The eve of departure

Here I am, on the eve of departure for VOCALS. I feel like I have been talking about this trip for a very long time, and it seems sureal that it is here. I have an overwhelming feeling, but don't really know how to explain it. I have anxiety about my travels there. I am a little nervous about actually being able to perform the tasks that I have been assigned in a way that will meet my advisor's expectations. I am excited about this once in a lifetime opportunity to take part in a field study examining a phenomenon that I find incredibily fascinating in a part of the world that I will probably never visit again. I am sad that Mitch was not able to come visit this weekend because of work issues, and I have been sick and didn't want to push my luck and go there before my journey. I know once I am in Arica, most of these feelings will fade, and I will be too involved in the moment to dwell.

The Ronald Brown ports tomorrow morning in Arica, so leg 1 will officially end. My flight leaves Raleigh tomorrow at 7:40pm and I will not arrive until Tuesday night around 8:30pm, and will meet up with Matt. There is a scientific objectives meeting on Thursday where scientist will present what data they were able to collect or not collect during the first part of the study. Matt will be giving a talk on the work we have been doing and the data we have. It will be a good time to see what everyone on the ship is doing, and to meet some of my shipmates. During the remainder of the time, I will be trained by Matt on his daily tasks, which will soon be my daily tasks. He ran into some obstacles along the way, but it sounds like he was able to iron everything out. I am assuming this will make my life much simplier, and I appreciate his help.

While I am on ship I will not have access to a phone, so my communication with the world will be limited to e-mail and chat. The bandwidth on ship is also pretty low, so those avenues will not be as quick and reliable as most are used to. I guess some communication is better than none. I am hoping word will come quickly and correctly about the election results.

That is it for now. I am sure I will update while in transit, so stay tuned.

Me waving bye!




Jake