ScienceFun!

In case I ever complain about my job, please remind me of the amazing week I had last week...

First, I went skin diving at Marker 2 and saw a bunch of hogfish, grouper, snapper, and porgies and queen angelfish and cowfish. Plus I collected some pretty amazing echinoderms like a verigated sea urchin and a sea biscuit.

Then the next day I went skin diving at Looe Key and I saw a nine foot nurse shark!! It was just hanging out on the bottom under a ledge. I was basically laying on the sand on the bottom so I could see the whole thing. It was huge, but I found out they get up to 14 feet. So then I'm super excited about all the different types of coral, and the blue tangs and some baby blue tangs (these are yellow. We have no yellow tangs in the Atlantic, so if you've seen one, you are wrong. It's a juvenile blue tang.) and a bunch of parrot fish, when I start swimming back to the boat and see something even sweeter: a goliath grouper! I'm all excited, pointing it out to my snorkel buddy, when I turn around and see two even bigger ones swimming behind me.  The biggest one was at least 350 lbs. It was pretty much the highlight of my life.

A few nights after that, a key deer doe came up to me and nudged me with her nose while I was sitting on the picnic tables eating Special K cereal. She left when she realized I wasn't feeding her though. I think she's the same one that waits for me between the banana trees when I'm trying to walk to the bathroom at night. She's so sneaky...

To summarize: My job is amazing.

Changes

I've only been here for 4 weeks, but I've already dramatically changed some important details of my life.

Things I no longer do:

• Blowdry my hair
• Wear makeup
• Shave my legs when I know I'll be in a bathing suit
• Eat fast food
• Stalk people on Facebook. Yes, I mean you.

New things I worry about:

• Key Deer that hide in between banana tress waiting to scare me
• Having intense tan lines from my sunglasses
• Trying to catch a shark
• The new random bruises all over my legs
• My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume for Fantasy Fest
• Getting fat because I don't do hot yoga anymore

Things I still do:

• Eat Special K Vanilla Almond like it's my job
• Obsess about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows coming out next month

I hope everyone else is enjoying the weather cooling down. I'm not! It looks like I'm going to need to buy a wetsuit pretty soon.

Reunion!

Last weekend was the 45 year anniversary of the camp that we've been getting ready for. It turned out really well! I met a lot of people that were campers at the camp and/or were instructors at the camp in the past. I met a professional cave diver who's diving in caves in China next month and a world-famous diver from Russia.

In the time I've been down here I've given up doing anything that has to do with my looks. Now obviously, I still bathe and brush my hair and teeth and all of that, but I haven't touched a hair dryer since I've been down here and only thrice have I actually put on make-up. So on the Saturday of the reunion when we had to "dress to impress," it was a shock to see everyone looking so nice. It's hard to imagine seeing people all dressed up that you've only ever seen in bathing suits and t-shirts.

Those are my roommates, from left to right :Scottie, me, Jen, and Christine. That's Jill in the back being a creeper.