Night Shift- Busy Signal. Listen now.

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Seriously. Listen to that song. I'm pretty sure its our theme song for the trip. Its great.

Well its another sunday morning on the island. In general, its too hot and sunny for my already burned skin and slight hangover... Saturday nights are really the only nights we can go out, plus our curfew (yes, we have a curfew at 11pm) is extended to 12. Everyone just goes crazy. It's pretty funny to watch it happen. Mostly, its really fun and everyone handles it well. There are of course a few exceptions but that's really how it always goes. As Daneil said, different location same thing. Its so college.

Yesterday was a stellar day! I woke up with a slight hang over because the hotel had happy hour friday night, which we can't resist. I quickly shrugged that off and helped clean the van and the truck for the saturday morning cleaning frenzy from 8-9:45. It's really not very much fun but we all have to do it so it makes it better. I then went out to HDL (Hewey, Dewey, and Lewey) for our coral ID session. It went much better than expected and I hope to have a very high A on it. That really just set the tone for the whole day. After lunch was community outreach. I decided to do the beach clean up with Pete (He's the environmental policy prof. His name is Peter Parker....SPIDERMAN!) instead of the english lessons. It was the best decision. We (+2 other students, 1 intern) drove the truck ( we sat in the bed) up to long beach. This beach was amazing, it was secluded and beautiful with perfect water for swimming around. We picked up trash for about 10 min and then spent the rest of the 1.5 hours playing frisbee in the ocean. We even discovered two freshly laid turtle nests!!! You could see the marks in the sand from where the mother made her way up the beach. It was incredible to see.

When we returned to the center, it was nap time. Upon waking up, I realized I was an unnatural color of red and covered myself in aloe. It helped slightly but I'm still pretty toasty today. Then the boys and I went to the hotel for some conch fritters/ climbing into some caves in the cliff overlooking the water. It was beautiful. However... it has been raining a ton which means there are millions of mosquitoes just looking to torture me. I'm completely covered today. Its gross and I can't sleep for longer than an hour without waking up to scratch my skin off. BOOO MOSQUITOES!! Even so, I had a great time. We hung out with Money and his friend who's name I don't know and has a big crush on me and thus follows me around regularly. Completely harmless but very annoying.

After dinner (hamburgers with avocado on top!!!), we took our freshwater shower (the total count is now at 3 for this trip) and went out. I was at the bars by 7:50, its absurd. Kat and I bought/drank a bottle of white zin ( our new tradition for saturday nights). The night progressed and was lots of fun. A few horrible pictures of it are available on facebook for your viewing pleasure. Just remember, no hate, no judge, only love.

We came back to the center at 12 and I stayed up for a few hours playing guitar/ watching people/ hanging out on the conch wall. It was really a good night.

I've realized that I haven't really described any of the staff yet and I feel it is necessary. Here is my list

Kate- she's our counselor basically. She's beyond nice and gives us candy/ heals our wounds both physical and mental. I really like her but she's a little campy as in she likes organized fun and games. Nevertheless, she's a keeper.

Lizzie- one of the interns. Shes really intense and likes to be in charge. However, she's still very fun and small and cute. We went to buy Dr. Peppers together yesterday. I enjoyed it. She also worked at the aquarium in Boston that I was meant to have an internship at. She told me the one I wanted actually sucks and made me feel better about not going. Overall, I think I'm a fan of Lizzie.

Leigh- another intern. Shes quite tall and likes to watch football. She seems really fun and gives amazing coral ID tests. I haven't gotten to know her well but she seems to go with the flow pretty well.

Sarah- An intern, she's pretty quiet but very sweet. She knows her stuff and I enjoy how calm she is.

Micah- the only male intern. I feel bad for him because he can't really hang out with the other girls. However, he's an ex rugger who likes the ocean aka he's really cool. He's started coming out of his shell and hanging out with the students more.

Pete- he's an awesome teacher. He's really fun and interesting. He has a great sense of (dry) humor and often tells interesting stories during class rather than muttering about lame economics. I thought I'd hate his class and its by far my favorite. He also talks/looks like a person I'd be friends with.

Dave- he's the dive instructor. I've spent very little time with him but he finishes all his sentences with "man". He's clearly just a hippie who loves to dive and is just living life. I like his style.

John- he's British and the center director. He's very nice but slightly intimidating. He's also one of those people who don't talk to much but when they do its usually hysterical.

Marta- she is the research assistant. She's Italian and very very amiable. She's totally insane in the best way and just runs around with so much energy. Her and John are an item. They've both been here for 5 years.

Eva- She's from Hungary but grew up in the Netherlands. She is actually leaving today for medical reason 😞. Shes very nice but soft spoken. She teaches resource management, not my ideal class. However, she will be missed.

Annemarie- She's from Austria. She's very stoic and never laughs in front of anyone which is great because she tells jokes and you can see she is trying to not smile or laugh but sometimes it gets the better of her. She's pretty quiet and keeps to herself but I like her.

Mike- HAHAH. He's Canadian and is the jack of all trades here. He does all the manual labor stuff and just fixes everything. He's really funny, super liberal, and used to be a lighthouse keeper on an island off the coast of Canada. I'm a really big fan. We play guitar together sometimes and have sing alongs. He also has a very eclectic taste in music that rocks. ( no pun intended)

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[Jeff]

Mike
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