where to begin?
so, last Tuesday night (very late) i got back from the south caicos... i had an AMAZING time there. it was the best month of my life, and needless to say, i was very upset to come home. in fact, so upset that i was crying in the miami airport. not just a few tears, but literally crying to the point where i had trouble containing myself... haha, i'm so cool, aren't i? not only did we do really cool, unique things down there, but i met some absolutely fabulous people, whom i genuinely miss. even though i was only gone for a month, i really found out a lot about myself... i know which direction i want to go in, what i want to do when i graduate, etc... i just hope my plans don't fall through. actually, i really want to transfer schools, because pitt doesn't have a marine biology or environmental science major. i have an appoitnment with one of the biology advisors on thursday to discuss what would be in my best interest right now... i'm rather pissed that i didn't go for an entire semester sfs program, but there's not much i can do about that now. i have so many stories and i really don't know where to begin, so this entry will probably jump around a lot... and it will probably be very long as well.
we arrived in tci on monday, july 11th (2005). we had to wait in the providenciales airport for a few hours because there was a mix up with the flight to south caicos. we stood in line to check our bags for about 2 hours. at one point a bunch of us were sitting on the conveyor belt thingy that carried all of the luggage... it hadn't moved the entire time we were there, and then all of a sudden it turned on, which was a little startling and very funny... haha. we took a small propellor plane to south caicos (it was a 20 minute flight from provo to south). once we arrived in the south caicos airport, we got into one of those trucks that has benches in the bed (which was the truck we drove around in the rest of the trip). as we were getting on the truck, there were two HUGE male cows (looked like bulls, but weren't) chillin' outside of the airport. the first few days were mostly us getting to know each other, the faculty, and the community. the first week and a half was alllllll morning lectures (3.5 hours straight) and fish/coral ID's (while snorkeling) in the afternoon. they weren't horribly exciting, especially since the we had to sit in a small, confined room in over 100 degree heat with no air conditioning. but we survived it! charlotte, the british/french prof, definitely had the most interesting lectures. they were on the socioeconomic aspects of marine park management. aaron, the irish prof (who i totally fell in love with), taught about the technicalities of managing marine protected areas (mpa's), and john, the super hot british prof, taught about the biology and ecology of the marine environment in tci. for the fish and coral id's, we had to learn approx. 100 different marine organisms (fish, coral, aglae, mangrove, echinoderms, etc) by their latin names, be able to spell them correctly, and be able to identify them while snorkeling. we took the 2 exams that covered this material while snorkeling, and we had to write our answers on underwater slates. it was extremely difficult but extremely cool at the same time. oh, and for the fish, we had to determine whether they were juveniles, in the intial phase, or in the terminal phase. during the evenings of the first week, we mostly played volleyball w/ the faculty or went to the trenchtown, which is the EPITOME of a hole-in-the-wall bar. they only had 2 beers to chose from - coors light and heinekien... and that's AFTER a fresh shipment from the boat. they had a few liquors to choose from as well. the bartenders were from the dominican republic, and they didn't speak any english (they spoke spanish), so ordering drinks was always fun. i would ask for a rum and coke and get a shot of rum. i would ask for a shot of something and get a rum and coke. the one bartender, elizabeth, was sooo cute. their entertainment for the trenchtown was a stereo (like one you would have in your bedroom) which played the same cd EVERY time we were there, and it was always on repeat. our favorite songs were "all da meat" and "she think she fat"... i miss that island music! there was a brindle "potcake" dog named spliff who always hung out on the back cement patio. and speaking of spliff, everyone smoked weed freely in the bars, on the streets... you name it. it was definitely a much more chill environment. women never went to the bar (only to the bar that was a restaurant as well - chicken bar), and the men who did go were really into playing dominoes. it was like their version of poker. sunday through friday we had a curfew of 11, and saturday we had a curfew of 12. our first saturday there we spent cleaning up the center and doing volunteer work and camping on one of the beaches. my roomies and i had to clean the kitchen with charlotte. afterwards, a few of us (myself included) went to the disability center to spend some time with the 5 men who lived there. adrian was blind, so for a while chris and i just sat with him and held his hand. trevor (trevie) liked to pick up things and hit people with them, b/c he thought it was funny. he hit me with a water bottle and left me with a bruise... haha. it was a really good time, though, and really sad b/c sfs are the only people who ever really visit them. later on, on the camping trip, we cooked our dinner on a little fire in the sand, had lecture in a little, run down wooden pavilion, and then played games for the rest of the evening. none of us thought to put the flies on our tents, and wouldn't you know, it rained. hard. we woke up very very early in the morning, sleeping in puddles. literally. let's just say that it ended up being a very humerous camping trip. hahaha... we weren't very happy campers! when we came home (well, home to the center) on sunday, i was student of the day, and because it was sunday and the cooks were off, my roommates and i, along with dave (who is the equivalent of the principal), cooked everyone brunch and dinner. dave did most of the cooking (because he was an awesome little chef), but my roomies and i did get to make some homefries for brunchand pineapple upside down cake for dessert after dinner. it was tres fabulous. although i didn't like the homefries because we put too much rosemary in them.
