A Squid's Ink: I'm baaack!

That has probably been the title to about a dozen other blog entries of mine, considering I usually reappear to update this thing about once every six months. This time, it's been almost a year. Oops. BUT, now that my life is soon to involve some exciting new developments, I promise I will be much better about keeping up.

As most of you know, I will be moving to Townsville, Australia on January 31st to pursue a master's in marine biology degree from James Cook University. Townsville is a small coastal city with a population of approximately 186,000, and is located along the northeast coast of Australia. It is also within easy boating distance from the central portion of the Great Barrier Reef, and is only 8 km away from the beautiful Magnetic Island (popular for wildlife, beaches and reef diving). It is considered to be in the "dry tropical" region, which means that their rainfall is, on average, less than that of most tropical regions. The average temp in winter is 76 F, spring 85 F, summer 88 F, and fall 85 F (this will most definitely be my biggest challenge, as trying to study in these temps might be the end of me). It sounds like there are plenty of outdoor opportunities to experience, including some of Australia's best wreck and reef diving, great kayaking, paddle boarding, rock climbing, and national park wildlife viewing. So, sounds like it could be my kind of place! Now we'll just have to see if I can survive being a full-time student again after nannying and working at humane societies the past three years :) Here are a few generic pictures of places in and around Townsville...

Rock pool at "The Strand"- main beach/boardwalk area in Townsville

Townsville beach stretch

Road along Magnetic Island, 8 km offshore from Townsville

A beach at Magnetic Island

As for what I have been up to since I arrived home from South Africa, well, as most of you can probably imagine, I moved back in with Alyssa and Dave while I was trying to figure out "the next step" (why do I feel like those three words have been haunting me since the day I graduated college?). The next step at the time was to secure another well-paying nanny job with a family in West Seattle (who, of course, I grew to love), keep pondering over which programs I should apply to this year, and of course fantasize about having the opportunity to once again get in the water with the sharks. I once again received a letter from UW Seattle's marine bio program saying that I was "deemed admissible", but that I needed to secure an advisor and funding before I would officially be accepted into the program. After about ten phone conversations with various professors and Ph.D's in the program and closely related to the field, it became very clear that A. there is little to no funding available right now for conservation projects at the master's level, B. Advisors already had hit their capacity or gone over by 1-2 students, and C. If I didn't want to devote the next five years to sitting in a lab in Seattle and working for a cranky old shark man, I should go elsewhere for my degree (this was told to me by a Ph.D student whose advisor is the only "shark" person at UW, is apparently extremely unhelpful to all of his students, and who is anxiously awaiting until the day he can retire... all pretty unenticing qualities in a potential advisor). So, I decided that after two years of the same info from UW, it was best to remain patient and hope for good news from James Cook. And, lucky for me, one morning I awoke to a brightly colored (of course they have to go with the tropical theme as the background template) acceptance letter from JCU, welcoming me into their master's of marine biology program. I had said over and over again to friends and family that even if I got in, I was so in love with Seattle and everything here that I might not end up going, but the minute I received the e-mail I knew instantly that I wanted to pursue this opportunity. This has been a dream of mine for over eight years now, and not taking advantage of this offer would be one of the biggest regrets of my life. So, I shared the news with friends and family, and have been preparing for the big move since.

In addition to finally figuring out "the next step", I have been spending a lot of time nannying for a wonderful family with two children, Maya, who is six and in kindergarten, and Noah, who is almost two and an absolute angel of a little boy. Their family is Indian, Philipino, Malaysian, and Thai, so I have been lucky enough to experience a few new cultures through food, bits and pieces of different languages, and some interesting family customs. Mostly, though, they are just like any average American family and don't hide their love for pizza, big plastic toys, cheesy kid cartoons and trips to the aquarium. They have been very good to me, and of course I will miss them when I head out. I feel so lucky to have nannied for three unique and wonderful families with amazing kids over the past few years.

I was also fortunate enough to meet a gem of a boy through my intramural soccer team, the High Five Hurricanes, and have been spending a lot of time doing fun day trips around Seattle and also some adventuring in Florida (his homeland). Unfortunately a severe sprain to my knee limited my biking, rock climbing and running until just a month or so ago, but we managed to fill that time with lots of hiking, kayaking, road tripping and just all around fun-having. Brian is also figuring out "the next step", and after a year with Americorps here in Seattle, has recently moved from Washington back to Florida to enjoy some surfing, biking, rock climbing and kite surfing near his family. We are hopeful that our individual "next steps" may eventually lead us to the same place.

Family life continues to be as entertaining as always...how can it not be with the sister-lawyer-mom who conquers all, the goofy but loving brother-in-law dad, and the sister-in-law creature nanny living in the basement? Oh, and don't forget the toothy munchkin man who resembles a cuter version of Charlie Brown and the forever-moping stallion of a dog that increases his claim of the couch by an additional centimeter every day. We continue to fill our evenings with family meals, generally centered around Will's daily adventures, post-dinner dance parties, and playing "restaurant" (this is what Dave calls it when I clean up after him every night). We have been enjoying the snow with lots of snowshoeing and general snow adventure outings. More kids have joined the extended friends crew, so there have been a number of crazy get togethers here involving pumpkin carving, Christmas cookie decorating, and even sparkler-twirling on NYE. It will be extremely hard for me to say goodbye to my Seattle family for awhile, but I know good things are to come, and I know I'll be back.

So, I think that's about it for now. A whole lot more has happened, but it's always so hard to fit everything in. I would end up going on for hours and hours, and nobody wants that. So hopefully this was a good lil summary of the past year or so for everyone who is interested :) I will be much better about updating once things start in Australia... that is, of course, if I am keeping up with my classes and whatnot. But I promise I'll do my best!

Love to all of you and hope you are enjoying the beginning of a wonderful new year! Here are a just a select few of my favorites from the last six months or so...