now I'm off to bed! Sorry for the scatterbrained post. I'll try better next time ;-)

Welcome Back

I know it's been a long time since I updated. Since my parents were here to be specific. Things got quite crazy since then. The end of the semester is always a busy time but this semester was particularly busy. I was taking 5 grad classes this semester and had a variety of things to finish up. I had an online class from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point that finished a couple weeks ago and then I had my last classes at UNCW on Thursday. I've given presentations, written websites (here), created new education programs on sea grass and plankton, and have my only final this Weds. I just have a 15 page paper to finish and the semester is over.

To add to the chaos I moved out of the zoo! I no longer have to take care of any pets except charlie. I moved across town closer to the aquarium. I'm not living in a 3rd floor apartment with vaulted ceilings, a fireplace, and no one above me! It's beautiful. I finished hanging the art yesterday and will finish picking up the odds and ends today so I can post pictures tomorrow.

I started working at the aquarium as a special activities instructor and had my first sleepover since I left Tennessee this weekend. It was interesting to see how the two compared to each other. The ones here are much more laid back. I'm also waiting to hear back from the aquarium about the full time job I applied for. Keep your fingers crossed for me. The application process closed on the 7th so they should be moving along.

I celebrated my birthday the day my parents left. I'm now 26. I bought myself a ring as a gift. I had a beautiful ring from Tennessee that the stone fell out of the setting and got lost. I was very upset until I saw a store in town here that sold the same cut but in real stones. So I ordered one. It finally showed up and is absolutely beautiful.

After my parents left I took a Wilderness First Aid Class at UNCW. It was a lot of fun. I am now able to put people back together when they fall down in the woods. The pictures we took were pretty funny. I fell off the mountain twice in two days and broke my leg both times:

They put me back together with a camping pad and other assorted odds and ends. Other than that I've been keeping my nose to the grindstone and staying busy. I was worried about all the work I had due and managed to get most of it done way ahead of schedule.

Today is bright and sunny. I have one of my favorite dresses on and drove to school with the top down. I had to come to school today because one of my students skipped her final and her final presentation. She claims she was sick and has a drs note so I can't just fail her... I'm not sure I'm cold hearted enough to fail her anyway. So I had to make up a new test and here I am. Tonight I'm taking a class at Halyburton Park on frogs and frog calls. It should be fun.

Mom and Dad Come for a Visit

Mom and dad arrived on Friday night. They had a hard time getting here. There was an ice storm in Ohio and snow in West Virginia. They finally pulled up about 6 after leaving about the same time on Thursday. We celebrated their arrival by going to eat at the Dockside down on the intracostal waterway. Then we called it an early night since they had been on the road so long.

Saturday morning we got up to go to the Fire in the Lakes festival in Boiling Springs Lakes. It was pretty lame but surprisingly we met someone who's aunt and uncle own a home on Lake Webster just around the corner from our lake house. Then he had his buddy come over since I had just spent a week in Bermuda with his sister. What a small world. We chatted with my friends from class who work for the Nature Conservancy who were helping out at the festival. Tracy let me hold their snake.

It's a partially albino corn snake. The festival was really lame so we left to go geocaching. There were several in Boiling Springs Lakes but we only found two. One was at the boat ramp and the other was at "Sammy's House". This is Sammy.

After we finished our geocaching we went to have lunch at my mother's favorite restaurant.

The provision company. It was pretty chilly but the food was great as always. On the way home we stopped by the Orton Plantation Gardens. All we saw were a few alligators. They were so cute.

We ran home and took a nap. Then we went downtown Wilmington to go on the Haunted Pub Crawl. There were some good stories. Our guide looked like Hagrid. His name was Stan

We ended the night in Blue Post in the alley.

We ended the evening at my favorite Sushi restaurant in Wilmington: Nikki's.

Today we woke up early to head to the aquarium. I was diving at 10:30 and 2:30. I swung them by my new apartment so they'll know where to find me next month ;-) It was a good thing I showed up since the rest of the dive team called out.

My sign says "Hi Mom!" Mom and dad walked through the aquarium while I was getting ready. They got to meet Wilson and Wilma, our wood ducks

After the first dive we went up to the Surf House so they could see my other job. We met Marcia for lunch. She and my mom went to high school together and haven't seen each other since they graduated.

We let them catch up and Dad and I took Marcia's jeep out on the North End of Carolina Beach. Dad did a great job driving on the sand.

We also got some copies of the pictures the aquarium took of us.

