First adventure - December 20, 2013

    It's 8:30 on a Friday morning in San Francisco, Taylor and I are in the car, on our way to Bodega bay. It's about a 2 hour drive, not that bad. Or at least that's what I thought... We're on the road about 45 minutes in, and we come to a point where the road is turn after turn non-stop, almost like race track but with many more harsh turns. Taylor asks me if I'm car sick, since she's had other people ask her to stop because they needed to puke. I confidently said, "No". This road seemed to be endless, the harsh turns wouldn't stop and neither did my minor headache and upset stomach. I began to feel uncomfortable, to the point where I had to ask her to pull over, I couldn't take it. The moment I stepped out the car I already felt better, the fresh air circulating in and through my lungs and a still vision made my car sickness almost vanish completely. After a few minutes of my body regaining its equilibrium, we headed back on the road. Roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes later we arrived! We got our clipboards and binoculars and headed towards the beach! It was a beautiful sunny day but we were off to a bad start, Taylor had noticed that the tides were higher than she expected, but that didn't stop us! She briefly explained to me the forms she had given me that I would fill out through out the survey. Basically she would call out different vertebrates and have me tally how many there is. At this beach we only saw birds, so she would call out different species of birds and how many she saw through out the whole beach. Unfortunately we didn't cover the entire beach due to the high tides and the dangerous possibilities that came with it if we were to continue, we could have seen sea lions! May be next time. After we tallied all the number of different species of birds we saw and the quantity, we roamed the same part of the beach but instead of looking for live vertebrates, we were looking for dead vertebrates. Thankfully we found none! Since we finished earlier than expected we decided to go to the Bodega marine laboratory and have a tour of their different laboratory buildings. Not only was it a tour of the buildings, but also a very Informative tour about different marine mammals, marine science history, ways to help the earth, etc. I would have to say that the best part of the tour would be when we went outside and looked at their tide pool tank. It's available and open to the public and with permission of the staff you could actually pick up a sea star! Of course I did, the water was insanely cold but it was well worth it. It was a bummer once the day was getting closer to the end, I had so much fun though. I also got better news at the end, Taylor said that if it's okay with me, I could do the monthly survey with her in Bodega! I was more than happy and honored to accept that offer. Hopefully next time the tides are in our favor and were allowed to cover the rest of the beach, it was a rough start but after a while I really got the hang of it. With crossed fingers and good vibes all will go well in our next survey, who knows, maybe well get to see a whale or sea lions! Or maybe it'll rain and we'll have to cancel! Or the tides will be ridiculously high! Oh no, what's going to happen?!?!

Time logged for this session: 7 Hours
Total time logged: 8 Hours 

Successful planning day - November 22, 2013

    This wasn't my first time meeting with my mentor (Taylor Nairn). We decided it would be best to meet at her office and have her give me a tour, so that's exactly what we did. My lovely teacher Ms. Milani was so kind enough to drive me there since it is quite some time away, and my parents couldn't take me that afternoon. After 45 minutes, moving through rush hour traffic, we arrived! I was speechless, the view was incredible. She has the perfect view from her office, underside of the Golden Gate bridge. Aside from the two office buildings, they also have a pier with a small shack where labs and research is held. The tour began outside and we worked our way up and into her office. You would think it's a regular office with papers and file cabinets everywhere, but there's so much more than that. In the main entrance there are fish tanks, marine mammal fossils, murals of  marine life, basically everything marine orientated! Some what like a mini museum. The remaining of the building are offices where the employees enter research into their database, edit and review research, or get some type of work done. Her office is located on the second floor, within her office there is a large closet filled with binders containing data of deceased animals from decades ago till now. She shares her office with two other people who practically do the same job she does, so it is quite large. She briefly showed me their database and all the data she has collected on beach surveys, along with data from past years. Then she asked me if I was willing to go up to Bodega bay to do a beach survey with her! I was super excited and didn't hesitate to say yes. Along with the survey she has planned for me to go every month for four to five hours a day starting January till April, having me help her input level A data into their database. Something she does on a regular bases. After that she walked me out and Ms. Milani and I were on our way home, content about what we discussed that day. I couldn't help but feel excited and inpatient about our next assignment since it was a month away, the beach survey in Bodega bay. So far this project has been stressful and successful, stressful because it took me a while to get a hold of Taylor and there being a possibility that she wouldn't be interested in being a mentor. The successful aspect of it is, that she did agree to be my mentor and that everything is slowly but surely falling into place perfectly. It just started and I cannot wait to see where it leads me to. Bodega ready or not, here I come!

Time logged for this session: 1 Hour
Total time logged: 1 Hour
* Late post due to not having accesses to a laptop/computer at home and relying on school computers.*