Run of the Mill Update

I have several small bits of news. This time I will provide plenty of visuals!

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to work for the dive shop again. It began as a transportation job but turned into me being an unofficial guide so that I could dive for free. I happened to bring my camera along because for me, it was a free fun dive and I had no official responsibilities until deciding to be the unofficial guide for the customers. We arrived at the first site and were told there was a bit of a current. Little did we know it was absolutely ripping. The short swim from the boat to the descent line proved to be so difficult that I had to rescue several customers, two people bailed before going down, another one panicked, and the remainder of the divers had about a third of a tank of air before descending. Once we reached the bottom, the current

Diving the Neptune

was much weaker but remained quite noticeable. The dive was actually nice in the end despite the incessant battle against the current. One of the divers had a great time, one got seasick, and the others hid their anger pretty well. It turns out the boat captain got a stinging furious online review from one of them the next day for taking us to the site with so much current.


Living in Coconut Grove

Artist explains her pieces to an art show-goer

(a quaint village in the heart of south-central Miami) has tons of perks. Small shops thrive here, it's the only truly pedestrian friendly area within miles, there are great restaurants and bars, residents get discounts from said eateries, and there is an annual arts festival of biblical proportion. Natalie and I went on Saturday. I knew the crowd was going to be large but I had no idea it would be in the thousands. Judging by the distance we covered and how thick the crowds were, I would guess there were upwards of 10,000 people there at any given point during our

One of many very crowded streets.

time there. The streets were shut down and filled to capacity with tents, people, and wonderful art from all over the country. I didn't make any purchases as the cheapest thing I could find was a small print for 75 dollars. In all honesty, I have no use for art now anyway so it's a good thing I didn't find anything worth buying. Don't get me wrong: there were some incredible pieces on display.

I've ragged on Ohio before; I know this. However, I willingly chose to stay there for 4 years of undergrad. To this day I don't regret going to Denison for a minute. It is a great school and I had a fulfilling experience there. Despite our incredible athletic program, one of the things Denison lacked was school spirit and nationally televised sporting events. Well what the University of Miami lacks in Physics department and close-knit programs, it easily makes up for in sports.

Shooting a free throw

A week and a half ago I attended my first college basketball game of my life and had an absolute blast. We lost to Duke (current national champions) but it was a good game and the atmosphere was electric making the experience well worth every bit.

I am a chair for an event coming up called Ocean Awareness Week and while you may hear me talk about it in the next post or two, I would rather not think about it right now.

Things with Natalie are going very well.

At the bowling alley

We're getting along swell and still learning new things about each other. This whole dating thing is really neat after all.

Finally, my job in Dr. Glynn's lab is going very well. I'm so productive that Dr. Glynn (THE Dr. Glynn who is world-famous in the coral world and THE Dr. Glynn who will be writing my letters of recommendation) invited me to lunch. I have no pictures from that but I hope to continue to make him happy for as long as I'm working for him.

Keep my cousin Claibourne in your prayers as she is going through pregnancy complications and almost had to deliver the baby two months early today.

Well, until next time, thanks for tuning in. That's All, Folks!

Why I Love My Life, Chapter 51,459

Friday and Sunday were the first two days of my internship with the shark lab. I would like to fill you in on what happened. Details specific to equipment and the catching process are difficult to explain and not quite as crucial to the experience so please forgive my lack of detail in those areas. I was picked up at 6am and rode to the station in Islamorada (southwest of Key Largo) an hour and a half away.

There is something to be said about warmth being breathed into the dark canvas overhead set in front of innumerable scattered palm trees. As the sun turned the sky from dark to a gradual orange glow, the silhouette of the trees literally took my breath away. I could not stop staring out the window in silent bewilderment at the beauty of the dawning day which held untold excitement.

From Islamorada, the boat ride to the Everglades took about an hour at top throttle and I bid my time with rest, conversation, and hypnotizing myself by staring at the boat's wake for miles. Nearing the destination, we baited the hooks with large chunks of fish about the size of softballs. The moment before picking up the first fish steak was the last time until the evening my hands were not covered with blood, guts, scales, and fish stench. I happily wiped as much as I could onto my pants almost as if it was a ceremonial moment in my life as an intern: the first stain of honor on my clothes.

