There are only three days left, two days if I don’t count travel. It’s kind of weird. I don’t feel as if I have been here that long at all. Although each day seems long, it’s still only felt like a week.
The past couple of days were interesting. Even 1,400 miles away there can still be drama back at home, and that is a lesson everyone can learn from. Although you may be in paradise, (despite all the work), the rest of the world keeps on spinning. Despite of problems back home arising for some of the students we are still all concentrating on the last few days here.
Two days ago as we were sitting down for dinner a storm passed overhead. We eat in a little outside patio surrounded by screens, so it was cool to be able to see the storm. Considering we are only about 20 feet from the ocean, it is a pretty scary experience when the lightning and thunder comes. Although it was crazy awesome, I have never heard thunder that loud or lighting that intense. There were two large lighting strikes that hit right in front of the food area, and it was so big and it hit the reef so you could see a burst of fire about 5 feet high coming out of the water. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
Yesterday we had a day off and we went to Owen Island, which was a small island off of Little Cayman where people sometimes go just to relax. A few of us walked around the island, which was probably not a good idea without shoes. It was mostly rocky, but we found a random ship, and got to see beautiful mangroves. The crabs would also run into their little holes when we walked by. Later as we were lying in the water and just tanning, talking, or looking at baby hermit crabs (yeah we are cool), we noticed that a storm cloud was going across little Cayman. It wasn’t going towards us, but we started to hear thunder. Two of the students decided to swim back and get a boat for us. We were feeling a little sick f being on the island anyway and wanted to do a few other things. We went swimming at the Conch Club, a small resort on the island, and then took about a mile long walk to go to the gift store (which was closed), and then to the grocery store. I got a Welch’s grape soda. Here we only drink water and coffee and tang, so it was nice. It was also one of the only things that were USA priced. It was only a dollar while everything else is super expensive. We then walked to a bar called the Hungry Iguana for dinner. We were there an hour before dinner would be served so we just sat around, watched some baseball, tennis, le tour de france, etc, and had some drinks. There were 10 of us students and 3 daughters of professors, so it was funny to see the bar full because we only saw about a handful of people walk in while we were there from 5 to 730. (Little Cayman is realllly small). We went back to the station and had another drink and then went to bed, and now here I am writing this blog. :D
Anyway, all the students are starting to prepare for our project presentations. Everyone is sitting around talking to their partners about there project, discussing standard deviations, and linear regressions, and excel spreadsheets. I’m slightly on my own in this endeavor, and I won’t lie, I’m behind. I’ve been putting it off, but mostly because I’m so busy since I’m alone. I’m excited because it actually looks like my corals are growing, which is awesome for only a week. My entire project depends on them growing, so it’s definitely important. Some of my coral over the past few days have appeared bleached, which its when the corals symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae is disrupted and the zooxanthellae is expelled from the coral. Zooxanthellae provide corals with needed nutrients and provides energy though photosynthesis, so without them the corals may grow slower or may cease to grow at all. I’ll get different data, but then that makes me results a lot more interesting to dissect. I’m about to go out to collect my coral, weigh them, and then analyze them. So WISH ME LUCK!
Heather
The past couple of days were interesting. Even 1,400 miles away there can still be drama back at home, and that is a lesson everyone can learn from. Although you may be in paradise, (despite all the work), the rest of the world keeps on spinning. Despite of problems back home arising for some of the students we are still all concentrating on the last few days here.
Two days ago as we were sitting down for dinner a storm passed overhead. We eat in a little outside patio surrounded by screens, so it was cool to be able to see the storm. Considering we are only about 20 feet from the ocean, it is a pretty scary experience when the lightning and thunder comes. Although it was crazy awesome, I have never heard thunder that loud or lighting that intense. There were two large lighting strikes that hit right in front of the food area, and it was so big and it hit the reef so you could see a burst of fire about 5 feet high coming out of the water. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
Yesterday we had a day off and we went to Owen Island, which was a small island off of Little Cayman where people sometimes go just to relax. A few of us walked around the island, which was probably not a good idea without shoes. It was mostly rocky, but we found a random ship, and got to see beautiful mangroves. The crabs would also run into their little holes when we walked by. Later as we were lying in the water and just tanning, talking, or looking at baby hermit crabs (yeah we are cool), we noticed that a storm cloud was going across little Cayman. It wasn’t going towards us, but we started to hear thunder. Two of the students decided to swim back and get a boat for us. We were feeling a little sick f being on the island anyway and wanted to do a few other things. We went swimming at the Conch Club, a small resort on the island, and then took about a mile long walk to go to the gift store (which was closed), and then to the grocery store. I got a Welch’s grape soda. Here we only drink water and coffee and tang, so it was nice. It was also one of the only things that were USA priced. It was only a dollar while everything else is super expensive. We then walked to a bar called the Hungry Iguana for dinner. We were there an hour before dinner would be served so we just sat around, watched some baseball, tennis, le tour de france, etc, and had some drinks. There were 10 of us students and 3 daughters of professors, so it was funny to see the bar full because we only saw about a handful of people walk in while we were there from 5 to 730. (Little Cayman is realllly small). We went back to the station and had another drink and then went to bed, and now here I am writing this blog. :D
Anyway, all the students are starting to prepare for our project presentations. Everyone is sitting around talking to their partners about there project, discussing standard deviations, and linear regressions, and excel spreadsheets. I’m slightly on my own in this endeavor, and I won’t lie, I’m behind. I’ve been putting it off, but mostly because I’m so busy since I’m alone. I’m excited because it actually looks like my corals are growing, which is awesome for only a week. My entire project depends on them growing, so it’s definitely important. Some of my coral over the past few days have appeared bleached, which its when the corals symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae is disrupted and the zooxanthellae is expelled from the coral. Zooxanthellae provide corals with needed nutrients and provides energy though photosynthesis, so without them the corals may grow slower or may cease to grow at all. I’ll get different data, but then that makes me results a lot more interesting to dissect. I’m about to go out to collect my coral, weigh them, and then analyze them. So WISH ME LUCK!
Heather
Wow that all sounds so enjoyable! Just thinking about relaxing on the beach makes me want to hop over to Little Cayman right now. That is some pretty intense lightning though. The only thing I've seen here in Singapore are lightning poles to redirect the lightning strikes because there are always storms here. And GOOD LUCK !!! :)
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