Being a Busybee


At this time last year, my seniors told me that semester 6 was boring. A non-busy, lack-of-tasks kind of semester. Fast forward to today, me as a semester 6 student, cringing to fact that two weeks ago I had over 10 tasks due by end of May.

An addition to the uni busyness, I was part of a faculty organization and a community, as well as an assistant coach in swimming. My semester 6 was a race against time.

Guess what? I just finished my first step of starting my senior year: internship exam! It might sounds weird, when your internship is being tested. But that is what happened. Our lecturers would ask what we did during our internship, why we did it, and basically what we learned during the whole thing. Even though there were dramas through it all, I did it. I was able to visualise my internship into a poster, and explained to my examiner that I understood what I was doing and more importantly, why I was doing it. During our presentation, we had to wear a batik top & black skirt. I had my batik top made into a cheongsam look, with a batik pattern same as my friends. I bought the black skirt at a shop in Denpasar, for only Rp60.000 lol. During the poster exhibition, I wore my Ray of Hope t-shirt from MMF, and pair it with a Balinese kamen (kain). My full poster can be seen here.


The weekend of the internship exam, I had a field class to Amed (Jemeluk Bay) and Manggis, Karangasem to observe the coral reef ecosystem using the Line Intercept Method and Point Intercept Method. A few classmates and I were divided into two groups, I got the one at Amed. We had to dive 3 times (due to our three x 2 depths transect points)!!! The visibility was relatively clear, unless of course sand grains were going up. There were a plenty of fishes, as well as some artifical reefs. The reef below was pretty cool, the current wasn’t that strong (thankfully) and the place itself was nice. Since I don’t have my own diving gear (BCD, regulator, wetsuit, booties & fins), I had to borrow the faculty’s items... which to be honest, is no longer appropriate to use, if I should speak. Especially the regulators and booties. (If anybody wants to give me free SCUBA diving gear, please do. I accept all types in A-OK conditions. I’m a size XS/S). However, the dives were great and we got what we came there for. We ended the day by eating at a traditional market in Klungkung! (and then going back to campus to wash our gears. We finished around midnight lol).

"Kak Erick what are you doing up there?"
Hello fishy
Class Flag
Jemeluk Bay has such a great view of the hills!
Dimas immersing the Jemeluk Bay sun shine
Happy (but tired) kid.


The next week after, my class went to Nusa Penida to observe the Marine Protected Area implemented there. We stayed for a night. We were supposed to find 20 people to interview, but my group ended with only 8 people.  Two of them were locals, and the other six... well, some of them are tourists and some of them work at Nusa Penida. It was quite funny, on how we found those 6 people. My group saw a sign that says “conservation” and we followed it, up to 2,5 km. The road was a mess and we were doubtful of the conservation site. It was because it was a bird conservation site, which was so far from our Marine Protected Area theme. However, the people there were super nice, open minded and full of ideas that what first was an interview turned into a discussion! We talked for about an hour on how tourism, waste management and sustainability connects to each other. I think we got more than we wanted! The next morning, we packed our bags and went to Crystal Bay. It’s the beach where once you go down, there are instantly coral reefs waiting for you. It’s amazing to have coral reefs close to the beach, and if you’re looking for coral reefs to look at without renting a boat, Crystal Bay is the place.

My boncengan partnerrrr
Our reason to go to Nusa Penida: interview local people and tourists at Nusa Penida about their views on the Marine Protected Area.
TBH I've always loved Kim Possible but with this hair cut I feel more of an Alex from Totally Spies.

I'm selling these Nobi Bags (currently for Bali residence). Email me for colour & price info!

The weekend after our weekend at Nusa Penida (get it?), we had a small ecotourism getaway for our ecotourism (Dasar-dasar Ekowisata) subject. We went to the Mangrove Information Centre (MIC), which was once the only information centre on mangrove in the whole south-east Asia. How cool is that? But with out ecotourism subject, we had to observe and analyse MIC as an ecotourism, and what its SWOT. The jalan-jalan turned out to be a 2,5 hours thing, and afterwards I went to Ade's to have a 12++ hours of (almost) non-stop tasking. #YaySemester6





Outside UNI, Baruna Scientific Diving Club Udayana (BASIC) and Marine Debris Guard Udayana  (MARGA) has been taking a plenty of my time. BASIC is preparing for the big expedition that'll take place in July (keep yourselves updated by following our Instagram!), and MARGA just had a CSIRO Coastal Debris Monitoring Survey Training last week! It was big, because we were searching for volunteers in Bali so people outside uni actually came (mind blown). I didn't know people were actually interested to learn scientific methods! An accomplishment in MARGA to apply the citizen scientist system!!! If you're interested to learn and to take part in our monthly coastal debris surveys, take a peek at our Instagram!!

Anyway, even though I enjoy all this busyness, I've always complained about how tiring being in marine sciences is... I mean, practical activities are always there and it seem endless, a never-ending thread of tasks, sudden field classes to anywhere, rescheduled classes, just. so. many. But at times... it's worth it. You get to go to new places, see new organisms, meet new people, and gain new experience. It's always an adventure in going out of my comfort zone. Digitally giving kisses and hugs, thanking all of my class friends and the acquaintances I met during my adventures in semester 6.

For Ramadan, I’ll only be home for a few weeks and I’ll have to come back to Bali for my Kuliah Kerja Nyata (KKN) / live-in program on July-August. And soon will come the skripsi proposal exam... But I’ll talk about that in a different post. Things are going to get even crazier next semester. Hope I make it through.

Photos taken by iPhone 5S, iPhone 7, a Sony camera, Nikon Coolpix AW130, and a Canon DSLR.
Thank you to all the people taking pictures. I'm sorry I can't mention each of you.
Edited on Afterlight and Adobe Photoshop.

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