Wilderness First Aid

Must admit, for the past few days, Wilderness first aid as been a really fun class.  So part of the whole 3 week training I must complete is this Wilderness first Aid.  It is an absolutly rockin class where I am learning how to take care of OH NOEEE situations in the wild, aka away from the urban setting.  It is quite different in the wild when compared to an urban setting, and being on these boats is pretty isolated, so the stuff I am learning will (well I hope not) be very useful.  Today, it started DOWNPOURING in the park we were practicing, so the first half of class went great then we actually got to discuss hypothermia when some people were commming down with the chills.  My insane body heat and ability to grow fur kept me realitivly warm, although some people seemed quite adverse to being soaked.  IT IS HAWAII!  Even though it felt cold, it was MAYBE 70 @_@ wussies!  Anyways, cleaning the dirt out of a deep laceration with a syringe of water was pretty cool I must admit.  After all this, we found ourselves in a parking garage finishing up class.  In total today, I learned how to deal with burn, lightning, unresponsive, cold, sports related injury, and shock vitims.  Pretty cool stuff and pretty useful.  Looking forward to more of this tomrorow.  On a side note, was kind of glad I limited my electronics I brought with me today, becuase EVERYTHING in my bag was soaked....bummer....thankfully it was only a tupperware with my lunch in it and a few other odds and en's.

Class: a summary of boredom

Never really gave a summary of class, but now I finally will.  I get up ehhh 6:30 or so, shower, and catch the 7:00 bus.  The 3 miles or so takes about 40 minutes to traverse due to all the stops and traffic, but I utilize this time to study and do some intense people watching which could be considred a sport here because of the interesting people that board and leave the bus.  Arriving at school, I go to the 11th floor up some crazy lookin elevators, and then class is from 8-12 normally.  There are 2-4 5 min breaks which are never long enough to relax but enough to use the loo and such.  Then lunch is always great, going to get fresh sushi for like 5.00 or some other random food eats...its always a great time.  Followed by this, class from 1-4:30 is like autopilot...normally pretty dull but with its occasional excitement.  Then it is straight home for studying and unwinding, perhaps making a quick dinner or playing vulture and eating what other people make.

Today went, pretty much to schedule.  The only things that I decided to mix it up with were I went to the eye doctor and made an appointment for tomorrow.  Did well on the quizzes once again, some little tricky things, but otherwise doing well in the class.  Looking forward to tomorrow, we being Wilderness Survival classes, hopefully tons of hilarious pictures to follow.

Wow what a crazy few days

So, not been around for a few days to post but oh many many things have happened.  First and foremost, Thursday was a crazy day becasue we went to a lab where they bring specimines back from trips.  Was quite gnarly the things I saw there, all kindsa fish including a lancetfish, mola, tuna, sharks, and an assortment of other fish were found.  The one with the nasty fangs above is a lancet fish.  The whole 8-5 class thing is pretty grueling, learning so much in sucha short amount of time, somewhere like 100 species or so a week?  Yeah...purrty crazy, but they want us out on the water quick so i guess this is a good thing eh?

Friday was up SUPER early, actually spent the night over at prospect house.  We started walkin to work at 4:30 and were there for 5:15.  A pretty early time to be at the building so we could go to....the fish auction!  The fish auction is where the boats offload their fishy goods and seeing how it is a public auction, anyone may buy them, although we were there just to observe.  Saw many tunas, dolphinfish, baracuddas, and even some opahs!  all of these are pictured above.  Was chilly in there, but shorts and a t-shirt were ok, nothing like new jersey winter weather.  After this, more class followed by some R&R back at good ol' palolo house.  Kinda missed not spending the night there the night b4 and felt good to go back "home" to my bed.  Anyways, my bunkmate mentioned that he rented a car for the weekend and that he wanted to go on a hike tomorrow, so i was stoked and prepared myself accordingly.

