2012 Week 1

All I can say about today is, wow. We woke up this morning to breakfast from our dive instructor Casey just outside our cabins. Then, we headed down the street a little over half a mile. There, we came across a massive wall that we had passed many times, with a couple people waiting for us with paint buckets...

Today started out really nicely. I slept in until ten minutes before we had to be down at the front gate and then had to rush really quickly while packing all my stuff together and race down to the front gate. After our taxi ride down to the marina we ate egg omelets, bacon, and banana bread. After our...

The first ocean dive of the trip was a 45 minute long, 58 foot deep dive around reefs and shelves. Entering the water, we were initially at about 20 feet, and at that depth there were a few small fish. The deeper we descended, the larger and more diverse the organisms became. We saw three lobsters, some arrow crabs,...

Another early morning awoken by Docs knocking and delightful and loud voice I shot out of bed and got ready to meet. We met at the entrance to the guava berry resort and got on the taxi driven by Glen our native friend and driver and headed to the marina for breakfast. For breakfast I had an omelette with...

Today was an early day, with a 7:45 breakfast so we could get to our service sight. The community service was hard but great. We painted and prepare a wall for a mural to be painted and hauled soil to plant palm trees and make the city a little more beautiful. I started as a shoveler and...

Today at Jesuit we began to use our iPads to set up our blogs so we can be ready to post while we're on our journey in the British Virgin Islands. After mild chaos and technical difficulties the class was able to successfully get going. Earlier in the day two groups presented their articles they used for their research...

In the first few days of class, we have been learning the basics of marine biology; about the ocean, currents, waves, tides, zones and the organisms that live there. We are getting accustomed to using our iPads in the classroom, and discovering their large amounts of functions for learning as well as fun.

In class we went over 4 different articles; group c, d , e, and f's From group C's article I learned that ecotourism is an extremely effective method of bettering knowledge and attitudes towards endangered species. I assumed that because they increased a particpants awareness of the issue it did not necessarily motivate them to fix it. From group D's article...

This morning started early with a service project. We sealed and then primed a concrete wall so that it could be ready for painting. Then we ate lunch at Mad Dogs. After Mad Dogs, we went to the Baths. We toured the caves and giant rocks. We ended up in Devil's Bay and snorkeled all the way back...