Scuba Test

Today I woke up feeling refreshed and actually not sleep deprived like I have the past couple of days. I had breakfast, then attended the morning meeting, and eventually made my way to lecture. There were four in a row today, so four hours of sitting in the classroom. I now have even more assignments and I am required to know the scientific class and name (taxonomy) of about 50 coral, mangroves, and seagrass by Monday for the exam. I definitely have a lot of studying to do! 

After classes we had lunch and shortly after I was preparing for my first scuba dive (major highlight of my day)! We were split up into two groups and I was part of the first one. I headed down to the dive shed and got my dive set-up all together and then went straight to the dock. We loaded the boat with all of our gear and headed out only a minute from shore for the day. The dive spot was only 15 feet deep because we were only running some drills to ensure we were capable of going deeper. But, I still saw some pretty cool fish! :) After running basic skills, we were able to swim around the area for about 20 minutes and I spotted the back side of two eagle rays swimming off, a baby puffer fish, a few spiny lobster, a ton of different seagrass and corals, a few sea biscuits, and hundreds of other various little fishies! :D It wasn't as colorful today, but I know it will be once we go farther out and into deeper waters, which will be on Saturday (our first REAL scuba dive). 

When I came back I took a nice saltwater shower (still saving my freshwater one for when I am in dire need), and did some readings and homework before dinner. After dinner all of us at the center played a game of human clue where we were teamed up and had to guess which staff member had committed the "murder of the conch shell" haha! It was really corny but a lot of fun running from place to place trying to figure out who did what, with what, and where. There were three rounds and the winning teams got a pint of ice cream. My team didn't win :( But it was still enjoyable! :) Now I'm just finishing up some readings and relaxing before bed. Tomorrow we begin identifying the class and scientific names of the plants actually in the water instead of looking at a slideshow so I have that to look forward to! For now, here is a picture of a view I have looking out from the center! Good night!