You know you are close to defending your dissertation when ...

I have set a defense date ... September 6, 2012.  This is 4 years minus 3 days after defending my masters (September 9, 2008).  A day I barely remember, and a night where I really only remember thinking I broke my foot.  At some point I will write a blog post about all the things I will miss when I finish here ... maybe recapping some of the best parts of gradschool so that when I look back over the past 7 years (eek yes 7 years) I will only have happy memories!  But today I thought I would share the top 10 reasons I can tell I am getting really close to finishing ...

1)  I have read 6 books in the past 3.5 weeks ...
2)  Over the past 4 months I have watched 5 TV series (Mad Men, Roswell, Life Unexpected, Downtown Abby, The Guardian) ... some good some bad.
3) I joined a new gym a month ago and have only been 5 times
4) My coffee consumption has increased by a factor of 2 ... or 3 (I should make a graph haha)
5) I spend my nights not sleeping, thinking of the most AMAZING ways to write up my results, only to wake up in the morning and have no idea what I was thinking.
6) When I am not thinking about work ... I am worrying about who I might invite to a hypothetical graduation party when 95% of my friends have already left.
7) I am looking up recipes for what to make for my defense day.
8) My parents want to come out ... however I won't let them buy tickets yet because I am not entirely convinced I will be able to finish by Sept. 6.  Not sure when reality will settle in, but it has not happened yet.
9)  My schedule is tending toward the nocturnal ... which sucks because Ben wakes up at 5AM to go to work :(
10)  I am avoiding email/invitations to have fun because I feel horribly guilty when I am not working, so guilty that I spend a lot of time messing around on the internet so that I can avoid worrying about the guilt ...
11) ... I have started writing in this blog again :)

oops thats 11 ... and btw these are in no particular order :)

I'll know when I am *really* close to finishing, when I start wearing the same thing to work every day, wearing socks with sandals, and forgetting to shower... thankfully I haven't reached that part of the "finishing the hardest thing you have ever done" process yet :)

A day in the life - launching weather balloons

Here is a photo journal of what I do here on the atoll ... well what I do for work here on the atoll.  I know that my family and non-atmopsheric science friends have no idea what I am doing out here ... and even many of my academic friends may have never launched a balloon, so here is:

First stop ... the terminal for breakfast!

Oh YUM! Bacon Egg and Cheese sandwich ... oh and some figure plotting to go with it.

First things first ... call the air traffic control tower and get approval to launch the balloon ... they will delay you if there is a flight about to leave/land.  Whey they say "that is approved" then you are good to go!  Get out the sonde and launch.

Radiosonde in the package.

Radiosonde package open ... there it is!

Attach the radiosonde to the machine that configures it (not sure what it is called)

First recondition the sensor ... burn off anything on the sensor and get it ready to launch.

Start the GAUS program that records the data from the sonde.

Attach the battery to the sonde ... half the sonde is the power supply.

Make sure that the computer registers the radiofrequency of the sonde

Make sure all the sensors are working!

Aspirate the sensor and make sure sensors are working.

Radiosonde and Aspirator

Check to make sure the radiosonde can see satellites

Helium tanks for filling the balloon

Turning on the helium tank

Open the valve and put 30 cub. feet in the balloon

Here is the balloon in the package.

Out of the package, no helium.

Filling the balloon

More helium.

Full balloon ... it only gets bigger as it rises!

Adding the zip tie to keep the helium in the balloon.

Zip tie!

Attach the radiosonde to the balloon with another zip tie.

Getting ready to launch!

Here we go ...

Its rising!

YAY!

Taking in some data ... temperature, humidity, windspeed and direction :)

So thats it!  The whole balloon launching process in just a few short steps ... by the end of my time here it only took me about 5 min ... my first day here I never would have imagined it could be so easy, but it really was :)

OH and due to the crappy internet here ... this post has taken me DAYS to get ready.  Man what a pain.

