It's already over...

Well, I haven't taken the time to put in a final post for this blog...so I think it is time that a few last words be said...

We studied, and studied, and studied some more on Saturday, all through the afternoon, evening, and into the wee hours of the morning. We sat for a few hours in the Tim Hortons then thankfully left...Laura had been proposed marriage by the counter boy with promisses to buy her a nice shiny truck...and then the shift changed and the new counter boys voice was so irratating I was ready to jump the counter.

Back at the residence we hit the books, barely coming up for air. Sunday morning, the tension was high...notes were being reviewed, questions asked, lips being bitten...Laura said, "Let's go have a dance party!"

So we went up, put on some Back Street Boys and danced away while we packed our backs for the last half hour before the exam. It was wonderful - a moment I will always remember :) Laura...I am missing you already!

The exam went well...oh! And just before we began, we had the delight of watching a little deer walk past the classroom and look in, then wonder down the path :) Afterwards, a couple of us went in to town to buy Dr. Hood and Stephanie (the TA) a bottle of wine...figured it would help with the marking (LOL!) and headed back to have our last meal all together.

I was teased incesently that I was talking in my sleep saying, "I wanna go home!!" and, I must say, I beleive them :) As much as it was a great experience, and the group was great, I was more than ready to be back in my home, in the nice big city!

We wished each other well with promisses to stay in touch and off we went our own ways. Barb & Peter were fabulous - they generously accepted to bring Semyon to the airport as well. They gave us a tour of St. John (downtown), the University of NB campus, the reversing falls, a beautiful walking park, then brought us to their home for a nice snack and cool drink - I am very lucky to have had them graciously bring me there and take me back - it made the begining and the ending of my trip just perfect!

The flight was great, wasn't randomly selected for a frisk (thank God) and slept with my mouth open the whole way.

Finally home, I slept like a baby in my love's arms in my own bed and dreamt of whales. I will miss the smell of the ocean the most, the cold, the bugs and the sharing of my space at all times the least.

Thank you to all who shared my trip with me!
Sending you all love and kisses :)
xxxx
A

Day 13 - A Mirage...

Woke up at 5:00 a.m...my God was that painful..showered and reread my oral until 7:00 - I was falling asleep, so I napped then woke back up at 8:00 - practiced until 8:30 and ran off to the lecture hall...I was number 3!!!

Well, it went fabulous! I hardly looked at my notes and got a nice hearty round of applause after.

My topic was on Marine Pollution and its effects on Marine Mammals. My favorite lines being "a false sensation of satiation..." (say that 10 times fast)...and then "we claim to be an empathetic and responsible species, then it is time we start showing it by taking action against our past regressions and cleaning up our aquatic environments..." and on and on...I was very happy with myself and am glad I worked hard to pull off a fab oral :)

But, all that hard work has made me sleepy and grumpy for the rest of the day...listening to all the other orals was like pulling teeth...my eyes were heavy, I was thirsty, hungry, figitty...

We decided to go have a pizza supper down by the lab at the picnic tables all together - what a terrible idea! The mosqitoes, black flies and fire ants were everywhere! I was ready to scream!! Help me! I want to go home! Haven't these people heard of insecticides!

LOL! As I just finished preaching on how terrible organic pollutants were and how they invaded our waters and slowly killed off marine mammals...

Well, after running back to the residence, I am prepared for a night of review...the exam is on Sunday and I haven't even begun to review.

Oh yes, the picture above is a mirage that we saw last night on the boat, the fog was so dense around the trees on some little islands that the trees were reflecting off the fog...how cool is that!

xxx

A

Day 12 - Still late on posting...preparing for my Oral took precendence...

Well, yesterday was a study day for a good part of the day. I stumbled out of bed, thankful to be feeling like I was on land yet again - my blood decided that it was no longer rolling around to the tune of the ocean in my body.

We all basically finished off our essays and worked on our presentations. I went down to the computer lab to save some lectures and print some reference notes. On my way back I stopped in to see Quinn (the baby seal) and he was barking away - it was quite cute.

On the way back up the hill I started practicing my oral out loud only to have to stop muttering to myself as cars went by :)

Back at Anderson, there was a small boat trip planned for those who wanted to get out one last time and after much internal debate as to whether I should stay and study or go out - I decided to go out. I mean, when am I going to be whale watching any time in the future...

It was gorgeous - the Pasamaquoody was calm, the sun was shinning and there was just a light breeze. We saw a beautiful Fin Back Whale and were all thoroughly satisfied of our last boat trip for the class. There was only 8 of us and we all felt fantastic.

