I Had My Toes in the Water, Butt in the Sand...

But now I got my toes in my shoes and my butt in a seat, soon to be a plane seat back to the continental US. Well on my last day, I spent the majority of it in the lab. I went to Greg’s lecture, where we finished soils and moved into the topic of erosion. In the lab I calculated the amounts of Enterococci bacteria in my wallow and non-wallow samples and found that what I had hypothesized was supported by this data; that the wallowed areas would have much higher levels of bacteria. I wrapped up my work in the lab and did a last but of clean up then I headed back to my room to finish packing. I have had such a great experience out here and have learned so much about soils and the effects of pigs on erosion in Hawaii, as well as general research science tips and tools. I know I will be able to use the skills I learned on this interim in the future even if I don’t go into the soil management field.

Surfs Up

This morning I awoke to the stunning realization that my bike wasn’t among the bikes in the bike rack. This could only mean one thing; that last night in my fatigue I had forgotten to lock my bike and it had been stolen. I was planning on going down to the beach and see about surfing in the early morning, so I did on foot. When I arrived at the beach, the sun was just cresting over the point of Diamondhead Crater, which made a beautiful sight for my paddle out to the break. Over the next hour I managed to catch three waves as well as a nasty rash on my chest and inner arms so I decided that I had completed my goal and it was time to start trekking back to the lab. When I got there, I started on drying the remaining soil from the samples I collected yesterday for the calculation of Enterococci bacteria. After those were put into the oven for an overnight roasting I tried to start scanning a batch soils that Greg had been sent from Florida. Unfortunately I was unable to get a proper scan on the control, which we decided was due to moisture content. That job will have to be saved for my next trip out here. Greg then showed me the results from the scans I had already completed and it turned out that we could predict significantly well some of the elements of the soil just by running the scans in the Manoa Valley. By the time he was done explaining me the ins and outs of the results it was time for me to check my results from the Enterococci test. This consisted of looking at the trays I had made under a black light and noting how many of the wells fluoresced. Tomorrow morning will be analyzing those numbers, but from a preliminary look at them it looks that I might have gotten some convincing data. Well I have one more day left and then it’s back to South Carolina. I’ve had a great trip so far and will conclude it tomorrow.

Wallowing Out

Man has it been a day. It started out with me going into the lab and gathering together the necessities for collecting soil samples for Enterococci; plastic gloves, plastic spoons, plastic Ziplocs, and a trusty sharpie. Then I went to the transportation service center to pick up the vehicle Greg requested and I headed out into the Manoa Valley Watershed to see what I could find in the way of pig wallows. Also on my to-do list was to exchange clean memory cards for the ones hopefully containing pig images on the gamecams I had installed over the last 20 days. With that in mind I went to Lyon Arboretum first, one of the locations of one of the gamecams. On my hike up I looked for areas that seemed to have been disturbed by pig activity. Since this was an arboretum and was kept up by a maintenance crew regularly I was unable to detect any pig wallows. On my next hike, to Manoa Falls I was able to find an area of some pig activity back of the path a bit and took samples from the disturbed area and from a normal area of the same growth type. It was on my next hike that I hit the jackpot. I went to the Pu’u Pia site next because I had to switch out the memory card. Along the way I found four great areas of definite pig browsing and wallowing. I collected from them and headed back to the lab to start running the Enterococci tests on the samples. When I got back, Victor had already prepared a saltwater dilution for me, but it was not enough so I got to get some practice in of my own; the saltwater separates the bacteria from the soil. I then weighed out 5 grams of each sample, being a total of 20 (two from each wallow and correlating non-wallow). I then added 100 ml to each sample and put them all on the shaker for 45 minutes. While that was going on I prepared the next step and also returned the car. I then had to further dilute those samples to 1/10 and 1/100 solutions, by adding DI water. After that was all taken care of, I added Enterolert, a powder used to Enterococci identification, to all of the diluted samples. Those were placed into these interesting wells, which were finally put into the oven over night. Finally I was done with my work for today and headed to the Bruland’s to have dinner. On my way home I had to check the oven in the lab to make sure it was at the proper temperature. It was a full day, but with only two days left on the island I’m going to have two more full days coming up.

