Thanks a lot, 49er's

The air is still dead-algal. Yay.

In other news, class was easy today. Pete talked a lot about the history of environmental policy in the U.S., which is a refreshing change because I know most of it. However, he seemed to have distinctly opposite opinions of prominent public figures from Sean Watts, my policy-minded environmental sciences instructor. It was a nice change. Yosemite was discussed at length, again, refreshing because I knew all of that history as well, being a Californian. Our second class was cancelled so I had time for an hour nap before lunch.

My group ventured out to a divespot called Huey, Dewey, and Loius, or HDL to snorkel for our first reef fish ID session. The spot is named for its 3 protruding rocks that look like triplets. The water was gorgeous and there were so many coral strewn about the rocky bottom! Purple fans, wavy finger-like corals, brain corals, yellow leaves, and so many more. It was disappointing to not have my camera with me. I can't wait until we're allowed to bring them along. Sorry, no pictures until then :( The reef fish were a myriad of different colors, stripe and spot patterns, sizes and shapes. Unlike anything I've ever seen or read before. It was a little confusing, trying to learn them all by latin scientific names, but we struggled through and saw a few squid and rays in the process. Another group saw a pair of spotted eagle rays though, something I have been straining to see since I got here. Oh well, next time!

The sunset was absolutely brilliant, and a group of us powered through the readings so we could watch Monday Night Football at Chicken Bar. The 49er's vs. the Saints. But, alas, they haven't been able to pull through with several botched plays and easy mistakes and it was a disappointing attitude within the bar. Fried chicken and a Pepsi were delicious around the 2nd quarter, along with some dominos and local conversation. Just another night out with the boys. Around 3rd quarter, a bar fight broke out outside, a pretty intense one too. Such a rare occasion on this island, as almost every single heated encounter is strictly verbal. One fighter that we knew said he hadn't fought with anyone in 10 years, and he would be a likely candidate for frequent fights. After an eventful evening, we headed home at curfew to watch the rest of the game in internet updates and the niners just can't seem to get it together. They're heading into the last 2 minutes losing as we speak. Go 49ers, but lets have a better game next time, shall we?

Tut, Tut, It Smells Like Hurricane

Dad knows what I mean. You can smell the hurricane's storms because the air is rank with decaying seaweed. It't not as bad as when Hurricane Charlie came through the Keys, but when you walk from an airconditioned room to the sticky, thick air outside, its like you dove into a pile of washed up algae on the beach. The swells have died down since yesterday, but the visibility is still pretty poor.

Today was fairly leisurely, woke up at noon, sweltering hot, but to homemade cinnamon rolls, so life isn't all that bad :) I puttered around the Center for an hour or so, read the articles for class tomorrow and made plans to snorkel later. I had had enough reading a computer screen for the day, so Mike and I went for a walk around town. We wandered over to the school since I had not been to that part of the island yet. We ran into "Iverson" or Gill, a young high school boy who visited the Center and was learning to play the guitar with Tyler. As we neared the school, the basketball yard had an interesting find....A high jump pit was just laying around! It reminded me of everything I loved about high jump so Mike and I did some jumping for a few minutes before continuing our walk. We passed a few wild horses on our way into the broken gate and found a mural on the back wall (pictures to come!). The mural was painted by a few previous SFS students of an ocean scene. Its cute and educational such as a diver attempting to catch a lionfish (an invasive species) and a boat dropping an anchor into some coral with a little stop sign over it. We wandered back past the high jump pit (of course stopping to mess around some more on the random occurance) and headed back to the Center for some snorkeling at high tide.

Visibility was still a little poor, but we went out anyways, trying to catch some fish with the camera and searching for Sean's prescription mask that got swepped off the dock a few days ago. We snorkeled around for an hour and a half, venturing all the way out to the jetty, the far end of our swimmer area. We found some sea glass, a new sea grass bed we had never seen, some great schooling fish, but most of the pictures were fairly grainy due to the sediment in the water.





Sunken anchor in our swim/snorkel area

 

Bar Jack

Discarded Queen Conch





After dinner of burritos, a small group of us went back to the hotel to escape the dead heat that is lingering around but were met with voracious sand fleas instead of mosquitos and had a hard time relaxing. We managed, and chatted with "Goochie Man" (a local 18 year old who's real name is Generio.....I can see the need for a switch) and "Money" a few local celebrities that frequent our crowd. Headed home past the sketchy house again, this time without any foot casualties, and enjoyed the last part of the evening in the air conditioned computer room. I don't miss Cali anymore :)

Surfing Magazine

The swells are enormous! I mean, they're nothing compared to a heavy day in California, but for here, where every body of water is flat, flat, flat, they're gigantic. Swells come rolling in from just offshore and crash up against the rocks with full force, sending the spray 50 ft up in the air, past the roof of our dive shed that sits on the cliff.

This morning my room was scheduled to attend to the vehicles for our weekly site cleanup. We washed the cars (thankfully before the heat really hit for the day), vacuumed and washed them. Our dive was cancelled due to the waves so we had some time before our next activity. Several of the guys and myself went down to the docks to swim, but the swell was so large that we were "strongly advised" to not swim. Or at least not without fins. However, for me, it was very clear to see that it was not as big of a problem as they told us. It makes sense that not everyone here is used to waves or current, but bodysurfing in 10 foot waves in Laguna Beach with massive rip-tides has more than prepared me for the itty bitty "surge" that we had. I jumped in with fins and had no problem swimming around, and went back later without fins. It was overcautioned in my opinion. I almost wanted that hard-core Laguna back again, at least it was a workout!

