Halloween 2009!

Halloween 2009 and another Wes Anderson inspired costume!  I was a Team Zissou unpaid intern….not far off from my real job. 

My costume was inspired by the real Team Zissou in the wonderful movie “The Life Aquatic”, which is sort of based on Jacque Cousteau’s expeditions (see below)

And here’s my take……..

Wooo!

Dave was “the most intersting man in the world” a la Dos Equis commercials (below)

Some other Halloween photos…….

These 2 girls both teach Anatomy and Physiology lab (same as me) and apparently not only our coordinator, but also their own student confuse them all the time!  They decided to go as each other for Halloween.  Pretty funny!

Dave, Mauricio, and Chris (who look like munchkins here)

Chris and I

Pedro, Lynda (super flexible yoga lady), and me

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!  Time to start thinking of a costume for next year!!!  Ok, maybe its a little early….

Maui: day 7

Day 7: Last day of the trip.    Morg, Josh and I did a hike in a bamboo forest. Climbing over boulders, swinging under bamboo branches, scaling waterfall faces, and cliff jumping included!!  So fun and what an exciting way to end the trip!!

Bamboo up the yin yang!

Relaxing for a sec by one of the waterfalls

Morgan climbing up the side of the waterfall.  I am apparently supervising.

Boulderey

Quite a scenic hike

Morg and I climbing up to the last waterfall

That’s as far up as we could get….. probably about 15-20ft up.  Looks much scarier once you’re up there looking down!

I think my scream was heard all over the island!

Geronimo!!

And here are a few fun photos that Morgan and Josh took while I was in Maui…..

Reminds me of Patrick from Sponge Bob

Floating around at fish rain

Octopus transfer at Turtle Town

So cool!

Hanging out at 110 ft.

Best buddies at Turtle Town

Maui: days 5 & 6

Day 5: Morg and I drove up to Lahaina and walked around, ate some delicious food, bought a couple souvenirs for the sisters, and found some awesome best friend necklaces!!

At the big tree in Lahaina

Day 6: Beach day in Kihei (where Morg lives)

Maui: day 4

Day 4: Went on Morgan’s Pacific Whale Foundation boat for a snorkel trip to Molokini and Lanai

West Maui Mountains on the way out to Molokini

Morgan giving her reef talk

Lanai

Black durgeon

Pennant fish

Black durgeon

Giant trevalle

White tip reef shark

Convict surgeon fish, yellow tangs

Oval Butterflyfish

Sea cucumber

Barred filefish

Hawaiian green sea turtle

Achilles tang

Spotted puffer

Spinner dolphins.  We saw a pod of close to 200!

The one on the right put a leaf on its pectoral fin and was passing it to the other dolphins

Mom and baby

Aww!

Maui: day 3

Day 3:  Dove at Molokai (another island) to see the hammerhead sharks.  The first of the 2 dives was my deepest yet – 110ft!  It was incredibly calm, clear, and serene down there.  We went out with a group called North Shore Explorers on an old Navy Seal boat.  The ride out and back to Molokai was insane!  10 ft waves did not phase this boat, but it was definitely and exciting an bumpy ride!

Their boat! (Photo from their website)

First 5 minutes of the first dive, not even 60 ft down, a group of 5 or so rolled in.  Unbelievable!!!

Josh and his video camera

Morg

This dive site was called Fish Rain.  Well deserved.

Raining!!

maui: day 2

Day 2: We went to the Maui Ocean Center aquarium and watched the sun set at Haleakala (10,000ft high!)

Tiger!  So pretty!

It took about an hr. to drive up Haleakala (inactive volcano on Maui).  Since its peak is at over 10,000 ft, you have to actually drive through and get above the clouds!!  That was a weird experience.  The temperature drops probably 30 or more degrees by the time you reach the top.

Above the clouds

The crater – how I imagine Mars to look

Crater

Sunsetting

Setting

Set

And what better place to do jumping pictures!??!

<3

Ninjas

Warrior 2

Volcano zen 

Maui: day 1

Day 1: We dove Turtle Town/5 Caves & went on a sunset cruise where we got to be models for their cruise brochure

Reef-ey

Moorish idol

Close up coral

Morgan and I in a bubble cave.  Scary but fun!

Heading out of the cave

How the dive site got its name.  We saw 10 or so Hawaiian green sea turtles on this dive

Forceps butterfly fish

Slate pencil sea urchin

Josh catching an octopus.  He got inked.

Voila!  So cute!

Who doesn’t want to hold an octopus!?!?  One of the coolest things I’ve ever done….though it was hard to get him off my hand afterward

Frogfish.  Yes, this is a fish!  A well-disguised urchin next to him.

Spikey sea urchin.  Got one of the spines in my hand cause I wasn’t paying atention to where I was going.

Octopus

See ya!

Urchin

Nudibranch of some sort

Onto the sunset/modeling cruise photos….  I didn’t get any pictures of us modeling but I’ll probably end up in some cheesy brochure.  Score!

west maui mountains

Experiments at Mote Marine Lab

I recently took a trip to Mote Marine Laboratory to run experiments on 6 bonnethead sharks they had collected for me.  The experiments lasted about 12-16hrs each for 6 days and I got lots of data!!!  Hopefully it means something relevant.  Below are some photos of me experiments and few other cool things I saw while there….

Odor delivery tube and electrode up the nose

Big response!  Wooohooo!

Shark puking mid-experiment.  Not good.

We got a hammerhead shark delivery while I was there!  Fun!  This 1 will probably end up at Georgia aquarium.

Bull sharks!!  He is beefy!

Cute cute baby swell shark.

Snoozin!  Btw, I have never really seen a shark close its eyes before seeing as they don’t have eyelids.  This blew my mind!! 

Maui post is on it way (even though I’m only half way through my trip, I have over 300 photos!!)  Stay tuned!!

1 more dayyyyyy!!!!!

till Maui! And no cats!

10 more days!!!

until I leave for Maui!!! Ahhhhh!

Get ready, cats!