Tour de Honolulu

The other day I had seen a poster that was promoting an art festival down in Kapiolani Park that was going on this weekend, so today, after church I rode down there to check it out. There were a lot of tents selling different things, such as jewelry, clothes, painting, woodwork, and other crafts. I walked around for a while and started talking to a vendor selling photographs of marine animals. They were great pictures so started talking to him about where he took them and how he got into the business. It turns out that he was from Akon, SC and went to school at Furman. He also has taken pictures of manatees in Florida at the Three Sisters springs on the Cristal River, place that I have been going to since middle school. It was really cool to see what a small world it really was. After that I decided to see if I could find Chinatown in Downtown Honolulu. I rode my bike through down town and along the way stumbled upon the capital buildings. I saw the famous statue of King Kamehameha I, the person who first conquered and united the Hawaiian Islands. I also saw the amazing and beautiful Iolani Palace and a few other really neat buildings. After riding around there for a while and taking pictures I kept on in the direction of Chinatown, which wasn’t quite what I expected it to be. It was about 5 or 6 blocks of fruit and vegetable markets, meat markets, hair salons, and old rundown restaurants. If I was interested in getting some cool fruits or veggies it would have been a really neat place, but I wasn’t really in the market. I headed back to the beach after taking the bike tour of the place, good thing it wasn’t too crowded. IT is coming down to my last few days here and yet there is so much stuff that I would like to do, let alone all of the work I have to do on the pig project. I think I’m definitely going to have to come back again to get in everything.

Some Fun in the Sun

Well I had a full day out in the sun today, and my arms have the burn to prove it. I met up with a group of 6 other people at church this morning and we all headed out to the farthest most west point of the island, Kaena Point. We hiked for about 3 miles along a dirt and rock paths. It used to be a railroad for the cane plantations that died out around 60 or so years ago; you can still see some of the railroad ties. It was a beautiful hike, with the vast expanse of the pacific, and its waves crashing on the rocks to one side of us and the towering cliffs of the point above us to the other side. It was a hot day and the sun was beating down hard. If it wasn’t for the strong breeze I think I would have been toast. Along the way we found this really neat cave that opened up into a large underground room. When we finally reached the end of the point we found a whole slew of albatross nesting in the dunes. Over on the rocks at the water’s edge were the large Hawaiian Monk Seals and one pup. They were just lazing around enjoying the sun. We ate lunch, watched the seals and climbed on the rocks around the tide pools, seeing little critters here and there, and then started making our way back to the car. When I got back to my dorm it was already 5 o’clock so I decided to take a bike ride up the valley. On said bike ride I found some people playing pickup at a recreation center, so I joined in wearing hiking shoes and khaki shorts. It was a long day, but a good one.

Exploration Station

This morning I had Natural resource management class. Today we continued our lecture on soils and talked about the various orders of soil series and their properties. After class I went into the lab to put the results from the scans I completed into one single excel sheet. During my transfer I realized that one was missing, so I got to do one last scan before I was really done. Greg and I are going to look at those numbers at the beginning of next week. After that I had lab for my class, where we did hands on activities working to classify different soil types from around Hawaii into their orders. We also looked at some examples of soil pedons and learned how to name and define by color the different layers of soil. It was a very fun and informative lab, which took the material from the week and brought it to life, so to speak. After class lab I went back into Greg’s lab to look over what I had done and make sure it was good to go; it was. By that time it was already well into the afternoon and I only had a couple of hours of sunlight left so I decided to go explore another new beach I had seen on my run a few blocks farther down the coast. I walked along the rocks till I could find a place to enter the water and do some snorkeling. The reef was much healthier just these few blocks away from where it had been so bad. But by much healthier I do not want to give the impression that it was thriving. Still there were a few live coral outcroppings here and there, which is more than I can say about the reef off the beach I had been going to, and the fish populations were higher. After my swim I watched the sun go down into the haze over the ocean and started on my journey back. Somewhere among all my exploring I managed to lose my shirt, so it was a chilly ride home. Tomorrow I am going on a hike out at Kaena Point.

