I think I may have sounded like a bit of a Complainy Complainerson in my last entry. I'd just like to state one more time for the record (such as it is) that I'm quite happy to be here. If there weren't a few rough edges, like millipedes in my shower, then this wouldn't be an adventure. It would just be a vacation and vacations are for lame people (otherwise known as people who have more money than I do and also known as people who I might be a bit jealous of and therefore inclined to call lame). So anyway, let there be no mistake. I'm happy god damn it!

There was no diving today for me, only some snorkeling. Jeremie has come down with an ear infection so he went off to the doctor this morning while I went over to the Gump station (UC Berkeley's research station). Russ and Sally (the head honchos over there) went out in the boat with me to show me where there are some more clown fish. Sally and I snorkelled so she could show me exactly where they were and we marked the positions with the GPS so we could find them easily when we come back to sample them. When we were done with that I headed back home to Criobe (that's the french research station I'm staying at in case you haven't been following allong).

In the afternoon I realized that I'd left my hood at Gump (like the genius that I am) and, since I had nothing to do at Criobe anyway, rode a bike over there to get it. As it turned out, I was just in time for a talk about corals given by Dr. Gustav Pauley from the university of Florida. That was great since I know next to nothing about corals and yet I'm around them all the time here. I learned a lot and hope to go back tomorrow afternoon for the second part of the course.

I'll be diving tomorrow with someone else from Criobe since Jeremie has to stay out of the water for a few days. We're going to go to the spot that I was shown this morning and see if we can catch and clip the 13 clown fish that are out there. Once again, I plan to take the camera tomorrow so, hopefully, there will be pictures.

I borrowed the movies Anchorman and The Forty Year Old Virgin from someone at Gump so I think I'll go introduce Criobe to some of the finer aspects of American culture now.