I realize I have been neglecting my blog site.Normally I stay after work (to use free internet) but since my bike broke down, I rely on rides from others and can't stay late.Expensive internet is one downside about living in the hostel.Well, because a whole month has gone by, there is that much more to talk about.

Life is still really awesome and I look forward to every day.I really like how each day brings something new and exciting while work and other routines keep some consistency.Hostel life is always changing.Over the past month, it's generally been really fun.There were a few people who stayed for about a week and we got to know each other pretty well.Among them was a Spanish guy, a couple Australian guys and a girl, a Swedish girl, a girl from the Netherlands, and a German girl.Most nights we had group dinners and sat in the courtyard, played ping pong, and even soccer.Another group that stayed for a while was a bunch of tennis players playing in a local satellite tournament.I thought it was pretty cool that their top guy had played (and beaten haha) Alex Vlaski in doubles.I watched the two semifinals of the tournament.The guys had world rankings in the range of 450-700.It was pretty comparable to watching the UW's men's tennis team play.I got to play a couple of them in ping pong but they didn't give me a chance to warm up so of course they won ha.One of the guys that works the front desk here is quite good and we have a competition going until I leave.Whoever has won more games at the end owes the other a bottle of liquor (it's 21-11 for me right now).Another guy who was here for a brief time as a medical intern was really friendly too and we took a day trip out in the bush to a national park in the subtropical rainforest.The number of birds would blow your mind.

Work continues to be interesting with the pace of things picking up recently.Work is steady in the hatchery and we will soon be culturing algae, rotifers, and brine shrimp.The clownfish are taking forever to come in so we are applying for a permit to collect them ourselves from the wild.I am still doing a lot of work with sea urchins (not the most exciting animals in the world) and we just hired a research scientist who specializes in them.I will work with him on a project involving the settlement and metamorphosis of urchin larvae.At the same time we will try to breed the urchins for the aquarium trade (apparently they sell for $10 in the US).I'm looking forward to actually doing some science.I'm also spending a lot of time with students on their 3 day excursions here.I run a taxonomy lab with them and help with activities in the field.It's really cool how respectful they are.We try to make their trip as special as possible because these students rarely visit the beach (one girl said it had been 7 years).

I also spent another week at the field station up in Arrawarra helping Adam, a PhD student, do field work in the estuaries and some labwork analyzing invertebrates.Adam is basically a walking encyclopedia of scientific names for invertebrates.His project is to determine the recruitment of animals in different sediment grain sizes in the estuary.During our work in the estuary one day, a huge python swam across the creek right in front of us.Adam took pictures of me playing with its tail.We went surfing every day (sometimes twice) and I still didn't get much better.I was using a malibu board (they're huge and really buoyant and easy to paddle) and getting flogged with waves that had any kind of barrel to them.The perspective of lying down on a board watching a wave crest right over you is really intimidating.It's really demoralizing when you paddle really hard to catch a wave only to have the nose of your board thrown into the sand and yourself flipped over backwards (while praying the board doesn't pop back up onto your head).It looks like so much fun to ride big waves so I'm determined to get good.Adam is a surfing nut and he showed me pictures of him riding massive waves in Tasmania (his home state).I was in Arrawarra over Halloween and I did get a few surprise trick-or-treaters.It was a group of high schoolers I had met the day before while surfing.The holiday is gaining popularity here though it is considered a "stupid American tradition" by many people.They asked for beer but I didn't give them any (they're one year shy of the legal age of 16).Otherwise, it was a real struggle to keep myself entertained because the tv was broken, I finished my book, and it was dark by 6pm.I'm looking forward to going back though because Adam said we'd go skin diving for lobsters and abalone when the weather is right.

My morning routine still hasn't changed.I wake up to catch the sunrise (now at a reasonable time again because of daylight savings time) and go fishing.Just about every morning I catch my "breakfast" (I'm not sure if people here actually eat fish for breakfast or if that's just an expression).A fisherman (who helps trawlers unload their catch) gives me his spare hand line and bait.I always bring home bream to eat but I have caught many other fish in the marina (they follow the commercial fishing boats in to eat whatever scraps they toss overboard).The other evening I was preparing a fish that I had caught that morning.There was a French girl who was cooking next to me while alternately listening to music and talking on her cell phone.I was putting more effort into preparing the fish than I normally do and thought I was doing pretty well.When I was almost done and about to cook it she spoke for the first time."It's better with vegetables.Like carrots and onions."I said I didn't have any."And you need to put more salt and lemon on it."She squeezed a whole lemon into a pot and when it came to a boil, added about 3 tablespoons of butter.Then she poured the mix into the tin foil with the fish.She explained that she worked in a French restaurant cooking fish.After I cooked it, she took a piece and shrugged and said it was ok.I think that more or less epitomizes the personality of every French person I've met at the hostel.

Otherwise, I'm finally getting back into the sports that I've missed so much (except soccer).The Thursday night twilight sailing races began last Thursday.I ended up stuck on a slow boat with a bunch of lame older people.It was one lap around 3 buoys in the ocean.There was barely any wind so it took forever and it was cold and drizzly.I'll definitely jump on a different boat next time.The race is nothing like Duck Dodge and I really miss those.I also played a bit of tennis last weekend.They asked me to play in the doubles tennis comp (season-long competition) every Tuesday night.I might also play in a big tournament in mid-November with my new doubles partner.It's good to find a club to play regularly with.

Well that's all for now.I'll do my best to post every other week again.Until next time!