Full Day of Scanning

I went into the lab this morning with a task to complete and that is exactly what I did. My goal was to complete the scanning of the 48 soil samples using the diffuse reflectance spectroscope. It took me a few rounds to get a good system down, but by the time I was on my last few I had gotten the hang of it. It took me all morning and well into the afternoon to finish all the samples. After I finished I was exhausted and rode my bike down to a new beach I had seen on my run the other day. I was interested to see how the reef was faring a few blocks southeast of the major tourism hub. The sediment build up was the same if not worse here. I think that is due to the increased wave action that this area witnessed compared to the calmer waters of Waikiki. I saw a turtle, but he had no intent on hanging around me. Hopefully the work that Greg is doing will help heal the reefs over time.

Another Week Gone?

I crawled out of bed this morning and made my way to class. We started on the topic of soils today. The main thing that I learned is there is a lot more to soil than meets the eye. It is a very complex and diverse substance, and is the basis of life really. Greg started off class with a really interesting and intriguing video promoting the soil exhibit at the Smithsonian. It had some really great quotes about the importance of soil and soil management. After class I met Greg in the lab to learn the next step in analyzing the soil samples I had previously ball milled. The samples needed to be scanned in the diffuse reflectance spectroscope. What this machine does is it takes a small sample of soil and shoots light at it at a different number of wavelengths and reads the amount of light that is reflected off of the soil sample. What Greg is trying to develop is a way for soil analysis to be done using this machine, instead of it having to be sent to another lab to be analyzed for nutrients and minerals for a fee. He is hoping to do this by finding some correlation between the results from the spectroscopy and from the soil analysis lab. So it is my job to run the scanner on the 48 samples I have and hopefully have time to look at the correlation between them and the lab results. I got through about 10 today. We also talked about me doing some sampling and testing on a question I raised yesterday. I am going to take samples directly from pig wallows and from close by areas that do not seem to have pig activity and look at the correlation in amount Enterococci, bacteria, in the samples. So I have a lot on my plate going into this last week. It was very windy and rainy this afternoon and on into the evening. Here the rain is called Manao mist because it is more of a mist than a rain. Hopefully it rained enough that Victor and I can collect samples of runoff tomorrow. Tonight I tried a new kind of dessert called mochi ice cream, which is ice cream wrapped in a Japanese rice cake. It was very interesting stuff, but I’m not sure if I need to have it again. Well, tonight marked my two week arrival anniversary; I can’t believe time has gone by that quickly. Only one week left till I head back to the mainland so I’m going to try to enjoy it as much as I can and learn as much as I can.

A Day of Learning

I spent the morning and some of the afternoon working in the lab today. Victor and I were supposed to meet Dash, Greg’s former grad student, at 10:30 to learn how to test of Enterococci in the Runoff and soil. I went in early to start working on the Last of the ball milling I was assigned. By the time the others arrived I had gotten through a few rounds and only had a few more to go. Dash showed us the procedure for the runoff and then we practiced on a few samples. The procedure went, diluting the samples, adding the Enterolert, putting the samples in wells, and finally placing them in the incubator for 24 hours. He also showed us how to test for Enterococci in soil, which has a few different steps than in the runoff. After we had finished that, Greg came in and we discussed some of the different ways victor could steer his research. It was good for me to listen in on that, and I had some things to add to the discussion as well. I learned a lot about the intricacies of research and how important every step of a project is. I also learned that there is also a lot of material waste due to the necessity of limiting contamination. I also learned that 2 hours is a long time to run; actually too long of time to run. All in all today was a day filled with learning in one way or another. I also completed all the samples that I was told to ball mill, which is very exciting. On to the next step.

