Dusky dolphins and Save Our Seas!

Hello everyone!

So it’s official: I started my real internship today at Save Our Seas (SOS). I had a meeting this morning with Meg Ledeboer, the woman who will be my supervisor for the duration of my time at the shark research center. SOS is located in Kalk Bay, which is a beautiful little seaside town with a working fishing harbor and lots of little shops and cafes. It is about a 35 minute ride on the train, but the view is amazing- the last 10 or so stops are right along the beach and I have a full view of the sea (as long as the train’s not too crowded :).

Vanessa, my internship coordinator, picked me up this morning at 9 am and drove me there just to help me become familiar with the area before having to take the train alone. Vanessa actually knows Meg from her time at the University of Cape Town; Meg was head of the zoology department, and Vanessa studied zoology. I can’t believe how lucky I was to get to know Vanessa, as she is responsible for connecting me with both Steve and now the people at Save Our Seas. I owe her big time.

Anyway, the meeting went very well and it sounds like there will be plenty of opportunities for me to get involved in different areas. They are hoping to expand and improve the area of SOS where the public can come in and browse, so they were hoping I would have some ideas about particular wall presentations and how to make the center more kid-friendly and educational. I will also be involved with some of the teaching of the school groups, and next week happens to be Marine Week, so there will be 60-70 kids coming to SOS every day. The man who runs the school program is named Paul, and he said he’d be happy to have someone else along to teach and help with all the kids. They do shore investigations, where they take the kids out in front of SOS when the tide is low and explore the various organisms that live in the five different zones: Littorina, Upper Balanoid, Lower Balanoid, Cochlear and Infratidal. They also take field trips out to Cape Point where they do a nature/marine walk and lecture for the kids. These trips are usually followed up by a video and short discussion about shark characteristics, safety and conservation back at SOS. All of that should be a lot of fun, and will definitely help me learn very quickly.

The last thing I’ll be doing, which I am so excited about, is joining Alison Kock, the primary White shark biologist at SOS, to head out on the boat to do some field research and see what working with White sharks is all about. Since Alison is in between research projects, I won’t be out with her every week, but hopefully I can get more involved in this over the next month. I can’t wait to experience this and hopefully contribute to their work in the field.

So that was today… yesterday was an absolutely amazing day as well. Steve, Vanessa and myself organized a VAC intern trip to Hout Bay with Steve’s boat, Animal Ocean, and not only did we dive with Cape Fur seals again, but we came upon a pod of Dusky dolphins that were incredibly playful. They stuck around our boat for over 15 minutes and when we all hopped in to dive with them they began darting around us and swimming alongside. Steve handed me his underwater video camera and I was able to take some pretty good footage of 10 or so different dolphins- it was an experience none of us will EVER forget. Here is a frame from the video footage I took:



This is a picture taken the same day by Evert Nel, one of Steve’s friends who is an amazing wildlife photographer:



From the crazy crowded minibus adventure getting eight of us out to Hout Bay, to the wild bumpy ride home in the waves, it was definitely one of the best days I’ve had yet in South Africa, if not ever. I can’t wait to get out again and see what else is out there!

This is a picture from a few days ago, when Steve took me out for my first Sevengill Cowshark dive. We were at a site called Miller's Point, which is on the way out to Cape Point. It is a gorgeous area for a shore dive, full of kelp and fish and these guys (it doesn't look very big in this photo, but it was probably about two meters long):



Here is a better photo (again taken by Evert Nel) to show how long they can get relative to a human:



I absolutely love this photo! They are amazing sharks- they have the most primitive skeletal structure of any shark and can be identified as individuals by the pattern of spots on their back. SOS is actually doing a Photo ID research project to try to identify individuals living in False Bay. The main researcher's name is Robert Raw, and his paper on the ID project is really interesting. The project is still being developed, and they are encouraging anyone who dives with the Cowsharks to take photos from above and submit them to SOS to increase their database. So, come dive with the sharks with Animal Ocean and you can be part of a really cool shark conservation project :)

Alright, so for now, I am going to do my best to settle in at SOS, and when research and projects and everything else gets underway I will surely update my blog with the latest events. Thanks to everyone who is keeping up with me, and feel free to e-mail or comment here, as I love hearing from anyone and everyone! I will leave you with this adorable picture of my friend Lydia, who is from the UK, squeezing into her 9 mm wetsuit!

