Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Day 8
well well well. day 8. only one more day. today we did some lecturing in the morning and a few PAS drills. then in the after noon we had a hour review playing wfr family feud. next we went out and had our third and final simulation. it was over relatively fast. we were only on scene for 45 min before every patient was out. after we were all packed up we went back to PING and debriefed. now its almost all done! just the test tomorrow written and practical then its graduation time. assuming that i pass!!! wish me luck! g'night.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Day 7
hmmm. well. today was uneventful. we had a quiz in the morning and then we did a PAS drill not sure what it was about. had some lectures. another PAS drill and then lecture and lunch. after lunch more lecture and another PAS drill. this one was fun we went outside. 2 friends on one side of a river responders couldn't get to the patient who had gone unconscious due to either a lightening strike or near drowning. the responders had to tell the consious friend how to do revive the unconsious friend. it was fun to hear them explain how to do CPR. more lecturing the rest of the time. and thats about it. pretty much a lecture day.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Day 6 Day off!!!!
so today was our day off. it felt so good to sleep in a little bit. when i woke up i just layed there and relaxed!!! then i got up and made myself some pancakes!!! i ate 5 in about an hour. :] so good!!! after that we watched some CSI. at noon Aaron and i went to Nelsonville to see Steve. i got all set up and registered for winter quarter! next Aaron had to do something at school so we went over there and ran into Ben Bohl. so i talked to him about getting my keys for the appartment. he told us to meet him back at the office so we went back there and he gave us a bag full of keys that i had to go try and find which ones worked. ha. i ended up finding the storage key and front door key that i had marked when i was clearing out Amandas and my stuff. those were the only keys that actually worked on anything in the appartment. we took the keys back and headed back to Athens. we took the scenic route up 691 then out on 56 came out right at Brita's appartment. now i have watched a movie and finished this blog. so it is studying time!! yeah!!!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Day 5
so day 5!!
feeling much better today, i had a small cup of lucky charms. not the best thing but the closest thing to cheerios. we had a lecture on anaphlaxis or something like that. after which we practiced using a needle to inject a patient with epinephrine. we injected a clementine with a saline serum just to practice. it was fun. then we started a lecture on thermal problems. we focused on hypothermia. after the lecture we went out to the common room and started going over how to wrap a patient who is in a severe hypothermic state. i volunteered to be the patient. so Gary, the other instructor, wrapped me up in a very warm package. i was in there for about 45 min. it was kinda comfortable. it was getting a little warm towards the end but other then that it wasn't to bad being tied in a bundle. i felt like a well wrapped present!! haha. then they put me on a make shift litter and tied me to it. fun fun fun! we went back into the room for some more lecture time. then broke for a few hours for lunch. now i am writing this!! tonight at 5 we are going back and starting our second simulation. this time i get to be a patient. it is going to be cold and fun with lots of screaming and yelling!!! ill write some more after the sim. oh yeah and its going to be a night simulation so head lights are a must!!!
so night simulation. lots of fun. everyone met up at PING at 5 some instruction was given and the primary's and secondary's started getting gear ready. the patients (me and others) went out with Daz and Gary and they gave us the rest of our patient profiles. so over all there were 5 of us in the upper group and 5 in the lower group. i was in the upper. we were pretending to be a group of friends who were camping illegally out on campus property. for some reason we were all idiots. no one brought cooked food or any water. so. one person was in the tent with a gas lamp on, needless to say that's not good. another person was trying to light the stove to cook the raw hot dogs and the stove blew up in his face. the next person had a dislocated shoulder and anaphlaxis he was gathering fire wood when he heard the explosion and ran down the hill to find out what happened in the process he dislocated his shoulder. now hours before this Jack and i went to find some water for everyone. jack fell in the water and came down with severe hypothermia and i slipped and fell. hitting my head and impaleing my leg on a root. so. hours later the rescuers are called and help comes for all of us. so. Jason was my primary rescuer and Maria was the secondary. when they got there i was awake and really concerened about Jack i hadn't heard him for a while and i was worried something was wrong. i had high ASR (acute stress reaction) once they got me calmed down they checked my vitals and started to think about how to get my leg of this 1 in thick stump. they didn't want to just pull my leg off it in case there was more to it then what they saw. so im still yelling and Jason accidently bumps my leg so i scream in pain. haha next they are still thinking of how to get me out. Jason pulls out a small knife that has a toothed blade flicks it open and says we could cut it off. at that point i freak out screaming and yelling at him. see i thought he ment cut off my leg. haha a person in the wildernss would totally have thought the same thing right and we are suppose to make this as real as possible. so im screaming at him that he is sooo not taking my leg off. he was stunned at what he had just done. he couldn't even think of what to say. he got back on track tho and reassured me that they weren't thinking of cutting my leg just the stump. that was the funniest part of it all. so they decided to just pull my leg off it. they layed me down and said on the count of three we are going to pull. one and then he pulled my leg off. i screamed as loud as possible. Gary was video taping someone else and you could hear me screaming in the back ground. ha!! yelling at them for pulling it off on 2 instead of three. wow. that was fun. Gary came a cleared us so we could go help with other patients. we went to help out with Jack. we packaged him up and carried him out of the forest. after that we went back to PING and debriefed by watching the movie and talking about it. that was a fun night.
since we didn't have class the next day we went out to find some food. we walked all up Court street and by the time we were getting places food was closed so we went to bw3 and ate there. that was that!!
feeling much better today, i had a small cup of lucky charms. not the best thing but the closest thing to cheerios. we had a lecture on anaphlaxis or something like that. after which we practiced using a needle to inject a patient with epinephrine. we injected a clementine with a saline serum just to practice. it was fun. then we started a lecture on thermal problems. we focused on hypothermia. after the lecture we went out to the common room and started going over how to wrap a patient who is in a severe hypothermic state. i volunteered to be the patient. so Gary, the other instructor, wrapped me up in a very warm package. i was in there for about 45 min. it was kinda comfortable. it was getting a little warm towards the end but other then that it wasn't to bad being tied in a bundle. i felt like a well wrapped present!! haha. then they put me on a make shift litter and tied me to it. fun fun fun! we went back into the room for some more lecture time. then broke for a few hours for lunch. now i am writing this!! tonight at 5 we are going back and starting our second simulation. this time i get to be a patient. it is going to be cold and fun with lots of screaming and yelling!!! ill write some more after the sim. oh yeah and its going to be a night simulation so head lights are a must!!!