The bait is attached to a hook that is attached to a large weight (we wouldn't want the fish at the surface where the birds can scavenge it all) which is then attached to a buoy. When we came back around to the first line the real fun began. At the end of our line was a lemon shark as big as I am. My duties had been explained to me but I'm the type of person that likes to see everything in action before it makes sense. However, I'm also the type of person to jump into anything if I think I know what's going on so I grabbed the sling (imagine a 7ft long, 3-4ft diameter orange pipe with a little give to it that's been cut in half long-way and had ropes attached to the edges). I put the sling in the water and held it in place as instructed. With a lot of hassle on the tiny lower platform, the team was able to pull the shark into the sling while it was still thrashing.

Laura measuring a lemon shark

When there are 5 people on a platform confined to about 3ft by 5ft trying to pull a heavy shark onto the deck, it gets rather crowded and hectic. Luckily we managed to keep everyone on the boat and successfully bring the shark up to us. As soon as we pulled her to the deck, the team pounced on her. The first thing to be done was to put a pump into her mouth that flows water over the gills and gives something to bite down on. As long as there is water flowing across her gills, the shark will be able to get a healthy supply of oxygen. Just as we had planned, 3 measurements were made, small fin and tissue samples were taken, 2 tags were attached, and the shark was released. This was the first time I had ever laid my hands on a living shark larger than 3 feet and I will not forget it anytime soon. Over the course of the day I began taking on responsibilities without being asked. If I had it my way, I'd be doing most of it (a testament to how much I love doing the dirty work), but that would make me a pretty lousy team player, wouldn't it. I continued to feel more comfortable around the team, boat, equipment, and especially the sharks and even though it meant waking up at 5:45 it was totally worth it. Between Friday and Sunday, we caught, measured, sampled, tagged, and released 8 lemons, 6 nurses, 2 bulls, one Atlantic sharpnose, one blacktip, and a hammerhead. I love my job.

In other news, my more or less sparse romantic life has taken an exciting turn. Last semester I met this girl named Natalie. Right away I thought she was someone that I could see myself being good friends with. Alas, our paths did not cross very frequently the first semester although we did leave for break after sharing lunch that lasted literally 6 hours. After coming back from break, we hung out much more and when we couldn't work out a time to meet up for lunch I cleverly suggested that we may as well just go for dinner instead. Well, things started to really click form there and before I knew it I had blurted out that I thought it would be a good idea to start dating. A week has gone by and things are going even better than I had expected. She's a senior at UM from southern California, impressively bright, only 2-3 inches shorter than I am, outgoing, adventuresome, and loads of fun to be with. Eventually I'll post a picture but until then my description will have to suffice.

My first picture with Natalie

This will do until we get a better one together.

In other other news, my uncle Rick is back home from the hospital. He's not out of the woods because he still has the kidney stone that was there when everything started, but all the other complications have more or less been taken care of and he's recovering in the comfort of his own home. Thanks for the support.

Bits&Pieces

This is not to say that I've been dismembered, but rather that I'm going to fill you in with tidbits of my life as of late.

School:

I decided to change my schedule around and I am now auditing Thermodynamics (finally math and physics again!!!!!). It's still early, but it just doesn't seem as if it will be anywhere near the standard that the Denison Physics Department was. You never know how good you have it until you don't have it anymore. My other class (best class of my life) is called Research Techniques in Diving which is a graduate level course that covers a wide variety of diving skills in the context of scientific research. I will be honing and perfecting my skills as a diver as well as learning how to properly collect data underwater. I am super excited.

Work:

I will be working Tuesdays and Thursdays in Dr. Glynn's lab where I'll classify marine invertebrates just like last semester. I was accepted for the internship position with Dr. Hammerschlag's shark lab and will spend several weekends (primarily just occasional Fridays) going out on the boats doing who knows what. The schedules were set today and it turns out that I'll have much more free time on weekends than I thought which leaves plenty of time to work in the dive shop on the side if I so choose.

