the teaching life is nothing if not cyclical

We took our annual field trip the Monterey Bay Aquarium and it was more delightful than ever.  They have a new psychedelic jellyfish exhibit called “The Jellies Experience”.  This exhibit includes lots of mirrors, flashing lights, 60s lounge music and a quote from Jimi Hendrix in black light.  It was awesome--take a look!

These ceiling lamps need to be recreated over the winter break. I feel like IKEA probably has all of the necessary parts.

 

The Medusa Jelly

What sort of psychedelic-jelly-mind-portal is this?

 Trippy.

 This trip is now getting weird.  Am I encountering a life size rainbow jellyfish?

Jimi will show me the way.

I'm out!  And into the deep sea.

 

Also, a docent told us the most amazing story.  A fancy and expensive snail was accidentally brought in to the aquarium in ocean water and started appearing in some tank.  This snail is worth a lot of money on the snail black market (paraphrasing here).  The biologists noticed that the snails started disappearing, and suspected someone from the aquarium was taking them to sell on the black market.  One night, the cleaning crew noticed that the octopus had gotten out of his tank and was crawling along the floor to the tank with the fancy snail.  Upon further investigation by the museum staff, they discovered that the octopus was making his way over to the fancy snail tank on a regular basis, stealing the snails, eating them and hiding the shells in his own tank (!!!!!).  THE OCTOPUS.  Sneaking out at night to eat fancy meals—knowing where the good stuff is—hiding evidence.  Can this be true??!!