Animal Ocean

Hello everyone!

I am trying my very hardest to keep up with the blogging, but I am already getting behind. There has been so much packed into the last two weeks, I could write for days and it wouldn't even cover half of it. Once I start my internship at Save Our Seas (this coming Monday, October 4th), things will probably slow down a little bit. I am so, so, SO grateful to have gotten to know Steve and to experience what he has shown me over the past few weeks. I feel like I have gotten the V.I.P. treatment and a total insider's look at Cape Town and its surroundings.. Steve has brought me to so many places that I otherwise never would have been able to venture to, and I am so lucky for that!

The last week or so has been filled with more diving, exploring the coastline, and doing projects for Steve's website, Animal Ocean (check it out, and then come to Cape Town and do some diving/exploring with him- he is awesome!). Tuesday this week was awesome.. we hiked up a trail called Silvermine and to Elephant's Eye Cave, which overlooks tons of vineyards and all of beautiful False Bay, where Seal Island is located. Steve's cousin Alison came along, and it was so much fun to hear more about life here and what it's like to be a 20-something in this part of the world. We took some incredible pictures and found a Table Mountain cockroach (yum!), various beetles (more Steve's thing than mine...), and some really cool lizards.



Elephant's Eye Cave provided amazing views of False Bay and we were able to take some great shots from within it, where the cave outline formed a kind of frame around False Bay:



Yesterday was an absolute BLAST- I took the train to Plumstead, the stop where he usually picks me up, around 9 am, and we started the day off having no plan whatsoever beyond a potential free dive at a site near Cape Point. After deciding to take a little road trip out to Cape Point and stopping to see wildlife along the way, we packed up dive gear and headed out. Little did I know we would end up seeing penguins at Boulders Beach, baboons along the side of the road, ostriches and their chicks feeding on the beach, and five or six different cow sharks during our dive. It was absolutely stunning- both the views of the coastline from the road and each animal that we saw. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day:



Nesting penguin at Boulder Beach (literally right next to the parking lot)



One of many baboons just hanging out on the side of the road



Coastline on the way out to Cape Point



Ostriches and their chicks on the beach

There are quite a few more that I love, but since it takes so many MB and so much time to upload on here I have just picked out my favorites :) Here is one that is not so scenic, but I like it because this is basically what I have been wearing for the past two weeks and this was just before I saw my first Sevengill Cow sharks!



Hope everyone likes these! Today consisted of office stuff for Steve, including finishing up a presentation for him to use for clients on the boat before seal diving and cow shark diving. We printed those off, I printed and laminated a few pictures to put up on my (very bare) bedroom walls, and then I came home to do laundry, clean, and cook some dinner with the roomies. The next few days will most likely consist of exploring more of Cape Town with roommates, doing a few hikes, and a possible seal dive in Hout Bay again, this time bringing along other VAC interns for Steve to meet and entertain :)

Start my internship Monday- eeek! Wish me luck with all the shark experts :)

I'll leave you with this little treat, thanks to Evert, one of Steve's friends who loves to do wildlife photography and joined us last week for a dive with the seals:

Heritage Day in SA

Hello!

Today was Heritage Day here in South Africa, celebrating South Africa's history and all its people. It's also known as "braai" day here in Cape Town, which means something similar to a barbeque. It is a national holiday, and because of that most everyone was out and about rather than at work. All museums in Cape Town are free, and there are large street festivals and markets throughout the city. It was a beautiful day here (the first warm day since I've arrived!), so my roommates and I decided to take advantage of that and get out to explore.

