Hello hello!

So things have been going good, as always around here. I'm writing this sitting outside on the front wall of the center with 4 of my other classmates, because this is the only area we can get regular reliable internet connection. It's nice out here though, kinda cool and breezy. I can hear the music from the church down the road...they're having open mic night...it's pretty interesting to say the least...

Anywho...let's see...new things around here...

Today's been pretty interesting. We had a class out in the field today, learning to do transects. Transects are ways to kind of segment off a reef in order to take samples of certain populations. Basically, you lay a tape measure down for however many meters you want to survey, and swim slowly down it, observing and writing down all the things within 5 meters of the line. It's harder than it seems because you've got to swim at the same pace, but you also have to take into account the current. We're learning a lot of field techniques in the next few weeks to prepare for our directed research (DR) that's happening at the end of the semester.

We also had a guest speaker tonight, he just left actually. His name was John and he's a Baptist preacher on the island. He also used to be a drug addict and a drug runner, but now he works for the anti-drug group on TCI. He was really an interesting person, and it was really interesting to hear his story about TCI in the 70's and 80's. He's lived on South Caicos his whole life, with the exception of his time at seminary in Jamaica.

Other news, we've been getting quite a bit of rain lately, which is helping out rain shortage problem. We're still not able to take freshwater showers, but don't worry, we take sea baths frequently. It's really refreshing and you do honestly feel and look clean. The only problem we seem to be having in regards to rain is a lot of us have started doing laundry (which we do in the ocean as well), and it will not dry. All the trees outside my room are just covered with clothes.

We've also got a new hobby around here...along with the plethora of card games I've learned and dominoes and ping pong...we are now carving coconut shells. One of the interns, Will, carved a shark out of coconut and made a necklace out of it, so now we've all started. Ellen and I went down to East Bay yesterday before lunch and collected a bunch of coconuts that had fallen off the trees and I opened them up with my dive knife (thanks Dad!). So far I've made an angelfish, and I'm working on another piece that I'm not quite sure what to do with yet...I'll keep you updated....haha.

That's about all the news from Cockburn Harbor for today! Going on another dive tomorrow, I'll bring my camera and try to post some new pics!