so night simulation. lots of fun. everyone met up at PING at 5 some instruction was given and the primary's and secondary's started getting gear ready. the patients (me and others) went out with Daz and Gary and they gave us the rest of our patient profiles. so over all there were 5 of us in the upper group and 5 in the lower group. i was in the upper. we were pretending to be a group of friends who were camping illegally out on campus property. for some reason we were all idiots. no one brought cooked food or any water. so. one person was in the tent with a gas lamp on, needless to say that's not good. another person was trying to light the stove to cook the raw hot dogs and the stove blew up in his face. the next person had a dislocated shoulder and anaphlaxis he was gathering fire wood when he heard the explosion and ran down the hill to find out what happened in the process he dislocated his shoulder. now hours before this Jack and i went to find some water for everyone. jack fell in the water and came down with severe hypothermia and i slipped and fell. hitting my head and impaleing my leg on a root. so. hours later the rescuers are called and help comes for all of us. so. Jason was my primary rescuer and Maria was the secondary. when they got there i was awake and really concerened about Jack i hadn't heard him for a while and i was worried something was wrong. i had high ASR (acute stress reaction) once they got me calmed down they checked my vitals and started to think about how to get my leg of this 1 in thick stump. they didn't want to just pull my leg off it in case there was more to it then what they saw. so im still yelling and Jason accidently bumps my leg so i scream in pain. haha next they are still thinking of how to get me out. Jason pulls out a small knife that has a toothed blade flicks it open and says we could cut it off. at that point i freak out screaming and yelling at him. see i thought he ment cut off my leg. haha a person in the wildernss would totally have thought the same thing right and we are suppose to make this as real as possible. so im screaming at him that he is sooo not taking my leg off. he was stunned at what he had just done. he couldn't even think of what to say. he got back on track tho and reassured me that they weren't thinking of cutting my leg just the stump. that was the funniest part of it all. so they decided to just pull my leg off it. they layed me down and said on the count of three we are going to pull. one and then he pulled my leg off. i screamed as loud as possible. Gary was video taping someone else and you could hear me screaming in the back ground. ha!! yelling at them for pulling it off on 2 instead of three. wow. that was fun. Gary came a cleared us so we could go help with other patients. we went to help out with Jack. we packaged him up and carried him out of the forest. after that we went back to PING and debriefed by watching the movie and talking about it. that was a fun night.
since we didn't have class the next day we went out to find some food. we walked all up Court street and by the time we were getting places food was closed so we went to bw3 and ate there. that was that!!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Day 4
this morning was horrible. i ate a breakfast of cracklin oat bran and headed to class. at about 0830 i started feeling a little sick. i just brushed it off. then it got worse. over the next hour and a half i was in and out of the bathroom. it was terrible i got sick which helped only a little. i came back the last time after falling asleep in the bathroom and we were going over how to splint a leg for extraction. i had missed a lot already and i felt ok if i just sat and didn't move to much. so i played dummy and let them wrap my leg up when we were practicing. oh and before that we took a quiz which i had to leave in the middle of then come back and finish then leave agian. grrr. we went over more notes after seeing how well we made the splints. i ended up sitting on the floor cause that is the only way my stomach would stop hurting. we didn't get to lunch until 1215hrs and since our driver was going to be a patient for later in the day we had to wait until 1230hrs to leave. we returned a little late and jumped right into how to fix a dislocated shoulder. we practiced that for a little bit then went in for more notes. at about 3 we started getting ready for our first simulation. i ended up being the primary rescuer. we went out to the woods and started everything up. my team was second so we had to wait a while for the next call to come in. when it did we hiked up and found some patients laying around. the first one that we came to ended up beinig my friend Aaron. a tree had fallen on his back while he was out hiking. so my secondary and i went through all the steps. our teach Daz came around with a video camera to put some pressure on us but it didn't bother me to much. i was confident with what i was doing. although looking back on it i realized that things could have been done better and quicker. but it is learning expierence and i most certainly learned a lot. all in all it was quite fun!! we then drove back to PING and watched the video and debriefed on what all happened. now i am going to do my homework, shower and go to sleep. toodles!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Day 3
sooooo day 3 started with a bowl of Lucky Charms! in class we went over the medical/legal portion of being a WFR. we also started working on the nervous system. learning about the spine and ways to check it. we also went over diabetes. today we spent a good amount of time on PAS drills. which are little simulations. after lunch we worked on patients that were found with a MOI for a spine injury laying on their sides and stomaches. we had to get them laying on their back in postition 1 with out posing a large threat to their spines. this was interesting and hard. we also had to move a patient from a pinned position to postition 1. we simulated a pin of the legs, then a pin of the upper body and also a pin of a skiier rapped around a tree with their legs under a rock. that was a hard one. but all of this has been awesome. i am learning so much. later that day we did a back boarding lesson. but instead of showing us exactly how to do it Daz let us go in 3 groups and we had 20 min to get the patient on the back board in a comfortable position that wasn't going to cause the patient any more problems if they would have to be in that postition for up to 2 hours. i got to be the patient in my group! it was fun. i choose to be victim cause i had recent expierence with backboarding people and no one else did. so i choose to take myself out of the help and see what they came up with. it was interesting. i got to had sturups and i was so fit and wrapped up in a blanket i felt like Han Solo when he was frozen. Daz took a picture of each of us so i did the hands up and mouth open look of Han. haha!! it was fun!. i got to be carried to another place it was awesome. but i would not want to be a true patient. no spine problems for me thanks. that was about it for that. we went back in for some more lecture. then we had another drill at the end. it was a good day. tomorrow we have a quiz and our first outdoor in the wilderness simulation. its gonna be wet, muddy, and AWESOME!! goodnight!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
WFR day 2
Day 2
This morning i slept in a little, got up and ate some cereal. We reviewed CPR in the morning and talked about what we learned yesterday. Then we split into 2 groups. one learned how to take blood pressure and what to listen for with breathing.(stethoscopes are fun!!) the other group learned about different items that can be used to assist in helping someone breath. Then we flipped. Next we did some PAS drills outside. that was fun. we had a few different scenario. and we would switch playing patient and WFR. then we finished up the morning with the circulatory system. talking about shock. had a bologna boat for lunch! back to school. did some more scenarios talked more about shock and the circulatory system. we learned how to take SOAP notes. then did some bigger scenarios. i got a big *bruise* from mt biking. i tried to avoid something in the path as i was going very fast and the tire stayed at a 90 degree angle to the bike and i went flying but not before i got the handle bar in my side where my spleen is. ouch! i was well taken care of tho. it was funny to see their expressions when they saw i actually had a bruise on my side. final problem was volume shock secondary to internal bleeding and i had to be air lifted out immediately. yeah! fun stuff. we did another scenario and i was a secondary responder aka a wingman! ha. good fun. that was the end of the day. we are getting into more hands on work the book work. thank goodness!! now i have to go do home work!