One of my roommates teaches dance in a township near Cape Town, and for Heritage Day her students put on a performance down at the Community Gardens this afternoon. The Community Gardens are a number of green spaces and walkways near downtown that are covered with gardens, koi ponds, picnic areas and cafes. It's a really nice area to sit and enjoy a sunny day.

There were four other groups in addition to my roommate Leah's students, and all the performances were pretty amazing. I tried to upload a clip of one of the dancers, but it takes way too long with my internet connection here, so I will stick to posting some pictures of the performaces on facebook and just a select few here:



Leah's group did hip hop, which was very cute, since they are all late elementary to early middle school age. The performance lasted for about an hour, and then we headed to the nearby South African museum, which featured exhibits on different South African groups and their traditions, including the various languages spoken throughout the country, the different artifacts found in each region, and the differing rock art found in each area. There was also an enormous exhibit on marine life of South Africa, so of course this was my favorite part. There was a large shark exhibit put on by Save Our Seas, where I will be interning, so I spent the better part of two hours strolling through that. Very, very cool.

We then headed to the V&A Waterfront to do some sightseeing and a little shopping (essentials: laundry basket, sheets, etc. Almost went nuts buying trinkets and clothes for Will and Worden, but was able to resist for the time being). The waterfront area is beautiful due to its backdrop of Table Mountain and Lion's Head, and also just because of the amount of African art and hand-made items being sold on the street. We strolled through the massive mall there for about an hour, picked up a few things, and then took a taxi home (my first South African taxi ride.. quite interesting). All in all it was a very good day, and I am glad we got out to see everyone enjoying Heritage Day.

The last few days have been quite hectic with a number of dive and snorkel trips. On Tuesday I headed over to Steve's (Animal Ocean owner) to help him with some research for his website, and around 11 am he got a call from a good friend of his who was excited about the Yellowtail near Robben Island, so we spontaneously packed up his boat and headed out to the shores off Robben Island with a few of his fisherman friends to do some spearfishing. I mostly dove in and snorkeled around, hoping no White sharks would appear, and watched the guys chase the fish. One of Steve's friends, an avid fisherman who owns his own fish shop in Constantia, told me a few stories about his White shark encounters. He and a friend were flipped out of the water by a five meter shark one time while spearfishing (the shark came up underneath at a high speed in order to breach while hunting them, like they do to seals near Seal Island). They managed to put a spear in it's eye so that it swam away. Another time he came face to face with a six meter White shark while diving in a kelp bed, and the shark tried to come close enough to bite him but ended up getting scared of the kelp and swam away. CRAZY, I tell you.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day, but the water was still pretty frigid (for me, at least)! We spent about five hours out that day, and in the end we took home six good sized Yellowtail. Watching those guys fish is amazing... they are so enthusiastic about it and so skilled. The next day we took some clients seal diving in Hout Bay, and unfortunately it turned out to be quite windy and overcast for most of the morning, so the three eleven-year-olds were not too excited about getting in the water. But, once they got in and saw the seals all around them they were pretty amped up and could ignore the cold for a few minutes. Everyone ended up having a great time (except for one dad who was seasick and throwing up off the side of the boat- not good), and they took me and Steve out to lunch after the trip. Here is a picture of a shipwreck in Hout Bay that is really beautiful (at least I think so):



This weekend Steve headed up the coast to do some spearfishing with friends at a "holiday house" (what we would call a cabin), and although he invited me to come along I decided to stay in Cape Town to celebrate Heritage Day and have a few days to spend with my roommates, since I haven't had time to get to know them very well yet. It is nice to have a few days out of the water, since I feel like my body has taken quite a beating over the last week and a half! Not sure if I'm cut out for this cold water diving every day :)

SO that's mostly what I have been up to- there are a lot of minor details that I have forgotten for the moment, but hopefully seeing pictures on facebook will fill in the blanks. Missing everyone at home, but enjoying my surroundings in Cape Town! I will try to keep this up once a week- especially once my internship starts on October 1st. Love you all!

