On Saturday and Sunday, I had my first two apprenticeships as an aquarist assistant. Because I am a weekend volunteer, scheduling these has been difficult. There are nine aquarists, and they take turns covering weekends, so any single aquarist only works every four or five weekends. My aquarist, Keri, was on vacation for much of December, so this ( Read more... )

Today was our final day of aquarist training. Thank goodness, we have our Saturdays back for the first time (with one exception) since early September! For this final class, we started with the exam, then had a few more lectures, which were admittedly lighter now that everyone wasn't feeling pressured to cram in everything for the exam ( Read more... )

Yesterday, Bobby and I took off from work to drive out to the Catoctin Mountains and hike to Cat Rock. Fall colors are in full effect here in Maryland, and we had a perfect autumn day for our hike: cool crisp air, a slight breeze (that became outright wind by the time we reached the summit!), and thick clouds rolling overhead. The map rated the ( Read more... )

About a month ago, Bobby and I were accepted at the National Aquarium in Baltimore as aquarist assistants. It is an unpaid position requiring at least one four-hour shift every other week, so it is not a huge workload, but it is a foot in the door of a field in which we both hope to eventually work.

Yesterday, we had our first day of training.

( First Day of Aquarist-Assistant Training )

As though the title didn't say it all....

We both passed our confined water dives!

( Read more... )

Last week was our first session underwater, and I discovered that--like it or not--my status as a human makes scuba-diving challenging. Our bodies are not built for prolonged stays underwater; as I told Bobby, if we were meant to stay for long periods underwater at depth, we would not get the bends. As such, our psychology is not built for long ( Read more... )

( Breathing Underwater?! )

Yesterday when I arrived home from a rather drab day at work (so what else is new), I checked my email before I came home and discovered the message I had either been looking forward to, or dreading, all day long. It was from the volunteer manager at the National Aquarium In Baltimore, and it was in regards to the aquarist assistant position that ( Read more... )

After a wonderful weekend, on Sunday, the day finally arrived; it was time to breath underwater. We got to class early and fetched all of our equipment, carried it, albeit awkwardly, to the car, and went to the classroom for our learning module three. The night before was filled with dive tables (more on this later), and a lack of good sleep, but ( Read more... )

After much anticipation the day finally arrived on Sunday, the first day of dive training. After visiting the Caribbean, and doing quite a bit of soul searching, our feet have finally regained a path that grants us a sense of peace, serenity, and purpose. But for this journey we needed some hiking boots, and this is exactly what dive training will ( Read more... )