The pictures you've all been waiting for...

Phew. Finally found the time to upload all my diving pics. I sat my last exam ever today!! Woohoo! Anyways, I think I'll do one day at a time :-) Seventeen dives in six days = lots of pics!

Day One, Saturday, April 21st:

Boarding was at 5pm. This basically meant get on board, get your room (I got my own room! Yay!), get gear that fits, and then go eat dinner back on land. We got back on board around 7:30, got a bit of a safety and schedule brief and off we sailed for the Ribbon Reefs...

Thar she blows! Or something like that...

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My room!

Sunset behind the boat

The "bio" room. Where we get all the marine biology lessons!

The Saloon... Where eating, site logs (what you saw on the dive) and dive briefs happen

All ready to go. Mine is the second from the right.

And we're off! No land for six days!!!

Easter!

Easter is a 4-day weekend here in Australia, as Good Friday and Easter Monday are both public holidays, so me, Ben, Karen and Jaime decided to go for a little mini road trip. Trust me, anything outside of Townsville is good. So we went up to Cairns on Friday night, did a bit of shopping Saturday, and headed up to Karen's home in Atherton which is an hour or so inland, on the other side of the rainforest, near Cairns. It was nice to be in a real home and sit around and watch tv, and basically do nothing, even though I did bring work to do. Oh well. Anyways, here's the pics:

The Pyramid. Mountain outside of Cairns.

At Cairns, on the "Esplanade". Cairns has no beach, just mudflats, so there is a park and a manmade lagoon/pool instead.

Walked down by the marina...Um... nice boat... (Yes, that is noodles attached to it, apparently to keep it floating!)

Podcasting at the hostel...

The lagoon at night

Me and Jaime being "that" couple

Massage at the night markets... 45 minutes, neck, shoulders, back and feet for $15. Almost as good as Thailand!

Jaime's first foot massage

Brekkie the next morning

What the boys did while the girls shopped...

After a long day of shopping....

Finally made it to Kaz's place

It's Easter remember??

I made my world famous chili for dinner...except I had to use some spices I'm not used to and it came out a "bit" spicy. OK, wicked spicy.

Even too spicy for me!

hahaha Betty is struggling...

Beer and bread help!

The next morning Ben and Karen had a trail of chocolate leading out the room Jaime and I slept in....

Easter Bunny? Is that you?

The trail led outside. Apparently someone hid chocolate in the bushes!

The hunt is on.

I think I'm still asleep at this moment. Maybe sleepwalking...

Yep, definitely still asleep...

The stoned M&M

Family portrait

Ahhh... breakfast, shower and coffee.. Now I'm good.

On the way back home we stopped at the Curtain Fig tree. It's pretty much taken over the other very large tree within.

Heading back to Townsville ....

Blog Vomit

Allright I have a ton to catch up, and even more pictures to post so get ready for a blog vomit! It might take me a while to get them all up, so keep checking back.

Fun news!!

I am typing this on my lovely new macbook! Yay! It finally arrived today in tiptop shape! I haven't been this happy/relieved in a while :-)

I also leave early tomorrow morning to hop on a taxi, then a bus, then a boat!! And yes, I am badass and am diving with sharks ;-) They are only reef sharks, tiger sharks, and maybe if we are lucky we'll see a hammerhead or two. And they don't feed them so they don't get all frenzied. They just swim around and the researchers catch them and tag them. Well, I don't want to give too much away because I am sure I will have LOTS to talk about when I get back next weekend. For now, here is a link to some pictures from the trip I am going on. These pics are from March:

http://www.undersea.com.au/mar17/index1.html


Oh, and I just saw THIS today... let's hope this doesn't happen to me!! The new Bermuda Triangle perhaps??

Stress sucks!!

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Not only have I reached crunch time on the thesis and have been extremely busy with all of that; but my ibook decided to die a few weeks ago. For good this time. Apparently the logic board is snuffed. Have no idea if it's related to the chicken soup overdose or not. I did buy a nice new shiny macbook, however it is currently sitting in customs awaiting importation and taxes to be paid by me.. or if not if customs decides to send it along because I am overseas student. We shall find out tomorrow.

If I wasn't already stressed about the thesis, having to rely on the computer labs, then the computer being somewhat lost for a while..today I just found out that I will be going on the Undersea Explorer trip on Saturday. This is the boat that I am doing my case study on and is an amazing opportunity.. I mean a free $2500 trip to go diving in some of the best places in the world, including with sharks. I am just SUPER worried that my computer will not arrive by Friday, even though customs has been really nice and helpful and are doing the best they can. If this happens I will have to hire a computer and spend a ton of money that I am not so happy about. Also as much as I am excited about this trip, it also just adds to the stress and takes time away from the writing I need to do. I will definitely try to get as much done in the next few days before I leave so I hopefully can enjoy myself a bit on the trip. Unfortunately it still isn't a vacation in the true sense of the word as I have to be observing and taking mental (and real) notes all of the time.. not to mention analyzing how they do the interpretation and education and all those sorts of things. But at least the diving will be relaxing.

SO much to do before I leave. I think I better go make a list.

Anyone with any great stress management/relief techniques, now is the time to hand em over!!!

By the way, HERE is a link to the trip I will be going on!