T.I.O. and Goodbye Africa

Here in Africa, we've got a saying: TIA. This is Africa. It's usually used when something strange or unexpected or unusual or just plain bizarre happens. Shuttle shows up either a half hour early or an hour late consistently? TIA. Internet is down because the router needs to be reset but the person with the key to the room is at home? This is Africa. We've added another phrase even more specific to us--TIO. This is Oceans. It usually crops up when we have instances like the other day when we sat at the harbor after chumming for two hours because a vehicle broke down. However, as I come down to my last blog post in Africa and look through some pictures taken last night, I come up with one other instance where I feel it fits: 

TIO. This is Oceans. 

Back: Natalie, Dorien, Dan, Elayna, Braham, Kurt, Megan, Brian
Middle-ish: Eva, me, Jackie, Caitlin, Sarah, Emily
Front-ish: Kasandra, Natasha, Alex
Kneeling: Tammy, Jason, Noah, Johan, Ezra

These are the people I've lived and worked with for the last month (two in many cases). I've learned a lot of new things, many related to field research, many not. Somehow I feel like my courses in Ecological Physiology and piano lessons, as much as I'm looking forward to them, are going to have a hard time holding up against playing with sharks. And all through, I've gotten to make new friends who live all over the world. Besides that, I've picked up some new vocabulary like "heaps," "sunnies," and telling the time the "right" way (according to British friends). 

But one more picture. Because maybe THIS is really Oceans. It's certainly an accurate depiction of the real personality of any marine biologist I've ever met.