Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Time Flies When Your Having Fun
Another one of my favorite spots was Robert is Here, which was a produce market on the way to the Everglades. We stopped there on the last day before our flight. Not only was there large suckulant fruit, they also had delicious smoothies. My favorite part of the market was that there was a petting zoo in the back housing a large amount of animals. It had chickens, turtles, goats, cows, geese, rams, even emus. This provided a nice sanctuary for these animals because some had phyiscal disabilities. Besides from the food, my other favorite part of the trip was just having the free time in between things that were scheduled to mingle with my class mates and getting to know them better. Key West was the place for this and I utilized every minute we had. I even met some people from Jersey. One bartender at the Flying Monkey went to culanary school at ACC, so that was cool to see people from New Jersey aren't stuck there. Overall the trip was a blast and I would do it again.
A once in a lifetime experience
Life's Just Not the Same Without Sargassum in my Hair
Nicole Ertle
Day 1 back home
Waking up to the feeling of rocking in a boat, my eyes adjust to the room around me. I'm back in Jersey and it's bittersweet. Curious about the thunderstorms last night, I open the weather app and it shows me Islamorada, Florida. My heart skips a beat as I program Toms River, NJ to get my local weather. There is a strange transition coming back home from South Florida and my experience with the tropical ospreys. Sam sums it up in her "time warp" blog written a few days ago. A parallel universe feeling of time stopping while we were away. Speaking of Sam, there was no milkshake song to wake me up today...
As I go about my day, I'm flooded with memories of the trip. Not quite preoccupied but definitely somewhat nostalgic. I'm incorporating some things from the trip into my life. I'm pleasantly surprised by just how few items I really need. Some people made the mistake of overpacking, which just may be a human tendency, but a few friends and I got around okay with just bringing a 'personal item' on the plane with us. Spirit gives the dimensions for such an item as not to exceed 18x14x8. The phone jail that existed during meal times was a clever way to encourage peer interaction and can be mimicked by just tossing the devices in a bowl during dinner, like our TA Matt does with his friends at home.
To any student contemplating registering for this course, I highly recommend it. It is a two fold experience with the preparation course in the spring, followed by the field course in the summer. The experience is what you make of it. The more studying of flash cards made to identify fish, coral, and algae, the more satisfying it is to recognize them in the field. Remember that despite the incredible adventures and casual banter, we represent Stockton University and are being graded by both a University professor and student TA. Keep in mind that our professor knows a lot of people in the marine science field and has the right to share her opinion of us with them. I found it best to delve right in to the sticky, buggy paradise that is Florida, keeping an open mind and absorbing the experience.
I've learned a lot more about marine science and where I see myself in the field. As much I have always loved dolphins, I have grown a fondness for marine macroalgae. I feel fortunate to have collected some specimens of my own, and may have gotten just a tad over excited when Dr. Z offered me some of her herbarium paper to mount my algae, along with lending me This trip was one for the books! I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'll never go to the beach again without my snorkel gear!
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Fun Factoids!
What I learned in Boating School is….
Monday, June 12, 2017
The Kayaking Squad - Our Hour Adventure
The Kayaking Squad - Our Hour Adventure
What a 'horrible' day... |
Selfie Time! |
TA Matt too shy for pictures... |
Erika and Toni showing the peace and love! |
What year is it?? The warp of TMB
Can you imagine having so much fun that you completely forget what day it is? That is how the majority of this amazing trip has gone. Hours turn into days, days turn into weeks, and this week felt like it was a month. Going to lunch after landing in Fort Lauderdale feels like it was last month. I have been mixing up excursions with different days. At least twice a day I ask my roommate Nicole what day of the week it is. The exhaustion of all of the life altering outings makes it feel almost like a dream that we got to experience all of this! I'm sad to say that our journey is almost over and that tomorrow we will be slapped with the harsh world of reality when our plane lands back on Jersey soil.
To think, last week we barely knew each other and now I walk away from this trip with 10 new friends who know entirely too much about one another. From singing in the car together, playing heads up, and evenly applying sunscreen... I think its safe to say were pretty close now! When you experience such an amazing thing, you will never forget the people were there when it happened. Today was the icing on the cake when we traveled to Bahia Honda together and we kind of broke off to do our own things but everyone was so excited to share with one another what they did when we all reconvened back at our smelly, sandy, and smoldering van which we have grown to love! Erika, Toni, Dana and our TA Matt went kayaking, Kristen and Marissa went sunbathing, Caroline, Nicole and I went snorkeling, and Shaun lifeguarded us as we swam with the fishes.
How lucky are we that we had such an awesome instructor who wanted to share with us all of the excitement that is tropical marine biology? Dr. Z showed us Southern Florida through a scientists eyes and it left us with a new respect for what it is that we want to do in life and how we can achieve the goals that we set for ourselves. Every excursion had a lesson and every person we met had a story. From Derek, our shark tagging expert, to Sky, our dive boat captain, we got to see first hand how important conservation is and how lucky we are to see these species while they are still here and what we can do to preserve these for future generations. As we pack our bags and scurry to finish our field notebooks, these are the thoughts going through my mind. Thank you all for making this such a wonderful experience and I can't imagine it without a single one of you. A special shout out to my amazing roommate who has become a friend for life and someone who put up with my craziness all week!