I live in Cape Town?

Well hellooo there all you trusty followers (maybe a few more than Mom and Dad now, since I've got something a little more interesting going on these days...)! I hope everyone over there in the Americas is doing fine and dandy, and enjoying the (what I hope to be) lovely transition from summer into fall.

Well, here's the big news as of late: I am now in Cape Town! I am sure most, if not all of you, know this already, but it is still working it's way into my brain as reality. I feel like the last few days have just been a blur of plane seats, airport check-in counters and the always wonderful airline food. I left Seattle very early this past Monday morning, and after approximately 24 hours of flying and/or layover time, I made it safely and soundly to the Cape Town International Airport around 8:50 pm Tuesday. A Volunteer Abroad Corps (VACorps, the organization I am here through) staff member named Sly picked me up and we hauled my luggage into a nearby backpackers hostel located in Observatory, the neighborhood where I'll be living. Unfortunately everyone else was in the mood to party, and I was VERY much in the mood to sleep, so it was a slightly restless night, but definitely better than trying to sleep on the plane (next to a very loudly snoring couple.. very nice, but very congested :)

Wednesday morning was all about moving into my apartment and meeting my new roommates. I live in a house called Station Road, and there are 12 bedrooms and two bathrooms (well, technically three, but one doesn't have a toilet and another one has a toilet but no shower.. so I'm not sure how you classify the bathroom situation). Right now there are 11 of us living here, and everyone seems pretty nice so far. Three of the girls have been here for a few months already, so it's nice to have people to show us the ropes and teach us about how to put minutes on our phones, buy electricity at the grocery store (yes, it is true), and where the safe ATM's, streets, bars, restaurants, and running paths are. Each person in the house has a different internship; some are working at refugee centers, one is teaching dance to underprivileged schoolchildren in the area, another is working at the International Center for Transitional Justice, etc. It really varies. I am the only one doing a conservation/science-based internship, so my experience will most likely be very different than the rest.

Anyway, after moving in and getting unpacked, myself and another new girl, Gen (who is really sweet and from just outside Toronto- Gen is short for Genevieve) headed down to the Quik Spar, our trust little grocery store, to pick up some goods for the following day or so. We got home with our eggs, milk, bread, muesli, yogurt, etc. and proceeded to eat. However, we soon realized that the muesli (granola-type mix) had been opened at the grocery store and someone must have poured themselves a bowl at some point before returning it to the shelf. We didn't quite know what to do at first, but we were so hungry at that point that we decided to go for it anyway, hoping it wasn't poisoned or replaced with some odd concoction of drugs. Muesli was fine and we were both satisfied, but it was pretty funny nonetheless. Only in Africa, I guess...

Thursday was devoted to orientation and a bus tour of the city. Now, one would think that coming to South Africa during the middle of their springtime would be hot. Not exactly the case yesterday. The four of us who were doing the tour sat on top of the bus, bundled in jeans, hoodies and fleece jackets and still freezing our tushes off. The sun peeked through the clouds a few times so we could get some great shots of Camps Bay and Table Mountain, but boy was it chilly. Apparently their summer doesn't really kick in for another month or so. Definitely should have brought a few more warm clothes! But back to the tour... the bus took us around the entire city centre and up Table Mountain, which is gorgeous. The view of the coastline is incredible, and the beaches and waterfront area is amazing. I can't wait to hike Table Mountain and see the vegetation and wildlife up close (as close as they'll let us get to them, at least). Just driving by we spotted grazing zebra and wildebeest.. pretty awesome. I will be posting most of the tour pictures on facebook, as well as pictures I have taken since then. I will work on finding time to post some pictures on future blogs as well, but for now it's easiest to upload them to one site only.

