Seems I’ve been away for longer than a week now (looks to be almost two). Here are some of my “adventures” for the past few weeks. Probably the most awesome thing to happen in class is the lab I did on the 18th. During this lab we performed a micro Winkler titration of the samples we had collected two weeks earlier. As any future oceanographer will learn in their studies, this method measured dissolved oxygen in the water. This was the final form of analysis we performed, the first two being a BOD Oxygen electrode which measured dissolved oxygen in the 10 or so sample we took while offshore. The other was using a lowered O2 electrode that was attached to a CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth). The data was quite good if I might say so myself.

Thanksgiving was just last week. One of the common questions I’ve gotten is what people generally do for thanksgiving. I’ve seen many things happen, a lot of people just stay in Hawaii, some people use the opportunity to visit an adjacent island, others have their family fly out and everyone spends thanksgiving in the islands. I however, flew to the mainland to visit my family in Portland, Oregon with the intention of surprising the grandparents. I flew over on Wednesday arriving around 2100PST. From the airport we went almost immediately to get some crepes. The next morning I was left alone in the house with the task of cooking breakfast for everyone, and to surprise my grandparents when they arrived. It was a great success. Thanksgiving dinner involved a fried turkey, something I’ve never had before. The trip to the mainland was a welcome break to the activities associated with school. I returned to the islands on Monday and am now in the “home stretch” with only 2 weeks until finals week.

-Andrew