Shortly after that the Center split off into our activities for the Saturday community outreach. My group headed off to an uninhabited bay beach to do 2 hours of beach cleanup. We got to this beautiful outlook above our beach and gazed upon white sand beaches for miles and brilliant blue waters. Down actually on the beach however it was a different story. Just like my beach excursion last weekend, the beach was littered with global trash. It was all sort of piled in a corner where the wave current had just left it, and we all tried to tackle the seemingly infinite number of colored pieces of plastic. Among my bag were buoys, lighters, baby shoes, flip flops of every shape and size, soles of shoes, netting, syringe plungers, cologne sample tubes and a variety of other random colored slabs. However, the waves were absolutely PUMPING. There were actual surfable waves breaking about 1/4 mile out and the irratic waves came in as tiny breakers at the shore. It looked like something out of a surfing magazine. Blue as blue can get with perfect faces. It actually made me miss California's waves. Our small group + professor went body surfing for the next 20 minutes before we made our way back home to the dump and then the Center. Our groups played games for the next few hours until the groups split off again. A trip was organized to the East Bay beach, but I passed, seeing as I had enough sun and sand for one day from beach cleanup. Instead, Mikenna, Savannah, our intern Lizzie and myself went roaming around a small "fashion" store in town. Mikenna grabbed some new jewlery for her new haircut and we considered it a successful trip. Our posse headed back for dinner after grabbing a mountain dew and some candy at Wilson's Variety Store. After dinner, almost all of the students made plans to go out for the evening, as we were not diving on Sunday.

We all decided to get drinks at Roosters and Chicken Bar because it was cheaper than the Hotel that we were eventually headed to. I had a few glasses of wine and we made our way over to the Cox Hotel for some dancing and live music. We made our trek to the hotel past a creepy old mayor's wife's house and through some underbrush but we made it there in one piece. The music was cranking already and we spent the next few hours dancing and swimming in the hotel pool, mingling with the locals occasionally. The group has gotten considerably closer in the last week and its really nice to rely on everyone like family. Its so much more fun to go out and dance or just hang out when everyone is really close. The boys actually dance and the girls had a great time relaxing for the night, before a big day of studying. On the way home before curfew, I stubbed my toe and didn't think anything of it. My shoes were still wet from the pool so when Ben and I got too far ahead of the group, we stopped and I checked out my toe. Apparently my shoe wasn't still wet but covered in blood. I was bleeding all over the place so Ben and I booked it home to take care of it. Once I rinsed it off, the cut was not even bigger than a papercut. Thanks toe, I really appreciate it. A bandaid fixed the problem and I joined the rest of the students who were straggling in for the night. We talked for a few more hours and it was time for bed. I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow!

"I Am James Bond. Pierce Brosnan!"

Thar's a hurricane a'blowin!!! Igor is full force but it swings wide of TCI. Pretty much all hurricanes do here. But, it is bringing us some much needed patchy rains and some really powerful swell. We were not able to visit the fish processing plant today due to absolutely horrible visibility in the waters. No fishermen even went out to fish because of the stirred up sediment and waves. However, being the Cali girl that I am, the waves are great for body surfing! Normally the ocean is flatter than flat, but alas, here are some waves :) In any case, the hurricane does bring bad news, as it may make our next set of ID exams either late or very difficult, and the news says that Hurricane Julia is close behind, also a Category 4. Should be interesting! Here's a little bit of history: The last hurricane to really come through the TCI was Hurricane Ike in 2008 and it was absolutely devastating to this small island. Many buildings still remain broken, dilapidated, torn, run-down, and useless. The Belongers don't have many resources to rebuild or clean up the mess from 2 years ago, and many either just live in those conditions or moved houses. Several beautiful landmarks were pristine, and were just demolished in the hurricane, such as an old round outdoor building, and the Queen Elizabeth's Regatta pier. The pier now stands like broken toothpicks, the boards completely ripped off the boardwalk and the pilings standing like jagged teeth. That really was the largest hurricane to come through here in decades though, and the most recent forecasted ones are going to pass well around us here at the Center.

Moving on to the day:
Class this morning was a little painful, as we sat through a slideshow of 85 reef fish that we need to know by scientific name by next Friday. However, the ID sessions that we usually get to practice and learn may be thwarted by Igor, we don't know. It certainly was a daunting 2 hours though, as most of the fish look the same and the differences between families are not always very clear or separated. After lunch, we were supposed to visit the local fish processing plant, as we had learned about it in the morning, but as I mentioned, the storm made that impossible. We hung out on the docks for a little bit, napped in the warm sun, played some volleyball and played games until dinnertime.

After dinner we decided to go out on the town. One group was diving tomorrow so some of us couldn't drink any alcohol, but we went out to find the rest of the group anyways just to hang out for the night. We made the rounds to Trenchtown Bar, Chicken Bar, Darryl's, and Bayside Ballers (a round which literally takes 3 minutes to walk the whole thing) but couldn't find the group. We were approached by a local man named James who used to work for the SFS Center from 1991-98. He invited us into the pool hall and were helping us with our fish ID while we played billiards. He was certainly a character! He kept telling us that he was James, James Bond, 007! Within that category, he was also Pierce Brosnan and he kept saying "not stirred, not stirred!" We played 7 harrowing games of team pool, shooting back and forth. I won one of the final games (Dad, you'll be proud) with a very close drop shot around the 8 ball, and a behind the back shot to win the game. We met a very tall local called Yao Ming and played until 11, when it was time to go home. I'm off to watch Monsters Inc. and then sleep a wonderful sleep, as we have an extra hour to sleep in tomorrow.

