Day 4

This is going to be a bit shorter since I'm tired but want to catch up on blogs. So New Years day! Thankfully we got the day off today so my roommate and I slept in until around 12. Another one of the girls had slipped a note under our door saying they went to the beach so once we were up we went to join them. We didn't stay all that long though, maybe an hour or so. We went back to the rooms, had lunch, relaxed, then went downtown to look around. All the shops were closed but we walked around, took pictures, and just hung out for a few hours. We also took the public bus there and back which is rather fun, they have music playing the whole time. But the buzzer for the bus was a doorbell with an awful sound. Once we were back at our place we relaxed for an hour or so then went out to a restaurant for supper. And I must say, it was an amazing restaurant. Very different from anything we have back home decor-wise but really nice. And the food was amazing! After supper a bunch of us headed back to the apartments to finish up a lab report due tomorrow, and once that was done we went over to the teacher's apartment to watch some tv until 12 or so. After that we just relaxed in our rooms, and headed to bed. Pretty uneventful day but it was nice and relaxing. Hope you all had a great new years eve and day. Take care! :)

Day 3

This is the blog entry for New Years Eve, I'm a bit late but I didn't get back until around 3:30am so I was too tired to write up a blog entry. I'll try to post another tonight to catch up on todays events. So yes, New Years Eve! We woke up around 8, had breakfast then we had a lecture. We were all very tired and kept falling asleep during the lecture though. After the lecture we went to do our lab on waves and the sand. We had to sift through sand and we put too much, so it took forever. We finally got a system figured out and it worked pretty well. We got most of the labs done but we couldn’t get some of them to work properly. We had to head back for lunch around 12:30 and after lunch we studied for our test at 3:30, then took the test and I think almost everyone failed, it was pretty bad. Sucks too because we had all been studying a lot. After the test we all walked to the supermarket and bank to get some money (thankfully my bank card works at the bank here so I can get money) and buy some more groceries and booze. I bought groceries, mostly microwaveable meals and juice. The others bought lots of beer and other alcohol but I wasn’t planning on drinking so I didn’t buy any. Once we got back, the sun was setting so a few of us went down to the beach to get some photos, and oh my gosh was it ever gorgeous! It’s just unbelievably beautiful here, I can’t even explain it. We also saw a big red crab that I took a few (not so great) photos of. We went back to our rooms, got dressed for new years, got our stuff together and headed to the teacher’s place. They barbecued for us for supper and we all just hung out and drank (everyone except me and one other girl that is). Everyone (minus me) played beer pong and flip cup (drinking games) for most of the evening. Around 11:30 we headed to a street where there was a party and to see the fireworks. By the time we got there we had missed the fireworks but it was 50 dollars (Canadian) just to get onto the street and we weren’t willing to pay that anyway. The clock struck 12 when we were there so we all hugged and said happy new year, then we headed to the beach where they have campfires, saw some fireworks, they released lanterns (bags with candles) into the sky, there was a bar on the beach with music and dancing. It was lots of fun. We all danced and had a good time. We stayed there until around 3am and then we headed back to our place. Unfortunately it had been raining off and on and it poured on our way home so by the time we got back we were all soaking wet. We got home and headed to bed around 3:30am and that’s about it. Happy New Year everyone! :)
And here are some photos :)

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 :)

We have arrived!

Hey all, just wanted to say that my group and I have arrived safely after a long day of traveling. We're all a mix of very hyper and exhausted, makes for good times and funny conversations lol. The plane rides were loooong. Technically only about 3-4 hours each but they felt insanely long. Needless to say we're all very happy to be here. We finally arrived around 1130pm, went to a Texaco for some snacks and drinks, and got to our apartment/condo/whateveritis. Oh and let me just say, it's crazy hot here and I'm loving it! No more cold weather! It's pretty dark so I can't really see much, but from what I've seen this place is gorgeous. The driving is crazy though, cannot get used to them driving on the left side of the road and swerving like crazy. But they know what they're doing so it's all good. Oh and we have wireless in our rooms so I can update you guys relatively often. Sorry if this is rambling, I'm rather tired as I went to bed at 3:30am (packing took longer than expected), woke up at 7:30am, and have not slept since. I think we're going snorkeling tomorrow so that should be fun, I'm very excited! And I can't think of anything else I wanted to say so bye for now! :)