I finally returned back to Buffalo Friday night after a week and a half of research/lab in the Florida keys. The weather was amazing. We basically worked every day. Most days went something like this:

5:45am wake up
6:30 lab prep at the dock outside the hotel
7-8 traveling to dive site and getting set up
The day included about 4-5 different dives into different waters to take sediment and water samples as well as to observe the fish, coral, plant and creature populations.
5-5:30: arrival back at the hotel for shower and to make dinner
7:30 back to the lab to run tests on the data, make species list of what we ovserved during the day and analyze data
10-11 hopefully finishing up lab work and then...
FREE TIME! - which basically meant hanging out til you couldn't keep your eyes open anymore because that 5:45 wake up comes pretty darn early!

All and all the experience was amazing. I must say though it really did toughen me up a lot. Most dive sites were pretty dangerous and the waters were filled with barracudas, sea urchins, diadema (they look like black golf balls with 6inch spikes coming out of them), sting rays, jelly fish, sharks and many other poisonous corals and creatures.

A few people got hurt including katrina who had her foot impaled by a sea urchin but she survived and is fine now. I had the usual pretty deep scratches, cuts and bug bites but was able to remain relatively healthy.

Obviously after a week and a half I have accumulated quite the collection of stories; however, there are far too many to type. For me the best experience on the trip was the trip to looe key where we went about 10 miles out into the open ocean on a reef dive. The water was as clear as water coming out of a kitchen sink and you were about to see about 30 down to the bottom without any problems. The coral systems, plants and fish were absolutely amazing and it is an experience I will remember forever. I was literally in awe of the whole thing. The barracudas were about 4 feet long and some of the fish were literally about 20 pounds.

But to top it off, there were sharks at the reef. My biology teacher said that in all her 35 years of diving at looe key this was only the third time that she saw sharks. Well lucky me. Sharks and fish as probably my biggest fears and I thought I was handling myself really well throughout the whole trip. I was obviously very scared but I think one of the best cures for a phobia is to face your fears. I didn't go out of my way to swim where the shark was; however, as me and katrina separated a bit from the rest of the group and were snorkeling a 6 foot shark swam within about 5 feet of us. Hopefully my pictures of it will come out and I will be able to post them. It was really scary but also amazing.

So I'm glad to be back home and see everyone that I missed; however, I did have an amazing time! This was one spring break I won't forget anytime soon.

Here is a picture of the group of people that i went with. I case you can't tell, Im the one in the pink/orange tank top in the bottom row and katrina is next to me in the yellow and blue trimmed tank top.

uh oh. i think i officially have it. while walaboo ((e:mike)) claims to of had it since freshmen year, I think I have finally caught it...and possibly the worst case ever. I'm not sure if its a combination of graduating and just wanting to be finished with everything or with other new stuff in my life...but whatever it is, I can't seem to get my work done for school.

The good news is I have decided which grad program to apply for at Roswell/UB and am going to force myself to get the application out before I leave for the Florida Keys next week. That way I wont have anything to worry about except getting eaten by fish.

The bad news is I am doing terrible the semester in everything. Like so terrible it is embarassing. I have been doing so well too since after soph year. It seems like a shame to quit now with only 3 months left, yet why can't I seem to get stuff done? I think half of the problem is that the classes I am taking now have nothing to do with what I want to go for grad school for or have anything to do with later in life. I took all of my biology classes that I was interested in already so right now I am in marine biology (which i will forget everything come may 21st), and 2 computer science classes (large scale programmin and databases), and some honors classes. I need the computer science classes for my bioinformatics major, but decideing to major in bioinformatics as well as biology only helped me to realize how much I like biology better than programming or computers. I guess its a good thing to find out what you like; however, looking back on all the programming classes I had to take for that major and countless hours spent in front of a computer screen just doesn't seem to make the lesson worthwhile.

Oh well everything else is going well so maybe I will be able to get my act together soon. haha we'll see. If you don't see me walking across that stage at the end of may then you will know what happened. haha just kidding. its not that bad! :)

You wanted a picture of snow on trees (e:julie)... well here it is. you miss it? You should bc snow is sooo pretty and so much fun! :-) That is except for the fact that it made me a half hour late to my first class... oops. who needs to learn about data structures anyways haha. ENJOY!

I just want to thank you (e:ajay) for helping me out and giving me the link to download The OC. I don't know how you did it but thank you a billion times! It was one of the best episodes of the season.

Since everyone knows I like to add in pictures, here is one:



This is a happy me in front of the computer downloading the episode when I found (e:ajay) was going to help me out.

Thanks again!

Wow. i seriously don't think i've ever had a week with so much stuff going on. It was absolutely insane. like every possible test/paper/presentation was all this week. Good new is, its over! I gave my last biology seminar today on the immune system response in the elderly. It went well. Not as good as my previous one, but it was ok. THe material was much harder, so maybe thats why i was more nervous. Anyways...its good to have this week behind me.

Although, I do have 2 computer science projects that are now going to be over 2 weeks late. I just can't seem to figure out the code and really wish i didn't have to. Oh well. No time this weekend for that. I work everyday and then im sure will go out at night

Tonight i went ice skating. who would of thought the difference it would make to sharpen your skates. i didn't even fall and it was tons of fun :)

Oh yeah, and i just got my first ticket. A parking ticket mind you but still. I was parked outside on the street in tonawanda and got a ticket. who goes ticketing cars for being on the street when it isn't even snowing out...it makes no sense. i guess that makes it an expensive date. haha oh well..i guess there's a first for everything.

anyways, things are lookin up and im happy...even though I have no clue what I'm gonna do in 3 months when im outta school :- oh well. i guess i just have to take things as they come...