Field Work or The Empire Strikes Back

So posts are slower than usual because this week has been a busy week! On Monday the day went from 8 AM-9 PM. So not that much time to struggle with blogspot which is giving me problems. Anyways, a little update on all that is happening.

As beautiful as Moorea is, there is some nasty stuff that goes around. MDR staph is prevalent here, one person in our lab alone has gotten it multiple times since being here, so I am getting paranoid about every tiny cut and bugbite I have. When you think about all the microscopic cuts you have that you think nothing about, but which could cause you to lose your hand, it is pretty scary. So that and dengue fever which also comes here frequently are enough to keep you up at night.

Although a ton of people come to this research station for Marine research (Ecology, Physiology, Oceanography, etc.) there are also a lot of other scientists here. Yesterday, a group of guys from MIT arrived. They build robots that are meant to do things under the water like recording film, checking remote recording devices, etc. There has also been an anthropologist here, a terrestrial bird biologist, a few entomologists, etc. So I guess what I'm saying is that if you can find a niche and money, anyone can come here and do something!

Some people have asked about the island. The island is only about 26 miles around. There are mountains inland, and valleys among the mountains. There are only a few “cities” here. One is Maharepa, where we go for food, mainly. There are some nice restaurants there, a few banks, some surf shops, shopping, police department, doctor, etc. There is a bigger Walmart sort of super market on the other side of the island called Toa. The station has cars that are available to use and which we use for shopping and stuff, but you have to be 23 to drive, so no driving for me! Since they are land rovers with manual, which I can't drive anyways, it's not a big deal. Maybe next time I can come back knowing how to drive a manual stick shift? Anyone want to teach me?

More later, back to the field now!

Best,
Emily