After the tour we had about three hours of orientation with Jon Wilson, the head of VA Corps, which included a lengthy safety overview, tips on budgeting and food, things to get involved with and the guidelines for being involved with the internships. He said that for the most part, our VACorps coordinators will stay involved with us for the next two to three weeks, but after that we are mainly involved with our internship supervisors and the VACorps staff is just around if we need any guidance at any time. They do organize weekly activities on Fridays, such as hikes and winery tours, but everything is optional. It sounds like most of the interns get involved with this stuff if they can get Fridays off, so we will see how my schedule turns out.

Last night was a meet and greet at a Reggae bar here in Observatory (known as "Obz" to the residents and locals here), but by the time we had one drink I was absolutely exhausted so we all headed home for a quick dinner and bed. I finally got a full night's sleep last night so I am feeling much more energized than yesterday.

Yesterday and today were very interesting and exciting.. I learned how to spearfish and free dive! How cool. The guy who runs Animal Ocean, the tourism diving company that I will spend the next few weeks helping out (his name is Steve Benjamin), is a Dive Instructor, free diver and lover of spearfishing, so he volunteered to meet with me yesterday and talk about what we'll be doing for the next few weeks. He is 27 and has done SO much for his age.. he studied zoology and icthyology in school (obtained his Honors, which is the fourth, or "extra" year after a three-year degree) and has worked as an underwater photographer, videographer, research and conservation scientist, body double for diving movies, Dive Instructor, etc. etc. The list goes on and on. He now owns a 14-passenger boat which he uses to take clients out on day trips doing various diving and adventure activities, such as Pelagic Shark diving, Cape Fur Seal diving, wildlife photography expeditions, Cow shark diving, and several others. His skill set is truly amazing and inspiring; I suppose growing up in Cape Town doing these things as a child will help you out a little bit in that department :) Anyway, I will basically be tagging along with Steve and his friends/clients/crew for the next two weeks doing whatever it is that they do- today was free diving and spearfishing at Dassen Island, which is about 9 km off the West Coast here, and is inhabited by a small penguin population. It is the same size as Robben Island but much less known and visited, as not many people beyond fisherman know about it. Today was amazing.. within five minutes of taking off from the boat launch, we spotted a Southern Right whale to our left about 50 yards away, maybe not even quite that far. We stopped the boat as it breathed, spouted and then showed us its tail fluke as it dove back down. The rest of the morning and afternoon was filled with chasing after frantic, circling groups of terns who were feeding on small fish chased upward by the Yellowtail. When the fish feed below the surface, the birds get excited and form feeding groups that are easily noticed above water, indicating to fisherman where the shoal (group of fish swimming together) is located. The men I was with were unsuccessful at spearing Yellowtail today, but they did end up getting about ten good-sized Hottentots (which they called "Hottie" or something to that effect for short). After about five hours on the water, chasing around birds and diving in kelp, we headed back to the shore. On the way we spotted a small pod of Heaviside dolphins, which is a small species of dolphin found off the coast of Namibia and off of the Western coast near Cape Town. They left pretty quickly but we were soon greeted by a curious seal that jumped in and out of the water several times while passing our boat. It was adorable. I am now home, showered and full, and absolutely exhausted. Tomorrow is another early wake up and it's off to dive with Cape Fur Seals! How did I get so lucky?

Well, that was slightly more detailed than I had been planning on, but hopefully that's a good rundown of my first couple of days here. I probably won't have time to be extremely detailed in the coming weeks/months, but I am hoping to update weekly about what's going on with Animal Ocean and then starting in October what types of research I'll be helping out with at Save Our Seas Shark Centre (SOSSC).

Hope this entry finds you all happy and healthy, and know that I am missing family and friends back home like crazy! Would love to hear from all of you!

Love, Amanda

Octopi

Hello there!