This one is mom's favorite:

Mom and dad went hiking during my second dive to enjoy the sun. We stopped by the grocery store on the way home to fill my fridge with enough food for dinner. Now everyone's relaxing from all the fun so we can start again tomorrow. Vacations are hard work :-)

Happy Wednesday to you too

Today started off very productive. I took my time getting out of bed because I didn't have to be anywhere until 3. So after walking to dogs I got down to house cleaning. Mom and dad will be here on Friday and I've been very lax about things since I've gotten back from Bermuda. But the house looks lovely now. I considered started packing up some things I won't need in the next month, but I don't want to trip over it for the next couple weeks.

I had an appointment at 3 on campus so I took the dogs out early. There was a small dog sitting in our driveway with no one around so I sat the dogs down behind a bush and waited for it to wander off into the neighbors yard. Then I walked the dogs and kept their attention so they didn't notice it. Unfortunately, the neighbors saw me coming and started calling their dog. I tried to tell them not to, but they did and she came running at Kyle and Zoe.

So they started barking at the each other because Zoe (the dark dog) wants to play and Kyle's over protective. So I tried to keep walking and the neighbors started yelling at my dogs. I told them that it was their fault because their dog was off the leash and to please quit talking to me like that. The neighbor said he was talking to Kyle. I pointed out that through extension he was speaking to me as well. So to end the situation, I walked away and went off on our walk.

Unfortunately as I came around the corner back to our house, we live at the end of a cul de sac, the neighbor's sister walks out into the road and into my path so I had to stop or run her over. She started yelling at me. I'm not even sure what she said. I explained that their dog was off the leash so I wasn't at fault. She tried to tell me that the dog had just run out of the house but if that was true they would have come to get her rather than letting it walk around the neighborhood. I didn't raise my voice with her. I remembered that much of my conflict management training. I didn't even argue with her. Even when she started accusing me of believing children should be on leashes too because that's what my landlady says. I pointed out that I'm not my landlady.

I was so upset I was shaking on the inside. The woman had 75+ lbs and several inches on me. I was very polite. She mentioned she was forty and I didn't tell her to act her age like I wanted to. She also gave me a perfect opportunity to ask her if she wanted a cookie, but I was afraid I'd get hit. Finally her brother, the dog owner, came out of the house and yelled at everyone in his family to get in the driveway. He asked them if they were a bunch of rednecks. His sister said yes, apparently, since they were loading up an RV in the driveway. I finished my walk. I was shaking by the time I got home. I am so tired of all my neighbors letting their dogs run loose and then taking it out on me when they start barking at each other. Thankfully I only have about three more weeks of walking the dogs. Tomorrow morning, then my landlady will be home next week, and the two or three weeks til I move. I'm counting down.

But even after this I still had to go to school. I drove with the top down since it's finally beautiful out. Then I mailed off my application today for a full time position at the local aquarium. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. If I get it, I'll most likely be staying in Wilmington. If I don't, it just means there's somewhere more fun and exciting that I'm supposed to be. But I'd love to stay. I also mailed off my camera to get it fixed so it will quit leaking underwater. And I mailed off my application for my North Carolina Education Certification so I can tell them with all honesty that I'm working on it if I get an interview at the aquarium.

Then as I was walking up to class a woman stopped me and told me I looked like summer. If that isn't enough to cheer you up, I don't know what is. I also got several compliments in my class on my dress. Tonight I team taught a class on GIS which is geographic information systems. Basically it combines different types of maps of the same place so you can look at the connections. For example you can look at how soil types affect your vegetation types. Well, it's a very complicated subject, they teach whole classes about it in my department, and we had to teach teachers how to use it in their classrooms. I had come up with an activity and a list of websites with great, simple GIS resources. The class and teacher loved it. He had never seen the sites we used and he was very impressed. I was a little nervous because it is so complicated and I wasn't sure they'd find it as interesting as my partner and I did. Thankfully they loved it.

So tomorrow's a new day. I'm teaching a very interesting lab this week that the students love. Then tomorrow night we're going out to celebrate birthdays. My friend turned 23 yesterday and I turn 26 next week, so we compromised and are having a big bash tomorrow. It should be fun. We're having the rum cake I brought back from Bermuda. It doesn't get much better than that.

What a week

It's been a busy week back. I've had several papers due this week so I've been a busy bee. Class on Wednesday was really exciting. It's a class called "Teaching Environmental Education with Technology". Basically we play with fun toys you should use when teaching like hand held microscopes that take digital pictures and video straight to your computer. This week we played with GPS devices and did a scavenger hunt around campus. We had to take goofy pictures at each of our locations. My groups won. My teacher said I was so creative I should go into environmental ed.... duh.

