On Men of Myth and Legend

It's been a while. My last post was on March 22nd, and I swear we have been crazy-busy ever since, which explains the notable lack of photos in this post. The past few days alone I have worked 8am-10pm virtually every day on programs at or over capacity. We have set attendance and profit records on each of the past four consecutive days. Why is that, you ask? Well there are two reasons: 1, kidlets nationwide have been on spring and Easter breaks, and 2, a certain Famous Oceanographer has been visiting us! That's right, Jean-Michel Cousteau came to visit our CAOS program, raise money and awareness for his Ocean Futures Society, and generally allow us to bathe in his aura of awesomeness.

Particularly exciting was going on a night snorkel with him. Granted, I was stuck being safety kayak for the trip (not actually getting in the water at the same time), but I still managed to make my mark. When Raab came and visited us last month, I showed him the plankton traps I made and used in my research in Moorea (the ones made of slice-and-diced soda bottles) and he had expressed interest in using them for other CAOS programs. Since then we've been using them on a regular basis on all of our night snorkels to allow us to show guests the sorts of plankton they've been swimming in throughout the program. Well, Raab had told Jean-Michel about these traps, so when Raab introduced me to him, the conversation went a little like this:

Raab: "This is Andrea. She's the one who came up with those plankton traps I was telling you about."
Cousteau: "Oh excellent! So good to meet you! You know, I think we're going to start using these traps at our other [CAOS] locations as well. In fact, I think it would work well with our research in the Amazon."
Andrea: "EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

Okay, that last part was just in my head - I like to think I was considerably more eloquent than that. But you have to understand, THIS IS A BIG DEAL. There are CAOS programs worldwide, and they're all going to start using the UCLA bottle traps! The fact that there were all sorts of AWESOME plankton during our night snorkel just added to my string of good luck and brownie points with Cousteau and Raab (the first time Raab saw the traps was the only other time I have seen so much plankton in the water or I have seen the traps catch so much cool stuff). All in all, I'm pretty happy with myself, and perhaps more than a little starstruck (figures I would get more excited over the aging oceanographer than the young starlets we get through the hotel). I'll resume picture-taking on my days off once I finally GET a day off and have recovered from all this hubbub.


Oh and Happy Easter!