snorkelin' in the big lake

yes, that's right I went snorkeling today. Lindsey drove Bradley, me, and two other girls to Big Lake where we were snorkeling to collect rusty crayfish. Big Lake is so beautiful: aspens and conifers line the shoreline, with only a few interrupting docks. and there's even a public boat launch for anyone to use! (there's good news for Dad). Lindsey lead us out to a tiny island where the rusty crayfish are common in the littoral zone. Within a few minutes, I had my first crayfish caught: a large female with eggs attached on the underside. The crayfish generally stay under loose rocks so in theory you should be able to pick them up with your fingers or the net by just lifting the rocks. I wasn't super good at catching them, I think I caught a total of 5. Bradley Wells got over 2 dozen. I think my problem is that I'm not aggressive enough when catching the crayfish; I would be like "oh hey crayfish, please back up into my net, thank you." oh and one brave crayfish escaped from my net! he crawled up the side! if he breaks free from my net, then I think he deserves his freedom.

I had a lot of fun snorkeling, but the only thing was that my wetsuit didn't fit properly so I got pretty cold. I'm trying a different one on tomorrow, but I think I might use some of my granted research funds to buy a new one for the summer.

After we returned, I took a long hot shower and then went out and joined my roommates for some frisbee. At first it was just passing in a circle, but then it became a pickup game of ultimate. I'm certainly not the best (my weakness is lack of stamina), but I usually caught the frisbee when it was thrown at me and used some of my LAX field skillz. Now I'm loungin' in bed but I may go over to the Ward (a house with graduate students/some undergrads all researching one project). Some of those students are from uva. what a coincidence.

and here are some pics of my apartment, courtesy of the UNDERC website. click here to see moar. I'm on the first floor. Even though the apartment can house 8 people, only 4 of us live here so it's really quite spacious. I really enjoy sitting in that screened in area because it gets really windyyyy.