Thoughts about...thoughts

I don't think I have anything super coherent to write about today in the way of a single thought process. I do want to talk about the money issue though. It's kind of crazy how much money we all have here in this program. Each person has spent at least $1000 on dive gear, and at least $100 on snorkel gear. To even get certified to be a scuba diver costs $300-500 depending on who you go to. On top of that, almost everyone has a gopro of some sort, which has got to cost $300-400, and even more money to spend on top of that for food, souvenirs, etc. And to come on a trip such as this for one session of summer is upwards of $3000 dollars. So basically to even think about coming to this particular program in Bonaire, a student would have to already have *a lot* of money to pay for all of these different costs. And there are high school students here as well doing their own program for five weeks. I am not sure for them whether they need to provide their own gear or not, but in any case it must cost a similar amount of money to come over here. I recognize for myself, coming from an upper middle class family with enough money to pay the bills that thanks to the hard work of my parents, any opportunity that I want (or did want) to take, especially with regards to traveling, was achievable. Yet for many other people, this is not an option. Take, for example, scuba certification. Because Bonaire is supposedly diver's paradise, and I am currently not a certified diver, I was thinking about taking an open water certification course to participate in class and recreational dives that other students were doing. My roommate also happens to be non-scuba certified, but because of money issues (among other things), he is not considering getting scuba certified. Just the simple fact that I am able to begin to think about certification without having to worry as much about the money aspect just goes to show how much privilege myself and many of the other students come into the program with. It's really kind of scary to think about. What kinds of responsibilities do we have sas individuals to steward this money that we have? Especially as we get older and become independent financially from our parents, how can we spent our money wisely? Will it be solely for ourselves, or will it be for others? Will it be for the conservation of the environment around us? The choice is there for us. 

On Sunday, I had a pretty lazy morning--I ended up waking up at 12, since there was nothing planned for us and I was pretty tired from that camping trip and everything that happened on Friday and Saturday. I spent most of the morning trying to complete homework (we actually have a ton of homework here--fieldwork reports, scientific readings, studying for pop quizzes--it's a legitimate science program). I had three scientific papers to read and understand, so I was in the house most of the afternoon trying to slog through that and get to a point where I could participate meaningfully in a conversation during class (or do well in a pop quiz...). At around 6 we headed out to an event called Taste of Bonaire in downtown Bonaire. If you've ever been to a "Taste of _____" event, it was the same as that. There were little stands in the main plaza area showcasing their work--arts and crafts, food, drinks, desserts. It was all there. And all supplemented by live performances by groups around Bonaire, which was really cool to see and experience. For dinner, I had goat stew from our CIEE chef, Gibi. It was really good--it tasted very similar to lamb which was quite interesting. Other people had iguana soup, which I was keen to try, but after seeing what it looked like (see picture below), I couldn't bring myself to try even the soup. Apparently it tasted like chicken noodle soup. We stayed around to see a couple of groups perform including an amazing drum group called Intense Brass. After they finished performing, we headed home to relax and chat.

(Taste of Bonaire!)

(A picturesque downtown Kralendijk)

(Iguana soup--they left in all the scales and claws!)

(About to try iguana soup...)

(Gibi's! His food is so good)

(Goat stew)

(Good food and good company)

(Intense brass--I wish I could upload a video but the video size is too large to upload to BLogger...)

Monday was a nice, relaxed class day. We didn't have class in the morning so I had a chance to review my notes and readings before class, but we did have class in the afternoon--a short two hour lecture, before heading out for a snorkel and dive. The snorkel team went to Lac Cai, on the tip of Lac Bay, to check out the mangroves and snorkel in the super warm and shallow waters to check out the invasive Halophila seagrass. There were some really cool things to see--juvenile fish around the mangrove roots, egg sacs for arthropods, and even some upside-down jellyfish. We are heading back there tomorrow for a kayak trip and another snorkel (and one of the intern's gopros!), so hopefully I will be able to take some photos and upload them here for you all to see. The dive team went to a dive site in the south of the island to go lionfish hunting. The lionfish is an extremely invasive fish in and around the Caribbean, and they have found that the most effective way of control for these species is simply removing them. So, a two teams went out to spear some lionfish. They ended up catching 7 total, and we are getting a chance to eat them soon! After coming back from the snorkel, we had a quick dinner, and I went to skype one of my friends and relax before heading to bed. 

