Our World – Underwater Scholarship Society in North America

I got all touristy.  I really wanted to tour the White House, but it turns out that you have to book that like six months ahead of time, so instead I just spent a gorgeous day wandering around DC and visiting all the memorials.  Thomas Jefferson is one of my favorite founding fathers, and I [...]

I was so excited to see fall on the east coast, and today I went on a hike in Seneca State Park and got a glimpse of some fall colors.

Today I went on a walk during lunch with Jim McCallum, who knew of this farm that’s not too far from our building.  Well, it’s not really a farm, but it is an enormous backyard garden owned and maintained by Charlie, a delightful 80 year-old man.  I bought some green peppers.

So… I work in a cubicle.  In an office.  And there just aren’t a whole lot of unique photo opportunities in a cubicle.  So this might be my only actual picture from my office, and it’s not actually from my office, it’s from a summit that my office, International Affairs, hosted.  I am learning a [...]

I made it to D.C.!  I started an internship at NOAA’s Office of International Affairs, under the direction of Rebecca Lent and Christopher Rogers.  This is the train stop I get off on at Silver Springs, MD.  I’ll be here for three weeks!

I’m on my way to Washington, D.C., and I stayed overnight in New Jersey with my friend Chelsea Kahn, at Rutgers University.  I met Chelsea earlier this year in Little Cayman when I stayed with the Little Cayman Research Institute (archived blogs here).  Chelsea and I visited Carrie Manfrino, the director of the Central Caribbean [...]

Today was my last day at the boatyard.  I watched as Martin Niemiec launched a boat, I helped Tony the mechanic take a cracked radiator out of a forklift, and watched Dave the shaper finish fiberglassing a sailboat he’s been working on.  I didn’t get nearly my fill of boat maintenance, and I’m really hoping [...]

The guys had an engine come in that was overheating.  Chris, a mechanic, fixed what he thought was the problem and we went for a test drive.  The engine was still overheating over a certain RPM (too low an RPM be overheating at), and so we took the boat back so that Chris could pull [...]

We extracted a giant Volvo engine yesterday.  Today I watched (and occasionally helped) Dave, one of Niemiec Marine’s certified mechanics, take it apart.  It was great to finally see the inside of an engine, as up until now all of my knowledge had been pretty theoretical.  It makes a world of difference to actually SEE [...]

Today we crane-lifted a Volvo diesel engine out of a pretty big boat.  I’m sorry if you were hoping for more technical specs — as I said, I’m learning.  ”Diesel” and “pretty big boat” is about as technical as I get right now.  Did I mention I’m learning?
I’m learning tons, actually, and I really, really [...]