Saturaday, we hiked out on Kawaii? point?  Not exactly sure where this place was, just knew it was past Tent City (think occupy wall st. but even more disheveled people) and west west west on the island.  It was an enjoyable hike out, and we managed to see laysan albatross nesting which was super cool, and one was so close we could get a good picture of her chick (that little grey fluffball :) ).  We also saw a small pod of humpback whales in the distance and got some epic scenery on the way back.  what a beautiful place hawaii is.  Got back and started on homework and worked hard on it and studied on marine mammals and sharks.

Sunday or today, I have just been workin on sharks and marine mammals.  I have 15 shark species and 16 marine mammals to memorize.  Glad i started this yesterday, there are some REALLL tough uns!  My bunkmate helps me gross amounts learning these things, and I always go outta my way to thank him by saying thankyou 100times over haha.  Well, I guess i gotta get back to studying, long enough of a distraction here.  BTW, any suggestions, please ask em, More pictures needed? longer explinations? just lemme know, I have a lot more pictures and a lot more to say, but I am trying to curtail the babbling on this blog.

Double Rainbowww!

well...almost that is.  Rained like the dickens today.  Had two quizzes on fish ID's.  that stuff is pretty easy...easier than I thought anyways.  Gotta do Palolo house proud after all.  Well fish ID's down, some sharks and turtles tomorrow.  It is cool living in this house though I must admit.  The dog Magnum is absolutly AWESOMEEE haha and my bunkmate and housemates are pretty cool.  Will grab lots of pictures tomorrow and prolly post a few of my living conditions.  Off to the lab tomorrow for class.  Kinda excited about that must admit.  Will be fun to be back in a lab after all :).

First day of class

So, I was told that there is a chance whatever I type can be seized by the US gov't at any time...WHOA crazy!!! otherwise, basic stupid things I learned.  I will observe.  I will not help the crew or cap'n in any other way.  You are just essentially a pole that observes things going on, you have no real spot on the boat so to say.  Cool...kinda-ish haha...Learned also about "Blackfish" which are Cetatians aka whales and porpoisi or however you spell the plurals of said things.  After all this, made a bacon bomb (pictures probably tomorrow) and my roomates up at Palolo thanked me graciously.  A smashing success when someone doesnt talk at all during eating your food, goes up for seconds, and still doesnt talk until after they have eaten seconds.  Anyways, quiz tomrorow...gotta prepare! The two key words of being an observer are Integrity and Safety.  As long as i keep these words floatin in my head, I should be fine.

The falls hike

so after being in a country for a day, the next logical thing to do is go off on a hike into the wilds of the jungle.  It was your standard jungle hike with ttons of mud trees, and water, yet not a lot of rocks.  The deal was you basically went to the top of my road (waiomao road) and dumped off right where there was a tree.  Then followed the path to a stream and finally found a 5inch diameter pipe.  You then follow that pipe to the falls.  Unfortuantly, we left FARRR too late in the day sooo...couldnt really get to the falls but managed to snap a few cool pictures along teh way :)

Wow, Hawaii sure is a different place.  It is the United States, but it is different.  Not like virgin islands different, no no no, it is still a state as I said above, just...very...laid back.  This observer program is a pretty sweet deal.  I got shunted up to Palolo vally while the rest of the observers are down in the punchbowl region.  Only a few senior observers with me, but its quiet which I like.  The constant tip tap of magnum the monster rotty walkin around is about the only noise ill hear.  Cars up here on the mountain are pretty rare therefore its a quiet mountain getaway.  I perhaps will be headed up to the Palolo waterfalls either today or tomorrow, taking the bus to town is a long (minimum 2 hours there and back) endevour which I really do not feel like partaking in.  Jet lag is still kinda keepin me back after all.  Hawaii sure is different though, thats a 10-4.  Hopefully i'll get out more as the days go on but....my mountain "manor" is good enough for me for now.

Hello World

Wow, so this is how this all starts.  I got accepted to a job half way across the world about 6 days ago and this is the night before I leave.  Be sure to tune in to see (through photos) and hear (through my text) crazy misadventures and stories.  I will hope to keep it PG to the best of my abilities, but no promises now.  If you are following this blog, you probably already know a little about me so I'll save your pupils from read so much stupid text.  The more visits I have however I promise to post more haha!  Well hope to see more of ya and naturally any suggestions, lemme kno!