Day 5: Salmon in the Sand

Hey Reader! Geez is all I can say! I just logged onto my Facebook and I had not one but two comments on my wall asking where my entry for today was. I'm getting to it people! I didn't realize my blog was so anticipated by everyone! It sure makes me feel good and it certainly makes me feel loved. Thank you guys, it really means a lot. 


As for today, well we were up at 4:45am again. Yes, my eyes were bloodshot and no I did not shower. Screw Herbal Essences, the salt air is my shampoo! It's true Reader, I'm a full fledged adventurer/researcher as of today. We went out to Scott's Bay which is basically over in the general area of Brady's Beach and we finally got to do specimen collections. It was so fun! My group didn't actually find anything too exciting but there were some amazing finds by other people! Flatworms, peanut worms, burrowing anemones, sunstars, sea squirts and of course crabs. The low tide was SO amazing this morning. I couldn't believe how far out we could walk. Also it was super foggy this morning so even though we could see for miles, the islands were all hidden by the fog. I definitely had a great time walking around in my rubber boots, splashing around in the water. What a great morning!


This afternoon we had a quiz and I think it went well but who knows right? I mean there were a couple questions that I didn't know but the rest seemed pretty good. Either way it didn't matter because lab was over early and we got to go out to Pachena Beach for 'Happy Hour on Deck'. This is a weekly occurrence normally held at the director of Bamfield's house but since he was away this weekend, we had it at the beach. The other course that's going on right now (Ethnobotany) was having an old fashioned cook out. When we got to the beach the Ethnobotany students explained the process to this cook out. They had dug a pit and had made a huge fire at the bottom and thrown big rocks in the pit. The fire was put out and the rocks were still extremely hot. They then put food (wrapped in plants from the environment) in the pit and covered it with more plants and then sand. This cooked for about four hours today. Needless to say the food was INCREDIBLE! They cooked salmon, halibut, veggies and apples. The roasted apples were actually amazing! It really reminded me of Hawaii where they do the same thing but instead they burry a pig and let it roast all day under the sand. It was such a great experience.


After an amazing supper of 'sand salmon' as it was dubbed, we went walking on the beach and eventually made our way back to campus. A friend and I rowed over to the West side of Bamfield to go to the General Store. What a trek. Let's start by saying that I don't know how to row. I know Reader, you must be so disappointed. But luckily my friend knew how to row. Unfortunately she was a bit rusty at it. Long story short, we held up the boating traffic just a smidge while trying to make our way across the channel. It was totally worth it for the ice cream on the other side! :)


Reader, I'm so happy that the weekend is here! I NEED sleep! Seriously, this whole waking up at 4:45am thing has screwed up my biological clock. It's telling me that it's bed time at around 7:00pm. No biological clock, you're wrong! Bedtime should be no earlier than 10:00pm in my opinion! Especially on a Friday! Either way, we have lab tomorrow morning so I will in fact be going to bed at a reasonable hour but who knows when that'll be! As for this weekend, I hope it's a great one and I wish you all the best Reader! As always, I'm thinking of you all and missing you like crazy! You guys are everything to me!