Thunderstorms?

Hello all... much business the past week and a half!

So.. I moved into a new house. Right next door. I've got a real bedroom now, with it's own bathroom! Which I share with one other girl. Everyone here is older and much nicer and more friendly so I'm happy here.

The rest of the interns came in and we've been weekend warriors together. Last weekend was a beach weekend, though I went out to my favorite bar, Arnold's, with one of them. This weekend we went out to dinner and then hung out playing card games for a while... before going back to the bar lol. I'm actually starting to like beer...

What else what else...

So work has been.. all right. The project I'm working on really doesn't get into swing until the cruise I go on so most of what I've been doing is sitting in my office (yes I have my own office... in a trailer.. but it's super air conditioned! As opposed to the rest of the place) and reading papers / preparing some report about stuff.

I met up with the director of aquaculture at UH Manoa on Thursday and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon going to meetings and a lecture and then out to dinner with him and his colleagues. The lecture was about aquaponics.. pretty much a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. The lecturer, who runs an organic farm here on Oahu, showed how you can grow fish and plants with a setup that fits in a rubbermaid container. And it's a self-sustaining system... ie, the plants feed on the fish who feed off the plants and it goes over and over again. If I end up settling somewhere tropical I'm definitely investing in a backyard system. I'm all about the organic stuff but unfortunately my wallet always is; this is a great way to do it yourself!

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Speaking of organic stuff... since I have so much money left over between my housing stipend and what I'm actually paying.. I'm definitely spoiling myself at the Hawaii version of Whole Foods lol. It's so worth it though.. the food tastes SO much better.

But, I digress.

It's taken me way too long to write this by the way.. so busy! And the internet doesn't work too well here.


So I'm walking EVERYWHERE. I walk over three miles a day just to work and back. Can anybody say quadriceps?

This past weekend the interns and I hiked up Koko crater... and oh man was it a hike. I did Diamond Head last time which seemed pretty tame even then. This... well you'll see the pictures. It's pretty much a staircase straight up the side of the mountain. We had to stop to catch our breath a good number of times and going back down was terrifying! Well, so was being on top of it, but that's just because I'm terrified of heights. Lovely view though!

Sunday I went out on a sailboat with one of my roommates and her boyfriend and a couple friends from work. What I thought was going to be a little leisurely sail was just one giant party on a 65ft.. pirate ship.. pretty much. Gettin' some serious tanning on!

Yesterday at work we took a field trip to the research vessel I'm going to spend a couple weeks on. The Sette measures up at 224 ft! Now that's what I call an R/V.

I've been neglecting my camera but I promise I'll take more photos.

They're all on facebook and public so check 'em out =]

Hawaii!

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Some of my favorites





















Sergey putting his hand on my head freaked me and I screamed haha. Totally terrified up there. Don't be fooled by the smile.