Hanauma Bay on MLK Day... What Do you Say...I Think I May

So this morning I was up before the sun once again, but off to snorkel in Hanauma Bay this time with Greg and Holly, as opposed to the hiking I was doing last time. We got to the park before it officially opened for business (it opens to the public at 6 am, but they start charging at 7 am) Needless to say we wanted to beat the crowd and the costs. We got in the water just as the sun was peeking through the clouds on the horizon. On our way out to the outer part of the reef I swam over a whole in the coral that a turtle had lodged itself into. This reef was much healthier and bigger than the reef I have been snorkeling at Kapiolani Park. On our second segment, after warming up a bit on the beach, we went out to a place they call Witches Brew, kind of a miniature bowl or bay that usually has a large amount of fish riding the circular current. It was so beautiful out in this deeper water; the visibility increased greatly and also the water turned a deep blue color. I’m really grateful to have the opportunity to do this, especially with the sun rising out on the horizon. It was an over cast morning today and I guess I was a little tired from getting up at 6 and swimming for a few hours, so while I waited for the clouds to move out I took a nap. After the sky cleared up I went to the beach to take another swim and played some pick up at the park. Tomorrow I’ll be back in the lab!

Church Potluck

So before I get into today I forgot a few things about yesterday on the blog. 1. I saw a humpback whale breaching while at dinner yesterday evening. That was pretty amazing. 2. On the drive we took up the coast there were two about mile stretches of beach that had been over taken by homeless people that had built tents and shelters. Anyways I just thought those were noteworthy things that I forgot yesterday. Ok today, after Church, Greg and Holly took me out to Kailua, where one of the church members was having an afternoon kind of potluck get together. Mingled and got to know some of the people there. I had a good talk with a guy that had been in the Peace Corps in Fiji for four years as a forester. He gave me some tips on the advantages of being in the Peace Corps. Then this afternoon I went down to the beach to do some snorkeling, play some soccer, and see the sunset. I went out trying to see if I could find those two sharks I had seen last week, but was unsuccessful. I did however see two sea turtles. It was really great to swim along with them. Tomorrow were going to Hanauma Bay so hopefully I’ll see a lot of cool thing there.

Halfway Point

I did the tourist thing again today. I went to visit Pearl Harbor with the same friend of a friend that I went to the north shore with last week. The tours for the USS Arizona were all sold out, so we went on a tour of the USS Bowfin. It was really neat to see and hear about the inner workings of a submarine. Some of the images of ships going down and of the attacks on Pearl Harbor were very powerful. It made me think of the attacks of 9/11 and how powerful those images are, and what it was like hearing about it for the 1st time. Anyways, after seeing all we could see at Pearl Harbor, which was a lot, we headed around to the leeward side of the island. We had planned on trying to get visit the Puuomahuka Heiau temple ruins that over look the Waimea Bay, but it had closed by the time we got there. Instead we drove up the coast to see some of the amazing mountains, cliffs, ocean views, and beaches. We took this one road that snaked up the face of this hill. It was in Kaena Point State Park, but apparently was not for public access. When we reached the top there was a gate with a woman in uniform and carrying a very large gun that told us we had to go back down. It was very strange because there were no signs at the entrance or person at the checkpoint there. Well today is the halfway point for my time out here in Hawaii. It has been a wonderful experience of learning and adventure so far. I look forward for a continued great experience through the second half my trip.

