less than two weeks!

So this weekend was destined to be lame, considering no one was here and I had nothing to do. I did, however, encounter some amazing times... including a video conference call to my entire mom's side of the family. It was almost like I was sitting there with them, if only I could have tasted the flat bread that Allie attempted to feed me through the web cam. I also went to Imago (I'm totally becoming a regular, and some of the men know me by name...) with a smaller crowd (just Sheree, Danielle, Xerxes, and me). Xerxes and I busted out our new bachata move, and basically tore apart the dance floor.
So even though I stayed out till 2am, I woke up at 8 to see Xenia arrive back in the dorms, which began our adventurous day. We biked/skate boarded to walmart (in which Xenia almost lost her life) for breakfast, attended catholic mass for the first week of advent, had doughnuts and conversation with Jared, went to Publix with Alex, pranced around in the rain storm, jumped in Brownlie pool in the pouring rain (COLD!), completed our Intro to Space Science homework in the library, and then had an amazing evening at Armando's filled with baked brie and dancing.

Advent task for whoever is reading this: Turn your cell phone off for a solid two hours tomorrow.

Definitely Different!

What do

-palm trees,
-beagle puppy,
-nut loaf,
-pumpkin scones,
-organic fair trade tea,
-dirty jobs with Mike Rowe, and
-4+ atmospheric scientists

all have in common?

...my thanksgiving meal at Dr. Lazarus and Dr. Splitt's home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So I just made mashed potatoes for my thanksgiving dinner I'm attending later today. Yum... nothing says 4 am like garlic mashed potatoes!

Anyways, the campus is completely deserted-- but I managed to fill my day with biking, knitting, cleaning, grocery shopping, and dancing! That's right- Xerxes, who I met at latin dance class, and I had our own class tonight since the gym was closed. We learned some stellar moves from some youtube videos and then he showed me how to cha cha and how to rumba. We danced the rumba to Usher's "Love in this club" (slow... quick-quick slow... quick-quick) which was probably the highlight of my evening. (besides chatting with that Meggin' kid, and getting the email of bubba in front of the new fireplace from mom.)

All in all, thanksgiving break is going to be alright I think.

Too bad the library is closed :(

OH, and I'm not with my family.

downer.

some pictures

Joshua and I at the formal (courtesy of Joshua)

Ellie and I at Roxy's (courtesy of Andre)

Walton Smith Trip, figuring out nets (courtesy of Andre)

. . . for an american

This Saturday ended up being pretty exciting. I went very last minute to a formal dinner/dance for Joshua's frat, wearing my pretty dress from my piano recital and a scarf thing I borrowed from Nam, the new girl on our floor. Then, at nine, Armando and Gabe picked me up at the Hilton (pulling up in a two door sports car blasting some reggaeton), to drive to Orlando to dance the night away. We checked out Salsa Heat, this once a month Salsa club in some random warehouse-turned-nightclub, where we met up with Ellie, Andre, Luis, and Sheree (there were also people from Imago there). There were some outstanding dancers there, for real, there were professional salsa dancers there that blew my mind; it was rather intimidating. By the end of the night Armando admitted I was a "pretty good dancer. . . for an american."

So I think I'm having an identity crisis. Basically, I just really want to be Latino. At least part of me. So, if someone could just make that happen, I'll buy you a pizza with my obnoxious amount of unused flexcash.

Since my compass group is apparently fading...

Dear Ocean,

I guess I'll do highs and lows with my blog.

Low: Right after verballizing "Today is going to be a great day" to people at breakfast I dropped an orange in my bowl of cinnamon toast crunch, and milk splattered all over me
High: Wiley went to Joanns to get me some yarn for knitting
Low: Lionel Amanfu, my favorite GSA, is mysteriously leaving tomorrow and won't be back until next semester
High: I just got back from observing through the monster 'scope some wicked awesome stuff in the sky
Low: I still haven't seen HSM3
High: I'm going to a formal dinner/dance thing with Joshua on Saturday for his fraternity

love,
whitney!

Endeavor Shuttle Launch as viewed from Cocoa Beach

Courtesy of Andrew Colson, member of FIT's SAS

(that's the moon on the right)

Nerdy Joke

So last night I had a chemistry study party in my room and the following jokes were said...

Kermit: "Hey what's new?"
Joshua: "C over lambda!"

So a neutron walks into a bar and asks the bartender for something to drink. After he finishes his drink he asks the bartender "how much do I owe you?" The bartender replies "for you, no charge".

Two hydrogen atoms are walking down the street, and one hydrogen atom says to the other hydrogen atom, "I think I lost an electron" and the other hydrogen atom asked"Are you positive?"

unfortunately my contribution of "the muffin joke" (curtesy of Matt Blum) did not get the same appreciation...

disappointing FIT students

Dear Ocean,

I was sitting with this kid yesterday who admitted that he has not been to the beach since he's been here.

WHAT!?

love,
whitney!

Why I am not changing majors...

11/3 A day in the life of an Oceanographer. . .

6:30am-- Depart campus on mini bus
11:00am--Board the Walton Smith research vessel in Miami

2:00pm--Deploy CTD to measure salinity, temperature, and depth of location in Gulf Stream

3:00pm--Deploy super awesome plankton tow nets

Chillout and whatnot until we let down the CTD and nets again around 10pm

4:30 am-- finally safe and warm in my bed...only to wake up three hours later for Chem lab!

So on our plankton tows we were seeing the differences in plankton type and concentration at the different levels in the water column. It was way cool and super fun and really brought me back to my days on the Robert C. Seamans. Except for on that ressearch vessel we had to measure dissolved oxygens by winkler titration while we were moving on a sailboat, whereas on the Walton Smith we just look at the computer screens... I prefer titrating, I think it's more exciting. But none-the-less it was a wonderful day being an oceanographer. We saw a pod of dolphins partying around our boat, and we saw a bunch of flying fish once the sun went down. No one got super sea sick, and I got to spend some quality time with Justin and Holly (two of the grad students working for Dr. Johnson). Not to mention I got to check out plankton and learn a lot from the pros.

Today is blogging catch up day, so expect some more posts later.

love,

whitney!

changing majors.

before I blog about my awesome ocean fix on Monday I just have to say that last night I had a very spiritual experience. Last night I looked into the largest telescope in florida. I got an email to say that SAS was looking in the 'scope around 8, so 8:05 I took the elevator in the physical science building to the 4th floor. The elevator doors opened and it was dark, minus a few red lamps. After poking my head around some corners and being thoroughly creeped out, this stocky german professor summoned me to the right place. I walked up a curved staircase and there it was. Just this big hunk of metal in a circular room with a dome over us all. The first time it all rotated I nearly fell over. Seriously.
We ended up looking at Neptune, Vega, a cluster of stars, a planetary nebulae, and.... THE MOON.
Out of the (four?) of us there, I was the only one to GASP and make incoherent bursts of excitement noises when seeing the moon in the telescope. Oh my goodness there's no way to describe it, but basically I feel like I can now check "walk on moon" off my life list.

In conclusion, I love the sky, and you should check out the Taurid meteor shower within the next few evenings.

love,
Whitney!