home sweet home.

well that 6 weeks flew by but I am SO thankful to be home.  these past few days have been absolutely perfect. 

all my favourite things including:

*thai food!!!

*seeing all my amazing friends and family

*staying in bed until late morning- in my OWN bed.

*my favourite starbucks drink and a walk on the waterfront

*a sweaty run without a bazillion hills like there was on the westcoast

*lazying around at home

*the gorgeous sunshine

back to school tomorrow, I can't believe how fast this summer went.  I had so many amazing experiences and was really fortunate to have all the opportunities that I did in the last few months.  even though summer is over I have several amazing things to look forward to this fall.  including, HAWAII and a yoga and surf retreat in tofino.  I think it is going to be a good semester :)

I have to say I am going to miss this view while studying..

happy september!

--m

last weekend in bamfield.

this next week is going to be full of running stats, writing our final paper and putting together a presentation on our research.  that being said, I probably will not have any free time to blog.  BUT in a few short days I will be home and have lots to share with you! since these past couple days at school have been designated for finishing up other projects and to get going on our final research project, I had a bit of spare time to enjoy my surroundings.

rowing over to the west side for an afternoon with the ladies.

last early morning field collection! sippin' my hot chocolate

foggy morning- great for a nice run!

I had the chance to run 3 times this past week, which was amazing and I have been doing at least 30 minutes of yoga each day- usually by mid afternoon my brain and body need a serious break so yoga helps tremendously.  I'm also looking forward to today for one really awesome reason- later this afternoon I get to... BAKE!!!! my TA is allowing us to use her kitchen to whip up some cupcakes today and I am so looking forward to it! it will be a nice break from working on our research in the lab.  also, there is a pottery sale by one of the local artists that I hope to swing by and check out.  all in all, should be wonderful.  I can't believe how fast these past 5 weeks have flown by but I am definitely ready to come home.

several things I am looking forward to at home include:
*being at my own home, with my own kitchen, my OWN bedroom(not sleeping in a bunkbed), with my main squeeze
*seeing all my amazing friends and family who I have missed so incredibly much.
*baking, baking, baking
*thai food at kasira!!
*being back at the yoga studio
*strolling in all my favourite parks
*civilization!! I have been in my own little world out here- it will be nice to get back to a little bit of civilization

happy sunday everyone.
--m

the simple things.

sometimes I find myself super overwhelmed with all that is going out here in regards to school. our schedules are so busy and I don't have much "free" time so to speak.  the free time that I do have is precious but since that is far and few between I have to look forward to the little things that put a smile on my face and make all this hard work worth it!


-summer mix playlist that I can't get enough of.  one of my lovely friends out here introduced it to me and I am hooked.  I most often listen to it while I get my yoga on.
-mail-seriously!! I was the happiest camper when I got a card, letter, picture or care package.  the mail comes in on tues/thurs/sat and all of us anxiously await the arrival of the mail on the boat.  I also love when some of my friends receive tons of chocolate and share it with me :)
-hugs from my classmates- we all go through days where we really miss our families and friends.  getting a good squeeze from one of my close friends out here seems to help.
-enjoy a nice thermos of hot chocolate with my biology nerds looking over this view...

the great tide pool- site of our latest snorkelling excursion.

-a beautiful sunrise(one bonus of being an intertidal biologist- but no more 5.00 am mornings for this girl, yahoo!)

enjoy the simple things in life.
--m

creatures and critters volume 3.

just got back from quite the weekend of camping! wow- I never knew I was so wilderness savvy! we had to hike into the camping spot which was about a 2 hour hike with all our packs, food, sleeping bags, tents etc.  considering I'm not a very good camper under normal circumstances, I have to say I was slightly worried.

we arrived at the most beautiful beach(of course my camera battery was dead, which I realized once we arrived. why does this always happen to me?!) but I will get some pics from some of the other students soon.  we hiked along the beach to get to a spot near a stream that we were using as our water source.  after setting up tents and tarps we got to work collecting firewood from around the area and water from the stream.  camping is so much work!! we treated the water with tablets and finally, 4 hours later, we were able to drink it! as long as you didn't pay attention to the brownish colour and the floaties, it tasted just fine! some little munchkins stole our chocolate out of the food bin(to keep the bears away) but eventually brought it back to us and apologized after ashley kindly and in a joking manner threatened to eat their dog. haha. all in all, it was a great, tiring but still great, experience.  I can definitely check that off my bucket list- I have never hiked into a campsite before! also, I have never:
*made myself a little pit toilet in the bush.  complete with a twig toilet paper holder and twig holder for my flashlight
*applied fucus(intertidal algae) mucus to my face as sunscreen.. desperate times call for desperate measures!
*gone 24 hours without washing my hands- wow, I have never been so thankful for hand sanitizer.
*actually camped right ON the beach and saw whales from our campsite on two occasions! (and sealions too.)