We headed home, slowing down to watch some seals, and to give a few of us a turn at the helm - driving a big boat is a lot more complicated than it seems - lots of screens to watch! Then, to make us all happy, the captain tooted the horn as we all waved to the chairman of the board of Hunstman as he sat on his balcony :) It is the little things in life that make us the happiest.

Well, it was sunset, and again we watched the beauty of the horizon as we pulled in to dock. Time for ice cream! At the "Hungry Whale Cafe" we all stopped in for a treat before heading back to work most of the evening.

I recited my oral until midnight - deperately trying to memorize all of the information...

More tonight, when I write about my day today.

Loving and missing you all

xxx

A

Day 11 - Better late than never...The majestic North Atlantic Right Whale

Well, I was so exhausted last night that I simply showered and dropped into bed...so, here is our day from yesterday...

Again, we woke up bright and early to be out of the house for 7:30 a.m. - this time, the sun was shinning, there was a cool breeze in the air, and NO fog! It was promise for a beautiful day.

Off we went for an hour bus ride down to Black's harbour to catch a ferry. The building for the ferry was ultra stinky - and we all decided to wait outside instead.

The ferry was HUGE! And pretty amazing on how they load all the cars and trucks onto that one boat. We were having a dedicated marine mammals watched, and were therefore outside on the upper deck in the freezing wind...we saw the blow of a Fin Back from very far and a couple porpoises over the hour and a half ferry ride and had all put on all of our clothing layers that we had brought.

Voila! We were now on Grand Manan. Where they get the Grand, I am not sure...it is a cute little fishing village and a blue run down school bus was waiting to pick us up to drive us the remainder of the way to the next warf for our trip into the Bay of Fundy.

We visited a museum/reseach center in the way - very cute - It was very small and mostly full of bones with a little shop in the front selling all sorts of marine life dust collectors...After that we went to a whale cememtery where there is a North Atlantic Right Whale and a Fin Back Whale decomposing behind bars. Both were strandings that occured either on or near the shores of Grand Manan and they are letting them decompose in the sun so that they can then use their bones in a museum.

Well the bus finally let us of at the warf where we were to take the 'Day's Catch' to see the whales. We had lunch on the beech and I think we all enjoyed that very much - it was warm and sunny, and we got to take off our shoes and dip our feet in the ice cold ocean water. It was amazing!

Finally, on the boat to see the whales. Well, I have never been sea sick before, but this was something else, so a good part of the going and then coming back nausea was aflicting a lot of the class - so we desperately hung on the sides and dedicatedly watched the horizon to keep the nausea down. We were out for nearly two hours, freezing, tired, and getting deperate, so Jen and I decided we would try to call the whales. Well, much to the amusement of our fellow classmates as well as the tourists that were with us, we talked in the language of the Right Whale and Humpback to come and play with us...well, believe it or not, 10 minutes later, we spotted the first blow. The passengers were amazed!! It is our new calling! We will be the futur whale callers and will travel world wide with fleets of ships calling the whales...LOL!

The North Atlantic Right whale is an endangered species and there are only 300-350 of them left in the world. We have been learning about them for the past week and a half and yesterday, we got to meet them. They are beautiful. We must have seen about 10. They were coming up, and some were having a coutship ritual, they were lobtailing, and showing of their tail flukes. Simply magnificent.

Off in the distance we were even able to see a couple of humpbacks breaching! Would have loved to seen it closer, but even from a distance they were spectacular.

Well, after all that travel, nausea, and being frozen to the bone, we met the Right and the Humpback. Amazing!

So, now that we had seen them and had travelled so far (we were close to Nova Scotia), we headed back. The nausea on the way back was worse, so I took a nap leaning on Amanda's shoulder.

Our little blue run down bus was waiting for us and we all just sort of threw ourselves on the bus, exhausted and anxious to be back. We had supper on the ferry and watched the sunset off the deck. When we arrived back at Black's Harbour, our last bus had broken down, so we needed to wait for another one...after 45 minutes, then an hour bus ride home, we still felt like we were on the boat.

Our trip of bus, boat, bus, boat, bus, boat, bus had exhausted us all.

Today is a study day and we are going out for another boat ride tonight.

I'm off to finish my presentation.

Love you and miss you all

xxx

A

Day 10 - I'm ready to come home

Well, we were all up by 6 and ready to go by 7:30 a.m. only to be told that the fog was too thick and we weren't going on the Grand Manane Boat Trip - I think we all had droopy shoulders and frowns on our very disappointed faces.

So - the trip is on for tomorrow. Hopefully! And today we filled our day with the rest of the lectures. The half that did not go on the first boat trip went today and the rest of us went to study in the computer lab.

Huntsman was holding an event in the Anderson house and they didn't want us students hanging around while they were trying to dig into some wealthy purses for more funding...so us lowly students had to stear clear of our temperary home for the day - which was very inconvenient and completely rude in my opinion.