Climbing:

I am now an official part of the UM Climbing Club! It's going to be the best 50 dollars I've spent in a very long time. The money covers my intro lesson, a club jersey, rental gear, a 50% discount on climbing shoes, and 5 months of unlimited access to the largest climbing gym in the state. What more could I ask? I had my crash course this afternoon and climbed for about 30 minutes at which point my forearms were throbbing. No pain no gain, eh?

In other news:

I have an uncle who has been spending a lot of time in the hospital to have a kidney stone removed. Please keep him in your prayers.

Southern Migration

For much of my life, I've had a mediocre to grim outlook on the state of Ohio. As a child, it represented the wedge that separated me from my beloved hometown and friends of Charleston. As an adult, it represents the geographic void between the east coast and the great plains marked by rolling hills, corn, a river that once caught fire, and the one and only gem that is Cedar Point. All said, I know that I am a bit hard on the buckeye state. I have more loyalty to WV and love it dearly but to be fair, Ohio really is a wonderful place to raise a family and go to school. It's not a state in which I will ever reside again for as long as I live, but it has a lot going for it and it is home to a lot of good people.

Mom and Dad sending me off

I am putting Ohio in the spotlight because it is where I spent a large portion of my winter break. After returning on the 23^rd of December (a 4-month absence), I managed to meet up with a good portion of high school and college friends as well as a number of family members from my father's side of the family. I wish that I could have spent more time with all of them but due to an upcoming interview on the 13^th, my departure was moved earlier. An interesting side note is that this break marked the longest amount of consecutive time at home since the summer of 2008.

My southern migration started with lunch in Columbus and dinner in Dayton with high school friends. I made it to Oxford by night, spent the next day there, and left the following morning for Charlotte, via Cincinnati. Due to a serious snow/ice storm in the southern states, I was forced to reluctantly alter my course. Instead of driving through Kentucky for the first time in my life, I re-routed myself through Charleston and onward down I-77. The logic here was that if in fact I became stranded and could go no farther, I could fall back on any of a number of contacts that I have along 77. Due to serious pressure from family members, I decided to change my plans such that I would spend the night in Charleston regardless of the weather conditions. At the moment of writing, I am currently in Charleston, freshly showered, significantly tired, and prepared go to Charlotte by morning.

All Roads Point North

Renee

I left my home in warm sunny Coconut Grove in search of family, friends, adventure, and unfortunately cold. Spirits were high as I was looking forward to being rewarded by Kristin's welcoming smile and hospitality in Atlanta. I heard rumors the night before that Renee, one of my best friends from my semester in South Africa was possibly in Atlanta at the same time. Up to this point, I have only seen one of my 18 other housemates from that semester.

Kristin

On the 12^th Since Renee is doing grad school in Cape Town, it was a shock that we were not only going to be in the same hemisphere, not only in the same country, not only in the same state, but in the same CITY at the same time. A phone call confirmed the rumor and I decided that I would figure out how to see both Renee and Kristin during my time there. Without disregard to my long-planned rendez-vous with Kristin, I talked to both of them and found it appropriate to hang out with Renee for dinner before going to stay with Kristin. Being able to see both of them was so great that I'm still happy about it a week and a half later.

From Atlanta I traveled northeast to Charlotte where I stayed with Mike's family (Mike is my sister Liza's fiance). While there, Liza and I took care of some shopping and all of us went out for a fantastic Vietnamese dinner. After a few nights I packed up and rolled on through the mountains up to Lynchburg, VA where I met up with family. I saw cousins, aunts, and uncles during my wonderful stay there and for the first time saw some stunning mountainscapes. Living in Miami has some disadvantages one of which is elevation. Let's just say if you draw Florida on a piece of paper, you instantly have a 3-D model of the lovely sunshine state. Anyway from VA I packed up and picked up Nathan from Charleston.

Typical scene when hanging out with Nathan.

