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Published: September 4th 2008
After the crazy flight from Chiang Mai to Miami, Simon and Lauren were not only tired but unable to sleep because of the 11 hour time difference...
The United States threw a giant fireworks party for Lauren and Simon as they arrived on July 4th back to Lauren's home for the last four years, where she had departed from to begin the epic journey to New Zealand many months ago. Sleep was the order of the day, but unfortunately, waking up at 11pm and not being able to sit still afterwards was evidence to suggest Simon and Lauren had not yet completely made the transition from Asia to the USA just yet.
Thus, homemade pizza (Lauren is highly competent in the kitchen) and classic NES mario kept them going until sunrise, when wethey went down to Miami beach to watch the glorious red sun illuminating the hungover partygoers and piles of rubbish on Miami beach. What?! are we back in the Philippines?! Lauren indicated to Simon that this day was an exception and that the beach was rapidly being cleaned and raked by an army of maintenance staff. If you ship in your sand because coastal erosion is taking
it away, you're going to look after it... Miami was shockingly comfortable for July, with little stifling heat, and Simon and Lauren enjoyed an early morning swim before the parking meters were even being checked.
ICRS - the International Coral Reef Symposium - a week of coral reefs, coral reefs, and more coral reefs. A huge (for simon) symposium attracting thousands of researchers from all over the world, ICRS is a showcase for the most recent research and discoveries regarding coral reefs around the globe. Unfortunately, the overbearing feeling amongst researchers was that coral reefs may undergo decline over most of their current distribution in our lifetime. For Simon and Lauren, this was sobering news.
On a more positive note, Lauren displayed her poster! Multi-Model Analysis of Regional Variability in Ocean Surface Warming and Impacts on Coral Reefs through 2050. Although the poster did not display Nicholas Cage with girl and guns with an explosion as a backdrop, it was well received...especially if you could understand it! Lauren's poster showed potential areas around the world where "reefs of hope"- reefs that are not so badly affected by climate change - may reside. She's doing something positive, so give
her credit, Simon is sure it lifted many people's spirits at ICRS.
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4th of July from Laurens Balcony