(Officially certified to be in a marine park!)

(Barbed wire lined fence)

(Cactus fence)

(Our "neighborhood" at Hamlet)

Tomorrow we have more class and a lot of free time, which hopefully means another day to snorkel!

A new adventure awaits. 

What to see, what to do

Going along with the previous theme of "what is the purpose of study abroad", I wanted to reflect a little bit on how to spend my time here in Bonaire. This is more of my rational side talking, but if I were to think about the things that I will only be able to experience in Bonaire specifically, there are only a few things that come to mind: the food, the environment, and the locals. It's interesting because I think that for the majority of people (including myself), it is the friends that are made while studying abroad that shapes the experience. At least with CIEE, most if not all students are from the US. So basically the bulk of most students' experiences are most impacted by something that is seen all around us on a regular basis--the people and culture that are most like us. This seems really odd to me; if I am a student studying abroad, I want to experience a culture and environment that is authentic to the place in which I am studying. I don't want to experience America halfway across the world (although there is room for that too). So what do I do with the people that I am meeting and developing friendships with? Should I go out and explore on my own, or sit in the house and chat with friends to deepen my relationship with them? One give me the opportunity to not miss out on things that I am possibly never going to see again, the other helps to make the program a more enjoyable experience, since I won't feel as left out. In my mind, the choice is clear--I would much rather go off on my own and see the island for what it is, rather than stay inside with the students from the program. But my heart tells me I should hang out with everyone else. It's a difficult choice, especially with only four weeks. It's too short to see everything there is to see in a place, but its long enough that I cannot just blow everyone else off and do my own thing. So, I am caught in the middle of this ongoing debacle of what to see, and what to do. You may ask, is there a way to combine both? Why not explore with other people and see the island with your friends? This is a personal thing, but I think for me, I cannot do both. If I am talking with someone, I am going to focus most of my energy talking with that person and developing the conversation. If I am observing my surroundings, I want to be able to take in and soak up everything there is to experience--the sounds, smells, sights, etc. I miss out on a little bit of both when I am walking and talking. What do you guys think about this? I'm curious...

These past few days, the Bonaire program took us to Washington Slagbaai National Park in the North-West part of Bonaire for a camping trip. Camping in the sense that we had the opportunity to sleep in the open, and we weren't located in the typical housing facility. Anyway, it was really cool to get outside of Kralendijk and experience the rest of Bonaire. Despite being a Caribbean island, it is really, really dry. There are cacti growing everywhere, many of the trees do not have leaves on them, and the ground looks parched. It looks more like Arizona or New Mexico, rather than a tropical island. Which is interesting because Palma looks somewhat like that as well, but a little less so. We left Hamlet at around 9:30, and after some trouble (ask me in person), we got on the road up to Slagbaai. Along the way, we stopped at a couple of dive/picturistic sites so we could take photos and look around. It sure takes a lot out of you when you are riding in an open air truck for hours on end. Despite this, the areas in which we stopped were really pretty. Just like Palma, the water looks fountain-dye blue, which is crazy. The waves on the south side of the island come up gently to shore, and everything is quite isolated and quiet, which is really nice. We got to our rented house at around 4:30, and quickly dropped our stuff down before suiting up and heading to the water for some snorkeling. Like everywhere else in Bonaire, there was a lot of things to see--moray eels, schools of fish, a lot of corals--it was pretty amazing as always. After snorkeling we dried off and did some exploring while the sun was setting and the BBQ was going. The purples, pinks, and oranges during the sunset were pretty amazing reflecting off the clouds and the water. It was perhaps one of the best sunsets I have ever seen! We got to eat and continue to watch the sky slowly turn to night, and then went scorpion hunting with UV lights and goggles in the dark which was really cool. Scorpions fluoresce bright yellow under UV light, so we went around the park flipping rocks in an attempt to find some scorpions. We found the molted skin of a couple, but no live ones. Probably a lucky thing in the long run, since I was not wanting to get stung at all. We then came back and chatted the night away, before laying out on the porch area to sleep. It was really amazing to lay back and watch the stars peeking out from behind the fast moving clouds on a completely dark night. Something I will never forget. 

