Wednesday was another full day. The morning was split between SCUBA diving the cut and work projects, that afternoon we had community outreach, and that night, we had our homestay family dinner. Most of the families that participated in the homestay program came up to the school for a tour and dinner. We were given very good food because of the special event. After dinner, a slideshow of all the pictures taken on the homestays was presented to everyone. The homestay families were very entertained, which could be seen by their constant laughter that lasted the entire time.

Conch Research Working on Their Pond

On Thursday, we had a choice of playing water polo or doing yoga for exercise. We had normal classes, plus another speaker for our humanities tourism and development unit. There were lots of students that were ill during this week, so many students were missing from exercise and classes.
Friday started out with either a short run or a short swim to get ready for our upcoming half marathon/super-swim. The rest of the day was about normal.

Saturday was more or less a really really long and tiring day, also known as an all day research extravaganza. We were granted a sleep-in (or a lie-in if you’re british) to get us rested before our big events on Sunday. The morning consisted of working on research for three hours straight. The entire rough draft of our research paper was due at 6 P.M., so everyone was working hard. We had a brief break for lunch and then worked until dinner on research. Following a carbo-load of pasta, the one and only Chris Maxey lead us in some drinking games, with water, of course. The Aquaculture research group, however, was not able to join the games because they had to finish their research paper. Everyone went to bed early in preparation of the next day.

A long long way to run!

13.1 miles of fun!

Sunday was a big and long day. Everyone circled up at 5:15 in the morning. As the swimmers went and had a cold breakfast, the runners set out at 5:30 and started their half marathon. The runners ran 13.1 miles, which was to Deep Creek and back. Everyone pushed through the intense heat and humidity and everyone finished. The swimmers were great cheerleaders for all of the runners, spraying them down with super-soakers and spray bottles. Lucas was at the front heading through Deep Creek and had to face down a few potcakes (local dogs). Our top finishers were Charlie Mach and Scotty Aland, whose time was one hour and forty-four minutes! After all the runners finished, the swimmers shipped out (literally – on the Cobia) to Deals Point, the start of their four mile super-swim. The runners cheered for the swimmers, and again, everyone did a fantastic job. Isaac Reyes was the top finisher of the swim, Speedo and all. After the swimmers finished, everyone enjoyed a great brunch – breakfast burritos with eggs, bacon, salsa, and the works. After a relaxing afternoon of doing nothing, there was pop-corn and movie night. The main feature was Mean Girls.

Peter - Feeling Good

Isaac - Born to Swim!

Monday, we slept in. After breakfast, we shipped out into Cotton Bay and listened to Wim Steambakker, a local developer, talk about his project (in the scorching heat, which was very intense). Everyone came back with shirts soaked with sweat. There was community outreach planning and some actual free-time. Monday night was our final community meeting, which was a sad time. Study hours went by, and we all went to bed.

Tuesday was a very intense day. We had a short run and swim in the morning. Everyone was in pain because we were still sore from Sunday. We first heard Victor Sloss talk about how the Cape is changing. The company he works for, DP Fox (based out of Grand Rapids, Mi), is planning on developing the marina and Powell Point. This fueled some with rage, while it brought joy to others. After lunch, we almost lost one of our own: Pedonkery the whale. As we were swimming in the girl’s cut, a sudden gust of wind brought our beloved friend out to sea. If it weren’t for the efforts of Gorav and his kayak, the whale would have been lost forever. Thank goodness for Gorav, …. And inflatable whales. Research took up the afternoon and was long and intense. We had natural history class at night, which was our last one. The study hours were used to study for our science final, which was the next day.  This was a good week, and this is our last update. Thank you all for reading, and we will see you all soon.

SHOUT OUTS:

Jeremy- Hey what’s going on in Bremen, I will be there in less than a week now, probably within 4 days of ya’ll reading this. BJ you better be ready to start having fun, we have a lot to catch up on, ditto to you Seth. Shelby I can’t believe you broke another phone, lol. Well I will see ya’ll on June 8th., the day I get back, we will all have to chill. C-ya’ll then.

Travis - Hello everyone back in good old EGR. Hello all family and friends. Spencer you are my roommate and we will be living in the basement soon once again. Wes, we have some days of sloths coming up and I now have Scrubs Season 1. Eric: you and Solja…. Interesting, see you soon. Jill, I’ll be back soon to start the mocking all over again. Michael, we need to see Donnie Darko directors cut still, but it’ll happen soon. Well, see you all on the 9th.