August 5th Day 46

The day started off with continued assembly of the coral cages for deployment in the field. Right at around 8, Tom and I were assigned to measure corals that were on the tiles. We did this from 8 until 3 pm. I then weighed some filters for the algal succession time series and then looked at a few coral tiles before work was over. After work we got pizza for dinner which was really cool. I haven't had pizza here yet so it was a pleasurable new experience. They slice pizza into more of squares than slices here which was interesting to see. We had two kinds of white sauce pizzas that were good along with a traditional marinara. It was also more like an Italian style thin crust which I really like. After a good dinner, we went up the hill to Prinz's house, who is a local here, and had some drinks with him and his friends. It was a really good time talking to some of the people that came. A few more CREOBE people I hadn't met before were there and I had conversations with them about Europe and Germany which was nice. I also spoke with one of Prinz's friends James who is half Tahitian half French. He spoke enough English for us to hold a conversation about his experiences in Florida and California and about my trip plans after I leave Moorea. Funny that he was wearing a sweatshirt on a night like tonight where I was already sweating a bit with just a shirt on. When the time came for us to leave I went outside to get my sandals to go back down the hill and of course they were gone. Everyone took off their sandals before going inside so someone must have put on my shoes by mistake or on purpose who knows. That left me with a much older pair of reef sandals (which is now my third different pair here) to wear for the rest of the trip. A bummer but alas I had to head back down to go to bed. Now that I am back at the dorms I better get to bed because I have to get up early tomorrow to go to the grocery store. Until later.