(The fantastic water off the coast of Bonaire!)

(Yellow rocks are all around the island, indicating dive entrance sites. 1000 steps was named because it feels like you are climbing 1000 steps with heavy dive gear)

(Corals lining the beach)

(1000 steps and the beach at the bottom--definitely wasn't 1000 steps...)

(Entrance sign for the national park)

(The desert juxtaposed with the waters of the Pacific)

(Waves crashing up on shore)

(View of the water from the rocks)

(Michelle the intern!)

(Looking on on the dry landscape)

(Our campsite--the CIEE house is on the left)

(Artsy sunset photo)

(Exploration group selfie)

(Just after the sun dipped behind the clouds)

(The colors here are amazing!)

I woke up right as the sun was coming up, around 6:30, because the sky was brightening so much. We quickly got ready and packed all of our stuff to head on a hike up a mountain, which was supposedly the tallest point in all of Bonaire. However, on the way there, we ended up coming down a hill on the truck and a huge rock got stuck between the back tires. Not wanting any further accidents, the interns tried to remove the rock but ended up blowing the back tire instead. We ended up driving back to the main camp site with the crippled tire, and hung around to change the wheel assembly with the spare tire in the truck. Not a bad place to wait though, since the views were killer. The sun, coming up, did not reflect off the water but rather penetrated it, creating a brilliant turquoise blue in shallow areas and a deep navy blue around deeper parts. It was like all of the pictures of water in island vacations I had ever seen in brochures. I simply didn't want to leave. The tire eventually got fixed, and we loaded up the trucks to head back to Kralendijk. On the way, we passed a small town called Rincon. We exited the town, but took a wrong turn and ended up going in a huge loop back to Rincon on Kaminda Karpata instead of going to Kaminda Rincon. This was truly a time when we had an adventure--it was like we could not escape Rincon and were going around in circles. It was a pretty crazy moment, I don't think I had felt so desperate while traveling. We made it home after 3-4 hours of driving, and I quickly ate lunch and laid down for a nap. I ended up sleeping for 4 hours, before waking up at 7:00 and heading out to dinner with some friends at 7:30 at Rum Rider's at Buddy Dive Resort. The restaurant was really nice, situated on the water's edge giving an amazing view of the fish and divers swimming around. We all shared two pretty good thin crust pizzas, and I had a virgin strawberry daiquiri which came out as a smoothie. After eating, I came back and relaxed at Hamlet, slowly working through my dental apps. 

(What's behind the door...)

(The beach in the morning)

(View out from Rum Runners, plus a tiki torch)

(Strawberry daiquiri with the cute dolphin!) 

Tomorrow is the Taste of Bonaire, and hopefully some more snorkeling and relaxing!

A new adventure awaits.  

What is the purpose of study abroad?