After that we had a guest speaker from the local alternative school. He talked about using a website about roadkill to teach math and science skills. After he finished talking I went to discuss an idea with him. When I was in Delaware for the Midatlantic Marine Educator's Association conference back in October there was a woman from another aquarium talking about a project she had started. She worked with the local juvenile delinquent center on the 7 ocean literacy principles (which I am also taking a class about). She taught them 8 times and any of the students who passed were allowed to become junior docents at their aquarium when they got out of the center. This way they would have a healthier place to spend their time. I've wanted to start something like that with our local aquarium and so I brought it up to this teacher. He said he would love to do a program like that and even if I don't have a place to teach, he'd still like me to come teach their class sometime anyway. So here's another big plan of mine. Maybe I'll change my project plan for next semester. We'll see.

After class I went down to the beach bars with my girlfriends for St. Patty's Day. We played a bunch of Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys on the jukebox but then people went back to slow sad music. It was very very chill that night. Thursday I went out for my friend's birthday and had a great time.

Friday I went apartment shopping before I went to work at Surfhouse. Then my friend came into town. She's been living in Brazil for the last two years so we went out to dinner and to Blue Post which is a very chill bar. They wouldn't let us bring in our ice cream though. I'm surprised none of us got sick. We had seafood with margaritas followed by ice cream and topped off with vodka cranberry. Yuck.

Saturday I got up and went to a Project Aquatic Wild workshop for part of my North Carolina Environmental Education Certification. It was a nice workshop other than I knew more about the animals than the instructor. I kept my mouth shut and didn't correct him when he gave wrong information. Who says I can't learn to keep my mouth shut? ;-) I went straight from school to see my friends again. We spent the rest of the afternoon laying out and drinking margaritas. It was great.

Today was spent at Surf House. It's been my third day back. Friday they asked me if I want to be the front of house manager for the summer. Of course! As long as I can work my schedule around the aquarium. I should hear from them this week as to whether or not they're hiring me for the summer. Then in April they should be having a full time job opening. We'll see. I finally told my landlady I'm moving next month. She took it extremely well. Much better than I expected. So now I can start working on that. I'm moving to Monkey Junction which is about halfway between school and work. I'll only be on campus one day a week next semester so I don't need to be so close and I don't want to drive an hour each way to work this summer. So it's a happy medium.

So now I'm going to have dinner with my girls again before Jess heads back to Brazil. Mom and dad will be here Friday for a week and I can't wait. It's been another wonderful week in paradise. A girl in my class on Weds told me I live a charmed life. I do and I'm so thankful for it.

Home again

Yesterday was our last day in Bermuda. We woke up to rain, which was fine with us since we had to spend all day inside listening to everyone's final presentations. They were surprisingly interesting since we were all talking about the same thing. I went 9th and was really excited because noone else had given a presentation on my topic yet... until the guy right before me. Go figure. We look at the data very differently so our presentations were very different. I was really bummed though because my font had changed when I moved the file from my computer to the presentation one. And some of my colors were messed up... but people asked a lot of questions and I was able to answer them all so I was happy. After lunch we took a group photo then it was time to head off to the airport.

The flight home was uneventful until we went from Atlanta to Wilmington. The kid sitting behind me was drunk before he got on the plane and was obnoxious the whole way home. And the stewardess served him more alcohol on the plane.... it went downhill from there. Pretty irritating.... but really, if that was the only irritating part of the trip, I'm very lucky. I got to see all the animals I was looking for while we were there. We had an amazing time. All of the students were really nice. And everyone got along well. The group I worked with all week was very organized and we got our projects planned quickly and were able to complete them. The other group had a harder time. It was an issue of too many top dogs...
I've posted about 600 of the 1400 pictures I took while I was in Bermuda. Here are the links
Album 1
Album 2
And the Aquarium
Now that I'm back I have two papers to write that are due tomorrow and Tuesday. I also start back to work at Surf House tomorrow. So things will be going back to normal. But normal for me is exciting for everyone else. Life is so good. My family is very blessed. Colleen finally got word that she was accepted to Florida State for grad school. It was her first choice and all the other schools had wait listed her. We had just talked earlier today about how she would get in where she was supposed to be and sure enough :-) She and I have been talking about her possibly coming to stay with me for a while this summer. It would be lots of fun. But for now, I've wasted enough time and have work to do... I can't blame it on island time any more :-)

Running Wild in Bermuda

Since Ashley, Ben, Robert and I all finished our presentations last night we headed out into Bermuda today. We hopped the bus and went off to the aquarium. The rest of the group weren't so sure they wanted to go because they hadn't heard very good reviews about it. Being the nerd I am, the aquarium was the one site I've been waiting for all week. Their minds were quickly changed when we met the doormen.

