Well the term ended and it was a whirl wind.  The majority of the term was spent either TAing biological oceanography or studying and preparing for my oral exam.  The TAing went extremely well and I really enjoyed getting to hear the lectures again.  Hearing the lectures really helped me to feel more prepared for my upcoming orals.  For part of my project I am using plankton samples collected by NOAA to better understand the vertical migratory patterns of Dungeness crabs.  This quarter I went to pick up the samples from Newport and they filled the back of a pickup truck!!!!  It definitely seems I have my work cut out for me.  However, the majority of the quarter has been spent preparing for orals which has entailed reading countless scientific articles.  Before the oral exam I have to turn in a written form of my proposal so the next few weeks will be spent finalizing this.  I am looking forward to getting past the orals portion of my PhD so I can get to work counting samples and building my computer model.  I will be posting sometime in February to update everyone on how the orals went.