This I Believe

A moving piece from NPR's "This I believe"
Here's to being honest and compassionate


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13863318

Staying dry

Well it turns out my ears have had enough of the changing pressures of diving and flying. My previous ear infection didn't seem to be clearing up after a full course of antibiotics. Thinking I'd be okay, I went on two dives with Dan yesterday to check out his study sites. The dives were nice and my first real dives in my dry suit. Everything went well except that my ears started hurting again. So I headed to the doctor's today and was switched to a new antibiotic. My liver is going to love me. And now I can truly raise my hand and join in increasing antibiotic resistance around the world. It's a wonderful feeling. But hopefully an even more wonderful feeling will come about when my ears stop hurting and the congestion goes down. Hopefully that means I'm only out for a few days but it's hard because I did come up to Alaska to go diving specifically. At least I can say that I have dived in Alaskan waters. I just hope the two dives were not my last here.

But it's time to stay dry, at least for now.

I'm where the green arrow is - so still in Southeast Alaska and not directly on the coast. I'm on Auke Bay, north of Juneau.

Juneau, you know?

I made it to Alaska! After a 15 hour day flying from Boston to Chicago to Seattle and finally to Juneau, I arrived safe and sound and ready for sleep.

Taking off from Seattle on my way to Juneau. Julia is down there... somewhere

I am here in Juneau to work with Prof. Ginny Eckert and her graduate students. This will be my first sciencey-scholarship experience and I'm excited to get back into it especially since this will be my first real dry suit diving. And it will be needed! Alaska is cold! I flew in at night and felt the refreshing chill.

My first day was relaxing as Dan, one of Ginny's graduate students, showed me around the labs, too me to safeway, and showed me my first glacier. The Mendenhall glacier is situated in Tongass National Forest and is about a 5 min bike ride from where I am staying (they found a bike for me!). Walking up to the view point of the glacier was amazing. It didn't look real at all - something from a movie, perhaps. It is truly spectacular to see.

The Mendenhall glacier. View from the visitor's center.

The Mendendhall glacier from the opposite side of lake from previous picture.
Note the chunk of ice in the foreground - was once part of the glacier!

I spent today (August 29th) on a whale watching trip designed for incoming freshman and transfer students (school starts this week). We went on a day long cruise and found humpbacks, sea lions, harbor seals, and a bald eagle! It was a beautiful, sunny day (everyone remains shocked at the beautiful weather, I'd better not get used to it).

View of the mountain ranges while on the whale watching boat

So all is well in Alaska. I'm staying by myself in a guest house so it's slightly lonely at night. This is my first real experience by myself and arranged by myself so it feels strange not being surrounded by people who know and understand the scholarship.

A lot has happened in this past week or so. It really makes me thing about my life, my travels, and my friends. And what this year means to me. And what everything means to me.

under pressure

WARNING! Due to Oto-related content in this blog post, THIS POSTING IS NOT TO BE READ BY ONE BARBARA BROWN.



So I'm in Boston right now - made it up from DC after my plane was delayed multiple times. I was supposed to attend a going away and engagement party for a friend but plans were scuttled and I spent the evening with Quinn and later on having a few drinks with Miss Melissa. Today's a lazy day but I'm incredibly low on energy and very much not feeling well. Part of it is due to a very long and hard week but the other is due to a persistent full blown ear infection. I finally got on antibiotics a few days ago but they have not had much effect right now. I will, of course, complete the whole treatment but meanwhile am dealing with pain and pressure. I am sad, too, because I'll be off to Alaska tomorrow in order to jump in the water and finally get in some cold water diving. I am all outfitted with an amazing dry suit from DUI and a regulator that will do me well in cold water from Aqua Lung (thanks, DUI and Aqua Lung!). So I am hoping I can get in the water sooner rather than later.

It makes me think - I really can't afford to get sick this year. This ear infection was a set back, for sure, but in a way I'm lucky i happened when it did - i haven't been diving for a week now and although I am supposed to start diving in Alaska I am sure I can be of other help while I let my ear heal. But I am terrified of colds and the flu or of getting hit (yet again) by a car (for another reference, see 2006 European Scholar's journal reports on www.owuscholarship.org). But as always I can't let those things prevent me from continuing on with my travels especially since it's not just about SCUBA diving.

On to Alaska!

finding inspriation in the chesapeake

I spent Thursday on a small boat with some NOAA scientists helping them recover crab pots, measure and tag crabs, and learning about what it is like working as a marine ecologist.
It was a lovely day out on the Chesapeake - something I needed after a long, hard week.

This guy's lucky number is 393

They get put back in the pot so that next week the scientists can see who is getting in and who is getting out. Good luck, buddy.

Luckily in the middle of the day we came upon some marine trash - a balloon. This is a very very typical and unfortunate piece of pollution. I hate balloons. They fly away and where do they go? Into our river systems, our bays, and our oceans. People - don't buy balloons. And if you do, make sure they get popped and put in the trash. Else a turtle is going to try to eat it or it'll get trapped in the gills of a fish. Really really not good. But this balloon was so special we had to get a picture of it:

The balloon reads "with god, all things are possible"

We feel blessed on our trip. Unfortunately to properly secure the balloon we had to stab it multiple times to deflate it.

