settling in

Last episode on "Brenna's wanderings" : Last time I wrote I was quite uncertain about many fairly important things namely where would I be living and what would I be doing.

It looks like it will work out all just fine!
I have found myself a place to live for the next month with a very nice, young, woman and a cat in walking distance to the beach. I am also all geared up to start working at the national marine sanctuary office here in Monterey. I meet a few of my supervisors tomorrow.

This week has been fairly simple and I haven't been up to much. I am currently staying on the couch of the DSO (dive safety officer) of the Monterey Bay Aquarium - Gil. At the house as well are his fiance and her younger brother (my age). They have been wonderful hosts with equally wonderful food and a very comfortable futon.

The other day I took myself around the aquarium. I've seen it before with Megan but i was able to really take my time in the exhibits. Beyond being a beautiful aquarium with amazing animals and decor, the aquarium strives for conservation and education including signs everywhere about recycling, reducing, reusing, pollution, and many more. I was delighted when I sat down for lunch in the cafeteria that they do not allow straws nor plastic lids for soda containers. Bravo, I say! If anyone is reading this right now: what can you do for the environment? Say NO to straws. I have been relatively straw free for some time now (at restaurants it is often that they put in a straw without asking, this is a no-no) - but if you have a choice, these straws are small and float so easily find their way into waterways. But I digress - back to the aquarium and conservation. It is one of the best aquariums I have ever seen with equally great messages to the public.

Last night I got to dive in the kelp forest tank courtesy of Gil and his volunteer divers. I had a nice 20 minute dive in the tank to check out the animals. Gil then put me on a full face mask with electronics so that I could talk to the main area outside the tank. The aquarium was closed at the time but Gil caught me on video speaking underwater. Very neat and new to me.

Tonight there is a local dive meeting that I'll go to along with Gil to meet some local divers and hear about their interests. Other than that, I'm catching up on my paperwork and writing for the scholarship as well as taking many many long walks along the water.

The Pacific!

Jellies

Cannery row

A blurry picture of me and a seastar

deviled eggs

It's Sunday early afternoon and I'm in Monterey at a Starbucks using the internet and sipping ginger green tea. I drove down here in my rental car (thank goodness for turning 25 recently) this morning after saying good bye to San Francisco for a bit. Today and tomorrow I need to figure out where I'm going to be living for the next few weeks, a harder task than I would have thought. So this morning I visited two lovely apartments which all seem fine in price and fine in appearance, comfy, and good locations. This, of course, if I'm staying in Monterey. On Friday I got an email from the sanctuary folks saying they would prefer to have me at the Santa Cruz office. They said they could "make it work" in Monterey but I don't want it to "just work," I want a good experience and to be as helpful as I can be so we'll see. I am hoping that I can go up to Santa Cruz tonight to check out two apartments as well. They are a bit pricier but I wouldn't have to commute and spend gas money (and be better for the environment) if I got a place in Santa Cruz.

But all this just unnerves me. While this scholarship year certainly has no set schedule so far I have managed to at least set things up well enough in advance that I at least know where I'll be for a week and where I'll be sleeping. There have been uncertain times before but somehow this seems more uncertain. It is, perhaps, because that this is an experience that I set up myself almost entirely from scratch - ie there were very few scholarship-related contacts already in place. These experiences tend to be tricky in many ways mostly because the hosts do not quite know what to expect. I found this in Alaska and while my time in Alaska was well spent I was definitely paving part of the way by myself. In some ways it's just much easier to stick to the "scholarship approved" experiences like Jeff Bozanic's courses or dive shows - scholars know what to expect and so do hosts. But then again, what would be the point of having the exact same year over and over again? I am proud of my time in Alaska even if it wasn't completely what I had envisioned. I think that if i keep my head up and make this internship work, it will.

I just can't get over my gut feeling that I'm putting all my eggs in one basket and putting in a lot of faith that these eggs will hatch into cute little fluffy things. But I guess I am comforted by the fact that I could always run off to the Bahamas or Caymens if I must. At least if I have to sacrifice these eggs I'll hard boil and devil them and enjoy the next challenge while eating a delicious snack.

....to be continued....

flowers in my hair

I've made it to San Fran! I am still very new to this whole west coast thing so I am astounded by the fact that it isn't really all that cold out (yes, okay, it's raining like anything) yet and everyone is bundled to the nines. Wimps, seriously. But to in their defense the sunny california image is something to be proud of so when it drops to the low 60s I guess it's quite chilly.

