June 28, 2005

My fourth week here finds me finally settling in and living a regular schedule.  Our first summer session is nearing its completion and a week form now I will be heading off to the Dominican Republic with a couple other staff members for a quick, 5-day adventure.  The reported “worst hurricane season in awhile” scenario is living up to its name.  Although we have not been hit directly by a hurricane, the water has been rough ever since I arrived and we have had some phenomenal downpours and tempests (most of which wake us up in the middle of the night and we have to madly scramble about trying to close our storm shudders before we flood our house).  It’s very relaxing.  I have managed to spend a good chunk of every day in the water here either snorkeling, swimming or diving and it feels great.  For example, on Sunday, I decided to get some exercise so I picked up a dive float and snorkeled along the southern coast of the island.  I examined the pilings under a few town piers and then decided to cross the bay to visit Dove Cay, a small island ~1/4 a mile off our coast.  I fell asleep in the sand and then, on the way back, had a face off with four very large barracuda (large barracuda are quite plentiful here and although they are reportedly “curious” and not “dangerous,” they still make me nervous).

The students are currently working on a field exercise which requires that they visit multiple sites around South Caicos and the surrounding cays.  I am responsible for boating them to the locations and this is excellent because it is giving me a chance to become familiar with what exists beyond our little island.  So far, our trips have shown me some fantastic osprey nests, giant eagle rays, some squid, a massive bull and nurse shark, and countless coral wonders.  Yesterday we saw a pod of dolphins when we got in the water.  Marvelous.

There are still mice eating my clothes and they have also begun waking me up by knocking my belongings off of their respective shelves at night. I am attempting to trap them with an ingenious contraption which involves some rope, an aluminum can, a large bucket and a dollop of peanut butter.  It didn’t work at all last night-perhaps tonight I will have more luck.

I realized today that the 4th of July is coming up in a few days-we won’t be celebrating here.  I hope that you all get to enjoy some nice fireworks!  Well, that’s the news.

Until next time!

Brooke