I'm not sure if the title of this post is the correct plural form of octopus, but if it's not I think it should be. Much more fun to say octopi than octopuses. The reason for that title is because I saw my very first wild octopus on Friday night! I did a night dive with a dive center called TL Sea diving, based in Des Moines, which is about half an hour south of where I am in West Seattle. I registered for my Advanced Open Water certification, which consists of five dives over two days, two of which have to be a navigation dive and a deep dive. So, I did the first two dives of the five on Friday evening at a place called Redondo Beach down in Des Moines. I was in a class with three other people and several different instructors, so it was pretty one-on-one, which was great. And necessary, since the visibility was pretty bad during our first dive and it was tough to even really see a buddy next to you once we were 50 feet or so down. Anyway, we did the Nav dive first, which consisted of descending with a buddy, swimming along a 100 foot lead and counting your "kick cycles" to measure how far you go in a certain amount of time, followed by using your compass to complete a 100 ft x 100 ft square without having a rope or a lead on the bottom to follow. It sounds easy, but trust me.. it's tough!! When you're trying to master your buoyancy in the drysuit, keep track of your kick cycles, hold your compass in front of you (let alone READ it), and make sure your still on course and alongside your buddy, it gets a little complicated. BUT my buddy and I did the square just fine, and then had a few more compass tasks to complete, including doing an "out-and-back" line with our compass (pretty self-explanatory) and setting a recipricol heading. I'm not going to be taking the master navigation course anytime soon, but it was good to at least learn the basics and accomplish those tasks.

The night dive was by far the cooler of the two dives. By the time we got around to the night dive it was already around 9:30 or 10 pm, so it was pretty dark out. We geared back up, switched on our lights and headed out, and it was pretty much the coolest thing ever. There is already bioluminescence in the water, so if we waved our arms away from our light source you could see blue shimmery, glittery stuff all around you. Apparently by August it's going to be really, really bright and much stronger than it is now, but seeing that for the first time even this early in the summer was amazing to me. I also saw my very first octopus, hiding way under a boat.. he was HUGE and red and staring right at me. So awesome. I saw two more, about the same size, also hiding under boats. We saw a halibut-type flatfish, a lot of long, skinny yellow fish that would dart into the sand as we shone our lights on them, TONS of Decorator Crabs (even one holding a much smaller one in it's claws!), beautifully colored anemones that only come out at night and lots of other nighttime wildlife. My air usage turned out to be pretty good, so I was able to stay out with an instructor longer than the rest of the class and got to see even more than I had hoped for. I feel so lucky to be able to do this! Definitely hope to do some more night dives before I head out of Seattle in September.

Pacific Octopus



We were supposed to do three more dives on Saturday morning early, but since we finished so late on Friday night (around midnight, and still had to rinse gear and undress and load everything up and drive home), we were given the option to reschedule the three boat dives for another weekend. SO, I am hoping these can be completed on a Sunday in July, and we will most likely be doing a drift dive, a deep dive and a fish I.D. dive.

The only thing that I don't love about diving here is the drysuit, only because it takes soooo long to gear up, and it makes everything so much more bulky and heavy. BUT I was grateful for the warmth, because there's no way I could have done either of those dives in a wetsuit. I am hoping I can do a fair amount of diving in S.A. in a wetsuit, although I'm sure some of the time a drysuit will be required. We will have to wait and see.

Nothing else too new and exciting to report.. just trying my best to keep the little guy out of trouble (McKinley), since he is now crawling (eek!). I'm also continually impressed by Will's weekly developments (especially in the cuteness department). Still making new friends and hanging out with great people on the weekends, and trying to get grad school options figured out and in order. That's about it!

I will keep you updated! Love to all :)

Meeces in the house!

I am so bad at this! My apologies once again... it's been a few weeks since I posted anything, but that's mostly because I haven't had anything terribly exciting to write about lately! I have been doing a lot of the same.. nannying, hanging out with new friends, spending time with the cutest little man around, and finally now some diving!

I'll get to the diving in a minute.. but first, I should share with you all the story of the mouse in our house.

