the day i grew to LOVE beer.

[Ok...this is the reason for the on-rush of posts...i was knocked outta action for a week]

For the benefit of those who do not know...i'm now back in Sydney and right now, at a grand time of 10.26 pm Sydney time, i'm in my room. on a Friday night. in my pyjamas. listening to Tiny Vessels by Death Cab for Cutie for the 275th time. tell me. if i didn't blog...what would i do? oh come on, no.. you weren't just about to suggest that i SLEEP, were you?

WERE YOU??

moovin' onn..

The MARS2007 Jervis Bay Field School commenced last Sunday...and at an unbelievable time of 6.30 am...i dragged myself outta the house and went to uni...on a Sunday. So here's some of the pics for you guys to see. for those who laughed at my choice of degree...eat your heart out. i'm not gonna be a fisherman, you see? but you're gonna be holding a calculator close to your heart for the next 40 years...and possibly nursing a receding hairline. ha ha ha...

Ha ha ha.

DAY1: Montague Point and Governers Head.





The drive to Jervis Bay, which happens to be part of the ACT ( that's where Hong Yin is) is approximately 3 hours from Sydney. A quiet little seaside town...there were plans for a nuclear station but which were scrapped due to the terrific ability that the Australians have...that is, protesting.

Trust me, when it comes to Protests and Marches...the Australians know their shit.

There were 22 students: 5 Asians, 2 Americans and a whole loada Aussies. Notice how we all start with the letter 'A'...coincidental? i think not..!!

Stayed at the University of Canberra's Field Station...yes...i was surprised too. A pretty nice place located inside the national park...2 students per room..i got the top bit of the bunk bed...and interestingly, the bedsheets were actually plastic sheets wrapped around the mattress.. how ingenious! that meant that we could come back soaking wet from a snorkelling excursion and go to sleep straight away!

DAY2: Huskisson Wharf, Woolamia Mangrove Reserve and Moona-Moona Creek.

No pictures were taken. However, we collected plankton...and trucked around in the mud at the mangrove reserve and moona-moona...i sank all the way up and past my knee at several points of the adventure...thank god for booties. aim of the day was to quantify organisms by using the quadrat system and by taking core samples. let's just say, there's a lot of life going on in places that you would never expect.

DAY3: Huskisson Bay, Woonambena Creek, Jervis Bay.




The day was spent tracking the currents and the speed in which it flowed...it being dependant on the diurnal tide cycles of Jervis Bay...(notice how i begin sprinkling big-ass words like 'diurnal' and 'quadrat'..? it's all about being in-feel with the marine scientists, yo)...then we went out to Jervis Bay to track the depths of certain parts of the bay using a high-fangled GPS system...i'm telling you..the amount of gadgets that these marine scientists use...you begin to wonder if you're not in some crazy branch of engineering after all...oh the horror...*shudders*

The highlight of the day? i got to manouver the little motorboat up and down Woonambena Creek...exciting? an understatement...it was MIND-BLOWING..! hahahaha..ok..it was...cool.

[ok..commercial break...i'm now listening to I Was A Kaleidoscope for the 17th time...reckon it can break the Tiny Vessel record?]

DAY4: Steamer's Beach, Moona-Moona Creek.



Group C: Sam, Tom, Pip, Angela, Emilyn, Me and Nick.

Proffesor Andy Short...the Head-honcho of the Field School.

Nasty blue-bottles. They're jellyfish and they sting. hundreds upon thousands got washed up on the shore..and when you jump on them..they make a POP sound...i had about 40-mins worth of fun with them.. they're evil and they stung Tom's leg.

At Steamer's, we did ground survey of the beach area...using the yellow tripod-y thing that you see those people standing along the highways use...you know..?? the ones where they stare into this little box-y gadget and there's another person quite far off who stand with a little pole? you know what i'm talking about.

Anyways, the day was gloomy, overcast, wet AND cold. not very nice considering that just the day before, it was hot, hot enough to jump into Stony Creek for a snorkelling session. I'm telling you, Australian weather PMS-es like crazy.

Steamer's was wonderful..it's like your very own private beach..located within the national park..no one ever goes there, because you have to hike for 2.3km before reaching the beach...but once you get past the hike, the view is awesome. and just to show how deserted the beach was...we saw a whole troupe of dolphins come swimming up to the beach...they were herding in schools of fish for their breakfast...it was..MAGNIFICENT!!! and then the seals decided to drop in for a visit too...i mean, you don't see this at Bondi or Manly, do you? only at Steamer's.

And that's the end.

Night-time at the base was a completely different story altogether. i shouldn't be saying this..not because i'm embarassed...but because my mom reads my blog...but i WILL say it all the same...because what happened was so utterly ridiculous and incredible that i MUST say it.

Throughout the whole 5-days-4-nights that i was there...i had a cumulative 17 hours of sleep...and i drank at least 3 6-packs of beer. Ridiculous isn't it? the boys just kept dragging me outta my room and forcing a bottle into my hands...every.single.damned.night...and the last night there...it was a killer... i won't even begin to tell you about this little game they played that involved a snorkel, a roll of tissue paper, a boy and a girl...it's just...too incredible. when you have drunk potential marine scientists (and even legitimate ones that teach at the university), marine equipment and a sense of humour, you'll get extremely funny situations.

and hence...photographic evidence.




HAH! and you thought you'd be able to see pictures of the snorkel game, dintcha? sorry..i was laughing too hard i forgot to snap any pics... but by the time these photos were taken, i was already quite buggered...note the brown paper bag that contained Emilyn's JD and the bottles of Toohey's Extra Dry..they're the best, i tell ya.

Doing marine science was the best decision that

i could've ever made.

I could spend my whole life doing what i did

during the past 5 days.