Wandering...and provisions

Wandering....wandering with no purpose, an excellent idea.  Never any disappointments or unreasonable expectations, only surprises and discoveries.  

Sunday wanderings...wandered to a park, wandered to a grocery store, wandered into town. 

Wandered and got provisions.  It's amazing how comforting a fully stocked refrigerator can be, not materialistically, but that it provides a sense of security, that no matter what happens in this strange, new place, you at the very least won't starve.

Oranges...and blue

The plates here have oranges on them.  All of the students at the university wear orange and blue.  You can buy ANYTHING you want in orange and blue.  Everything stays open late into the night, and on weekends.  People slump over in the casino 7 days a week, waiting to hit that jackpot, whiling away their lives.  People-students, faculty, staff-work all day in small rooms without seeing the sun, I need windows.  The buses run all the time, to everywhere, taking you wherever you want to go to get drunk and embarass yourself.  Friend is a very loose term here I think.  Groups walk into Starbucks at 7pm to get some caffeine before heading out into the night, prepared to stay up for hours.  Work ethic means something different.  There is no excitement, no passion, it has all been dulled by the routine labor of doing time and stacking up hours.

I love COA.

Flailing our arms in Belize!

...alternately titled, "Champs!"

I had the great pleasure to spend ten glorious days on the small island of South Water Caye in Belize for my tropical marine ecology class.  Looking back, and even while there, I know it was one of the greatest experiences I have had thus far in my life.  We spend every day snorkeling and, when weather permitted us, sunning.  We played volleyball on the beach in the white and coral speckled sand, watched the sunset, did yoga as the sun rose and had an all around great time.  The group I was with was equally amazing.  Rarely to I fit in and experience working with such a cohesive group.  Other than one person, I got along wonderfully with everyone.  I was so sad to leave, some of our group are seniors, they will graduate whilst I am abroad.  We will never be together, and especially not in this setting, again.  While we had a lot of fun, I also learned a few key things:
-When climbing on mangroves, always keep your feet on separate branches, they all look sturdy but sometime one will break.
-Don't wear a skirt in a water taxi.
-If there is any chance in the world you might need it, bring it! There's nothing worse than being stuck on a small island and realizing you did need that one thing you decided at the last minute to leave behind.
-Bring extra camera batteries, and take A LOT of pictures.

I have also come to the decision that I do, in fact, love field work.  It requires physical and mental strength, stamina, discipline and a willingness to get dirty... or in our case, very wet.  You also have to be prepared for the whole, "everything that can go wrong will go wrong," and be ready to start from scratch multiple times.  It can also be a bit scary, especially when working with others, but that makes it more fun I think. 
And from our project I learned that I really do love feeding ecology, our project was on butterflyfish feeding, I guess it doesn't matter if I'm working with sharks or the most wimpy fish in the sea, I really love food webs!


(Photo courtesy of a classmate!)