the 2nd week we had our coral/plant id's. they were scheduled for wednesday but got moved to thursday because it stormed all day on wednesday (we can't very well snorkel and write underwater when there's rough waves and lightening!). on tuesday (sorry to skip around), john dyal, the blonde-haired, pale kid from stanford, decided he missed his girlfriend too much and went home. no offense, john dyal, but how lame! also, during the 2nd week, we started our zoning projects (boo!). these were very stressful. we were split up into 4 groups, and each group had a to re-evaluate the mpa's and prepare the tci and it's environment for specific types of human industry. each of the 4 human industries are problems that tci is starting to experience more and more. the groups were aquaculture, ecotourism, mass tourism, and fisheries. my group was mass tourism. right now, tourism in the tci is mostly (mostly meaning over 90%... probably even higher) concentrated on providenciales and grand turk. we had to plan for the development of hotels that were to accomodate a minimum of 4000 guests at any given time. so, we had to decide where to put the hotels based on what is in the best interest of the environment and local community. it ended up being a VERY difficult assignment, as most of the land in tci is a very significant contributor to the entire ecosystem, and as a result, very sensative. so, for example, ripping out the mangle (mangroves) for hotels would disrupt the habitat of certain bacteria, which affects the plants and algae that feed on the bacteria, which affects the small marine animals that feed on the plants and algae, which affects the larger marine animales that use the mangrove as nurseries to feed on small marine animals, which effects sea grass beds, which affects the reefs, which allll results in a completely disrupted ecosystem. moral of the story: don't fuck with the mangroves! don't fuck with the sea grass beds! and don't fuck the with the reefs! anywho, we decided to concentrate all of our development and try to use existing infastructure. we concentrated the developments on north caicos on part of the northern tip and on grand turk. that friday of the 2nd week was aaron's birthday, so most of the students and faculty went out to celebrate, and that was when my little "affair" with aaron began. well, that night it started with him buying me shots and taking them with me, and me squeezing his ass like it was my job. haha. and it just seemed to snowball from that night... my little irish lover! but that night was funny b/c it was our first night out w/ the faculty, and dave was really paranoid about inappropriate faculty/student interaction, so (jokingly) he stole all of our memory cards from our digital cameras. it was a really fun night. gerald (the safety manager/dive instructor) and i got into a bit of a tiff b/c he told me that he hated puppies... yeah, haha. it was a good time. oh, and there was this french-candadian guy (who was a big jerk b/c he's responsible for one of the big, awful hotel developments that's destroying everything) and he was trying to dance with all of the ladies from sfs... it was pretty funny. marta, charlotte, and micha humored him. needless to say, the night of aaron's birthday was an alcohol-filled blast. the next morning (saturday) kind of sucked though b/c we had site clean-up, and my room had to do the dock and the boats... so we had to snorkel out to two of the boats that weren't directly on the dock, and i thought i was going to die b/c i was still drunk... and gerald, the safety manager, just laughed at us. and then we did beach clean up as our volunteer work for the day, which was cool, b/c there was a lot of trash on the beach (it was kind of unreal how much there was) but it was a pretty difficult task to complete when you're hung over. we did a pretty good job though. afterwards we took all of the garbage to the land fill, where they just burned it all. it smelled pretty bad there. then, that night we had a beach bbq, where we found out why sally likes the pool and not the ocean... we also played some really fun games and such. it was a good time. charlotte, dave and carrie came with us. we played the game mafia, which was fun. i was one of the mafia, and i was the last one to die... boo ya! when we got back from the beach that night, devan, phil, katie and i went to the trenchtown. we didn't really drink... just played kings.