anyway, here are some recent critters we have in the lab...

cool crab!!

abalone- these things are awesome!

moon snail- also awesome and massive!

huge nudibranch!

and one last photo for yah..

snorkel lovin'- one of my flippers sank to the bottom of the sea :(

hope everyone had a great weekend!!
--m

get your bake on. (because I can't)

I miss baking SO much.  can't wait to get creative in the kitchen when I get home in september.  I also desperately miss eating my baking.  SO currently, I am accepting care packages- anybody interested in sending me one?  you could include some of these delicious things...

strawberry cheesecake truffles by annie's eats

chocolate chunk peanut butter swirl fudgy cookies by picky palate

banana pudding by a cozy kitchen

chocolate caramel slice by m loves m

strawberry sour cream ice cream by my life as a mrs.

frozen reese's peanut butter pie by bakers royale

cake batter rice crispy treats by gimmie some oven

Okay, you don't actually have to send baking.  I don't think those treats package up and travel very well.  but a letter would be awesome! I love receiving mail and the address is on the bamfield marine sciences centre website if anyone is interested! it is nice to have something to look forward to :)

since I am not baking, in my very minimal free time I have been...

*catching up my blog reading

*yoga goodness

*learning the shuffle with my classmates. yes, yes I am serious.

*putting our mattresses on the floor of our dorm and watching the movie up while snacking on treats.  treats that we had to row across to the other side of the inlet to get. a row boat is now my most common mode of transportation. it is refreshing to go without driving for so long!
*lying in the grass under the beautiful sunshine and reading my book

*nature walks-

enjoying the view.

forest lovin'

our little adventure walk

massive tree trunk!

I am so happy to call this island home.  can't imagine living anywhere else.

--m

creatures and critters volume 2.

my anemone friend.

the resident lab jellyfish

purple urchins!

I scored a sweet coral from the beach.

ginormous barnacle! Oh my goodness

love my biology buds.

the end of last week and the beginning of this weekend was filled with field trips to several different islands to find some awesome critters to examine in the lab.  today we went snorkelling, which was totally rad.  saw some sweet jellies, a HUGE sea cuke, massive anemones, red rock crab and lots of other little gems.  THEN the best of all- a neurobiologist from the mainland came to the station to guest lecture and do a lab with us.  I enjoyed the lab today SO much- he had brought some freshwater snails with him and we got to examine the neurons in their brain.  their neurons are significantly larger than a humans and I could tell you all this awesome stuff about how cool their nervous system functions but I won't get into that.. :)  I love neuroscience.

gotta get to my group meeting and do my yoga for the day.  are you taking part in the 21 day challenge?
--m

21 day yoga challenge.

check out this challenge.

I'm taking part- you should too! I started today.. only 20 minutes but better than zero! I think this is going to be a good way to encourage myself to practice in order to keep my sanity.  things are getting crazy around here and I often don't feel I can fit in exercise but what's 20 minutes? I can always spare 20 minutes.  I feel that keeping everything in perspective is important and I'm not ready to give up something I love for 6 whole weeks! so yoga challenge it is.

okay, now back to the books :)
--m

west coast beaches part 1.

an early morning on brady's beach...

an equally early morning sample collection at scott's bay..

and a glorious friday afternoon, saturday and sunday afternoon at pachena bay. saturday wasn't so nice but I had my fabulous friends that distracted me from the rain.  

it has been an all around crazy weekend! insanely busy here at the station- we had lab work to do yesterday but then we realized that the water pipe had broken that circulates fresh sea water to all the animals in our lab.  huge problem! we had to haul up buckets of water from the shore to keep our creatures cool and happy.  after multiple trips, the pipe was finally fixed.  BUT then the internet was down.  all seems to be good now! I managed to squeeze in a short yoga practice yesterday morning before the water crisis.  then I spent time doing lab work and my friendsies came to the station to pick me up for an afternoon/evening at their campsite.  so glorious to spend some time with them- i love my friends!

off to do laundry and a little yoga!
missin' everyone at home- hope you are all well, thinking about each and every one of you!
--m

creatures and critters volume 1.