This morning i slept in a little, got up and ate some cereal. We reviewed CPR in the morning and talked about what we learned yesterday. Then we split into 2 groups. one learned how to take blood pressure and what to listen for with breathing.(stethoscopes are fun!!) the other group learned about different items that can be used to assist in helping someone breath. Then we flipped. Next we did some PAS drills outside. that was fun. we had a few different scenario. and we would switch playing patient and WFR. then we finished up the morning with the circulatory system. talking about shock. had a bologna boat for lunch! back to school. did some more scenarios talked more about shock and the circulatory system. we learned how to take SOAP notes. then did some bigger scenarios. i got a big *bruise* from mt biking. i tried to avoid something in the path as i was going very fast and the tire stayed at a 90 degree angle to the bike and i went flying but not before i got the handle bar in my side where my spleen is. ouch! i was well taken care of tho. it was funny to see their expressions when they saw i actually had a bruise on my side. final problem was volume shock secondary to internal bleeding and i had to be air lifted out immediately. yeah! fun stuff. we did another scenario and i was a secondary responder aka a wingman! ha. good fun. that was the end of the day. we are getting into more hands on work the book work. thank goodness!! now i have to go do home work!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
WFR day 1
Wilderness First Responder
This is a course that is required of me to take in order to graduate from Hocking. We learn things from CPR to how to successfully carry someone out of the woods. We learn how to make a splint out of things I might have on me. It will challenge all of us to be creative with the materials we have on us in order to save a life or help a patient to get out of the wilderness and to the proper help he or she needs. This training will help me get a job in the out door tourism world. It is a professional level course, very serious and so far I am having a blast!!
This is a course that is required of me to take in order to graduate from Hocking. We learn things from CPR to how to successfully carry someone out of the woods. We learn how to make a splint out of things I might have on me. It will challenge all of us to be creative with the materials we have on us in order to save a life or help a patient to get out of the wilderness and to the proper help he or she needs. This training will help me get a job in the out door tourism world. It is a professional level course, very serious and so far I am having a blast!!
Day 1.
I made pancakes for breakfast this morning! delicious!! This morning we introduced ourselves and went over the course as a whole. There are 31 students and 2 teachers. We went over the respiratory system and how to roll a patient when they are on their bellies and not breathing. Then we had lunch at 1200 hours. At 1300 hours we started class again. We began with how to help a choking patient. Next we finished up with the respiratory system and did a section on asthma. After the in class work for asthma Daz, our head instructor told us that the first 15 people out the double doors got to play the patient. Naturally I was one of the first. I enjoy playing patient because it gives me a chance to see what is going on whether it is wrong or right. So, my role was to act like I was having a severe asthma attack and my inhaler wasn’t working for me. When the other students were released Eleish came to me and started the process. It was fun to act like I couldn’t breath. My story was that my asthma got worse under high stress and pressure, exams were coming up, my boyfriend just broke up with me, and I was in a fight with my family. Needless to say I was super upset and I couldn’t breath. Elisha went to the head medic(Daz) and got a practice epipen. When she came back i had passed out and she administered the medicine to open my air way and start breathing again. Then she had me use my inhaler properly. It was fun and funny. There were times when I just busted out laughing. That was our first simulation and I must say it was a success. After that we went back inside and continued with the circulatory system and started CPR training. That is pretty much everything we did on day one!!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
such and such
well well well...
lets see. not too much has been going on. two weeks ago i was suppose to go sailing for a week. that was a bust. we left forfar sat. after dinner and went to the docks. after getting settled in the boats we decided to go out and explore the night life of Freshcreek. we stopped by a bar and grill and talked for a little bit with people there. then we moved on to another bar called Dimes. and this place was dark. there was a DJ and the music was loud and awesome. the floor was totally open for dancing. we didn't spend to much time there. after Dimes we headed over to the popular Hanks. Hanks is a restaurant and then you walk along a board walk to the bar which is out over the water. and let me tell you what a night it was!! there was a group there celebrating someones birthday. also some Autech people were there so we got to meet some of the Navy guys. fun fun fun. we all danced for hours. it was so fun. after that some of us on Deja Vu, that is the name of the boat i was on, when we got back to the boat Tess and i wanted to swim so i jumped in with my shorts on and she got in her suit. LJ and Matt got in with us. we just swam around then climbed up on the dock and went to the rickety end and jumped off. i climbed up one of the pillars and jumped from up there and so did Matt i think. it was a lot of fun. the next day we waited around for the propane to come in. at about 1330 we set sail!! it was awesome. we motored out for a bit then put the sails up!! i will try to put a video up of it. then we just chilled! i layed out for a bit. we got to our anchor spot in a couple of hours and although the waves were 5ftish a few of us swam out to an oceanic blue hole we were near. the funny thing is the capt. told us that the waves that day were small!!! craziness. i thought that they were huge!!! any way. that blue hole was cool. i saw the most beautiful fish i have ever seen. it was jet black with a yellow tail and it had iridescent blue spots!! seriously the spots looked like they were glowing. LJ was the only other one who saw it. he also found a HUGE fire helmet!this guy was big. the shell was close to the size of my head! i also got a bunch of 6-keyhole sand dollars! and some shells. we found out when we tried to cook dinner that our propane didn't work. so we had sandwiches again... that night we all tried to sleep on deck cause it was such a clear and beautiful night. that worked well for everyone but LJ who was sleeping on the floor of the cockpit when the bilge pump decided to pump backwards and filled the cockpit with an inch of dirty water. needless to say he got a little wet. at about 3 tho it started to rain so everyone came inside. i had come in an hour earlier cause i was uncomfortable where i was attempting to sleep. it wasn't too bad sleeping in the salon. we had some cereal boxes for breakfast the next morning and some sun chips. we decided to head back to the dock to do some maintenance on the boat. we had sandwiches for lunch again. and after we went to Androsia. a place that you can only find here on Andros. it was cool. then we just chilled. went out again that night just to see what was what on a monday night. the next day we all worked on the boats. there was a list of things to do and we knocked the entire list out in one morning. and once again we had sandwiches. as well as for dinner the night before. but for dinner on tuesday we had a hot meal! i don't remember what it was but is was good! the next couple of days we just spent them at the docks cause the weather was too bad to go out and sail. we had some classes to learn what we were suppose to on the boats on land. one night we had a huge fire out on the beach. it was a fun party...it was fairly boring. everyday hoping that the weather clears up so that we can sail. finally on sat. the weather cleared and once again we headed out for the ocean. once we got the sails up Capt. Bob asked if anyone wanted to be at the helm and i shot my had up! i got to sail the boat!!! it was awesome!! after a bit passed the wheel off to someone else and layed down. i was starting to feel the waves and i didn't sleep much the previous night. lots of dancing that last night but not so much on the sleeping front. :] we went back to Forfar that evening and took the sailing test after dinner. bleh. i did really well but it was a confusing test. i got a 93!! and the highest grade..not that it matters..but hey its not everyday that happens in Malia world:] this past week we had our island resource management class. that was cool we went on some day trips took the test for it on Friday morning then on Friday after noon we went to the bat cave!! wow. that was sooooo awesome. even tho we were crawling through guano it was such an experience. we went down in this hole and then started our adventure. it was your basic caving and then we came upon the care where the bats all hang. we turned off the lights and just listened. oh and no worries we all had masks on. safety first! after spending sometime there we made our way back to the surface. i stayed behind a little to just stand in the cave and listen to the chirpings i guess it what you might call the noise that the bats make and there flutterings as they settled back down after being disturbed. it was so amazing to just be there. after the cave we went back to Forfar and ended up getting in the ocean cause the water was still off. something had happened and we didn't have water for an evening and a day. bleh no fun. so a bunch of us took our soaps to the ocean and took a bath that way. i had Brenda braid my hair cause that night we were going out to celebrate Halloween!! we went to Green Forest a research station about 15 min away. they have got a bar next to them and we partied there. it was lots of fun. i made the best 'bad decision' ever!! haha. only a few will get that. don't ask cause i wont tell. :] so. sat. we had the day off and the people going sailing this week left for the docks after dinner. now it is sunday night and i spent today wind surfing!!!! wow. it...it...so...much...FUN!!!!!! i loved it. it was hard and frustrating especially in the morning cause i didn't know how to steer at that point but the afternoon was better since we got to rest and then we were shown how to steer! so it got a lot better. man o man i love it. so awesome!! and Ryan is really good at it so it was fun to be able to watch him. oh and i got to see a water spout. it didn't connect with the water but we saw the top and where it would have connected with the water. it was sooo cool. i started to quote Twister..."Julia, I gotta go we got cows" haha well that is pretty much it. oh yeah i lost my voice a few days ago cause of a cold and now i sound all funny. and we had hot dogs and home made french fries for lunch!! yummy!!! i had a plate of bad food and a plate of healthy food. haha. people always ask where that food goes. i have no clue. i love to eat and it all tastes soo good!! o well. much love to y'all
random facts...
