June 7, 2005

Greetings all!  Well, so far this has been quite an adventure.  My trip down to South Caicos was long but uneventful.  The summer session students arrived yesterday and I am trying to stay one step ahead of them as all of us learn the ropes.  There sure is a lot to learn here. Because I get to drive all of the boats, I have to know where the shallow areas are (and I mean shallow, parts of the ocean here are carbonate bank and miles of sand are exposed during low tide), how to keep locals away from the boat when students are in the water (a task easier said than done) and how to throw and retrieve an anchor and park the boats in a dock with wind coming from any direction.  Yikes!  I also get to clean our salt water pool (the student cleaning station) and learn how to drive a stick shift and drive on the left side of the road in a large freight truck.  thrilling.  The people here are great, staff, students and locals. However, if you think people work slowly in Santa Cruz you clearly have not interacted with people from the islands. Everybody works VERY slowly here and it can be rather frustrating at times.

The water is absolutely marvelous-although I still haven't had a chance to go diving since all I have done is learn the ropes and clean ever since I arrived.  I love all of the different colors, created by the the different water depths, sand, coral and sea grass.  They range from blue to yellow to green and turquoise.  Exquisite!

It's hot here and I don't think I have ever sweat so much but the ocean is close at hand and any free moment I get, I hop in to cool off.  Even at our boat dock (our center is on a seacliff, not at the beach) there are some excellent marine organisms to observe, including rays,

baracudas and a giant sea urchin which has tucked itself directly

behind the ladder we use to get out of the water.

What else?  I have a great fellow intern from Italy.  We share a quaint little loft on the second floor of the center.  Surprisingly, the loft isn't too hot since we have a bunch of windows that allow a delightful breeze to pass through and blow all of the mosquitos away.  Marta has been very, very helpful in getting me aquainted with what I am supposed to be doing here.  She also took the liberty of "collecting" a bunch of lamps, fans, etc for me and our loft at the end of the last session so I would feel at home when I got here.  Thanks Marta!

Well, it's hard to believe that school is still not over in Santa Cruz and that I still have some assignments to finish up.  That life now seems a million miles away.  I hope that you are all doing well.  I'll write more soon.  When you get a chance, drop me a line and let me know how things are going.  I have discovered a trick that the staff here use for mail.  You can send letters with US postage to our headquarters in Massachusetts.  Every week headquarters Fed Ex's a small envelope down to us so this means letters will actually arrive and in a timely fashion too!

Take care everybody!

Brooke