the last two mornings were early ones.. in order to explore two different intertidal areas we had to rise and shine at 4.45(!) in order to catch the low tide.  in return, we saw some awesome creatures.  I seem to never photograph the seriously awesome ones because I am just staring in awe at how cool they are. here are a few shots from the first two field trips... many more to come!!

crab!!

one of a bazillion anemones.

sea stars and tunicates!

ginormous mussels 

kelp

sea star feeding.

anemones and purple encrusted sponge.

stay tuned for "the beaches of the westcoast volume 1"
off to bed. it has been such a long week.
--m

ps.  I miss all of you- sorry, this 14 hour long school day thing is taking a toll on me.  I will message you all when I have the chance.  even better, message me first :) hugs.

my new home.

yesterday, I arrived at my new home for the next 6 weeks.  after unpacking all my stuff and meeting the majority of the other students, I felt relief and my nerves passed.  I am really excited to be here- such a gorgeous place! yesterday there wasn't anything on the agenda so we all just hung out, went for a few walks and chatted away.  the other students are pretty awesome.  

we had orientation today, getting to know the station, the safety aspects and our way around the campus.

here are a couple photos from a quick visit to the whale lab...

grey whale skeleton(and some others)

gumboot chiton.

it is definitely going to be nice to not have to cook dinner every night- having food all prepared for you is really convenient especially when the course really picks up.  I can say that I will miss baking and when I'm home I will be anxious to get back in the kitchen!

I'm also looking forward to exploring some of the area(a few girls have cars that we can bum rides from)- there are some gorgeous beaches that I can't wait to check out.  there are boats that we can sign out as well so we can do a lot of exploring.  I think we have 3 snorkelling expeditions planned on the surrounding islands, which I am so so SO excited about.  I will try to keep everyone updated as best I can but things are going to get crazy.  

miss everyone already!! love you all.

--m

breakfast treat.

since friday was a holiday(sort of) I wanted to make something a bit different for breakfast..

I found this recipe and decided to try it out. I didn't make the frosting/drizzle because I figured they would be sweet enough on their own:

[a sweet breakfast]

[first step- butter, cinnamon and sugar]

[roll em up]

[bake em!]

it was a nice treat! unfortunately, the rest of the day was busy. derek spent the day working and I spent the day in the library writing a take home exam. I'm on the homestretch now but the final push is going to be rough. so much to finish before wednesday but I managed to be fairly productive today. going to spend all day tomorrow in the library as well. ugh. not much of a long weekend. did get the chance to squeeze in a fab yoga class this morning.

hope everyone is having a good weekend! happy easter!

--m

dreaming of summer..

with school being so crazy right now I find myself periodically(okay maybe more than periodically) day dreaming about summer..

things I am seriously looking forward to:

*long summer evening walks

*long summer evening walks with ICE CREAM!

*summer bbq's with friends and family

*corn on the cob-mmm delicious.

*farmers market produce

*weddings :)

also, a break from the books will be just lovely! but I am really looking forward to my course in bamfield that starts in July. and my awesome summer job! should keep me very busy. derek and I are also planning a little trip to the sunshine coast which I can't wait for! I haven't been to that area before.

hope everyone has a great week. I am still finding myself swamped with school work but it will all be over in ONE short week! thank goodness. looking forward to yoga helps me get through my day. had a great class yesterday that left my hips a little sore and a vinyasa flow class today. yay for yoga!

--m

this week.

hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

mine was nice and relaxing- derek and I tried this awesome new frozen yogurt place. it is all self serve- you choose the flavour(s) you want and then add all the toppings and pay by weight. I have been looking forward to trying it forever after hearing really good reviews. it was fantastic! it was a nice date after D was in vic all weekend.

so far my university remains on strike and class are cancelled day after day.. I found out my favourite teacher has been laid off so I was pretty upset about that. I sent a friendly(ish) email to the president of VIU voicing my concerns.

since the majority of my time is normally devoted to my studies and I am really missing the routine and structure of my schedule I have developed a little to do list for my week.

including:

* find a local farm near my house that I can buy farm fresh eggs

*clean and vacuum my car

*finish my book

*clean out my closet

*make some of these and also make a pie! (I have a crust frozen that I made previously)

*yoga everyday

*also- a few school related things. finish my media analysis on aquaculture and one of my lab reports.

here are a few feel good things I read in a martha stewart magazine this afternoon:

*get busy (I think this is why I'm feeling in a bit of a funk during this period of no school) I miss my busy schedule

*reach out for better posture

*schedule more "me" time

*fit in fitness

ps. I heard about a possible job opportunity today for the summer. keep your fingers crossed!

--m