-Texas was its own country for 13 years.
-the original 6 Flags park was in Texas and it was called 6 Flags Over Texas.
-the 6 flags that have flown over Texas were/are the French, Spanish, Mexican, Texas, Confederate, and US
hum thats all i can remember now. i got a little history lesson one night. :] fun!
well night!
Malia
i can't get the video on here sorry. :/
lets see. not too much has been going on. two weeks ago i was suppose to go sailing for a week. that was a bust. we left forfar sat. after dinner and went to the docks. after getting settled in the boats we decided to go out and explore the night life of Freshcreek. we stopped by a bar and grill and talked for a little bit with people there. then we moved on to another bar called Dimes. and this place was dark. there was a DJ and the music was loud and awesome. the floor was totally open for dancing. we didn't spend to much time there. after Dimes we headed over to the popular Hanks. Hanks is a restaurant and then you walk along a board walk to the bar which is out over the water. and let me tell you what a night it was!! there was a group there celebrating someones birthday. also some Autech people were there so we got to meet some of the Navy guys. fun fun fun. we all danced for hours. it was so fun. after that some of us on Deja Vu, that is the name of the boat i was on, when we got back to the boat Tess and i wanted to swim so i jumped in with my shorts on and she got in her suit. LJ and Matt got in with us. we just swam around then climbed up on the dock and went to the rickety end and jumped off. i climbed up one of the pillars and jumped from up there and so did Matt i think. it was a lot of fun. the next day we waited around for the propane to come in. at about 1330 we set sail!! it was awesome. we motored out for a bit then put the sails up!! i will try to put a video up of it. then we just chilled! i layed out for a bit. we got to our anchor spot in a couple of hours and although the waves were 5ftish a few of us swam out to an oceanic blue hole we were near. the funny thing is the capt. told us that the waves that day were small!!! craziness. i thought that they were huge!!! any way. that blue hole was cool. i saw the most beautiful fish i have ever seen. it was jet black with a yellow tail and it had iridescent blue spots!! seriously the spots looked like they were glowing. LJ was the only other one who saw it. he also found a HUGE fire helmet!this guy was big. the shell was close to the size of my head! i also got a bunch of 6-keyhole sand dollars! and some shells. we found out when we tried to cook dinner that our propane didn't work. so we had sandwiches again... that night we all tried to sleep on deck cause it was such a clear and beautiful night. that worked well for everyone but LJ who was sleeping on the floor of the cockpit when the bilge pump decided to pump backwards and filled the cockpit with an inch of dirty water. needless to say he got a little wet. at about 3 tho it started to rain so everyone came inside. i had come in an hour earlier cause i was uncomfortable where i was attempting to sleep. it wasn't too bad sleeping in the salon. we had some cereal boxes for breakfast the next morning and some sun chips. we decided to head back to the dock to do some maintenance on the boat. we had sandwiches for lunch again. and after we went to Androsia. a place that you can only find here on Andros. it was cool. then we just chilled. went out again that night just to see what was what on a monday night. the next day we all worked on the boats. there was a list of things to do and we knocked the entire list out in one morning. and once again we had sandwiches. as well as for dinner the night before. but for dinner on tuesday we had a hot meal! i don't remember what it was but is was good! the next couple of days we just spent them at the docks cause the weather was too bad to go out and sail. we had some classes to learn what we were suppose to on the boats on land. one night we had a huge fire out on the beach. it was a fun party...it was fairly boring. everyday hoping that the weather clears up so that we can sail. finally on sat. the weather cleared and once again we headed out for the ocean. once we got the sails up Capt. Bob asked if anyone wanted to be at the helm and i shot my had up! i got to sail the boat!!! it was awesome!! after a bit passed the wheel off to someone else and layed down. i was starting to feel the waves and i didn't sleep much the previous night. lots of dancing that last night but not so much on the sleeping front. :] we went back to Forfar that evening and took the sailing test after dinner. bleh. i did really well but it was a confusing test. i got a 93!! and the highest grade..not that it matters..but hey its not everyday that happens in Malia world:] this past week we had our island resource management class. that was cool we went on some day trips took the test for it on Friday morning then on Friday after noon we went to the bat cave!! wow. that was sooooo awesome. even tho we were crawling through guano it was such an experience. we went down in this hole and then started our adventure. it was your basic caving and then we came upon the care where the bats all hang. we turned off the lights and just listened. oh and no worries we all had masks on. safety first! after spending sometime there we made our way back to the surface. i stayed behind a little to just stand in the cave and listen to the chirpings i guess it what you might call the noise that the bats make and there flutterings as they settled back down after being disturbed. it was so amazing to just be there. after the cave we went back to Forfar and ended up getting in the ocean cause the water was still off. something had happened and we didn't have water for an evening and a day. bleh no fun. so a bunch of us took our soaps to the ocean and took a bath that way. i had Brenda braid my hair cause that night we were going out to celebrate Halloween!! we went to Green Forest a research station about 15 min away. they have got a bar next to them and we partied there. it was lots of fun. i made the best 'bad decision' ever!! haha. only a few will get that. don't ask cause i wont tell. :] so. sat. we had the day off and the people going sailing this week left for the docks after dinner. now it is sunday night and i spent today wind surfing!!!! wow. it...it...so...much...FUN!!!!!! i loved it. it was hard and frustrating especially in the morning cause i didn't know how to steer at that point but the afternoon was better since we got to rest and then we were shown how to steer! so it got a lot better. man o man i love it. so awesome!! and Ryan is really good at it so it was fun to be able to watch him. oh and i got to see a water spout. it didn't connect with the water but we saw the top and where it would have connected with the water. it was sooo cool. i started to quote Twister..."Julia, I gotta go we got cows" haha well that is pretty much it. oh yeah i lost my voice a few days ago cause of a cold and now i sound all funny. and we had hot dogs and home made french fries for lunch!! yummy!!! i had a plate of bad food and a plate of healthy food. haha. people always ask where that food goes. i have no clue. i love to eat and it all tastes soo good!! o well. much love to y'all
random facts...
