Day 13 - The Trip Home

Our flight was at 7:30am so we woke up at 4am, got all our stuff together and got in the bus/taxi at 430am. We went straight to the airport and got in line to check in. The check in lines were outside and because it was early morning and hot I started to feel sick, which for me is relatively normal but not that pleasant anyway. Once we were checked in we went through customs and security which didn’t take too long. Then we bought some food, wandered around the gifts shops and then headed to the gate. We boarded the plane and I had a window seat beside Alex, one of the girls on the trip with me. We all slept through almost all of the flight. I slept on and off but I did manage to sleep for about 3 hours of the 4 hour flight. For the last hour Alex and I watched an episode of Lie to Me from season 1. Once we landed in Miami (weird airport in my opinion) we had to go through customs (loooooong walk to get there I might add), pick up our baggage, and recheck our baggage. We did that then went to have lunch in a mini food court where I bought a pepperoni pizza. I had lunch with Gaby, Jen, Lauren, and Emily who also had pizza or burger king. After lunch we went through security (again) then headed to the gate where we waited and worked on our labs before boarding the plane home. I switched seats with Gen so she could sit beside Alex, and I ended up sitting between two strangers. One slept through the flight and the other had an adorable 8 month old daughter, she just kept bobbing around and sticking her tongue out. I worked on the labs, then went through photos for Flora and Fauna. The woman and I ended up chatting about the photos, the trip and all that; she was really nice. I then watched an episode and a half of Lie to Me before I had to turn off the laptop for landing. We landed around 4:30pm, went through customs (for the 3rd time that day I might add) which took forever because the line up was huge, then got our bags, and met up with our parents or whoever was picking us up. I saw my mom and sister right away so I met up with them, and we headed home. And here I am, home safe and sound :) It feels like I’ve been gone forever and that I’ve never left at the same time. It feels weird but normal at the same time lol. Barbados was so amazing, I still have lots of photos to go through and upload, as well as some videos to upload and possibly edit into a movie, we’ll see. I hope you’re all doing well and have enjoyed reading about my trip. Take care! :)

Day 12

Last day here! It feels like forever! We woke up around 10, thought we’d leave at 1030 but ended up leaving at 1130. Jess gave me some pita bread and peanut butter for breakfast and I made a lunch for us with it as well. We went out to the East coast to do the sea grass experiment part 2 which didn’t go all that well since none of us could find our patches of grass in order to measure the growth. And I stepped on a crab hole that the crab was in so he pinched my toe. I also stepped on many rocks, pieces of dead coral, and many other uneven, sharp, and painful things. Really made me wish I had brought water shoes for that experiment. And there were chickens on the beach, I’ll never get used to seeing chickens on lawns and beaches. After the experiment we headed to the Welchman Gully where we went on a 45 minute guided walk to learn about the plants and stuff. It was so beautiful, it’s like a tropical rainforest there. We saw bamboo, nutmeg, lots of beautiful flowers, some crazy looking trees, caves. And there are these non-native snails that they’re trying to get rid of so Kyle kept stepping on them. They made this awful crunching sound then a pop and it was rather disgusting. At the end of the trail there was even a lookout point which was breathtaking, you could see all the way to the east coast. I took loads of pictures. We headed back to the hotel and then I met up with Lauren, Gaby, Emily, and Kyle to go to the institute to get internet and work on the labs. We stayed there for an hour or so then took the bus back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel I read and finished a book, made myself some ramen noodles which were surprisingly really good, and then uploaded my pictures and watched a few episodes of Lie to Me from the first season. My roommate headed out to Lexi's with soem fo the other girls but my foot had really started hurting so I went over to the teachers' room. I thought I had seen something there like a splinter but I wasn’t sure so I figured I’d ask them to check it out. I had stepped on many painful things in the morning at the sea grass experiment with all the rocks, coral, etc. Turns out there was a piece of a thorn of some sort in my foot. So JP got tweezers and a needle and proded, poked, scraped, etc until it was out. Wow did it ever hurt. But at least it was out and there was polysporin and a bandaid on it. Then I was just chilling in my room when I heard people at the pool so I went to check and sure enough there were there. They must have seen me because a minute later Jen and Roman were at my door asking me if I wanted to join the others for swimming. I said sure so I headed to the pool where we had chicken fights. Turns out I have a strong grip because Gaby kept commenting on how she couldn’t get a grip on my since I kept holding onto her instead, I couldn’t stop laughing. Then everyone kept picking up Gaby and spitting water in her ears lol. The movie 2012 was starting in Jen’s room so most people went to watch that and I went back to my room to pack. I showered then listened to music and packed until around 1am then did the dishes and Jess (my roommate for the trip) and I headed to bed.

Day 11

I woke up around 7 because the room was so bright, then around 730 I got up and started to get ready for the boat ride at 9. My roommate was going on the second boat so she slept in but I was on the first so I had to get ready. I brought my laptop with me so I could go online and check messages since I can’t do that at the hotel without paying 8 bucks an hour, which is crazy. We walked to the institute (about a half hour) and then put our stuff in the (locked) computer room. Then we met up with Caroline (boat driver) and got on the boat. We went to do the second part of the water sampling lab which didn’t take long. I was taking pictures and then my teacher asked me to do my historical figure oral so I had to do that. I think it went well, he seemed impressed by my choice (Charles Darwin). And for anyone who is wondering what Charles Darwin has to do with marine biology and oceanography, he went on a trip called the Voyage of the Beagle on which he and his crew mapped, surveyed and charted the coasts of southern south africa, and it was also on this trip that he discovered fossils that lead to his theory of evolution and natural selection. He also is behind the accepted theory about the formation of atoll reefs. Anyway, for the lab I was recording the data since I brought my paper and it went by pretty fast. After that we went to go snorkelling on the barge and coral reef again. The fish were still insane, swimming right in front of your face and crowding you so much that you can’t even move anymore. We swam for about 30-40 minutes, and it was amazing. The water was crystal clear, there were tons of fish around. I took so many pictures and some of them are really nice. I even got lots of pictures of the yellow and black striped ones, the parrotfish, and a few others as well. Then we got back on the boat and went back to the institute. We all went on the computers and then some of the others went to the beach while I stayed in the lab and went on my laptop to take advantage of the internet access to check messages and refill my phone card since the star number didn’t work last night. I stayed in the lab for a few hours, then Allison and I went to join Maeva and Eliane at the beach for a bit. We couldn’t go to the wildlife reserve since it would have been too expensive and only Alison and I wanted to go. We swam and tanned on the beach near the institute for a bit then headed to the tiny shops for souvenirs and stuff. We also stopped at the Texaco for some food necessities. I bought some ramen noodles, a banana, some juice and other stuff for the next few days. Jess, Michelle, Drew, Kyle, JP, Chris, and I all headed to Just Grillin’ for supper where I got the grilled mahi mahi with grilled potatoes, Caesar salad and a virgin strawberry daiquiri which was amazing. If you are ever in Barbados, be sure to check out that restaurant! After supper we went to the Super C so they could buy some beer for beer pong. We set up everything in our room (fyi: bad idea, do not use your room for beer pong even if you have the biggest room, makes for a big mess). Some people were in the pool having chicken fights and making 3 people high towers that toppled over. I took a few videos until we were told to keep the noise down. Then everyone piled into our room for beer pong for a few hours. I played with coke and was teamed with Drew but we played so badly XD We lost without getting a single cup of the other teams. Around 11 everyone decided to go out to Lexi’s Piano Bar but I stayed home and read for a while. I was so tired though that I went to bed around 1.