But Why is All the Hair Gone?

Wow, what a day!

We had our first exam, in the water this morning. Our instructor pointed out species and we had to write their scientific names down. It wasn't really all that hard, Im sure I aced it. It started to downpour when we were on the water though, beautiful warm rain :) And I KNOW you are all waiting for my pictures and such, but we haven't been able to take our cameras diving too much, we have to get a little better first. I am a fish in the water so I've been dying to take the camera out, I know I can handle it, but other students are still beginners and snorkeling, diving, and marine activities in general.

I took the most lovely nap when I got back until lunchtime, after which we had a small excel worksheet to finish. And by small I mean 2 hours. Luckily, even that went fast because my partner Ben is an engineer and both of us were very familiar with excel and how to calculate those sort of problems. The rest of the evening was fairly leisurely. We played volleyball with a few locals, had dinner and I went to read some of my papers for tomorrow.

As I was halfway done with the last one, Mikenna came into the computer room wanting to know who I borrowed clippers from to shave Stephens head. When I asked her why, she told me she wanted me to shave hers! I couldn't believe it but she was dead serious and she didn't change her mind, so we got the supplies together and gathered a substantial crew and went to shave her head in her room. We convinced her that she had a wonderful face for an edgy female-mohawk and I set to work, rather nervously, chopping her hair off in pieces, chunks and stripes. The energy in the room was intense as I worked to make it look good and give her the haircut she wanted. I must say though, it came out FABULOUS. She looks amazing with her faux-hawk/comb-over and I can't believe I pulled that one off! We went into town to celebrate the success of sponteneity and the crew grabbed some beers and chicken. We had an all-around good time bonding; we were only out for an hour, but we met some cool locals, played dominos and got more comforable around each other as a family, not just friends or schoolmates.

Im exhausted, but its been an exciting day and lots to show for it!



Before



AFTER!!! (Stephen, Me, Mikenna, and Alex)



Tyler, Chase, and Alex

Nemo's Going to the DROP-OFF?!?!?

Diving first thing in the morning is not condusive to maintaining energy for the rest of the day. We headed out to dive at 8 am, into choppier water than we've experienced so far. Between Long Cay and Dove Cay, a channel leads out to the open ocean where the waves get bigger and the water gets bluer. Past "The Grotto" lies "The Plane", where an old drug running plane crashed and left a great wreck to dive near. We descended down after getting seasick trying to put our gear on, into brillian cerulean waters. The reef at 60 feet down was teeming with life! Parrotfish, large groupers, a trumpet fish, damsel fish, and brilliant blueheaded wrasse were scattered about, crunching on some coral and algae. Past the plane SE, was "The Wall". The shelf literally drops from 70 feet to 7000 feet. All you can see is blue. Deep blue. It was exactly the scene from Finding Nemo, where he goes to the drop-off and tries to venture out over the ledge. (Minus the boat of course...). The dive seemed very short though as we had to turn around fairly early. Some of the divers used more air than the rest so we had to cut it a few minutes short. On our way back, we saw the other group just going out. Apparently, one of the O-rings on a tank had blown and they took a long time getting in the water. Our group waited on the boat for another half hour for the diving group to surface, in the meantime getting extremely seasick. Note to self: take Dramamine! I haven't stopped waving around all day, I feel like im still on the water 12 hours later.

Next we went out into the community on a small scavenger hunt for local stories. We found Val, a one armed man that got bitten by a Bull shark and a Tiger shark while fishing. He is a great singer and taught us some valuable lessons about Island time and the slower pace of life. We hunted for some ice cream and talked to several locals along the way. Coming back in, SJ, Mike and I decided to go snorkeling in the swimmers area. Beautiful sea life today! Several lobsters, an odd looking anemone, a Christmas shrimp, some really neat, colorful adult Slippery Dicks (yes, i know, its a fish... >.<), and a few brave damselfish. All in all, a great snorkel. Im very disappointed that I didn't bring my camera though. Nap time and dinner time came next (pizza!!!) and it was a relaxing night, since Im very confident about my test tomorrow.

All the crafts and trades are coming out of the woodworks, like I said, and I did another haircut, Mary-Kate's this time, and Liz traded me a backmassage for a cute hair wrap. Blue and green and orange! We all figure, why not get islandy? We're here! We learned about other peoples crafts and we'll all trade at some point.

In other news, a marine class that I really wanted to take at SCU has now been broken up into two much lamer classes and Stephen and I are extremely disappointed. We both knew that there were only a few marine classes, and they were supposed to supplement our time here. Now we both don't want to take the 2 classes that are offered, they're not as specific and certainly dont sound as fun. It should be interesting to come back to a place that has absolutely nothing to do with my experiences here. Thank god for Stephen!

The end of my evening was spent showing some people how to sent text messages from the internet and they were all thrilled to be able to connect with their loved ones back home a little quicker.  Great night! <3

Why Are All Baby Animals So Cute??

Sorry guys, this one's going to be a short one.