SO.. we've been having some furry friend issues over the past few months.. i.e. every few days we'll hear the little pitter-patter of tiny feet running through the walls, or along the ceiling. Sometimes we'll hear little chatter and squeaks, and let me tell you, it is not delightful. Dave decided to go get some traps and poison about two months ago, thinking this would take care of the problem (we agreed that something had to be done). What we DIDN'T think about was the fact that poison will kill a mouse, but it's probably not a very pleasant process, and if they die in the walls then there's no hope of removing them from the house. Of course at the time we were just looking for a quick fix and figured poison was the best option.

Anyway, so Alyssa, Dave and Will were out of town on a Midwest tour most of the month of May, and Worden and I were left here to hold down the fort. Everything was fine up until one day last week, when Worden and I came into the house after a nice long walk to find a half-dead mouse dragging its poisoned self across the kitchen floor toward us. I wish I could say I immediately took action, but instead I stood there with my mouth open and in complete shock for about three minutes while the poor little animal continued to crawl toward me. The thing was moving so slow Worden didn't even notice it, so I was all on my own to decide what to do. After pondering my options for what seemed to be forever, I decided to put a large yogurt container down in front of it to see if it would run away or crawl in. Sure enough, this thing was asking for me to put it out of its misery. It crawled into the container as though it were a coffin and curled up into a little creepy mousey ball. I thought it was dead, and then it started breathing really fast and convulsing. Of course I freaked out at this point, finally brought it outside and then sat there teary-eyed, still unsure of what to do. I ended up calling our neighbors to see if someone could come put this little guy out of his misery (because we all know I can hardly kill a spider without feeling guilty), but no one was home to do it. I did get the suggestion of giving him some cheese to ease the pain, so I tossed a little piece next to him with hopes he'd smell it and remember what a great life he had, but I'm pretty sure it just made the convulsions even worse. So I stood there and watched our poisoned mouse take his last breaths, and then of course I called my mom and cried.

That was way too long of a story about a mouse, but for those of you who know me well, none of that should come as a surprise. I am the girl who ran into the deer on my roller blades, the girl who always seems to have stray dogs follow me and come say hi out of nowhere, and now the girl who spent twenty minutes tending to a half-dead mouse and crying over it's last breaths.

Onto something more interesting and less weird...

I did my first cold-water dive today! Drysuit and all. Ben (the dad of the little boy I nanny for) took me to Seacrest Park, which is one of the most popular dive sites in all of Seattle, and it's extremely convenient for us, being right down at Alki Beach here in West Seattle. We did two dives, and although I was a bit nervous at first and it took a little bit of time to get buoyancy in my drysuit down, it turned out to be a great time. The drysuit kept me toasty warm, even in the cold cold Puget Sound waters, and we did two 30-minute dives with a max depth of about 60 feet. Beginner stuff, but perfect for getting me used to the drysuit and the new equipment. We didn't see any octopus, which apparently are really common in that area, but we were lucky enough to see some huge rockfish, lots of colorful nudibranchs, red rock crabs, plumose anemones, lots of sea stars, little shrimpy guys (I should probably look up real names), and various other critters. The anemones were amazing.. enormous white stalks growing in every direction from some big pillars that were down there. It was pretty unbelievable. I feel so grateful that Ben and Lesley are experienced divers and have gotten me back into the sport. I can't wait to do a few more dives around here and then really get into it in South Africa!