But I remain comfortable and warm mostly thanks to my ever wonderful cousin, Megan, and her hospitality. I am staying with her for a few nights while I sort out my next month. I also finally got to meet Nelson, her adorable puppy.

This picture's for you, Aunt Bub.
Me, Megan, and Nelson mid-lick

Now Nelson is an adorable, well behaved dog, but even an adorable well behaved dog has times of weakness. Nelson now owes me $1 after he got into my wallet (my fault it was out on the couch) and tore the bill to shreds. I think I bank would laugh at me if I brought all the pieces in (I did find them). Luckily he didn't reach my $20 bill. My phone antennae also now has chew marks.

Even though it was pouring all day yesterday I got out of the apartment to meet up with former scholars Sara Shoemaker Lind and Jennifer Jeffers. I have met Sara many times and she has been a wonderful source of information and advice for scholarship related things especially in the california area (Sara is the west coast coordinator). So it was great to see her again. I had not met Jen yet and I am always excited to meet a previous scholar. We had a great lunch all together and talked about the excitement and woes of scholarshiphood (yes, that's a word, look it up on scrabulous). Unfortunately Jen had to get back to Berekely but Sara and I continued talking and because it was pouring out we decided to enjoy trying on expensive designer dresses. We enjoyed a warm cup of tea when we got back to her place and lucky for me she had even more gorgeous dresses for me to try on three of which fit (and she gave to me!). So now I am all set for the Explorer's Club awards dinner in April - thanks, Sara!

Today we are planning to tour the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory with an old college friend of mine so all very exciting. Tomorrow I'm off to Monterrey!

vegas, baby

Hello from Vegas!!!

This is probably one of the best layovers I've had - I'm at the airport for two hours. There are slot machines to my left, a bar behind me, and i'm sitting at the "power up zone" to recharge my computer's battery (I watched many Scrubs episodes on the flight over here). AND i'm having a beer. not only am I having a beer - but the bar doesn't require you to stay within bar limits so I can recharge my computer, get free wireless, AND drink all at the same time. I'm going to stay here, I think. Perhaps I can gamble my scholarship money - if I win I get more plane tickets, no? If I don't.... well, nobody tell Robin, okay?

Overpriced beer, of course. But worth it? always

Leaving on a jet plane

I'm sitting here at BWI waiting for my flight. I got here early enough and had time to have a good lunch at the Silver Diner Express. I'm in a booth with wireless and the theme song to "Batman" is playing out of the fake juke box next to me. Ah beach boys just came one! I heart america. Thank goodness I just ordered a nice cup of tea, earl grey, hot - I heart Capt. Piccard.

I have about an hour until my flight leaving me some time to get online and do some work - always things to do! I'm excited to head to California. Megan and I have planned some good times and I can't wait to see my scholarship friends.

See you on the west coast!

California Dreaming

Off to San Francisco tomorrow (stop in Las Vegas) to stay with Ms. November (aka Megan, my my-age cousin and my co-author of our soon to be published tips of dating techniques and text messaging). I'll spend a few days in the city hanging out with Megan and also seeing former scholars Sara Shoemaker Lind, Micheal Topolovac, and possibly Jennifer Jeffers.

Technical diving conference

DAN's first ever technical diving conference was held the past two days - about 150 divers, researchers, scientists, and manufacturers got together to talk about such things as decompression sickness, O2 toxicity, CO2, training, rebreathers, physiology, and many other important topics especially as technical divers. As a new technical diver, these topics were quite interesting to me not just to learn more about them but to also see what questions the experts ad - what did they want to know? The lectures were informative but I especially liked the panel discussions on rebreathers and training. A few times the room got quite heated! There is a lot that is just not quite none yet when divers start to go deeper for longer, what kind of decompression stops to make etc.

Technical divers talk about serious issues

Training panel

The days were quite long from 8am-6pm then with dinner until past 10pm. But it was an enjoyable time especially since I already knew a handful of the conference participants and there were plenty of new people to meet.

On a different note:

I started January with a very slow start and not quite knowing how the rest of the winter and spring would pan out. Now that I am back on the road and having wonderful scholarship experiences in NC, I have started feeling that amazing fire when traveling to new destinations, meeting new people, and of course, finding old friends again. It felt wonderful to go to this conference and have familiar friends smiling at me the moment I got to Durham.

Let's see some of those faces!

