Week at feral
Monday and Tuesday were slow days of classes. I am back to doing GIS work - equally fascinating and frustrating.
Wednesday we went out on a trawling trip, on a fishing boat that drags a net along the bottom of the ocean. We were warned that the water may be a little choppy. Actually there were 10 ft swells constantly rocking the not-very-big boat. I’m not one to get motion sickness, but it was impossible to feel good on this boat. It didn’t help that we left very early in the morning. Still, it was cool to see what the catch was. There is a big over fishing problem in the area, so really all that is caught is little stuff. We also had a sonar unit that would tell us when ever there was a fish near the boat. It was cool.
Thursday we did beach profiling. It was fun, and we got to go in the water afterwords. I will probably be doing more profiling for my research project.
Friday we went to the Pichavaram mangroves. We had a very peaceful boat ride and learned to identify some different species. At the end of the ride, the rower let each of us try to row for a bit. No one was very good, but it was fun. That night we went out to a big buffet restaurant by the beach. It was very nice and there was lots of dessert.
We also started playing volleyball this week. We got a court and a net set up, and we went out and played every day after class. It is a lot of fun. Some of the Indian guys who work here come play with us, and sometimes Anu’s daughters come (they are 8 and 11 i think). I think after a week we are starting to improve. My forearms are thoroughly bruised.
Anu’s daughters are very cute. I was talking to the older one today and she is reading some of my favorite books from when i was that age. Harry potter and Charlie and the Chocolate factory, and some others. She offered to let me borrow one. I might take her up on it later in the semester.
Now I am reading Nicole’s Jane Austen book. It started really slow, but I’m kind of getting into it now. The characters have grown on me. It only took 200 pages….
Saturday was not a good day for me. I was trying to figure out a research project and was repeatedly hitting dead ends. We supposedly have weekends off, but we really don’t (thus I was having meetings abut a research project on Saturday morning….), so I haven’t had a real day off in months, so I got very frustrated very quickly. Eventually I completely changed my topic and everything seems to be working out now. It isn’t geochemistry anymore (which is kind of my major…) but it is still within the realm of geo and it is within the realm of what people at feral are studying, which makes everything much easier.
Today was better. It was more of a day off. I went into Auroville and got the violin i saw last week. it isn’t very good, but it is playable and I am happy to have one.
Tomorrow we leave at 5:30 am for Pulicat lake, a field research station north of Chennai. I may or may not have internet there. it should be a nice place though. I am excited to see what it is like.