Birds of Diego Garcia a la Rachel

"Oh look at that cute little um ... oh rat" - words I never thought I would hear myself say, but really even the rats on this island seem cuter than any other place.  

This post is a record (well more like a list) of all the birds I have seen on the island ... thanks to my dad and this awesome book "A guide to the birds of the British Indian Ocean Territory" (I met the author, he has dedicated his life to the Chagos and helped make them the nature preserve they are today!)  I have been able to identify most of the birds I have seen/heard (yeah ... who would of thought I could learn to identify birds by what they sound like ... not me and probably not my Dad :) )

It turns out that I am not very stealth ... I walk around the forest much like I imagine Peeta Mellark from the Hunger Games would ... in other words every time I try to get actual pictures of birds, I completely and utterly fail.  They always fly away :(  I have only included the few pictures I have actually been able to take myself... but I am sure you can google the rest if you want to see what they look like. 

So here is the list ... I have had a lot of fun searching for birds ... who knows maybe I could possibly even enjoy looking for birds other places :) 

Cattle Egret

Madagascar Turtle-dove

Zebra Dove

Common Myna

Madagascar Red Fody

Wedge-tailed Shearwater

White-tailed Tropicbird

Lesser Frigatebird

Red-footed Booby

Common Tern

Black-naped Tern

Bridled Tern

Brown Noddy

Fairy Tern

Striated Heron

White-breasted Waterhen (plus babies!)

Whimbrel

Potentially a flock of Curlew Sandpipers (but they moved really quickly ...) 

The Cattle Egrets, Madagascar Turtle-doves, Zebra Doves, Common Mynas, and Madagascar Red Fodies are all over the island ... you would have to be blind or never leave your room to not see them around.   

We have a couple of pairs of Fairy Terns living in the tree just outside of our hotel rooms ... they are so cute together and seem more like love birds than the real love birds to me.  Here are a couple of pictures.  Apparently these birds don't build nests, but just lay their eggs on branches or in nooks of trees.  So the lone bird in the following picture appears to be protecting an egg... maybe?

Fairy Terns outside my door!

Fairy Tern protecting an egg.

I have seen a few Lesser Frigatebirds soaring over the lagoon/coastal part of the island.  And I think that I maybe saw one diving for fish ... at least it was a hug black bird (bigger than the terns and Noddys that were also diving for fish).

Lesser Frigatebird flying over the lagoon.

I have seen the Brown Noddys fishing a lot ... but my first sighting was the first day that Heather and I went snorkeling where I also saw the Striated Heron.  I have gone back a few times and see the same (or you know similar birds) ... so maybe they nest close to that spot.

As I have mentioned a couple of other times, I saw the Red-footed Boobies when we went to the "other side" of the atoll - near the Plantation and when I did that crazy bike ride where they dropped us off a the other point and we had to ride back.  They are kinda weird smelly birds, but it was exciting to see them!

Red-Footed Boobies!

Boobie.

I have seen the common Terns, Black-naped Terns and Bridled Terns in the afternoon/evening diving for fish in the lagoon near our work site ... seriously nothing cooler than going swimming in lagoon, being the only person out there, and watching birds dive for fish.  AMAZING.

I think the most exciting bird sighting was when I found the Wedge-tailed Shearwater ... I met the author of the book above Peter Carr, and he told me that there is a pair of nesting Shearwaters that live under what the "locals" call the "Shagging Bush", but I completely forgot until one evening I was walking home from the Food Court and I started hearing the strangest noises coming from underneath this crazy yucca looking shrubbery (hear the birds on this website) ... the next day I went back and found one of the two birds hidden under the bush ... and I kinda sorta managed to take a picture!

Wedge-tailed Shearwater!

Then today when I was driving out to visit Turtle Cove (another post on this later) ... I saw a White-breasted Waterhen and her babies.  These cute fuzzy little black chicks :) I got out of the car to try and take pictures and the mom kinda freaked out made all sorts of noises and tried to get me to run off, so I decided to give her a break and just head on my way ... but still really cool!  I also saw some Whimbrels hanging out near the runway - where a lot of water had accumulated during the past rains.