Classes were very lengthy today and I couldn't wait to get snorkeling in the afternoon. We were continuing our seagrass and mangrove identifications (again) and snorkeled off of a small island called Moxybush. Its just a mangrove island, but theres lots of things to see around it. We practiced calling out ridiculous sounding scientific names ("Thalassium testudinum!", "Condylactis gigantea!") and snorkeled around for a while. We saw so many smaller fish, as the mangrove roots are a great fish nursery, but more importantly, we saw some baby barracudas. SO CUTE! They aren't as wary of humans so you can get pretty close and they are just freakin adorable! Im jealous of the other groups though, because they saw at least 5 Lemon sharks at once, something I've wanted to see since we got here. But oh well! We had lots of free time here today because our exam is coming up and tomorrow is a dive/community outreach day. There is no homework until Thursday night and I'm already confident about my ID exam. I took time to play games with people, talk to our on-site dive master, take my first freshwater shower (yay!!!!). It felt so good to shave my legs again, agh! My activities planning board played sardines tonight just to involve everyone and it was fairly successful. After that, I took a walk with Jareb into town on an ice cream hunt, but only ended up finding Yoohoo! in a can. Our walk turned fairly philosophical, and Im very fortunate to have so many new friends that are all passionate, level headed, and enthusiastic. No offense Santa Clara! :D

The evening finished off with me doling out haircuts. I gave Stephen a pretty professional looking mohawk and helped him design more of his tattoo, and Im up for another hair cut tomorrow. It seems everybody has their trade to offer here. Liz is doing hair wraps for all the girls, Leah has made bracelets and anklets, I seem to be cutting hair, and Ruthie is trading back massages. It's become quite the little community of offerings when we dont have luxuries from home anymore. However, we did find out that a whole head of cornroes is only $10 here :) Sometimes I just dont understand the pricing structure on this island!

Now its time for your input! What do you, the readers want to hear more of in this blog? More descriptions? People? Activities? Let me know and I'll adjust what I write about :) Goodnight moon.

Rainy Day Schedule

I blame Nick again. For my tolerance to painful boat seats. But more on that later.


Thunderstorms here on this island are absolutely spectacular. The sky gets dark for miles around because the horizon is so clear here, you can see so far, and there are no buildings to obstruct your view. The sky opens up and downpours torrential rain and then just as quickly lets up, leaving everything bright green and blue. Lightning comes both in bolts and flashes, producing rolling thunder that echoes all around you, through the open space.

I set my dirty laundry out on the line, knowing it was going to be doused in fresh water at some point during class. Sure enough, during a fairly boring recap of our previous nights (obvious) reading, the rain let loose and drenched everything. After a hearty and delicious lunch, we set out again for another mangrove island to continue attempting to ID fish, algae and animals by scientific name. However, we had the wonderful fortune of stumbling upon a squid free floating today, and 2 nurse sharks. One of them swam away as soon as we happened upon it, but we quietly came up on another one, and were able to get pretty close to it. I swam down and was face to face with the shark, about 2 feet between our two heads. The shark was beautiful, small clear dark spots making up its chocolate brown color, amber eyes, and peaceful movements. I was awed by its presence. The rest of the snorkel went off without a hitch, but the second group to go out had to come back early due to the approaching lightning. This is where I blame Nick again. The sea was fairly stormy and we were traveling back to the docks against the current and wind. The waves were about twice as big and wide as the ones on Shaver Lake and I was not sitting on a cushion. No, I was clinging wildly to an orange PFD to prevent myself from slamming into fiberglass seats on the way back. However, I have a specific tolerance to painful boat seats *cough* Aluminum Falcon *cough*. We made it back in one piece, if not pelted by the rain, and we settled in for a nice, warm peanut butter cookie/brownie snack.

2 of us decided to go get some $1 chicken at Chicken Bar (called that for its delectable, ketchup smothered chicken, duh!) but it wasn’t frying up yet, so we trekked to Cham-B’s a local market of sorts. I found a nice can of (cheap!) Kern’s pear juice and an Almond Joy bar, and enjoyed the delights of American foods.

More storming throughout the day and some intense reading on reef fishes later, it was time for some fun and games for the night. Catchphrase wrapped up the evening with raucous laughter and loud awkward attempts at charades, and it is time to hit the hay. I find myself particularly exhausted, even when we barely do anything because of rain, like today. Whew.

Too Far North

I blame Nick. >:( I like seaglass a little too much, and so does Hilary. So we decided that on our day off, we 2 would trek to find the beach that did frequently have good seaglass specimens. The geography goes as follows. SFS is on the southernmost point of the island, and there is a large expanse of shoreline here heading north east. The next bay is East Bay, with a beautiful, 20 years-in-the-making-but-not-really-going-anywhere hotel overlooking the ocean, where we cooked out last night. Continuing north, Shark Bay follows, then Highlands Bay, then Robert Todd Bay, then Valley Bay/Long Beach, which takes you almost all the way to the northernmost tip of the island on a peninsula. Our destination was Shark Bay, where Lizzie our intern had recommended we go, not too much farther than the walk the second group took to East Bay last night. Hilary woke up at 7, ate some breakfast, slathered on an uncomfortable amount of sunscreen, grabbed an obscene amount of water and set out for Shark Bay.