Nathan is one of my college roommates and good friend from Denison. He lives only blocks from where I grew up and we most certainly would have crossed paths if I hadn't moved to Ohio. We headed up to his apartment together in Morgantown where he goes to school at WVU. That night was filled with hot chocolate, movies, reminiscing, and shooting each other with his extensive artillery of nerf guns. The fun finally ended when the clouds blocked our view of the mesmerizing lunar eclipse. Together we went out to Wisp Resort the next day in MD to ski. It ended up being a brilliant decision because there were hardly a hundred people on the entire mountain spread among 30 runs.

I was worried it would take me a while to warm up and that I would probably end up breaking a leg, but after the 2^nd run I felt as if the 8+ years of non-skiing completely disappeared and I was swooping, gliding, turning, cutting, jumping, and carving like a champ. The entire day was nothing short of invigorating.

My final drive home yesterday marked the conclusion of 1800 miles of driving, 60+ gallons of gas, 11 family members, 3 college friends, 9 states, and (only) 4 months of being away from home.

Saving the best for last

Did you ever see the Harry Potter film where Harry drinks the potion that gives him good luck? Today was perhaps the best day of the entire semester. For the first time I was cold when I woke up (it's what happens when it finally drops to 60F and you're sleeping in only shorts with a thin cotton sheet and have your windows open). I reluctantly pulled myself out of bed as my muscles were crying out to just put on a pair of sweats and curl back up and go to sleep. Not this morning. No, not when I decided last night that I would go for a bike ride. That's right folks, within 30 minutes of rolling out of bed, I was mounting my bike and pushing off for a long ride. Literally moments before embarking, I received a phone call from the dive shop asking if I wanted to teach a Discover Scuba Diving course on Saturday in Key Largo to which I happily accepted. Even before my day started, I was seriously loving life: great weather, the promise of diving and money, and a great big bike ride ahead.

I hopped back on my bike, strapped my feet in, turned up the volume of my music, and forged ahead. Although it was quite cool, the temperature warmed up very quickly and I was sweating within the first mile. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the scenery of quaint little houses punctuated with palm trees simply does not get old. The ride took me all the way to Bill Baggs State Park at the end of Key Biscayne which is about 11 miles from the house. The first 3 miles are not very well suited for cyclists but once I reached the bridge to cross into the keys, I had the bike lane all to myself. I fought a warm breeze somehow in both directions and was simply beside myself about the beauty of the area: it is so much more organic and natural when experienced outside the confines of an automobile.

I found my way back to the house and had time for a much-needed shower before heading off to school where a sandwich was calling my name from the food court which ended up being a delicious decision. Before leaving, I was checking facebook and noticed that NASA had found new life forms in Mono Lake, CA whose building blocks were made up of arsenic instead of phosphorous which turns biology (particularly genetics) as we know it on its head. Crazy!!! From there I made my way toward my final Marine Biology class with Dr. Glynn but not without first seeing a small flock of massive wild parrots that are seldom seen flying around the region. The birds are uncannily loud and obnoxious but their plumage is absolutely stunning and it is a treat to see them. For some reason Dr. Glynn's lecture ended up being a much more engaging lecture than usual and even finished 15 minutes early. He announced that he had seen manatees in the canal on his way to class and offered to lead whoever wanted to see them out to the lookout point and I quickly opted to be late for geology so I could see manatees.

Unless you have some sort of a manatee fetish, the gentle beasts are no more than interesting. They don't move very fast, are not particularly active, generally stay just beneath the surface of the water, and really don't do anything. That being said, I was pumped to see them because it is such a treat and I ended up loving it. It turned out that geology was canceled (the professor was there to offer help to anyone working on labs) so we didn't actually end up missing anything. I turned in my lab and went merrily on my way with a spring in my step despite the soreness deep in my thighs from the morning ride.  This concluded my semester of undergrad courses at the University of Miami.  All I have left is the take-home lab which is due tomorrow, then one very very very difficult marine bio final exam.