ok, the last two weeks will in a different entry b/c this is taking a lot longer than i thought it would.
we arrived in tci on monday, july 11th (2005). we had to wait in the providenciales airport for a few hours because there was a mix up with the flight to south caicos. we stood in line to check our bags for about 2 hours. at one point a bunch of us were sitting on the conveyor belt thingy that carried all of the luggage... it hadn't moved the entire time we were there, and then all of a sudden it turned on, which was a little startling and very funny... haha. we took a small propellor plane to south caicos (it was a 20 minute flight from provo to south). once we arrived in the south caicos airport, we got into one of those trucks that has benches in the bed (which was the truck we drove around in the rest of the trip). as we were getting on the truck, there were two HUGE male cows (looked like bulls, but weren't) chillin' outside of the airport. the first few days were mostly us getting to know each other, the faculty, and the community. the first week and a half was alllllll morning lectures (3.5 hours straight) and fish/coral ID's (while snorkeling) in the afternoon. they weren't horribly exciting, especially since the we had to sit in a small, confined room in over 100 degree heat with no air conditioning. but we survived it! charlotte, the british/french prof, definitely had the most interesting lectures. they were on the socioeconomic aspects of marine park management. aaron, the irish prof (who i totally fell in love with), taught about the technicalities of managing marine protected areas (mpa's), and john, the super hot british prof, taught about the biology and ecology of the marine environment in tci. for the fish and coral id's, we had to learn approx. 100 different marine organisms (fish, coral, aglae, mangrove, echinoderms, etc) by their latin names, be able to spell them correctly, and be able to identify them while snorkeling. we took the 2 exams that covered this material while snorkeling, and we had to write our answers on underwater slates. it was extremely difficult but extremely cool at the same time. oh, and for the fish, we had to determine whether they were juveniles, in the intial phase, or in the terminal phase. during the evenings of the first week, we mostly played volleyball w/ the faculty or went to the trenchtown, which is the EPITOME of a hole-in-the-wall bar. they only had 2 beers to chose from - coors light and heinekien... and that's AFTER a fresh shipment from the boat. they had a few liquors to choose from as well. the bartenders were from the dominican republic, and they didn't speak any english (they spoke spanish), so ordering drinks was always fun. i would ask for a rum and coke and get a shot of rum. i would ask for a shot of something and get a rum and coke. the one bartender, elizabeth, was sooo cute. their entertainment for the trenchtown was a stereo (like one you would have in your bedroom) which played the same cd EVERY time we were there, and it was always on repeat. our favorite songs were "all da meat" and "she think she fat"... i miss that island music! there was a brindle "potcake" dog named spliff who always hung out on the back cement patio. and speaking of spliff, everyone smoked weed freely in the bars, on the streets... you name it. it was definitely a much more chill environment. women never went to the bar (only to the bar that was a restaurant as well - chicken bar), and the men who did go were really into playing dominoes. it was like their version of poker. sunday through friday we had a curfew of 11, and saturday we had a curfew of 12. our first saturday there we spent cleaning up the center and doing volunteer work and camping on one of the beaches. my roomies and i had to clean the kitchen with charlotte. afterwards, a few of us (myself included) went to the disability center to spend some time with the 5 men who lived there. adrian was blind, so for a while chris and i just sat with him and held his hand. trevor (trevie) liked to pick up things and hit people with them, b/c he thought it was funny. he hit me with a water bottle and left me with a bruise... haha. it was a really good time, though, and really sad b/c sfs are the only people who ever really visit them. later on, on the camping trip, we cooked our dinner on a little fire in the sand, had lecture in a little, run down wooden pavilion, and then played games for the rest of the evening. none of us thought to put the flies on our tents, and wouldn't you know, it rained. hard. we woke up very very early in the morning, sleeping in puddles. literally. let's just say that it ended up being a very humerous camping trip. hahaha... we weren't very happy campers! when we came home (well, home to the center) on sunday, i was student of the day, and because it was sunday and the cooks were off, my roommates and i, along with dave (who is the equivalent of the principal), cooked everyone brunch and dinner. dave did most of the cooking (because he was an awesome little chef), but my roomies and i did get to make some homefries for brunchand pineapple upside down cake for dessert after dinner. it was tres fabulous. although i didn't like the homefries because we put too much rosemary in them.
