I now have snorkel mask tan lines (and worse booty tan lines).

The last few days have been absolutely amazing. WARNING: this will probably be a very long blog entry.
Friday evening we decided to all finally go out. My friend Danielle had met a Polynesian guy a few weeks earlier, so he came to pick about six of us up to take us to the Miki Miki, the club where all the locals go. We stopped by his house on the way, which was gorgeous. It was actually his dad's house (his dad used to work for the bank here), up on a hill with a great view of Tahiti. The living room had an ocean theme, with blue lighting, a Va'a (Polynesian row boat) hanging on the ceiling, sea shells, and beautiful island artwork everywhere. I saw this big, elaborately carved wooden "pole" on the wall, so I asked the dad what it was; turns out it's a "casse-tete" in the literal sense of the term (head-breaker), a pole that was once used in the Marquesas for human sacrifices. So we had a nice time hanging out there for a bit, then headed over to the Miki Miki, where we met up with the rest of our class. It was fun, they were playing music from Grease followed by Tahitian music, and everyone was dancing, which was great. After that we stopped by a huge parking lot where a whole bunch of people were hanging out and listening to music, and then got a ride home. (for anyone who is worried about my safety, we ALWAYS travel in groups...and this island is extremely safe)
Saturday morning I rolled out of bed and pretty much jumped right into a jeep headed to the public beach, where I was to go check out the corals. As I was snorkeling around, I saw two huge day octopuses: one of them was hiding inside a coral head, and the other was actually undulating across a coral head right beneath me. Octopuses are really the masters of disguise: this octopus would come out and move around a bit (from one end of his arm to the other, it was probably about 1 m diameter), then suddenly change its color and texture to look exactly like the coral, then change again and move further, etc. When I got out of the water an hour and half later, I found three more people from the class had come by bike to the beach. Maria's volleyball team was having a barbecue there, so we all wandered over (even though Maria was technically the only one invited), and of course the friendly Polynesians offered us food. Once again, this was a really great experience because we got to spend time with the locals and join them in their everyday activities.
In the evening we were invited over to the CRIOBE station (the French research station nearby) for a barbecue of Mahi Mahi, breadfruit, and vegetable kebabs. It was great to meet all these French scientists and just hang out with them, talking about science and (mostly) other random things...and getting my Swiss accent made fun of as usual.
Sunday was another great day. In the morning, a couple of us got to go out rowing with some toursists (elderly Americans). Frank, one of the heads of Gump Station, also runs a tourism business, and as one of the activities he offers is rowing, we got to fill in the empty spots in the boats. It was funny that the tourists were questioning us about the island, but I guess we have been here for a month, and we were surprisingly knowledgeable about everything they asked about. Next I went out by boat with a few others to explore the barrier reef just outside of Cook's Bay, where I will be conducting some parts of my project. Within two minutes of jumping into the water, I was lucky enough to see a large sea turtle just hanging out on the sea floor (and I got a great picture!). After spending a few hours out on the water, some of which was spent waiting for my friend to hack out giant clams from coral heads, we came back to land and I showered. Five minutes later I decided to join in on a kayak mission across the bay to check out an abandoned hotel (that Gump Station will probably buy in the near future and expand into). It was so much fun, we took out two two-person kayaks and stealthily made our way across, where we tied up our boats and explored the hotel (there really wasn't too much to see, except for some cool-looking tikis). By the time we were making it back across, the sun had set and we were rowing at starlight, which was so beautiful and peaceful.
Monday I actually spent most of the day working on identifying corals based on pictures I had taken and guides. It's surprisinlgy difficult: corals have a tendency to look very similar, and there's also the problem that they tend to be extremely variable, and can thus look very different from one area to the next, even if it's the same species. Anyway, at about 2 pm we found out that we would be going to Tetiaroa the next day, an island about two hours away, where we would spend the night. As this island is basically uninhabited, we had a mad rush of going out to buy food for the next two days and dozens of cases of water for the entire class.
And then the adventure began.
We all got up at 5:30 am and were amazingly ready to go on the dock by 6:30 am (actually on time for once). We divided the 22 students, 3 GSI's (graduate student instructors), and 2 Biocode scientists among three boats, and off we were! The next two hours were basically like being on a two hour long roller coaster. The boat I was on was just a simple fisherman's boat (which we later found out is not supposed to hold passengers), and we all held on for dear life as we bounced across giant waves all the way to Tetiaroa, getting soaked in the process (at some point I was even considering putting a snorkel mask on). A few times along the way, our driver whipped out a harpoon and went chasing after Mahi Mahi, but unfortunately never caught any. Anyway, we survived and when we got to Tetiaroa, we were greeted by four humpback whales (two mother and two calves). It was amazing, the whales came up to within 30-40 feet of the boat, and we could even see the white of their underbellies through the clear water. The whales were even kind enough to jump out and do some acrobatics for us.