There were five Green Sea turtles just chilling in a pool out in front of the aquarium. Ashley kept petting them. We walked into the aquarium and I was overwhelmed for a moment. I love new aquariums so much I never know where to start. One of the first exhibits had 11 gray triggerfish in it. I couldn't believe they had that many

I took so many pictures and I can't wait to post them all, but for now we're doing a highlight of my trip to the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo. Also known as BAMZ! Which is why I've had Black Betty (bam da dam) stuck in my head all day today. They had a lovely common octopus who came out of his hole and let me take his picture.

There was a lovely full wall exhibit with all sorts of beautiful fish in it: black durgeons, cowfish, and even a couple that go by the name puddingwife. Apparently one of the grouper in this exhibit is named Darth Vader. He likes to be scratched... I overheard an employee giving some donor a private tour.... I thought about seeing if they noticed that I joined them....

We were chasing around a shark but he wouldn't come close enough for a good picture. The hogfish on the other hand was being a diva. He kept posing for pictures.

It was hard but we finally left the aquarium to enter the zoo. Waiting to welcome us were the harbor seals that were chilling while their tank got cleaned.

The next building we entered had local animals in it along with a touch tank. I found another one of the animals I would have loved to see, a zebra sea slug. The hot pink spirals in the picture are actually egg cases. The sea slug is the yellow thing on the bottom left.

Right next to that guy was a giant sea anemone with a teeny tiny shrimp. He was impossible to photograph but I got him on the first try, it was the only pic worth while.

We left the local house and headed off to reptiles. Reptiles included one snake and one giant American alligator. This guy what about 3 feet wide and 10 feet long. He was a monster

There was a peacock or two hanging out that Ashley kept trying to chase around. I did my peacock impression but they didn't respond. This guy was headed to hang out with the chickies in the flamingo pond.

There were some parrots and tamarinds. The problem was that their enclosures had this mesh fencing that my camera kept wanting to focus on. That was the problem with the alligator. So here's the best I could get with the fence in the way.

Then we saw some of the biggest Galapagos tortoises ever. They were just chilling in the sun. Then we headed into the Australia building where we saw mouse deer and Asian river otters. They were so cute!  

 Then we walked through some water falls and looked at some more turtles. Then we came to the most interesting animal of the day: The bearcat. I've heard of the bearcat as a mascot but who knew they were real?

He was really hard to take pictures of because of the stupid mesh. He kept pushing on it to come out and play with us. Past the bearcat we saw a tree kangaroo... all these animals are so confused.... The peacock was there again and Ashley tried to go offroading to catch up with him.

Then we entered the aviary. I was so excited to see scarlet ibises everywhere! There were also roseate spoonbills a cattle heron and a night heron.

I chased them around taking lots of pictures. We left that area and found the wallabys. They were really cute. That brought us out of the zoo and into the natural history museum which was very interesting as well. By that point it was way past time for lunch so we hopped back on the bus and headed into Hamilton.

We had lunch at Mr. Chicken, which surprisingly served a much larger selection than just chicken. Then we wandered around the city. We found Fort Hamilton and were very devastated to find that all the best areas were gated and inaccessible. They were supposed to be open til 4 but since it's offseason I guess everyone left early. We were mostly upset about the gardens being closed.

Now I know my family's asking why we didn't go any way, but it's hard to break in through steel bars and the only other way down was to jump off a 20 foot bridge. The garden was in the moat. We found all the big guns that were there and took some pictures. I'm ready to fire!

We got some great shots of the city from up here as well. The city hall had a really cool weather vane that was on top of the building as well as designed to look like a clock on the side of the building as well.

Then we went to look at the big cathedral in the city.

For three dollars you could buy a ticket to tour the tower. There was noone there as the visitor center was closed for the day. We found the door to the tower which was open and let ourselves in. We hiked up about 100 tiny stone steps in a spiral staircase. The door at the top was bolted shut but we figured it out and got out on the roof of the tower (see, you doubted my breaking and entering skills... although I'm not sure it counts if the doors were open). It was beautiful.

We wanted to catch the four oclock bus back to BIOS to beat the rush hour traffic on the buses. All of the school children ride public transportation to school so it was crowded anyway. In fact, the bus we rode to the aquarium was packed with students going on a field trip. I thought it was really cute. They didn't get to go to the aquarium which I'm kinda glad about. So we met back up with everyone and took the bus back to the base. Tonight we're packing and practicing our presentations for tomorrow. After that it's back off to the states. It's been such a great trip and unlike some trips I'm not ready to leave yet.... though I could do with some clean clothes. I didn't believe them when they said it was going to be cold so I've been wearing my only sweatshirt all week.... But what a trip it was. Final count as of tonight: 1382 pictures taken :-) I can't wait to get home and upload them all.... I guess we'll have to edit down some. Now it's time to pack and head off to the Passing Wind (the pub) one more time. Next post will be back stateside. Sigh