Well, I am here safe and sound in Moorea. I cannot believe I'm actually here, and they are actually paying me to be here and do this!!!!
Getting here was enough of an adventure. I spent the day before leaving finishing up Berkeley business (ESO meeting, Berkeley rep play, PCR), and the day OF leaving finishing up even more Berkeley business (breakfast with friends, and then PCR, PCR, PCR). I didn't get home from all of that until 2 pm. To be leaving at 4:30 pm! It was really stupid. I ran around like a crazy person trying to finish my packing and get my room in order for my subletter.
We got to the airport for the first of several misadventures. My co-GSI Jenny's flight had been cancelled for some stupid reason, but after some tears and money spent, we got everything sorted out. The flight down from OAK to LAX was pretty short. When we arrived at LAX, the second mishap happened, which was that one of Bier's (other co-GSI) bags had gotten left behind. The demon of field-work-bad-luck is striking early it seems! Nothing ever goes smoothly, that's the only real guarantee. Anyways, we got that sorted and were on our way. The flight from LAX was pleasant enough; got dinner and breakfast, free wine. I love french airlines!
It was great having local musicians and dancers to greet us at the airport. They gave us little Tiare flowers, which I actually saw someone eat, not knowing what to do with it. We got a taxi to the ferry and took that over. The view from the ferry at 7 am was awesome! Here's a picture of the three of us GSIs on the ferry, taken by Jere Lipps, one of the course faculty.
We got to the ferry station, hoping to have a ride, but no one showed up. This was the third in what I expect was the trio of mishaps, so at least we got that trio of bad luck issues out of the way early!
By our 11:30 arrival at the station, we were dog tired, so we napped until 2:30, and then went to do some errands. Exchanged money (the money is so fat and big!), bought a bike (yay! I am so excited for this), got groceries and everything set up, and got our food for the next week or so. I'm pumped for all the exciting pineapples and bananas which seem to be pretty abundant. We're going to share cooking of dinners, and eat our own breakfast and lunches. We the GSIs that is. The students all eat to themselves.
At 5:00 we had drinks with the station manager, Neil, who is this british guy who has lived/worked here for 11 years. His place was really nice. We had these awesome pineapple rum drinks, and snacked on chips and nuts, and by 7:30 we were so knackered, we just went home and slept. Now it's the morning, and we've got our rooms and offices set up and we're about to go set up the lab for the students. The adventure begins!
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