-Texas was its own country for 13 years.
-the original 6 Flags park was in Texas and it was called 6 Flags Over Texas.
-the 6 flags that have flown over Texas were/are the French, Spanish, Mexican, Texas, Confederate, and US
hum thats all i can remember now. i got a little history lesson one night. :] fun!
well night!
Malia
i can't get the video on here sorry. :/
Saturday, October 18, 2008
this past week
ok so. this past week i took 3 tests. and i think i did fairly well on all of them. the material is interesting and the tests not too hard so im confident i did well. yeah!!
lets see
Monday: we kayaked in the morning. same old. and in the afternoon for marine ecology we went to Pigeon Cay(pronounced Key) and snorkeled around the Cay. it was really cool. the teacher brought some tubs and collected some hard red algae. we broke it apart to see what we could find. we found so many little critters living in them. some of the more interesting ones are crabs, a baby octopus(which i got to hold!), a baby morae eel(like the ones in the little mermaid), blunt spined brittle stars, some worms. it was quite the find. it was so cool to see that so much lives in such a little space! i also ate a piece of fuzzy chiton. a prehistoric looking creature that lives on the limestone in and out of h2o. you have to pry them off the stone and eat only the pink part. it was leathery. but not a horibble taste. that was monday
tuesday we had geology in the am and we went to Morgans Bluff which is 65 ft above sea level. it is the highest point on the island according to some. others think that there is one other higher spot but what eve. that was fun. we also went and looked at a petrified reef. it kinda just looked like a bunch of rock but once you look closer you can see coral that has been petrified. its pretty cool. lots of conch shells. our ecology teach was going to take us to some tide pools in the area since we were already 45 min away from the field station but the weather was looking sketchy so we just came back to the station and studied for the test. that was tuesday
wednesday we had geology in the am again. we did a sand lab. since we only had one working telescope and 3 groups we studied for the ecology test that was later in the day. so in the pm we took the test and i did well on it. there was a photo id and a written portion. after that we presented our made up invertabates. very interesting to see what some people came up with!!! after that we went to some tide pools that were close. that was all fine and dandy until Amanda S. yelled for everyone to come over to her. she had spotted an octopus!! Dennis and Shay got down and Dennis picked the octopus up! it was so cool. as soon as Dennis had it in his hands it changed to the color of his skin. wicked awesome. so we played pass the octopus and i got to hold it!!! it felt so weird. all the suction cups. when passing it you could hear the suction being release! it was so cool! Shay even put it on his shaved head! got a video of that! hopefully i can get some pics on here sometime. probably not for another week tho. that was wednesday!
thursday we had our kayak excursion! that was fun. we kayaked 2 miles to Saddle Back Cay with a couple rest stops on the way. once we got there we relaxed for a bit while the food was brought out to us for lunch. then more relaxing and laying out and reading. after about an hour or so of that it was time for class again. since i already knew how to roll my kayak, Kayak Bob asked me to help demonstrate the process of rolling. i said yes of course and we got things under way. now constantly rolling in freshh2o is TOTALLY different the constantly rolling in seah2o. it burns after time 2. but its all good. i managed. lots of snotting tho. eh h2o will do that to a person. :] when Kayak Bob started individual teaching i went and snorkeled around. i found a giant hermit crab and believe me this thing was bigger then my fist. i also so an echinaster brown spined sea star, cushin sea stars(alot of them) ummm some christmas tree hydroids(littleish white tree looking things) west indian sea eggs and probably someother stuff that i forget about. i also saw a sting ray as we paddled back to the station. that was thursday
friday we had sailing terminology in the morning. eh kinda boring learning that stuff in a class room but helpful i guess to get somewhat of an understanding before hitting the sea for a week!! which i might add is next week! i will be on a sail boat from this evening to next sat!!! any way in the after noon we had our first botany class. let me tell you with Marielle it is never a boring class. she is very animated, and i emphisize animated, about her subject. but it helps to keep attention. the name of the game for botany is plants just want to MAKE BABIES!!! seriously that was the first thing she said. welp oh and after dinner we had a geology test. not too bad i was a little worried but it wasn't as bad as i thought. i played a mind game with some of the people while we were waiting for the test. its called who has the ball. its a fun one. :] that was friday
saturday(today!) well we had our kayaking test this morning at 8. bleh right after breakfast. it went well tho. not as bad as i thought it would be. i think by making myself think that a test is going to be super hard i study better and harder for it. well it works!! i did well on it. we were suppose to be learning how to wind surf this morning but the teacher hasn't shown up yet so eveyone is just chilling. im writing this and that is that. as soon as dinner is over everyone who is going on the sailing trip next week will go down to fresh creek and enjoy the night life. then spend the night on the boat. we will leave really early tomorrow morning so we can hopefully make it to some islands that are 10 hours away. the name is......the Exumas. humm that doesn't look right but we googled it so i guess it is! hope fully the weather holds true and we can make it out there. its suppose to be quite beautiful. good snorkeling. well that is prett much it. i will keep a journal on what happens on the sail boat! im not going to take my camera for fear of somehting happening to it plus i still need to take the pics off and put them on a computer. all in good time. that is saturday
oh i also read the book Dune. wow good book. i just couldn't put it down! very interesting world. i can't wait to read the rest of the series.
well i hope everyone has a wonderful week!!
love love love
Malia
lets see
Monday: we kayaked in the morning. same old. and in the afternoon for marine ecology we went to Pigeon Cay(pronounced Key) and snorkeled around the Cay. it was really cool. the teacher brought some tubs and collected some hard red algae. we broke it apart to see what we could find. we found so many little critters living in them. some of the more interesting ones are crabs, a baby octopus(which i got to hold!), a baby morae eel(like the ones in the little mermaid), blunt spined brittle stars, some worms. it was quite the find. it was so cool to see that so much lives in such a little space! i also ate a piece of fuzzy chiton. a prehistoric looking creature that lives on the limestone in and out of h2o. you have to pry them off the stone and eat only the pink part. it was leathery. but not a horibble taste. that was monday
tuesday we had geology in the am and we went to Morgans Bluff which is 65 ft above sea level. it is the highest point on the island according to some. others think that there is one other higher spot but what eve. that was fun. we also went and looked at a petrified reef. it kinda just looked like a bunch of rock but once you look closer you can see coral that has been petrified. its pretty cool. lots of conch shells. our ecology teach was going to take us to some tide pools in the area since we were already 45 min away from the field station but the weather was looking sketchy so we just came back to the station and studied for the test. that was tuesday
wednesday we had geology in the am again. we did a sand lab. since we only had one working telescope and 3 groups we studied for the ecology test that was later in the day. so in the pm we took the test and i did well on it. there was a photo id and a written portion. after that we presented our made up invertabates. very interesting to see what some people came up with!!! after that we went to some tide pools that were close. that was all fine and dandy until Amanda S. yelled for everyone to come over to her. she had spotted an octopus!! Dennis and Shay got down and Dennis picked the octopus up! it was so cool. as soon as Dennis had it in his hands it changed to the color of his skin. wicked awesome. so we played pass the octopus and i got to hold it!!! it felt so weird. all the suction cups. when passing it you could hear the suction being release! it was so cool! Shay even put it on his shaved head! got a video of that! hopefully i can get some pics on here sometime. probably not for another week tho. that was wednesday!
