Friday, December 31, 2010

Day 2

Day two of the trip/course was a bit of a roller coaster to be honest. Some great moments followed by some annoying and/or painful ones. We woke up around 8, had breakfast and then had a lecture. After the lecture we had some free time to head to the beach for an hour or two before lunch. The water here is so beautiful, I can't get over it. The waves in some places are absolutely insane, but in other areas you can float and relax, it's amazing. We swam, floated, studied, relaxed and just had a good time. After lunch we went to the shopping center to buy our groceries, the bus picked us up on the way back so we wouldn't have to walk back with all our heavy groceries. I bought a few things but found out that my bank card isn't accepted here since it's not a bank they have here (Mom do not freak out, if I can't get money I'll call you and we'll figure something out). I'm going to try to get to a bank or ATM within the next few days to take out some money that'll hopefully last until the end of my trip. Anyway, we got our groceries, got back to our place and unpacked them. Then we were driven to the other side of the island (pretty drive) to do an experiment with sea grass. Let me just say that the East side of the island is so different from the West, but they're both so beautiful. The East coast reminded me of photos I had seen of Hawaii. Unfortunately the sea grass was beyond the rocks, sharp things, and uneven ground. And so we walked over all of that, which was rather painful. And unfortunately my foot is still hurting me and was not happy to be walking over rocks. We must have looked rather funny doing the experiment since it was underwater but only in about a foot of water, so we had to bend down with our heads underwater (we have snorkels) while trying to avoid getting knocked over onto the rocks by waves (we were not very successful, I'm fairly sure we'll all have a few scratches and bruises). Oh and I learned that honking a car horn here is very different than at home, it's more of a pleasantry here, like saying "thank you" or "hello". Yeah, just a little different than at home lol. Anyway, we did the experiment and then once we were back at our place we all made ourselves some supper and studied for our first test tomorrow. Oh and I'll try to get some photos posted soon, I still have to upload them as I was waiting for the camera to dry off (underwater camera) but I will get some posted soon.
Oh and I thought you guys might like this, it's my version of the road rules here:

  • Honking means hello or thank you, not like at home at all
  • All turns must be taken sharply, most are made sharp in the first place
  • You can drive on the right even though you’re supposed to drive on the left, just move when another car comes along
  • Swerving is good
  • Roundabouts are used to pass people, go fast
  • Stop signs are there but they're more of a suggestion that you can choose whether you want to acknowledge or not
  • Back seats of taxi buses do not have to have seat belts, most don't
  • They know what they're doing, it's all good


I hope you're all doing well. Also, tomorrow is new years eve but I don't know when I'll have time to get online so I hope you all have a happy new year :)

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