Preparations, Part Deux

As a dear friend said to her husband on their wedding day, "shit just got real."  No, I'm not getting married, but shit just got real. No more pretending like eating P. Terry's again and going to another 80s dance night counts as actual preparation for this trip. It's study time. (Reminder: I am actually going over there to learn something new, not just read on the beach and play in the waves, though I do hope for some of that too.)

I received my assignment for my area of focus on during my time in the Seychelles - I will be focusing on corals. Before I arrive on base on Saturday June 30, I have to memorize 50 different coral types, their characteristics and perhaps the most daunting - their Latin names. Apparently "that really cool purple one" or "that one that looks like a brain on crack" doesn't work for their identification and research purposes. Darn.

Now, my preparations looks something like this:

Yes, those are flash cards, something I probably haven't made since Mrs. Mackner's 5th grade geography class. Nor have I had to actually learn anything science related since 10th grade biology. At least in biology class we could get the wonderful and amazing Mrs. Peeler off topic enough to avoid a quiz for another day. Unfortunately, I don't have a kind teacher quizzing me, so it is up to me to actually make myself sit down and study a little each day so I don't end up trying to memorize everything on my 30 hour trip there. Okay, truthfully I will probably still end up cramming on my flights, which sounds a lot like an all-nighter. Ugh. At least I'll have some really nice flash cards to use.