After an uneventful dinner, I found out that the Miami Heat were playing an away game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Not only was it a big game because LeBron was playing for his first time as an opponent in the Quicken Loans Arena but everyone back home was tenaciously rooting for Cleveland. Never being attached to Ohio, my loyalties are not deeply rooted there and now that I'm living in Miami I felt that it was fair to cheer for the Heat. Too bad I didn't bet on it: entering the stadium to a chorus of aggravated and betrayed “boo”s, LeBron went on to rack up 38 points and lead the Heat to an easy win over his former team.

Oh, then I found 20 bucks. Seriously. (Well, it was at lunch but I couldn't resist putting it at the end.  The picture is taken long after the fact b/c I didn't have my camera with me at the time and honestly, who's going to take a picture of a 20 on the ground of a food court?)

WFR - FTW!

I'm behind again. This is starting to become the theme of the blog. I suppose it's due to the fact that I have much less time to blog nowadays as compared to my time on Gili T for instance.

So here is a brief list of highlights since the last update:

Bernard came to visit while on a business trip here. We went out to dinner at an all-you-can-eat Argentinian steakhouse and it was absolutely stunning. I finished off with a fantastic filet mignon. The whole experience was exquisite and made up for the fact that I had to study for a test the next day and write a paper.

With a bit of magic (not on my part), I got into the scientific diving course that I've been dying to take! It's a graduate level course that meets a minimum of 8 hours/week and is going to be quite rigorous. This will have a huge impact on my decision of where to go post-December. The other class that I was registered for is a graduate course titled Tropical Meteorology based on a recommendation from a marine physics professor.

I bought bike parts. After a mishap with a popped tire, I bought two new ones (of high quality so it won't happen again), as well as head and tail lights. I'm back on the road and as long as there is a minimal chance of rain, I'm taking to the streets! Okay, well, not the main ones. Just the ones where I won't get killed. And the bike paths when available. Actually I'm probably going to go on a very long ride tomorrow since I have nothing to do before 2pm.

I went up to North Carolina for Thanksgiving break! It was great to see family again since the chances I have to be with them have been severely reduced over the past year and a half. We scoped out the venues for the wedding in June which was a bizarre experience for me. Marriage seems so far away for me that I struggle to relate and it's weird to see my sister going through the process. It's not bad at all – on the contrary, I couldn't be happier for her. It's just that it's weird b/c it's such a foreign concept in my life right now, that's all.

The PhD student who is ultimately in control of the lab I'm working in successfully defended his dissertation today. He did a spectacular job and I couldn't help but admire him through it all. Not only his composure, well-made smooth presentation, ability to field questions, but particularly the joy I could see in his eyes when I saw him walking around with his parents after he passed. My degree was earned through 4 years of blood, sweat, and tears but he has been working on his PhD for 4 and a half years. I would be fooling myself if I thought for a second that the joy I experienced when I finished my degree compares at all to the feeling I could see beaming across his face today.

I WFRed a girl at school today. Allow me to explain: I finished a marine science test and as I exited the building, there appeared to be a massive traffic jam. After pushing my way through the crowd, I noticed that just outside the doorway was a girl lying on the ground with a few people around her. Unsure of what had happened, I squeezed my way through a few more people, through the door, and started asking what had happened. Faith in UM students quickly faded when the guy “in charge” told me that he wasn't present when she went down and in fact none of the ones standing there saw it happen. It was between classes and there's no way she could have been in the doorway without traffic. Whoever saw it happen must have actually walked away. Anyway, she was responsive but a little weak. I gathered the facts, found out that she had a recurring iron deficiency, and asked a few other questions. My WFR instructors would not have been entirely pleased because once I figured out what was wrong, I stopped asking questions. I should have taken what's called a SAMPLE history and written it out on paper to hand to the paramedics. There's always next time.

Tomorrow is the last day of classes for me! It's crazy to think that a semester has already passed me by. I don't think I'll have too much to say between now and my exam on the 8^th, but road-tripping adventures are on the horizon!

Campus Safety and Security

I suppose it's only fair that I continue with my post from weeks ago. I didn't mean to leave anyone hanging for that long. After a few days, curiosity did arise as to how many people might ask, but the intention was never to find out. Anyway, on with the story.