Karl Huggins from the Catalina hyperbaric chamber

The ever wonderful Jeff Bozanic my rebreather and SDI instructor

John Chatterton and Richie Kohler of
Shadow divers and Wreck Detectives

Mr. Rich Pyle, everyone! If you want a good laugh, ask me about him

Dan and Betty Orr of Divers Alert Network
(and my wonderful hosts)

Always a dear, Mike Fowler of Silent Diving Systems

DAN

Hello from Durham! I'm here visiting the Divers Alert Network (DAN) and staying with Dan and Betty Orr. Countless past scholars have come here to visit and many have stayed in the infamous "Rapunzel" or "Princess" room at the Orr's. I'm calling it the Evita room. I'll snag a picture later for reference but know that I have my own balcony.

Tonight is the start of the first ever technical diving conference. Almost three days worth of activities including a rebreather session at a pool on Sunday! I already know a few people who will be here including my wonderful friend Jeff Bozanic and of course Mr. Karl Huggins himself. John Chatterton and Richie Kohler also will be guest speakers.

But today I as down to business at DAN. After a wonderful and tour of the office building from Dan himself, I was given to the care of Eric Douglas and Scott Smith who gave me and two others a quick refresher in DAN O2 provider and AED/CPR instructor. If you have a CPR card already - let me know and I can now officially certify you up to Advanced O2! I'll have to rent a dummy though.

Eric Douglas and I save this dummy's life for Advanced Oxygen

Practicing getting that seal right

Now we're off to the registration and social hour to start off the conference.

A quarter century

Well, I'm 25. So far so good.

This will be brief because I'm so exhausted right now and it's time for this old girl to get herself into bed!

I had a great time last night - I was taken out for dinner by the awesome Olympus Diver crew, Nema and Fred, as well as the NC aquarium dive people, Steve, Heather, and Ethan. Awesome time. Fred, Nema and I went out afterward and continued to celebrate away.

Me with my cake (delicious!) and two of the nicest people you'll ever meet - Fred and Nema

Fred, Nema, Me and Ethan, celebrating after dinner

Nema and I dress up our drinks for the night

So now off to bed. Another year gone by! Here's to embracing 25!!!!

And don't worry everyone, I don't get to party like this on a normal basis - it's back to work tomorrow at Diver's Alert Network!! I'm here in Durham for the first ever technical diving conference. Very excited!

love bites

Today I was bitten by a turtle. Let me tell you that first of all, I was not harassing said turtle in any shape of form. In fact, I was in the water scrubbing down the fake shipwreck of algae so that said turtle would have a much more pleasant home to live in. But I do not harbor any ill feelings to the turtle who probably was just so darn curious at the color and shape of my left heel that he (or she?) just couldn't help himself to one small fairly painless bite. I actually thought it was another diver behind me asking for my attention but I turn around and see a turtle attached to my ankle! It didn't really hurt but shocked me a bit nonetheless.

Why was I in the tank? I am in North Carolina right now writing from Atlantic Beach. I got here late Saturday just in time to head on out on the first chartered trip from Olympus Divers to the wreck of the Indra. It was a wonderful dive and with my great dry suit on I was perfectly happy in the 55 degree water. Most of my diving of late has been warm water and it was nice to refresh my dry suit diving skills while wearing a hood and gloves.

Bundled and ready to dive

Yesterday and today I was invited to the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores as a guest diver. I met Steve Broadhurst, the DSO and we got straight to business. Steve took me on a tour of the aquarium and talked to me about the dive program and safety issues. In the afternoon I got to go for my first dive in the largest tank that holds a number of sharks including a fairly heft sand tiger shark that chose to circle me for a few minutes (apparently she's like that). Today I got to do two dives - one in the QAR (Queen Anne's Revenge, Black Beard's ship) representation and one back in the largest tank. In the QAR tank I helped, using scrub brushes, remove the red algae that tends to grow on the structures. This helps keep the water clean and the exhibit looking it's finest. I enjoy working underwater tremendously and liked that they gave me this task. This is, of course, the dive where the turtle decided to show great interest in my heel.

My next dive was a short dive back in the larger tank in order to get some PR photos and video done (I may be in the local paper shortly!). After that I was back to work helping feed the sharks and another turtle (above water).

Getting ready to dive the big tank

The sand tiger shark

Look! It's a Brenna Fish! Me scrubbing algae off a fake cannon

Feeding sharks

NC Aquarium-PKS friends - Heather, Steve, me and Ethan

Visiting Fort Macon

I had a great time and it's really too bad I have to head out tomorrow. But tonight we are celebrating my birthday early and going out for beers with the Olympus dive crew and the aquarium dive staff.