From Sunrise to Sunset

Well I saw my first Hawaiian sunrise this morning as Victor and I hiked deep into the Manoa Valley this morning. We made our start from the lab, after collecting our already packed gear, at around 6:30 AM. We were going to six out of seven of the sites today to empty and clean the runoff and rain collectors, as well as to do some repairs, to prepare the sites for collecting data from a January storm event. It was a long morning of hiking, and of course getting bitten by tons of mosquitoes. Since we had just went to all the sites and cleaned them and have only had one afternoon of showers, there wasn’t much to clean and we were able to move fast. Surprisingly we were done with everything and back on campus in time for me to make it to lab. Today was just an introduction and discretion of what they will e doing in the lab. I wish I could stay; they are going over some very interesting and intriguing topics in their labs. After lab I rode down to the beach where I swam and snorkeled for a good long time. I tried to see if I could find the two sharks I saw the other day, but had no luck with that. I then went to go see about playing soccer, but there was no pick up going on so I played some on my own. I then went back to the beach to enjoy the sunset. I am looking forward to the weekend and seeing more of beautiful Oahu.

Start of Week 2

So unfortunately due to bike problems I wasn’t able to get up early and go hike Diamond Head Crater like I wanted to, but hopefully I will get to do that soon. Instead I spent all morning working on healing my bike of its two ailments, faulty brakes and the flat tire. After struggling with it for a good while I finally got the rear tire off, the new tube in, and my brakes worked out. Thank God for the tools that were in the lab. I did some work in the lab to prepare for our field day tomorrow; getting all of our gear in a backpack and getting maps for victor and I to use to navigate our way around the Manoa Valley. I spent all of the afternoon working on the outline for my paper. We’re going to get an early start tomorrow so I am looking to get to bed early.

More Bike Issues

It has been a long day. I knew it was going to be a rough one right from the start. I went down to go get my bike to ride to class this morning and found that my rear tire was flat. I hustled to class and got there right on time. Today we started the section on ancient Hawaiian/Polynesian resource management. It was a very interesting class, discussing the different village, or watershed layouts the Hawaiians used early on so that in each community all the needed would be provided in the land that was theirs. After class I went up to the lab to work on weighing soil samples that we had dried to calculate the moisture content, as well as weighing and calculating the Total Suspended Solids of a sample we had collected last Friday. I did also manage to fit some ball-milling in too. The flat tire put a little niche in my agenda I had planned for the afternoon. In order to deal with that I looked up the nearest bike shop on the internet, but after walking the mile and a half to get there I found that it was just a house that doubled as a bike repair place, unfortunately no one was home. I then walked back to school and Holly was gracious enough to let me borrow her bike for the afternoon. With a new set of wheels I made my way down to the beach to try to recapture the footage I had lost yesterday and also to play some soccer. I had my mask this time, which made it even better. The wind and the wave had picked up from the day before, but not enough to stop me from snorkeling. I saw a lot more interesting things with the mask on. I even got to have some up close and personal time with two white tip reef sharks that the snorkeler had told me about yesterday. They were both about five or six feet long and seemed pretty accustomed to being viewed by snorkelers. I then went over and played some pick up with the same group of guys. I had to race back to my room at sunset to change and meet Greg and Holly for dinner at their place before church. Tomorrow I had planned on getting up early and going to hike Diamond Head Crater, but there is one screw on my bike that is giving me some trouble, so I’ll have to wait for the morning to try and switch my flat tire again. I can’t believe it has been a week already, time is flying by. I am having a blast, and there is a lot more left on my to-do list. Hopefully I can get this bike under control.

Lab and Kapiolani

I woke up to another beautiful 80 degree day in Hawaii. I went into the lab this morning and continued my task of ball milling soil samples from the plots in order to run them in the diffuse reflectance spectroscope. I made it past the half way point of the batch assigned to me, which was exciting. I also finished mastering the ways of the gamecam. By the time I had gotten out of the lab it was already moving rapidly into the afternoon. I noticed a lot of official looking cars and people in front of a building right near my dorm. I later found out that Secretary Clinton had been there to give a speech on pacific-US relations. I wish I had known about this before it took place, it would have been a very enlightening event to witness. This afternoon I hopped on my bike and headed down to Kapiolani Park in order to take a swim and find some pick up soccer games. I successfully did both, but I forgot my mask, so I couldn’t see most of the cool things I was swimming over. I did manage to spot a small spotted moray eel cruising through the reef. Also, a snorkeler told me she saw a white tip reef shark, but I wasn’t able to find it without a mask. I then went over and played some soccer across the street and went back to the beach in time to get some pictures of the sunset. Unfortunately when I made it back to my room and was trying to download them onto my computer I accidentally deleted them from my camera before actually downloading them. Not good. So tomorrow hopefully I can go back and recreate the experience and see even more with my mask.