So yeah ... I think that is the list of everything I have seen, but who knows what will happen over the next couple of days!

Relaxing Day!

I spent most of Sunday recovering from the bike ride Saturday (oh and did I mention that I had to work the night shift, after the bike ride?) Anyway, woke up late, had brunch at the Officers Club, took a nap, watched a movie, went to the beach and swam around, saw a wedged tailed shearwater (more on that later), went for a small hike to try and see the sunset, curry dinner at the Officers Club, and then to bed!  Here are some pics :)

Our spread at the O-Club ... I think I had 3 plates of food, yum! 

View of the Verandah of the O-club

Start of the "trail" head as we went in search of the sunset!

Pretty sunset, but I had my camera on some weird setting, so it looks a bit funky :)

Diego Garcia Tip-2-Tip bike ride ... an epic event!

What do you get when you combine 85+ Diego Garcia residents, a ferry ride, 36 miles of muddy trails, dirt road, paved road, rain showers, blistering hot sun, humidity, bugs, birds, rats, coconut crabs oh and bikes ... you get an epic event of muddy proportions (or something silly like that).

This Saturday Jared and I participated in the Diego Garcia tip-2-tip bike ride.  In a nutshell we woke up a 6am, had a quick breakfast, rode our bikes down to the Marina, took a ferry ride across the lagoon to the other side of the island, rode our bikes (mountain bikes that is) on 10 miles of dirty, muddy, coconut laden trails, then 8 miles of compact dirt road, followed by 18 miles of road.  The entire trip took us 5hr 15min, in which we saw amazing things (coconut crabs, red footed boobies, beautiful oceans), took a ton of pictures, and tortured our bodies.  A few lessons I have learned after this ride ... when you travel always bring with you a pair of bike shorts and your bike gloves (you never know when you will need these things, and my butt and my hands REALLY wish I had them on this bike ride), bring more than one pair of shoes (poor Jared only has one pair of shoes ... and they are not doing so great right now), Gatorade is probably one of the best drinks in the world (haha, if you have ever worked out with me Anna, then you might know that I really dislike Gatorade, but on this ride, I really think that I finally learned how amazing a beverage it can be).

The following is my photo journal of the event ... sorry for the length of this post (but it will mostly be pictures!)

Map of Diego Garcia Tip-to-Tip Bike Ride 

Early morning breakfast - fuel for the day!

Loading up the bikes - right one for bikes, left one for us!

Me and Jared before getting on the boats - yes it was already raining.

GRRRRRR......

On the Boat ... somehow I couldn't stop thinking about Saving Private Ryan

On the boat, looking awesome in our life vests

Made it to the other side, on the beach waiting for our turn to hit the trails!

Getting pretty excited!!!

Red Footed Boobies!! - These birds were like "humans what are you doing here, we live on this side of the island so that we don't have to deal with you" oh and they smell pretty bad ewww

The trail!

More of the trail. (It was raining at this point)

Coconut obstacles! 

Here I am ... looking hot and sweaty (and my helmet is always lopsided!)

Trails + cool trees

And the mud begins ... hahahaha (better to ride through it sometimes)

Coconut crabs on the Beach!

More Coconut crabs!

Red Footed Boobies!

This is where the fun really began ... rode down the middle of this and got stuck, haha!

More muddy trails!

The Indian Ocean :) 

And then we hit the road ... 18 miles of HOT HOT HOT.

Super tired at this point, wanting to be done!

Yay the finish!!!!! Just a little muddy ...

OK a little more muddy this way!

All and all, it was a fun trip.  And now the only places I am sore are my butt, my shoulders (from my pack) and my hands... which were rubbed raw from the handle bars and sand!

Oh and just for you non-believers or those of you who are saying "those trails don't look so bad" ... at times when I was riding I was literally in water mud pits that reached my waist ... while I was riding eek!!! So fun :)