Speaking of South Africa, I have some recent developments in the internship department... I got an e-mail last week from the woman who is coordinating my internship placements, and I am definitely confirmed for the internship with Save Our Seas Shark Center (SOS), and they are still waiting on confirmation for the baboon rehab center. The Save Our Seas Shark Center especially needs people who can do some underwater videography work (with sharks), and she encouraged me to take a class in that area this summer if I can afford it. This would be an absolute dream to be able to do while I am there, so I am seriously considering trying to get that experience before I leave. She also said that the best time for me to start at SOS would be early October, but since I am available to leave in mid-September she has a good friend who runs a company called Animal Ocean, which is an adventure tourism company that does everything from diving with sharks to bringing people to big wave surf competitions, and he would love some extra help for a few weeks in September. So of course I said a big fat YES! to that and am soooo excited about it! I don't have many more details right now, but when I do I will surely update you all (Mom and Dad)!! Here is the URL for Animal Ocean (I still can't seem to get the links to work):

http://animalocean.co.za/

Here are a few pictures of what I saw today.. these aren't MY pictures but are just a few of the species that were down there:

Plumose anemones



Rockfish



Coonstripe shrimp



California Cucumber



Red Rock crab



I'll finish with an adorable (but inappropriate) picture of everyone's favorite new little man (clearly becoming a typical guy :)



That's all for now!!

SCUBAfreshed

Hello all (Mom)!

I am back... my apologies for taking over a week off from blogging. It's been a busy two weeks!

I took my refresher SCUBA course last Tuesday evening at a dive shop in Bellevue (about 30 minutes north of Seattle), and it was super fun- I am so excited to get back into diving. I have been extremely lucky in that the people I currently nanny for (the Duncans) are huge divers, and the mother (Lesley) can no longer dive due to some complications during her pregnancy, so she has been urging me to use all of her amazing equipment and dive as much as possible before I head to South Africa. The Duncans even bought me a Drysuit course for my birthday so I can learn to dive in cold water. SO, last Thursday night was my Drysuit course and it was craaaazy- you literally feel like you're being vaccuum-packed in the suit once you go underwater. The neck and wrist seals are extremely tight and made of latex, and to even get the suit ON you have to sprinkle powder all over the seals and stretch them REALLY wide to get over your head and hands. Once you have the suit on you look like you're about to push a button and take off for the moon.

THEN you go underwater with all of your equipment on and you experience what is called "suit squeeze"- the entire thing suctions to your body suuuper tightly. The best word to describe the feeling would have to be "violating". Then the trick is to figure out how to maintain your buoyancy using the air in the drysuit (controlled by two different valves) instead of using the air in your BC, which is what you'd normally use when diving in a wetsuit. WHEW! It's nutty. But soooo cool. And I am so happy I'm now certified with a Drysuit so I can see all the amazing stuff that the Puget Sound has to offer. Plus, the waters off the coast in Cape Town will also be pretty cold, so it'll be a great thing for me to have once I arrive in S.A.

Speaking of S.A., below is a link for the program that I will be participating in, called Volunteer Abroad Corps. The first one is just a general link to the overall program, and the second and third links are for the actual internships that I will be participating in. Nothing has been confirmed for sure yet, since the staff at VA Corps are really busy getting set for their biggest group ever during the World Cup this summer, but hopefully these positions will be confirmed over the next couple of weeks so I can get even more excited about it! Here are the URLs for the websites; I couldn't get the links to paste correctly:

http://www.vacorps.com/

Save Our Seas Shark Research Centre, where I will be doing shark research:

http://www.saveourseas.com/sossc-za

Cape Centre for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, where I will be doing wildlife rehab work with baboons and a few other species:

http://www.baboons.co.za/

Besides the SCUBA courses and doing some more planning for South Africa, I have been up to the normal shenanigans.. hanging out with babies, hiking, maintaining my tolerance for alcohol, and annoying brother-in-law Dave as much as possible. Oh, and the Duncans are in Hawaii this week, so I am house- and pet-sitting for them, with the amazing added benefit of unlimited use of their backyard hot tub. Even nanny jobs come with some sweet perks!

Here are a few photos from the last two weeks or so, enjoy and I will blog you soon!

Me in front of an absolutely amazingly massive tree on the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River Trail


I love my trees


Beautiful view during our family Vashon Island day trip


This one's for you, Mom. I know how you love your sea glass...



Will tired out after his first hike ever!



Mt. Rainier from the ferry


More to come...