Back to School

It was my first day of school since being on the island and it wasn’t quite as bad as some of the first days of school that I’ve had. The class that I am taking is taught by my professor, Greg Bruland, and is Natural Resources and Ecology Management 301. It is a class that looks at different environments, coastal, forest, marine, etc. and sees how resources are being managed around the world, and how they should be managed to best support society. Today, as an introduction, we defined and discussed renewable vs nonrenewable and sustainable vs unsustainable resources. I really liked the class and wish I could stay to take it the whole semester. This afternoon I went into the lab to work on ball-milling some soil samples before we headed out to the last site we didn’t make it to on Friday. I also worked on trying to program a gamecam to put out when we go back into the field on Friday in order to capture footage of the pigs in action. The final plot was Waahila Ridge and was on this beautiful pine ridge way up in the mountains. We did some fence and runoff collector repairs and activated it for the January rain event. We also gathered soil samples to practice running a moister content in the lab. When we returned to the lab Greg showed us the procedure for calculating moister content and total suspended solids in the soil and runoff respectively. It is amazing how fast the day moves when you are busy, and I can’t believe I have already been here five days, the time is flying by.

Rainy Day Activity

So it was a rainy day here in The Manoa Valley today. I got in my bike ride to and from Church with only ominous clouds lingering in the hills. Once I got back and got some lunch a misty rain began to fall over the university. I had planned on riding down to finds some pick up soccer down near the beach, but with the wet conditions and no brakes I wasn’t too eager to get on my bike and face the busy streets of Manoa. There is a creek that runs behind the building I am staying and I figured a fun rainy day activity would be to follow the creek up a ways. I took off with the rain misting down and walked/climbed along and in the stream. If you didn’t look too far up to the sides of the small valley the creek was in, and disregarded the trash and debris scattered along the creek, you could trick yourself into thinking that you were hiking along some jungle stream, but those things were hard to block out. After my creek escapade the weather cleared up and I decided to go find a place where I could kick the soccer ball around. It was getting kind of late so an open piece of grass across from campus had to suffice. Tomorrow I am going to my first UH class, which should be interesting and also doing some more field work in the afternoon.

Gran Tourismo

Today was a day for tourism. I decided this morning that I would ride my bike down to Waikiki Beach to see what all the hubbub was about. It was a cloudy day up in the mountains to the north of campus, but towards the beach to the south it was still sunny and hot. I got down there and walked the streets for a little bit. There were massive amounts of tourists, gift shops, and even a huge Macy’s right across the street from the beach. After spending some time on the beach, not getting in the water really because of the influx in box jellyfish that happens after the full moon, I started making my way back up to UH Manoa. The bike ride on the way down and back was a bit tricky because the brakes on my bike are out of action, which makes everything a bit more interesting. In the afternoon I met with a friend of a friend, who has been on the island for four or five months and had offered to show me around a bit. We went up to the Dole Plantation in Wahiawa and went on a tour of the pineapple fields. We also went to the north shore to the beaches of Haleiwa. I saw a new aspect of Hawaii that I had not seen yet. That was the farming and agricultural aspect. I can only imagine the amount of deforestation that took place to create these fields and the amount of erosion that was caused by it. Not to mention all the destruction and damage the golf courses and resorts have done at Waikiki. All in all it was a fun, exciting, and educational day, and a bit less wearing than yesterday.