PADI instructor development course

I just got back from Ohio and have successfully completed my PADI instructor development course. One of the highlights of the trip was that I got to dive in my very first quarry - it's all it's cracked up to be, folks! But seriously, it was a good time and I learned tons. My awesome instructor, Patrix (yes, Patrix with an X!) took care of me for the week and made sure I went home with enough certifications to make PADI and DAN spin. I spent the week in Columbus, Ohio, where i split my time between two great dive shops - Underwater Connection and Sub-Aquatics. I also had a great class and came home with plenty of stories to share with friends.

Some of the highlights this past week:

Patrix and me

Bill and Jayne with me outside their store, Underwater Connection

I'm a mean, lean DUI-diving machine (I learn to use my DUI dry suit in 75 degree water)

I get to try a full-faced mask courtesy of the Columbous Fire Department

The graduating class

Rescuing Irony

Hello from Ohio!
I have had two classes of my PADI IDC (instructor development course) and all is well. We're doing the lecture stuff first, so it's a bit hard right now as we are sitting in lecture all day and not diving. But that is coming soon. I'm in the class with four other people all from Columbus where we are taking the course.

I have already gone through the SDI instructor course so it is interesting to see the differences between the agencies. While I am here I am also becoming an emergency first responder instructor and DAN oxygen provider instructor. So if anyone needs first air or CPR for work or other activities, I'd be happy to be your instructor! I'm enjoying learning how to teach. While I did teach at Cornell and also at the Aquarium and Seacoast Science Center, teaching diving has proved to be quite different. I am teaching students to learn amazing skills and to become safe divers. I remember my first open water course - I was amazed at how easy it was for my instructor to show the skills and take us diving and how much I wanted to become such a good diver like he was. Well, I hope I can be this role model for my future students. I am thrilled to have the chance to pass on something that I love.

On a different note, I have hurt myself again. No worries, it's not too bad - but I have a slight limp at the moment. I opened up the door of my instructor's car and some books spilled out onto the ground. I was wearing flip-flops and one of them nailed me on the top of the foot. Bending down to reach my throbbing foot I realized the book that had hit me was PADI's Rescue Diver course manual. At least it wasn't the instructor manual - I think I would have broken my foot with that one. Some ice and ibuprofen should do the trick. Time for bed and to rest my "rescued" foot.

I figured it's time I catch up on my map-making. Thanks to google and paint these maps are rather simple! However with all the traveling it does get confusing so I've color-coded my travels for your convenience.
Key (in chronological order):
Blue line: traveled from NH to LA
Yellow line: from LA to Indianapolis
Green line: from Indy to NH
Red line: drove (stuck in traffic forever and ever): from NH to DC
Purple line: my next advenuture in Ohio!!!! Stay tuned. Very excited about this one.

SCUBA boot camp

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Lots has happened since!
A brief recap of the last week:

I had a great time on Catalina and the EDAM course was really interesting.
But it was time to leave the beautiful island and head back to mainland. Igor, Mat, and I, were to complete one more course - an instructor training course with Scuba Diving International (SDI) with instructors Jeff Bozanic and Gordon Boivin.

Now the rebreather course was certainly hard, the EDAM course was intensive, but neither of these two courses were quite as challenging as the instructor course! We spent every day at Laguna Beach Seasports where we talked diving from 8am-7pm. We learned to teach by pretending to teach each other and also experiment on brand new divers (thanks for their great humor!). It was a week of little sleep, tons of assignments, and challenging diving. It was like learning to dive all over again - we went over simple basics like how to place a snorkel on the mask, fin strokes, and going over the simple skills we take for granted. This intensive week ended and I successfully passed! I'm now a brand new instructor! Well, I have to finish the paper work, pay my dues, and get insurance.... but besides that, I'm a qualified instructor!

These past three weeks were challenging and exhausting and we learned so much - thus I deem these weeks "SCUBA boot camp." I made it!


Of course there was time for fun. Although fun this past week was mostly laughing hysterically because we were so tired. But, we did get a lovely treat from my mer-mom, Robin - these wonderful hats! I am finally a pirate and Mat and Igor have found their inner princesses.

Since I knew the last three weeks were going to be difficult I had planned my first real break from the scholarship year - a week! woo-hoo! Well, this coincided nicely with my sister, Maia's wedding (CONGRATULATIONS!). She and her husband Dave are now on their honeymoon in Hawaii.

The beautiful bride and me

For my break, I headed back to NH to catch up on sleep (and did I!). But Aaron and I decided to spend some time in the wilderness of the White Mountains. We summited two mountains - Mt. Madison and Mt. Adams, tented over night below the tree line, and made it back the next day limping with sore muscles and blistered feet. We awarded ourselves with well-earned beer and pizza. It was wonderful to be in the mountains.

Our trip starts

On the Osgood Trail (part of the Appalachian Trail) on our way to summit Mt. Madison

Summit of Mt. Adams! Mt. Washington is in the background