Wooo!

how to feed a sea turtle

I just completed my second day as a semi-part-time-intern at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and I'm exhausted, salty, and smell like fish. But it was a great day and while the fact that I chopped up dead, frozen fish for about an hour slightly ruined my appetite for seafood (actually, take that back, I had crab cakes for lunch), it was worth it.

I'm hanging out at the aquarium for four fun-filled days. Yesterday I spent the morning and afternoon hanging out with the volunteer dive crew and having my own personal tour of the entire building. Today I came prepared with a bathing suit, wet suit, and mask and ready to dive! My first dive was in the "ray tray" = where most of the stingrays are as well as tarpons, a zebra shark, and Calypso the green sea turtle. I didn't exactly know what I was going to be doing but underwater I was handed some shrimp and pieces of fish (ones that I had help cut up only an hour prior) and shown how to feed the rays. This involves placing a piece of fish in the palm of your open hand, low to the ground for a ray all the while fending off with your other hand/elbow/head/leg/SCUBA gear the other rays that have already had their chance to eat. Seriously, I was swarmed but big and small rays. They are completely inconsiderate and plow right into your body, face, and arms. After I realized I wasn't going to be eaten alive I relaxed and shoved them right back. Next came the feeding of the green sea turtle which now involves attempting to not get your fingers bitten off but also scratching Calypso's shell when she has finished eating.

My second dive came shortly after the first and we got into the Atlantic Coral Reef (ACR) tank which is mostly filled with small to medium-sized fish, small rays, and a moray eel. This was more of a fun dive and I followed the divers as they took me through nooks and crannies, up and down, and all around the tank. The visitors to the aquarium are able to see us divers readily and I enjoyed saying hi to families, smiling at kids, floating upside down, and pretending to eat shrimp. I remember when I was young seeing the divers in the water and thinking - "wow, that is really really cool." So, I'm hoping the kids thought my diving was really cool and fun and perhaps they'll turn into the next Sylvia Earle, Carl Safina, or Cousteau.

And that was just my morning!

This afternoon I spent with the fisheries department checking out the behind-the-scenes area and helping feed many of the animals in the exhibits. It is amazing how much it takes to keep up exhibits - energy, water, man-power. This is when my uncertainty about aquariums comes up. Energy is needed to cool water, heat water, clean water, bring water in, light the exhibits, run the currents and jets, run the scrubbers, and probably much more that I'm not aware of. I like to think that the ocean, lakes, rivers - they are my aquariums. But not everyone has the time nor money to go out and check out these natural aquariums or learn to dive. Is it so bad that we expend this large amount of energy to bring these natural systems to the general public so they might learn a bit more? I guess it's always a give or take.

But in the meantime, I'll enjoy the learning as well.

a new year

It's amazing how much can happen in just one year. Sometimes it's hard to believe it was even just one year not many. Exactly one year ago I had just started my new part-time job as a program educator a the New England Aquarium in Boston. It turned out to be a fine job although it neither paid very well nor had great hours. I also found myself becoming the resident vagrant at Jeff, Melissa, Quinn, and Andrea's homes (thanks guys, seriously, thank you) due to commuting issues. I guess you could say that my life was changed in 2008 when I won the scholarship that is now the basis of this blog. I would be lying if I said it hadn't.

Will this scholarship year change me? Has it changed me already? What more will I learn?
When we think about 'life changing' events it's hard to recognize what has really changed the person's life. Is it the actual event, the experience or how they react to it? How does it react to them? Or can none of this be separated individually?

When I was applying for this scholarship I was talking to one of my recommenders and dive buddies at Friday Harbor Labs. She told me that even if I didn't get the scholarship I could still do the things that it promised. I didn't believe her then and I didn't believe her at the start of the year and but I'm starting to believe her now. This is about me, mind you - I don't think I had the guts nor the confidence to take the risks and leaps that would have been required of me to do this completely on my own. So, in a way, the scholarship is a cop-out. I was given the tools to do all these experiences and 'life changing' events. I didn't actively get them myself. Okay, I'm being too self-judgmental. Let's take a step back. I just spoke to a friend online and he eloquently said "Life is a journey that only you can define if you want to get the most out of it." ( you know who you are and you live in a van down by the river, no?) What have I gained from the scholarship? Well, haven rode a camel is a good enough answer, no? Probably not. I have gained the confidence to define my life. I'm not sure I could have said that a year ago.

Happy New Year