First Field Day

After collecting what materials and instruments we needed, we left this morning from the lab in our campus van we had checked out to visit the 7 plots located around the Manoa Watershed. In the party was Greg, my professor, Dash, the graduate student who was leaving, Victor, the graduate student who was taking over the project, and myself. We drove through campus and back up into the Manoa Valley to the parking lot of Lyon Arboretum, our base for the first to hikes of the day. After meeting the main caretaker of the arboretum, Ray, We headed up the main trail into the forest. This was the most tropical forest I have ever been in. It made me think that I had been transported to some prehistoric jungle, all except for the many tourist and power lines seen along the way. After a ways we turned off the main path and crossed a small stream and found the first site, fittingly named the Lyon Arboretum site. The site consisted of two 10m by 5m plots side by side, one fenced in and the other not. In these plots were through-fall runoff collectors, 10 ft by 4 ft areas sectioned off by plastic siding shoved into the drown, with a fashioned metal funnel directing the runoff into a 5 gallon bucket and 20 gallon overflow bucket. At the center and cardinal points of the site there were plastic containers set up used to measure the amount of rainfall in a storm event. We set to work, obtaining both a total suspended solids sample and an Enterococci sample, measuring the amount of runoff collected by the buckets, emptying and cleaning the buckets, and measuring the amount of rainfall in the collectors. The purpose of this trip was to familiarize Victor and I to the sites, the process of collecting all the data and samples, and how to activate the sites. We also wanted to activate all of the sites for the next rain event. After all that was done we headed back down the trail to our next trail head for the Manoa Falls plot. After hiking up another breathtaking trail, exiting the path, crossing a stream, and finding the site, I was sent back down to the car to retrieve a few metal posts to repair some damages to the fencing, while the others activated the site. We made it to one more site before we took our lunch break; the Pu’u Pia site. After having lunch we headed to the other side of the valley to visit three, the Manoa Cliffs site, the Pauoa Flats site, and a third site we only had the opportunity to stop at briefly and the name is slipping my mind. These sites were at a much higher elevation and our hike took us through all kinds of plant environments; Bamboo forests, guava plant groves, native plant populations, and many invasive exotic plant populations. We ran into a fenced in enclosure where they were implementing pig exclusion to attempt at restoration of native understory. After visiting the first two sites we came down to our van and to our surprise the window had been smashed in, and there was glass everywhere. To our even greater surprise, the only thing missing from the car was a roasted chicken I had bought myself for dinner, how strange and funny too. We had to wait for a police man to come and file a report, so that set us back. We made a stop at the final site in that area and headed back to campus. It was a interesting first day out in the field. I learned a lot about the project and data and sample collection. I also learned a lot about the island and plant life of Oahu and the mountain range of the Manoa watershed. I look forward to going the sites we didn’t make it to, but for now my legs are spent and I am looking forward to doing some exploring over the weekend.

Day 1: Getting Introduced

Well it was my first full day here on the island of Oahu and man was it a beautiful one. I got in last night and was met at the airport by the professor I am working with, Greg Bruland and his wife, Holly. After attending a Wednesday evening church service they brought to my dorm, Hale Manoa, and I went right to bed; it had been a long day of travel. This morning started off with a bike ride around campus to try to get oriented and obtain some kind of layout of the campus. I then met with up with Greg around noon and after an informatory bike tour and some lunch we went back to the lab to get to work. I was introduced to some of the equipment we would be using in the lab, the acid bath, the diffused reflectance spectroscope, the soil oven, and many of the other tools. I was then taught the process for preparing the soil samples that would be gathered from various plots in the field. I took on the task of ball-milling, a process which takes the dried and sifted soil and turns it into a homogeneous fine powder, my own group of soil samples to prepare them to be scanned. While doing that I also prepared a motion sensor camera to place at one of the plots tomorrow in order to capture footage of the feral pigs trampling the undergrowth. That evening Greg and Holly picked me up to go down to the beach across from Kapiolani Park to see the sunset, take a bit of a swim, and eat at a great local hole in the wall restaurant, where I was able try local foods, such as poi, Laulau, haupia, and chicken long rice. It was delicious. Tomorrow we are headed to a couple of the plots to do some field work. I can’t wait.