Well, we were supposed to be seen only for 9:30 p.m. but I couldn't take it anymore and snuck back in at 9:00 :)

We had a BBQ down near the computer labs this evening and we were served beer with burgers - I guess to placate us from having to stay away from the residence. And then, Jerrica, Briane and I were walking back up to the lecture hall and we hitched a ride in the back of a pick up truck! LMAO! It was so cool - never having done that and only seeing it in the movies was quite a thrill - felt like a real hill billy :)

We had a guest lecturer, Dr. Jack Turhune, who gave us a presentation on Pinniped Vocalizations (Seal Calls), it was okay, can't say he was the best lecturer, just okay.

Well, my essay is done :) Off to Tanya for editing and I am desperately trying to work on the oral presentation to try and finish it tonight. We have a free day (until 5:30) on thursday, but I was hoping to use that for studying for the final exam...I think it should be okay... I guess we'll see :)

Missing home very much, my room, both of my loves, my shower (very much) and most of all just getting back to my little routine.

Love you all and miss you tons

xxx

A

P.S. - Picture is of a seal that was starved to death afer playing with a plasic ring that was discarded into the ocean. Marine pollution is a major issue and all marine mammals are suffering - we must come together global to stop marine pollution.

Picture taken from: http://shiftingbaselines.org/blog/images/CCC%20entangled%20seal.gif

Day 9 - Meet the Minkie

Finally! A great picture of the Minkie whale! Just before going on the boat my camera batterie showed up low and I had just put in batteries - I thought I was going to cry!!! But, I shut the view off and I was able to conserve battery power and get some great shots. Thank God! More later on...

This morning we had a guest lecturer from DFO that is doing research on the Critically Endangered Species List, the North American Right Whale. He was quite a good speaker and was very knowledgeable. It is nice to hear people working in the fields that we are studying and be so passionate about their work.

After that we had about an hour off, so I reviewed my paper (3 paragraphs) - which is in it's first editing stages. Amanda and I went to go have lunch in town and I had Reese Ice cream - very good - mmmm. Then we all met up on the warf to go for an afternoon whale watching trip on the Quoody Express. We were with tourists this time, but we all pretty much stayed on the lower deck and it was just beautiful!

We went out for a little while before we spotted anything then we finally saw a Minkie whale. We followed it for about an hour. The whale would appear on one side of the boat, and then switch to the other like as if it was playing with us as we all scrambled from left to right to get the best views and pictures. After a little while, we spotted another Minkie further off. We decided to leave that trail and head back to check out some Gray Seals and Harbour Seals who were basking in the sun on some rocks or playing in the water.

Harbour Porpoise were plentiful and we saw them racing along in the waters beside the boat. Two other spottings of Minkie's were made and after that we had a small intro on sea life other than mammals and got to hold some starfish, sea cucumbers, crabs, scallops, and sea urchins.

We headed back, did some groceries (cookies and snacks were on the low) and made the treck back to the campus. That walk is a killer! Tons of hills!

Tonight we are once again working on our essays and we need to go to bed early because we are going out to Grand Manane (not sure of spelling) for an all day trip - hopefully to see some Humpback and Right whales!!! I am SO excited!

Oh yes - I forgot! I have made a promise to never complain about Concordia labs again - so if I ever do - you can all call me on it and say, "It could be worse, you could have Huntsman Equipement!" LOL

Well, I am off!

Kisses to all - missing you all very much

xxxx

A

Day 8 - The Sunset

Worked till about 1:30 a.m. on my project last night and did not attain my goal of finishing it - it seems to be a little more intense than I had anticipated and quickly realized that I need to revise my goals. Well, this morning consisted of another power session from 9 am until 1:30 p.m. with lunch in there somewhere of working on the project, and still then, I had not finished. I must say that at that time, I was completely devastated.

We had lectures until super, mostly on effecs of fisheries on marine mammals, then sat in bug infested grass to listen to the explanation of our lab for the evening - not my idea of fun...I mean who decided that sitting in the itchy grass with bugs crawling all over you and buzzing in your ear, while you try to balance your notebook and shade our eyes from the sun was fun in any size, shape or form?

After super we walked down to the lab, did an age determination on Harbour Porpoises using their teeth - went to the computer lab, did some work. Then we took a break at sunset, and a couple of us walked down the path to the beach. It was beautful! We played in the intertidal zone for a while and then walked back to the residence to continue working on our projects.

So, I've got the 10 needed pages down - but SERIOUS editing needs to be done :) Everytime I read a sentence though I seem to loose concentration and have to start over - so I think I will start the editing process tomorrow.

Kisses to all :)

xxx

A