thursday we had our kayak excursion! that was fun. we kayaked 2 miles to Saddle Back Cay with a couple rest stops on the way. once we got there we relaxed for a bit while the food was brought out to us for lunch. then more relaxing and laying out and reading. after about an hour or so of that it was time for class again. since i already knew how to roll my kayak, Kayak Bob asked me to help demonstrate the process of rolling. i said yes of course and we got things under way. now constantly rolling in freshh2o is TOTALLY different the constantly rolling in seah2o. it burns after time 2. but its all good. i managed. lots of snotting tho. eh h2o will do that to a person. :] when Kayak Bob started individual teaching i went and snorkeled around. i found a giant hermit crab and believe me this thing was bigger then my fist. i also so an echinaster brown spined sea star, cushin sea stars(alot of them) ummm some christmas tree hydroids(littleish white tree looking things) west indian sea eggs and probably someother stuff that i forget about. i also saw a sting ray as we paddled back to the station. that was thursday
friday we had sailing terminology in the morning. eh kinda boring learning that stuff in a class room but helpful i guess to get somewhat of an understanding before hitting the sea for a week!! which i might add is next week! i will be on a sail boat from this evening to next sat!!! any way in the after noon we had our first botany class. let me tell you with Marielle it is never a boring class. she is very animated, and i emphisize animated, about her subject. but it helps to keep attention. the name of the game for botany is plants just want to MAKE BABIES!!! seriously that was the first thing she said. welp oh and after dinner we had a geology test. not too bad i was a little worried but it wasn't as bad as i thought. i played a mind game with some of the people while we were waiting for the test. its called who has the ball. its a fun one. :] that was friday
saturday(today!) well we had our kayaking test this morning at 8. bleh right after breakfast. it went well tho. not as bad as i thought it would be. i think by making myself think that a test is going to be super hard i study better and harder for it. well it works!! i did well on it. we were suppose to be learning how to wind surf this morning but the teacher hasn't shown up yet so eveyone is just chilling. im writing this and that is that. as soon as dinner is over everyone who is going on the sailing trip next week will go down to fresh creek and enjoy the night life. then spend the night on the boat. we will leave really early tomorrow morning so we can hopefully make it to some islands that are 10 hours away. the name is......the Exumas. humm that doesn't look right but we googled it so i guess it is! hope fully the weather holds true and we can make it out there. its suppose to be quite beautiful. good snorkeling. well that is prett much it. i will keep a journal on what happens on the sail boat! im not going to take my camera for fear of somehting happening to it plus i still need to take the pics off and put them on a computer. all in good time. that is saturday
oh i also read the book Dune. wow good book. i just couldn't put it down! very interesting world. i can't wait to read the rest of the series.
well i hope everyone has a wonderful week!!
love love love
Malia
Saturday, October 11, 2008
whats going on...
Hello to all!!!!
so sorry that this took so long to put up but i got to it!! and its kinda long... good reading. :]
I am so sorry that it has taken me such a long time to give an update. So for those who don't know the first 2 weeks that we were down here we started our SCUBA diving classes. Our instructor Andy is a great teacher as well as his jr. instructor. we all hit it off really well and from what i have heard the last dive teacher they had down here wasn't all that great. not a real people person. so i am glad we got a good teach. everyone learned really quickly and got quite used to being under water. and i must say that i miss it greatly. some of the things we did out in the big ol' blue is...
dove to 45ft, 60, 70-80 ft. and 100ft. now as scary as 100ft sounds it really felt the same as 45 ft. and in my opinion less interesting. when you dive that deep you can only stay at depth for a short amount of time. no more the 13 min i think is the time limit before you run the risk of decompression sickness aka the bends. when you are under water at any depth 30ft and lower nitrogen enters your blood from the pressure around you. when you ascend you need to ascend slowly to give the nitrogen a chance to exit the blood stream so it doesn't form bubbles. if you don't ascend slowly that is when you run the risk of getting the bends. any way. the reason we went so deep was to see the tongue of the ocean. kinda like the dropoff point in Finding Nemo. the ocean floor just drops to 6000ft. crazyness. we weren't allowed to go that close. :( unlike the first group. they got right up to it. i wanted to look out over the edge and see the blackness. i could just hear Dory singing just keep swimming just keep swimming what do we do we ssswwwiiiimmm!!!! lol. i like 45ft-70ft dives. you can stay down a bit longer and see more life at that depth. although i couldn't really tell a difference. the water was so clear that no matter what depth we were at we could just look up and see the surface. yes even at 100 ft! lets see animals we saw... a couple nurse sharks, a morea eel (you know the ones that Ursala has in the Little Mermaid) lots of star fish, sea urchins, lots of fish that i don't know the name of, sting rays, crabs, barracudas! those always scare me cause they eat Nemos family! but i got used to them and actually started to swim to one instead of away. so he swam from me! yeah! umm lets see what else...we went on a night dive which was AWESOME!!!!!!!! oh my goodness nights dives are the best!! i didn't see anything interesting just being under at night was just awesome. although we dropped right into a swarm of jelly fish and we all got stung up really bad. but once we got past 5 ft it was all good. we got in a circle at one point and turned off our lights and there were so many sea pearls!! they are really pretty. they look like a strand of glowing pearls! i can't really remember what else there was that i have seen. needless to say diving is amazing! being in a world that we weren't meant to see was a little foreboding but the majesticness of it all just pushed all other thoughts out of my mind. God is sooooooooooo AWESOME!!!!! its a whole nother world down there.
now that is over although we can go on dives we must pay $25 and have a dive master with us. luckily there are a few down here so hopefully we can get a few dives in before we have to leave. any way we have started and finished a bonefishing class. we learned how to fly cast which was fun and hopefully i can find someone back home to take me fishing now that i know how!
we are half way through our marine ecology class/geology class(grades will be for the same class) for ecology we have lecture for about an hour maybe two then we go and snorkel to look for some of the things we are studying. today(sat) we got to dissect a squid which was awesome because it reminded me of 5th grade when we dissected squids in class!! for geology we took a field trip to a cay(pronounced key) called pigeon cay and walked around that. we got to go into a blow hole if we wanted and of course i jumped at the opportunity. it was awesome cause you could walk out into the water. so you go into a hole on the cay and walk out to the actual ocean. granted you were already up to you knees in h2o when getting in the hole. but fun all the same. something interesting about the cay is even though it is on a fault line the line isn't making it move closer to Andros Island. it is the breaking down of sediment on the windward(side the wind blows on) and that sediment gets moved to the leeward(side wind doesn't beat upon). thus making it move closer to the main land. its crazy cool!!