I was sitting up on the 2^nd story outdoor level of one of the buildings on campus waiting for a movie to finish so we could go in and see the one we were going to see: Saving Private Ryan. I was with Kali sitting at a table chatting. The second story of this building has a very open area with more open spaces than walls, and several escape routes both upstairs and down. We were chatting when I noticed a police car pull up across the green about a hundred yards away and a bright shining light come walking our way. Seeing a policeman with a flashlight is nothing to get me in a tizzy. Even seeing him come upstairs, seeing another cop car in the back lot in the other direction, and then yet another cop showing up, I was hardly phased. It wasn't until I turned around and saw one of them pull out his gun and suddenly hurry for the stairs that I started to become suspicious.

About a minute passed where Kali and I were left wondering if we should be worried. She pointed over my shoulder and what I saw immediately threw up red flags. There was a very focused policeman walking toward the stairs in full body armor holding some sort of automatic weapon that was about the size of an AK-47. He pivoted back toward the other staircase to exchange a few words with another officer and I immediately hopped up from the safety of my plastic seat to ask what was going on. I was told to evacuate.

Call me a noob, but I've never been in a situation where the police have told me to evacuate. I instinctively asked where they wanted us to go and my suggestion of the lit parking lot behind the building was confirmed by the body-armored machine-gun carrying officer. Without hesitating I called out to the dozen others that were also waiting for the film and told them we needed to leave motioning to follow me down the stairs. Why the police waited for me to do this is beyond me, but I was happy to feel like I was playing a minor heroic role in everything. My heart rate increased as I took each step down the stairs knowing that there could be a deranged gunman and my courage almost faltered as I turned the corner after the last stair. I honestly didn't know what I was going to see down the hallway. My plan was to ask the officers what exactly was going on as they appeared to be escorting us to our open hideout but as I opened my mouth to pose the question, there came a message across the radio. I couldn't hear all it said, but at the end of the transmission, the gun-toting officer told us all to halt and go back upstairs. “They were Nerf guns,” he said.

Yes, a pretty exciting start to a grueling war film. I was happy to have some excitement and a reminder that life is fragile and you never know when the next assassin is going to come knock you off with a soft foam arrow.

On My Toes

Funny I should mention nothing that makes a good story happening in my life.  Tonight I was told by an officer with a massive gun to evacuate the building I was in.  Loads of police, guns, flashlights, cop cars, and freaked out people.  I'm too tired to write about it now though so you'll just have to wait.

Neglect

I must express sincere apologies to myself and those of you who used to read regularly. My good blogging habits have somehow fallen to the wayside like a stale cookie that's been sitting out for a week with some ants or dust accumulating on it. Let me assure you that is not what I want my blog to look like. In reality I do have good intentions to keep things fresh and exciting. Recently however, my life has not been exciting when compared to my previous travels. I haven't been racing in Hawaii, making plans to up and leave the country, diving in the Philippines, going to traditional Hindu ceremonies, fighting airlines, working on mega-yachts, or diving the Red Sea.

I have been enjoying life as much as ever, but the narrative simply is not riveting at all. “But Robbie, certainly you must be doing SOMETHING down in Miami that is interesting,” you might say. This is in fact true. However, what I've been doing is going to class, playing in the orchestra, going to church and bible study, watching the occasional film, and doing homework. To me, these are interesting activities to do but boring things to write about. Maybe I can write a post about how I slay a mighty dragon, go to Mars, save the world, or something else along those lines where I stretch the truth just enough to make you wonder whether or not I'm being entirely honest.

My time is running out to make up my mind about next semester. The ideas I have had include:

Working for gvi in the Seychelles

Working for Frontier in Madagascar or Tanzania

(both of which I found out about tonight so the probability I'll do one of them is next to nothing for the time being)

Move to French Polynesia and work as a dive instructor while working on fluency in French

Tap back into the yachting industry

Come back to UM and take more classes

The probability of returning as a student is the highest. The others are listed because I don't want to close doors. I'm not worried about what the next step in my life will be, nor am I dying to know. I am praying for guidance and trusting that I will be exactly where I need to be. Life is so much less stressful that way.