We were joined by a local black dog who seemed to be along for the journey for nothing more than some company. Our trek led us through the salinas where we took pictures of some flamingos, but were fairly unbothered by locals or wildlife. The road turned to dirt and we continued on past the hotel at East Bay, looking for our turn off to cut out towards the coast. With the navigational help of the dog, we found a few trails that led us past an old water well, through some scrub brush and up towards a small house on the hill. To the right of the hill, we headed up to the southern tip of what was supposedly Shark Bay, and it was. It looked just like the map. However, it was high tide, and the beach of Shark Bay was nonexistant. The breakers were also fairly strong on the east side of the island, so we decided to take a path along the cliffs to the next part of Shark Bay to look for a beach.....to no avail. However, we did stumble upon a cool flat paved area with a carved piece of driftwood, that we stopped to take pictures with. 1.5 hours in and the dog was still with us, so we lovingly nicknamed him Trooper.

All along the east side of the island, global trash washes ashore. There were many nets, shoes, plastic bottles and broken buoys, lighter casings, and coconut husks, along with a variety of other odd objects like tires and baseballs. Ever wonder where the balls go when they fly out of ATT park in the San Fran Bay? Here apparently. We kept walking along the shore which was increasingly unavailable and rocky, as the rugged terrain kept getting steeper. We passed the house at Shark Bay, apparently past the Highland House, and all the way into the Robert Todd baybefore we found beach. 2 hours had passed and we finally were able to kick our socks and shoes off and jump in the water. An hour of searching produced many cool colors of sea glass, several curious fish friends, and Trooper waiting patiently at the beach, even though we hadn't so much as touched him. We took a quick nap break at 1 and headed back into the salty beast to collect more. The best glass was within 3 feet of the surface, so we were getting pummeled by the breakers like beached dolphins just to collect. As 245 approached, the tide was bringing too much algae to see or keep from being dizzy by the wave motion, so we got out and napped on the beach. Nobody was around and no boats came by; only us, Trooper, and 2 airplanes shared the beautiful white-sanded beach.

At 330, it was time to go home and we found the road a little quicker this time, although we were exhaused so it took longer to actually walk. Just as we found the main road, the skies got dark and downpoured on us. Luckily all we had with us were snorkel gear, swim attire, and 2 waterproof cameras. I consider that drench to be my freshwater shower for the day, and Ill push back my real freshwater shower til tomorrow. I only get one a week so I have to make it count. The other "showers" (baths?) are in the ocean with the biodegradable soap and shampoo I brought with me. We accidentally took a longer road to get back to town than before so even though we knew the way, the walk was still 2 hours back. Hilary and I had hit it off from the very start so we filled our two hours with stories or sagas from home, chatting about the Center and various other chit chat topics. We finally made it back in with Trooper, drenching wet, thouroughly exhaused, sandy from head to toe (the white sand here is quite sticky) and looking like all hell had broke loose. Hilary and I looked at the map to see exactly where we had gone, cleaned ourselves up to look like civilized people, and scarfed down a hefty snack.

Dinner was light for me and I went off to bed to nap before finishing reading the articles for tomorrow. Besides finding a giant cockroach on the counter where my toothbrush and toilletries are, the evening was pretty good. A few more hilarious recaps from the previous night and I am ready for bed.

Lookout, Cookout!

Saturday's are fairly leisurely, despite the fact that they still count for part of our schooling. We wake up an hour later than usual and have an hour to clean up the Center. I was part of the waterfront crew and FINALLY got to be part of waterfront clean up, something I didnt get to do at camp. After some boat scrubbing and hard core snorkel-cleaning, it was time to head back for our actual snorkel. We went back to Admiral's Aquarium to snorkel recreationally and this time we were allowed to bring cameras. I took a few but the camera died so the ones here are all I have. I'll get more later from Hilarys camera.




Southern Stingray



Chase and I

 The colors underwater are just fabulous and the reef fish are so brilliant in color, its truly like diving in an aquarium.

After snorkeling and lunch, we went to East Bay, a bay just north of us to do some more snorkeling and a bonus ID session for our mangrove ecology. Our small group is rocking the scientific names and the studying comes easy because everyone is in the same situation. We had more time to snorkel around while the staff was preparing a beach cookout for us. Hamburgers and brownies tasted absolutely scrumptous after a long day of snorkeling. East Bay has a small patch reef that I went back to 3 times before dinner so my legs were aching from all the fin kicking. We had a great time at the cookout, made some marshmallow s'mores and compared camp songs and activities to be able to share with the local kids next saturday. Ive worked at boyscout camp, Lizzie and Ben worked at Christian camps and Sarah and Serena worked at nature camps. Surprisingly, almost all of our songs were known by the another student/staff member. But there are a surprising amount of songs that are just nonsense. We all shared our nonsense songs while the van was on its way back to pick us up.

The crew

By the time I got back, most of the other students had already gone out for their Saturday night. I realized just how tired I was and decided not to go out with the rest of the group. The internet finally came back on and so I stayed in updating my blog, reading for this weekend, and I got a lovely phonecall from Nick while everyone was out. At midnight, the whole group got back with some very ridiculous stories of their times. Several girls went dancing with the locals, who happen to be very...involved...dancers and had to get rescued several times by the guys in our group. All in all, I was bummed I didnt go out with all my friends, but it was nice to stay in and relax for the evening, Ive been absolutely exhausted. And the phonecall was nice :) Next saturday I will have to prepare my energy better and not be so tired when 9 o clock comes around.