those are the classes that we are in right now. oh and we are starting wind surfing very soon.we were suppose to start today but the weather wasn't cooperating. :(
kayaking...we took a little excursion to an oceanic blue hole. now blue holes are normally inland. they are a huge hole filled in with fresh water at the surface...a hundred feet or less below it turns to salt water. the hole is created when the ground above fell in to the miles of unexplored cave system under Andros. that is why the bottom is salt water because the caves lead to the ocean so ocean water occupies the deepest part of the hole. now a blue hole in the ocean is where fresh water is shot up and is quite cooler then the ocean water. it kind of shimmers as the two types of water come together. humm oh it is like the heat rising up from the road on a hott summer day. that kind of shimmer. but it was really interesting to see the hole and dive down(only 6-8ft) and see all the fish and invertebrates. oh i like to make the invertebrates go back into their cases like in the Little Mermaid when Ariel swims past the little guys on the rocks and they all pull back into their protection. so we are all back in our boats and getting ready to leave. most of the group is around the cay and heading back to Andros i am sweep(i being up the rear) so im waiting for the last person to get set and go. when the instructer kayak bob comes around the bend and says hey check this out. i look over to my friend Shay and see a couple fins come out of the water. DOLPHINS!!!!!! I yelled it. they were so close to Shay that he could touch them with his paddle. they were swimming away and i asked kayak bob if we could chase after them said of course so i turned my boat around and we took off after them. they slowed down a little and we were able, only after a very fast sprint, to get with in 8 ft. of them. it was amazing. they are such graceful magnificent animals. if i had just stayed in the water for 10 more min. i would have been able to swim with them. i never thought that i would be so close to wild dolphins. there were some the other day but i didn't see them and i asked God to let me see them. i had no clue that He was just waiting for a more opportune moment for me to have my dolphin experience. although my favorite marine animal is still the Killer Whale. it was truly amazing. after that sprint though i was so tired and we still had to paddle back to Forfar (the field station that we are staying at)
well that is about it oh today for marine ecology we went back to the blue hole and there were sting rays chilling under the sand so all you could see were their eyes and tail. well today there was only one as yesterday there were at least 7. but today this ray got real agitated. i wasn't swimming to it i was just swimming by but a lot of people were looking and taking pics. so when i was going by at least 6 ft away from it to be respectful it started to move. i figured it was just going to swim away but it started to come towards me. so i started using my hands to back me up instead of my fins. i figured that big purple fins waving at the ray wasn't the smartest idea. so i got over the blue hole and the ray kinda turned away from me. i followed to watch it at at least 7 ft between us. this other kid, Drew came over and was watching it with me. its tail was twitching and his fins were all twitchy and agitated looking. finally it found a new spot and settled under the sand again. it was scary awesome.
now i sit here after sat. night taco night and i will probably go watch a movie. a lot of people are going out tonight but im not in the mood. i normally end up playing babysitter since i don't drink much. at one bar he gives a free shot for when we all get there called fire in the hole. apparently it is suppose to burn as it goes down. i had it for the first and last time last weekend and it didn't burn at all. hum but im not a fan of alcohol. i prefer bottled h2o since the h2o here is kinda stale and not cold. i tell you what nothing is like a nice cold bottle of h2o. :] as most of you know me i luve to get drunk on WATER!!!! hehe.
toodles
so sorry that this took so long to put up but i got to it!! and its kinda long... good reading. :]
I am so sorry that it has taken me such a long time to give an update. So for those who don't know the first 2 weeks that we were down here we started our SCUBA diving classes. Our instructor Andy is a great teacher as well as his jr. instructor. we all hit it off really well and from what i have heard the last dive teacher they had down here wasn't all that great. not a real people person. so i am glad we got a good teach. everyone learned really quickly and got quite used to being under water. and i must say that i miss it greatly. some of the things we did out in the big ol' blue is...
dove to 45ft, 60, 70-80 ft. and 100ft. now as scary as 100ft sounds it really felt the same as 45 ft. and in my opinion less interesting. when you dive that deep you can only stay at depth for a short amount of time. no more the 13 min i think is the time limit before you run the risk of decompression sickness aka the bends. when you are under water at any depth 30ft and lower nitrogen enters your blood from the pressure around you. when you ascend you need to ascend slowly to give the nitrogen a chance to exit the blood stream so it doesn't form bubbles. if you don't ascend slowly that is when you run the risk of getting the bends. any way. the reason we went so deep was to see the tongue of the ocean. kinda like the dropoff point in Finding Nemo. the ocean floor just drops to 6000ft. crazyness. we weren't allowed to go that close. :( unlike the first group. they got right up to it. i wanted to look out over the edge and see the blackness. i could just hear Dory singing just keep swimming just keep swimming what do we do we ssswwwiiiimmm!!!! lol. i like 45ft-70ft dives. you can stay down a bit longer and see more life at that depth. although i couldn't really tell a difference. the water was so clear that no matter what depth we were at we could just look up and see the surface. yes even at 100 ft! lets see animals we saw... a couple nurse sharks, a morea eel (you know the ones that Ursala has in the Little Mermaid) lots of star fish, sea urchins, lots of fish that i don't know the name of, sting rays, crabs, barracudas! those always scare me cause they eat Nemos family! but i got used to them and actually started to swim to one instead of away. so he swam from me! yeah! umm lets see what else...we went on a night dive which was AWESOME!!!!!!!! oh my goodness nights dives are the best!! i didn't see anything interesting just being under at night was just awesome. although we dropped right into a swarm of jelly fish and we all got stung up really bad. but once we got past 5 ft it was all good. we got in a circle at one point and turned off our lights and there were so many sea pearls!! they are really pretty. they look like a strand of glowing pearls! i can't really remember what else there was that i have seen. needless to say diving is amazing! being in a world that we weren't meant to see was a little foreboding but the majesticness of it all just pushed all other thoughts out of my mind. God is sooooooooooo AWESOME!!!!! its a whole nother world down there.
now that is over although we can go on dives we must pay $25 and have a dive master with us. luckily there are a few down here so hopefully we can get a few dives in before we have to leave. any way we have started and finished a bonefishing class. we learned how to fly cast which was fun and hopefully i can find someone back home to take me fishing now that i know how!
we are half way through our marine ecology class/geology class(grades will be for the same class) for ecology we have lecture for about an hour maybe two then we go and snorkel to look for some of the things we are studying. today(sat) we got to dissect a squid which was awesome because it reminded me of 5th grade when we dissected squids in class!! for geology we took a field trip to a cay(pronounced key) called pigeon cay and walked around that. we got to go into a blow hole if we wanted and of course i jumped at the opportunity. it was awesome cause you could walk out into the water. so you go into a hole on the cay and walk out to the actual ocean. granted you were already up to you knees in h2o when getting in the hole. but fun all the same. something interesting about the cay is even though it is on a fault line the line isn't making it move closer to Andros Island. it is the breaking down of sediment on the windward(side the wind blows on) and that sediment gets moved to the leeward(side wind doesn't beat upon). thus making it move closer to the main land. its crazy cool!!