So now a little bit more about WHY we were on Tetiaroa. Tetiaroa is an "atoll" (in quotation marks because geologically, it is not technically an atoll, but just an island sunken down by the weight of Tahiti and Moorea) that belongs to Marlon Brando's family. It is basically a bunch of motus (little sand islands covered in palms and other plants) in a ring around a shallow lagoon of crystal clear water. They are currently in the process of building an "eco-lodge" on the Onetahi motu, a supposedly environmentally friendly resort that will be the most posh resort in French Polynesia, with bungalows going for $2000 a night. The hotel has a partnership with the Gump Station, as they will work together to study the ecological impact of the hotel. The hotel owners will also build a satellite research station to the Gump Station on Tetiaroa, so scientists will be able to do work there and entertain guests at the same time. The construction is thus in progress, and should (maybe) be done in 2012.
Anyway, we were invited to come check out the island thanks to this partnership, but also to collect some bug and plant specimens for the Biocode lab, as well as take pictures of all marine life (Biocode is a project the Gump Station is involved in, in which they are working on coding out the DNA for all species on Moorea). So we arrived to the construction site for the wharf they're working on, which is currently a platform of concrete jutting out in the middle of pristine turquoise waters ("eco-lodge"?). Two very enthusiastic construction workers rode their little launch over to pick us off our larger boats and take us to land, refusing to take anyone but the girls first, much to the guys' distress. Once we had all arrived on land, girls AND guys, it was announced that we would all be climbing into the back of a huge dump truck to take us to the hotel construction grounds. And we did just that: we literally scaled a huge truck, all stood in the part that normally holds concrete and such, and drove all the way to the motu, crossing ocean and coral heads along the way (and following a path made of sticks and coconuts). That was definitely a very unique method of travel...probably won't be riding in a dump truck again anytime soon. When we finally arrived at our site, we dropped our stuff on the beach and jumped into the beautiful water. It was so nice and warm and clear...and full of squishy sea cucumbers -- hundreds of them surrounded us, and of course we couldn't resist picking them up and watching them eject their internal water in super-soaker style (anyone ever have a sea cucumber water fight?). After claiming our accomodation for the night, grey trailors on the beach with rock hard mattresses reminiscent of a prison cell, we had lunch. The hotel is nowhere near done, so we basically got to stay on a construction site with amazing scenery (I'm not complaining at all). And I should probably mention that we had no running water and no bathrooms.
We then set out on an adventure, snorkeling through blue waters from motu to motu and walking on beautiful white beaches in between. The most amazing part of it all was that no one was there: the only official resident of Tetiaroa is Marlon Brando's son, who was invited to dinner but too shy to come (he grew up on an uninhabited island, so I imagine his social skills are a bit undeveloped). We were thus walking on sands and through waters that very few people have walked on before, considering this "eco-lodge" is the first hotel to be built on the island. After a day of exploring, relaxing, and playing with the hundreds of hermit crabs out there, we had dinner (we cooked in the workers' kitchen), hung out a bit, and went to bed. Besides the rock hard mattresses and lack of pillow, the night went rather smoothly.
Next morning we got up, had breakfast on the beach, and set out to do some SCIENCE! I joined the marine "photosafari" group: our goal was to go to a variety of sediment types and photograph every living thing was saw there to add to the Biocode library. We set out for a walk to find a good spot, but due to really intense waves, we weren't able to find a safe place to snorkel. So we walked back to our camp site and just ended up snorkeling there instead, getting a few not-so-exciting photos mostly of sea snails. And then it was already time to head home. We all piled into the dump truck once again and got out to the wharf construction site where the little boat was waiting to take us out to the Gump Station boats. This time, though, the waves were really intense and the tide was a lot higher than the day before, and we had to go out in threes, waiting for the opportune moment to get past the reef crest without getting smashed by the waves -- definitely kind of terriying. Back in our boats, I was imagining the worst considering the waves we had just seen, but the ride back ended up being much, much smoother than on the way there, and I never once feared for my life. We again had a few unsuccessful harpooning expeditions, although when we got back to the Gump Station, our driver was nice enough to give us a huge Mahi Mahi he had caught earlier that day.
Back at home, it was so nice to take a shower and rid myself of two days' worth of sunscreen, bug spray, dirt, and sand. We picked up some pizzas at the local Allo Pizza and had a nice dinner. I also finally got to look in the mirror and see the perfect outline of my snorkel mask I have printed on my face due to how tanned I got in the last couple days (I definitely got a few shades darker in Tetiaroa)...hopefully this tan will even out soon and I will not go on looking like a racoon for long. Oh, and my booty tans got a whole lot darker too.