In other news, the UV here is so strong that it has faded my nailpolish that I've only had on for a week. It used to be a strong pink coral and now its close to light strawberry sherbet. :(

Ridiculatus Taxonomica

Sergeant Abu Definitely drinks Duff when he plays the Saxophone. Lauren is in the CIA and theres a Spy named Raena. Pneumonic devices are the only things getting me through my mangrove identification flash cards for the first exam. Scientific names: The projected bane of my existence for this program. The first ID refers to Abudefduf saxotilis, a Sergeant Major reef fish. The second pneumonic device refers to Laurencia sp. and Sphyraena barracuda. With over 20 different species of algae, fish, and wildlife that we must learn by scientific name, the list of pneumonics is going to pile up quickly. After this set of mangrove ecology identification, we have reef fish, a whopping 85 species to know by name and identification. Other than that, our first class snorkel went off with out a hitch in the mangroves on a nearby island. Our small group of 4 meandered around the tiny island practicing identifying different algaes and marine life, including an amber penshell, a very, very sharp, fragile, lurking bivalve. Our tour led us through 3 different species of mangrove and around the other island to snorkel in the shallows. Schools of curious Schoolmaster Snapper swam right up to our masks and Yellowfin Majorres schools fearfully congregated several feet away from the braver schoolmasters. I just find it spectacular that we hold lectures and exams in the water! Its such a fantastic feeling to be able to say, I'm learning here, I snorkel everyday to contribute to my academic research.

My evening paper was about cultural assumptions and reflections. I realized that I didn't have many observations because I had few interactions with locals over the last week. I decided to go get some first hand observations by going out to Trenchtown Bar with a few students who were either done for the night or researching with me. I played dominos with a few students and a local man named Saul but goes by Smitty, around 50 years of age. He told us fascinating stories about how he is a freediver for lobster and can hold his breath for 5 minutes underwater at 50-60 feet. These stories are similarly repeated by many local freedivers, some of the younger divers shelling out stories of 70-80 feet for the same amount of time. Smitty also said he used to dive 110 feet with Snuba, which is an air tank attached to the boat and an air line coming down to the free diver. The locals are very relaxed, engaged in new people and excited to tell us their stories, since everyone on this small island has heard everyone elses stories too many times. They are also a very verbally aggressive bunch, quickly escalating to arguments between one another, but it rarely ever escalates to physicality, and most people recover very quickly from these little tussles. I was home by 10 to write my paper with some new found stories to tell, and wasn't able to recap this episode's blog, due to the internet being down. I will leave you with a few other pictures from around the center :)

I ended my evening with some fun conversations with Mark about our previous aquarium experiences and passions for the ocean. Some conversation that Im sure I will have with everybody here at some point.

Salt Flats. Or square crystals?

Absolutely everything is covered in salt. Its not so noticeable on your clothes, but if you haven't licked your lips in a while, its a mouthful of salt, and I recently discovered actual salt crystals caught in the ridges and face of my watch. I have salt in my eyebrows, belly button, behind my ears, under my fingernails and in the ridges of my shoes. Its a little ridiculous.

On another note, today has been another grueling day of classes. 4 classes and a dive check today, and I am utterly exhausted. I completed several hours of reading and a group project, and after a night dive/bathe, it is somehow 1230 and I can barely keep my eyes open, so this post will be brief.

All my equiptment tastes like plastic, but thats not the worst thing in the world. After we got geared up for our afternoon dive test, we loaded the boat and rolled off the edge into the water. After 20 minutes of "take your regulator out of your mouth and put it back in. take your mask off and put it back on. take your BCD off and put it back on", it was pretty plain to see that I was the most confident and calm diver in my group. Most of the others were flailing but I was solid. That makes me much more comfortable in the water to know Im not way behind the curve of the group, since some of the students intimdate me with the places they've traveled to. Many have already been to the Bahamas, or Cancun, or Bermuda, and its a little nervewracking to know that some of them have been diving for a year or so already. But not to fear, everyone should pick up the learning curve fairly quickly. :)

Took a nap before dinner so I could make it to 10 o clock pm, and woke up to delicious dinner and the most stunning sunset.

Scorpion Fish

Chirstmas Prawn

Giant Anemone



A few hours of reading, and it was time for a night dive. I admit, I was a little freaked out to be diving with only one other person in the dead of night, but it wasnt nearly as horrible as I thought. First of all, our docks are pretty well lit by the lights on the upper buildings. Second, the stars were wonderful and it was really easy to see the cliff face and the opposite dock, our boundary markers. On another note, the milky way seems much closer from here. Its fatter and closer, as if put under a magnifying glass. But I digress. Hilary and I hit the water running (swimming?) and immediately spotted a Southern stingray, attracted to the light of the other snorkelers that just came out. We snorkeled for a good hour, spotting a few beautiful anemones out for the night, a smaller lionfish, an awkward Caribbean sea cucumber, a defensive Christmas prawn and a very large, scary looking lobster. All in all, it was a great dive, and the water feels amazingly refreshing at night. Literally bath water (which is convenient because that's pretty much what we're doing...)



Studying was a little difficult with the raucous music from the local bar, Trenchtown bar, but it adds to the laid back atmosphere of the island, or "Island Time". I am excited to do our first outreach projects or go to the local hotel at night and meet more people, find out their stories. Hilary and I also have a secret snorkel mission planned out for Sunday to scope out a significant find, so more details on that to come ;)

The weather here, though salty, hasn't really fluctuated from the 80 degree marks. Nights feel like Fresno nights: muggy and warm, low 80's and the days are 86-ish. But, if you consult weather.com about the temperature here, it is pretty accurate in saying "86, feels like 102". Thats about right. But, I think tonight is the coolest its been so I think I'll sleep pretty well. Goodnight from the tropics!