those are the classes that we are in right now. oh and we are starting wind surfing very soon.we were suppose to start today but the weather wasn't cooperating. :(
kayaking...we took a little excursion to an oceanic blue hole. now blue holes are normally inland. they are a huge hole filled in with fresh water at the surface...a hundred feet or less below it turns to salt water. the hole is created when the ground above fell in to the miles of unexplored cave system under Andros. that is why the bottom is salt water because the caves lead to the ocean so ocean water occupies the deepest part of the hole. now a blue hole in the ocean is where fresh water is shot up and is quite cooler then the ocean water. it kind of shimmers as the two types of water come together. humm oh it is like the heat rising up from the road on a hott summer day. that kind of shimmer. but it was really interesting to see the hole and dive down(only 6-8ft) and see all the fish and invertebrates. oh i like to make the invertebrates go back into their cases like in the Little Mermaid when Ariel swims past the little guys on the rocks and they all pull back into their protection. so we are all back in our boats and getting ready to leave. most of the group is around the cay and heading back to Andros i am sweep(i being up the rear) so im waiting for the last person to get set and go. when the instructer kayak bob comes around the bend and says hey check this out. i look over to my friend Shay and see a couple fins come out of the water. DOLPHINS!!!!!! I yelled it. they were so close to Shay that he could touch them with his paddle. they were swimming away and i asked kayak bob if we could chase after them said of course so i turned my boat around and we took off after them. they slowed down a little and we were able, only after a very fast sprint, to get with in 8 ft. of them. it was amazing. they are such graceful magnificent animals. if i had just stayed in the water for 10 more min. i would have been able to swim with them. i never thought that i would be so close to wild dolphins. there were some the other day but i didn't see them and i asked God to let me see them. i had no clue that He was just waiting for a more opportune moment for me to have my dolphin experience. although my favorite marine animal is still the Killer Whale. it was truly amazing. after that sprint though i was so tired and we still had to paddle back to Forfar (the field station that we are staying at)
well that is about it oh today for marine ecology we went back to the blue hole and there were sting rays chilling under the sand so all you could see were their eyes and tail. well today there was only one as yesterday there were at least 7. but today this ray got real agitated. i wasn't swimming to it i was just swimming by but a lot of people were looking and taking pics. so when i was going by at least 6 ft away from it to be respectful it started to move. i figured it was just going to swim away but it started to come towards me. so i started using my hands to back me up instead of my fins. i figured that big purple fins waving at the ray wasn't the smartest idea. so i got over the blue hole and the ray kinda turned away from me. i followed to watch it at at least 7 ft between us. this other kid, Drew came over and was watching it with me. its tail was twitching and his fins were all twitchy and agitated looking. finally it found a new spot and settled under the sand again. it was scary awesome.
now i sit here after sat. night taco night and i will probably go watch a movie. a lot of people are going out tonight but im not in the mood. i normally end up playing babysitter since i don't drink much. at one bar he gives a free shot for when we all get there called fire in the hole. apparently it is suppose to burn as it goes down. i had it for the first and last time last weekend and it didn't burn at all. hum but im not a fan of alcohol. i prefer bottled h2o since the h2o here is kinda stale and not cold. i tell you what nothing is like a nice cold bottle of h2o. :] as most of you know me i luve to get drunk on WATER!!!! hehe.
toodles
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Bahamas day 2
Hey everyone. I thought this might be a good idea to keep you all up to date on what is going on, if you are interested. oh i am in the Bahamas for 2 months doing a study abroad for school. just in case you didn't know that already. i haven't got my pics on because it will take to long but i will try some time. and i really haven't been taking very many yet. sorry. but any way. oh and the sentences will most likely be runons or incomplete. but you get the picture. :] enjoy!
Friday Sept. 12 I arrived in Atlanta at 7:30sih on friday and met up with Aunt Kristi and Hannah. it was really good to see them and hang out with them for a little bit. they showed me around atlanta a little. it was really foggy and rainy so that was a little depressing. but fun none the less. so then i went back to the air port and waited for my flight. i met Shay there unexpectedly at the gate so that was fun. we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale and i got picked up by some friends of my mom and dad. They were really nice and bought me lunch. Mrs. Hackett drove me along the beach hott spot for spring break that was interesting to see. then i had a meeting at 6 at a hotel and then went back to the Hacketts for an awesome dinner and dessert.
Sat. Sept. 13 the next morning Pastor Tom took me to target to get a small knife and then dropped me off at the hotel so i could wait for the shuttle to take us to the air port. i read a book called The Hot Zone, given to me by Dustyn thanks much, :/ its a good book but mmmm kind of shocking. any way we got to the private jet airport. that was sweet we got to see the FL Dolphins come in. we had to wait for a long time cause one of the important people going on the trip was returning a van some where and we were the last flight to go out that day. it was about a 50 min flight in a little 9 passenger plane lots of fun. we arrived and choose our rooms and explored until our luggage came. i think that we play volleyball for a bit. there was a meeting before dinner to introduce everyone( being the staff) and a fun meeting after to learn names. also to lay down the rules. we all chilled for a little bit then headed off to bed. well some people went out.
welp thats it for tonight. later yo.
Friday Sept. 12 I arrived in Atlanta at 7:30sih on friday and met up with Aunt Kristi and Hannah. it was really good to see them and hang out with them for a little bit. they showed me around atlanta a little. it was really foggy and rainy so that was a little depressing. but fun none the less. so then i went back to the air port and waited for my flight. i met Shay there unexpectedly at the gate so that was fun. we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale and i got picked up by some friends of my mom and dad. They were really nice and bought me lunch. Mrs. Hackett drove me along the beach hott spot for spring break that was interesting to see. then i had a meeting at 6 at a hotel and then went back to the Hacketts for an awesome dinner and dessert.
Sat. Sept. 13 the next morning Pastor Tom took me to target to get a small knife and then dropped me off at the hotel so i could wait for the shuttle to take us to the air port. i read a book called The Hot Zone, given to me by Dustyn thanks much, :/ its a good book but mmmm kind of shocking. any way we got to the private jet airport. that was sweet we got to see the FL Dolphins come in. we had to wait for a long time cause one of the important people going on the trip was returning a van some where and we were the last flight to go out that day. it was about a 50 min flight in a little 9 passenger plane lots of fun. we arrived and choose our rooms and explored until our luggage came. i think that we play volleyball for a bit. there was a meeting before dinner to introduce everyone( being the staff) and a fun meeting after to learn names. also to lay down the rules. we all chilled for a little bit then headed off to bed. well some people went out.
welp thats it for tonight. later yo.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Hi everyone. This is just a tester blog. Just to see how things are going to work. I plan on using this to let my family and friends know what I have been up to here at school. Hope I have enough interesting things to talk about!!
This is Tim and me waiting at the airport when we were on our way to see Tara in Fall '07. Just chilling!!
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