the 2nd week we had our coral/plant id's. they were scheduled for wednesday but got moved to thursday because it stormed all day on wednesday (we can't very well snorkel and write underwater when there's rough waves and lightening!). on tuesday (sorry to skip around), john dyal, the blonde-haired, pale kid from stanford, decided he missed his girlfriend too much and went home. no offense, john dyal, but how lame! also, during the 2nd week, we started our zoning projects (boo!). these were very stressful. we were split up into 4 groups, and each group had a to re-evaluate the mpa's and prepare the tci and it's environment for specific types of human industry. each of the 4 human industries are problems that tci is starting to experience more and more. the groups were aquaculture, ecotourism, mass tourism, and fisheries. my group was mass tourism. right now, tourism in the tci is mostly (mostly meaning over 90%... probably even higher) concentrated on providenciales and grand turk. we had to plan for the development of hotels that were to accomodate a minimum of 4000 guests at any given time. so, we had to decide where to put the hotels based on what is in the best interest of the environment and local community. it ended up being a VERY difficult assignment, as most of the land in tci is a very significant contributor to the entire ecosystem, and as a result, very sensative. so, for example, ripping out the mangle (mangroves) for hotels would disrupt the habitat of certain bacteria, which affects the plants and algae that feed on the bacteria, which affects the small marine animals that feed on the plants and algae, which affects the larger marine animales that use the mangrove as nurseries to feed on small marine animals, which effects sea grass beds, which affects the reefs, which allll results in a completely disrupted ecosystem. moral of the story: don't fuck with the mangroves! don't fuck with the sea grass beds! and don't fuck the with the reefs! anywho, we decided to concentrate all of our development and try to use existing infastructure. we concentrated the developments on north caicos on part of the northern tip and on grand turk. that friday of the 2nd week was aaron's birthday, so most of the students and faculty went out to celebrate, and that was when my little "affair" with aaron began. well, that night it started with him buying me shots and taking them with me, and me squeezing his ass like it was my job. haha. and it just seemed to snowball from that night... my little irish lover! but that night was funny b/c it was our first night out w/ the faculty, and dave was really paranoid about inappropriate faculty/student interaction, so (jokingly) he stole all of our memory cards from our digital cameras. it was a really fun night. gerald (the safety manager/dive instructor) and i got into a bit of a tiff b/c he told me that he hated puppies... yeah, haha. it was a good time. oh, and there was this french-candadian guy (who was a big jerk b/c he's responsible for one of the big, awful hotel developments that's destroying everything) and he was trying to dance with all of the ladies from sfs... it was pretty funny. marta, charlotte, and micha humored him. needless to say, the night of aaron's birthday was an alcohol-filled blast. the next morning (saturday) kind of sucked though b/c we had site clean-up, and my room had to do the dock and the boats... so we had to snorkel out to two of the boats that weren't directly on the dock, and i thought i was going to die b/c i was still drunk... and gerald, the safety manager, just laughed at us. and then we did beach clean up as our volunteer work for the day, which was cool, b/c there was a lot of trash on the beach (it was kind of unreal how much there was) but it was a pretty difficult task to complete when you're hung over. we did a pretty good job though. afterwards we took all of the garbage to the land fill, where they just burned it all. it smelled pretty bad there. then, that night we had a beach bbq, where we found out why sally likes the pool and not the ocean... we also played some really fun games and such. it was a good time. charlotte, dave and carrie came with us. we played the game mafia, which was fun. i was one of the mafia, and i was the last one to die... boo ya! when we got back from the beach that night, devan, phil, katie and i went to the trenchtown. we didn't really drink... just played kings.
ok, the last two weeks will in a different entry b/c this is taking a lot longer than i thought it would.