Lionfish and Tiger Sharks and Barracuda, OH MY!!

Well, not quite a tiger shark, but a nurse shark!

Another beautiful scene to wake up to this morning as I walked out my wooden door: gorgeous shades of blue seeping out across the sea from the sun's reflection's epicenter. Classes were almost unbearable for the beauty of what awaited us outside at every break we got. However, my three classes (Marine Ecology, Resource Management, and Environmental Policy and Socio-Economic Value) were exciting to receive their syllabi. Weekly academic dives and snorkels are in store for us, as well as interview field trips to the local community and to other islands as well. Lunch dragged by as we all waited for our first real snorkel.

Now the fun part. Half of the students including myself went out for our first snorkel to Admiral's Aquarium, a shallow reef halfway between our island and Dove Cay. Anticipation built increasingly as we boated out to the reef where we could see the most brilliant blue water just waiting to be explored. The boat moored and off we went to the unknown. The reef was filled with brilliant colors: purple, yellow, orange and forest green corals, anemones that looked like it was holding hands with itself, bright colorful fish. We came across a nurse shark hiding in a hole about a quarter of the way into the snorkel. It's brown body was jutting out halfway into the open ocean. Halfway in, we discovered several barracudas just watching us silently. The reef was abound with purple and yellow fish, bright blue fish, parrotfish, blue tangs, and flat black fish. Schools of yellow fish would let us swim with them, and diving down to peer into holes was spectacular. Our dive guide said, "ok, do you have any questions?" YES! I DONT KNOW WHAT ANYTHING IS! TELL ME TELL ME TELLLLLMEEEEEE!!!! But a lionfish presented itself, at least one organism that I was familiar with. The seafloor was littered with live conch shells, both moving and just covered in sand. Many parts of the sea floor were rocky until I realized they weren't rocky, but the spiky tips of Queen Conchs. Small coral sat alone in the sand, partially covered, looking like speakers of the Caribbean. I can't wait to start diving to deeper depths and see more, go on recreational dives to collect shells and take pictures and I definitely cannot wait for tomorrow, another breath taking day in the wonderful world that is now my school, my home, my bath, and my lounge.

Days in a Blender

It's day 2 and I already feel like I've been here a week. After waking up every 30 minutes last night due to feeling like a lobster in a boiler in my room, I woke to a beautiful sunrise, lighting up the water more and more with every passing 5 minutes. Apparently there was a storm last night, a real rager, and I somehow didn't catch any of it, despite my incessant waking up. I was the first "student of the day" meaning I woke up earlier than everybody else, helped with breakfast, restocked the fridge and came up with an icebreaker game. Thank god for the R.A. training I already have!

Classes were introductions to the professors and classes, and then a tour of the town. You can find everything that you need within a 5 block radius (blocks meaning about 100 feet). Several churches, 5 bars, and small hole in the wall market stores, some that carry different items every few days. Very ecclectic. The town is paved but everyone travels around by foot, with the exceptions of a few cars that drive on the left side. Izzy, we're in the same boat! We look like chickens with our heads cut off when cars come because we all scurry to the wrong side of the street :) It is custom for the men here to have aliases so they may give you their real name and they may give you an alias, but its always the same alias. Dogs are wild here and they follow you around when walking, but they're docile. There are two hotels here, one small one that hosts Dominican night on Sunday nights when all the other bars close, and another thats in the process of being built but has an operative smaller section.

After delicious burgers by chef Izzy (hahahaha Iz, now i have an Izzy and you have a Kat) for lunch, we had our snorkel/swim test, the first time we were able to get in the ocean to swim. The water is so warm and shallow in the swim area and it is absolutely beautiful, despite the fact that this area is probably the ugliest seafloor we'll see all semester. Another meeting about dive procedures and a lot of free time sent us into the town for an unfruitful search for ice cream. Pineapple soda however, quenched our thirst briefly. I dont think Ive ever sweated this much in the course of one day and I am exhausted. Dinner shift of serving and cleaning in the even hotter kitchen certainly took the energy right out of me. A group of us played a few board games and headed into town (200 feet from the center) to a small bar to meet some of the locals and grab a beer, and again to another bar in town, but back in the center by 10 pm. A separate group of students went night snorkeling, and I have the hankering to do so tomorrow night. Some of the students showed their real colors tonight and were trash talking already, so Im interested to see how the week will pan out and the groups will form. Right now we are all still pretty loosely talking to each other, bonding with each other individual. We are all so diverse! Some are experienced divers and travelers, some haven't been out of the u.s. Some are from public schools, some are from private schools. Some are here for the ecology, some are here for the conservation, but we are all just simply excited :)

The evening finished with a gorgeous lightning storm on the inky black water and horizon and a chat between myself and Hilary, another former R.A. about our residence life nightmares. The day has blended together significantly and the tour seems like it was yesterday already. We are just barely getting syllabi tomorrow in classes and our dive test tomorrow as well. I intend to retreat to my lobster pot of a room and jerry-rig my fan inside my netting tonight instead of last night. I know I will wake up to another surreal sunrise with lizards basking in the sun (NICK.) and the plants lit up by the sunrise.

Seeing is Believing

Believe. Everything. You see. I have always been skeptical of pictures advertising resorts and tropical locations, expecting them to be doctored or photoshopped. However, ladies and gentleman, my new home is every bit as spectacular as the pictures. But, let me start from the beginning:

I left L.A. as it began to get frigid again, the cold front from the ocean bearing down fast, so I was even more glad to be departing. I checked in with 2 bags weighing exactly 50 lbs, a miracle in my opinion, and was informed that my flight was already an hour late due to an attendant missing her connecting flight. 20 minutes later I was checked in and receiving a phone call from the airline telling me it was going to be late. Hmmm...

Dad finally released me from his clutches and I passed through security with smooth sailing, 4 hours ahead of my plane. I finagled a spot by an outlet, another airport miracle, and did not get to talk to the other 2 students from my program due to my overprotection of both electricity and dive equiptment in my carry on bags. An hour later I sweet talked the attendant into giving me exit row seats, was forced to check my carry on bag, flew 5 hours to Miami and caught up with my first friend, Allie at the gate to Provo. Little by litte the other students trickled in and we grew into a raucous group in the terminal. My new found friends were from all over the united states and we were quickly sharing packing nightmares, expectations and surmises.

As we boarded the flight to Providenciales, we quickly compared seat assignments like high school schedules and were roughly seated in the same area. Our eyes grew wider with each passing mile, from teacups into dinner plates, as the water slowly turned more and more turquoise. We had no idea what to expect when we landed and the anticipation was growing with each new shade of unfamiliar blue. As we stepped off the plane we were greeted by sand dunes and scrub brush, crystal blue water, and sticky, sticky heat. My jeans quickly melted to my legs as we walked through the door to many different flamingo logos, marking our arrival to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Customs was a breeze, all 3 bags made it to Provo ok, and we started finding more and more of our group, including our group guides.The small shabby, yet proud building housed us in a small cafe for another hour or so until departing for South Caicos itself. The whole airline was relaxed, as they ordered another plane for us and delayed our flight. It reminded me of North Carolina. (smirk)

Again, we boarded a small yellow plane and were quickly informed that our flight was 12 minutes long. sitting in a plane with only 2 and 1 seats to a row, we all gawked and reminded ourselves of our adventure to come. We expected the water to turn gradually blue and deeper, yet it remained a brilliant, resort hue, only furthering our excitement.

 After finally landing in South Caicos, a very very small airport that was closer to rubble than a building, we boarded a few vans to take us the 2 miles down the road to our home. Many structures on this island were damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008, not by Hurricane Earl, the most recent. They have not been able to rebuild properly due to limited access to resources. The houses are mainly concrete with shutters and grates on the windows, lots of paneling littering yards, and wild donkeys, horses, and cows (both genders have horns!) populating the yards. We quickly came up to our house, which is a series of one-story cabana bulidings.

The middle of the center is the rec area, which is open to the air and has a spectacular view of the ocean and several surrounding cays, since the center is located on a 30 ft cliff. We eat, meet, and hang out in this gorgeous viewed location, and I am so lucky to be able to enjoy it 24/7. The dormitories split off to the left and right wings, and are 4 people to a room. In the back are the kitchen, classroom, and library, and off to the front and towards the water is the dive house and boat docks for our dives. In later pictures, you will see the cay directly south of us, Long Cay, and in between the cay and the island is one of our dive sites, called Admirals. The center is white concrete walls with wooden beams, red tiled floors and bits of rubble and broken cobblestone in some parts, giving it a very hippy-researchy look to it, yet still remnant of a resort location.

 

My roommates and I quickly unpacked upon arrival as best as possible and then jumped in our small salt water pool, joined by every other member of our group (32 students). We then went back to the sweltering rooms to set up mosquito netting, claim our drawers and clean in general, which was nearly impossible in the heat. The rooms are almost unbearably stifling, as was the weather outside until you reached an open area with a strong breeze. After a hearty dinner, introductions, safekeeping of belongings and internet connection, we retreated to our rooms to reorganize and settle in for the night. The center closes the pool at 10 pm which is still amazing to me because it got dark at 8. I intend to utilize as many resources as possible, since they are all open late and inviting. Competitive ping pong games ensued and I retreated off to the computer lab to update all my communications channels.

The sunset and stars here are truly spectacular. The water is turquoise blue, literally. The horizon is so far away, you can see many small islands and cays. The salty air is thick and hot, but yet oddly refreshing, if your body is cool enough. It is a living postcard, no lies. The company is bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to start this experience at 7 am tomorrow morning. Paradise has arrived and I am still pinching myself to remember that it's here for 3 more months.

1 Ticket to Paradise

It is 18 hours prior to departure and I am finally starting to get anxious. Not anxiety in the sense that I'm not packed or forgetting things. Quite the opposite in fact, I've had everything purchased for 2 weeks now and I packed everything last night. My anxiety finally kicked in because I've been waiting so long! I have been hanging around beautiful, sunny Laguna Beach for the last week with absolutely nothing to do besides a few chores here and there, trips to Walmart for magazines to read on the plane and nail files, reading Izzy's blog from London. Small things like that. But now it has gotten really hot in Southern California. Its too hot to sit outside or go for a bike ride. So I have been inside, re-reading all my documents for the program, connecting with those students who will be on my flight, reading all my camera and dive equiptment manuals, and preparing the house for my dad's work party that we are throwing tonight. I am not anxious because I am nervous or worried, I am anxious because its time.

It's finally time to set sail for the Caribbean for 3 months and submerge myself both above and underwater in education, excitement, community interaction, new friends, beautiful scenery, and the thing I love most, the ocean. Keep reading everyone, and I'll see you on the other side!