I think that is an important question to ask, and I wish I had thought of this before I had left more than a month ago. The two programs are very, very different in nature--the Palma program is very much culture based. We were in homestays, and were given a lot of time outside of class to explore the city and were encouraged to delve into something new. CIEE Bonaire is class and research based. Everything evolves around learning the biology of the marine environments in the Caribbean and studying that for quizzes and exams. There is barely any culture to learn from CIEE staff here. When I was in Spain, I thought I was here to learn about marine biology, and so I was dissatisfied with the cultural components of my experience because I thought it was irrelevant to what I was here for. Now that I am here in Bonaire, I feel that I am missing out on the culture of Bonaire and Kralendijk because I am constantly either in class, out in the water snorkeling, or studying material. You know the saying "the grass is greener on the other side?" That's exactly how I am feeling. Other students that I have talked to here in Bonaire feel the same way about this program--the culture portion is lacking. Granted most students come here for the high scientific focus and excellent lab work, but honestly I could get almost the same experience in Florida if I really wanted to. It sees that all of us are trying to gain new experiences and see a new environment by studying abroad, which doesn't seem to be an emphasis of this abroad program. Although they are certainly trying (we had a Papiamentu lesson earlier this week), the amount of time we spend in class, in the field, and studying definitely outweighs the free time we have to simply go and explore the island. Plus, we are so far away from downtown; it takes at least 25 minutes at a really fast paced walk to get to the very tip of downtown, and probably 30 minutes to fully get into downtown. This is not to say that downtown is big. In fact, it's really small, just like the island. It would probably take only 10 minutes at a window shopping pace to go from end to end. It's nice, but there isn't much to see compared to other places in the world. So really, why am I here? I think a lot of it was truly to experience the culture: if I really wanted to study marine biology, I could have just done that at a U.S. university myself. The culture component is something that I cannot get anywhere else besides through traveling, especially since we are here for such a long time. It is a great chance to experience and explore life as a local rather than a tourist. 

Yesterday, we started the day with a dive/snorkel dealing with biodiversity. We had 20 minutes at two different sites along a site called yellow sub to identify and count as many species as possible. For us snorkelers, the two sites were the tidal area and the reef crest 20-25 ft deep. This was the first time conducting any type of science underwater--we had a slate, pencil, and wax paper with different species of fish on it so that we could write underwater. The sheet was attached by three rubberbands to the slate, which made it somewhat easier to keep everything together. It was quite easy to complete the snorkel--the species identification was the hard part, since there were so many species and we had only learned the AGRRA species the day before in an hourlong lecture. After about an hour in the water, we headed back to the research station to dry off and head into class, where we got a brief lecture about the assignment we were supposed to complete. There was nothing planned after lunch, so I took a long nap and then headed into the water to snorkel again (since why not?). There is something therapeutic about being in the water by yourself swimming around. Not only do you see really cool fish (there were some French grunts that allowed me to swim face to face with them), but it's so quiet and expansive and there are endless places to explore. It's amazing how many things there are to be seen on an hour snorkel. I keep on telling myself I will get an underwater camera. One day it will happen so I can share the beautiful waters of Bonaire with you guys. After coming back on land, I headed to dinner, and then went out with everyone to karaoke night at a local bar. It was a lot of fun--the people singing karaoke were good (for the most part), and the atmosphere was really relaxed yet energized since it was a hoppin' bar. 

 (Bars out on the water)

 (A closer look! The one in the center is the karaoke bar)

 (Our favorite karaoke man)

 (Goats roam free on this island--they're everywhere...)

Today, we had class at 10 but I ended up walking to the research station early to do laundry. Can you believe there are no laundry facilities close to where we are living? We have to haul all of our clothes to the research station, which is such a hassle. Anyway, I successfully got my laundry into the gigantic laundry machine and set it to wash, while I went off to class to watch the movie "The End of the Line." It was a really well done movie about the effects of overfishing and the history of the fishing industry. Most of us walked out of that movie really depressed and angry at the world, but inspired to make changes to our own habits and that of others. There were many discussions about what was going on in the movie for hours after it ended which was really cool to see--that is something that I would not be able to see at Pitt. After the movie and discussion we had lunch before heading back to the station for a couple hours of lecture about fisheries. When class ended, we got a small tour of downtown, which was very different than what I was expecting. Actually, I don't know what I was expecting. The buildings were only one or two stories tall, and it had a very local, open feel to it. It was very much like a large pedestrian foot mall. Everything was really close together, so there was a great ease of access for anything and everything I would need on the island. After getting back and eating lunch, we went to class to learn about fisheries which as pretty complex but fascinating. We had the afternoon off for the most part--the only organized thing was the fisheries. I worked on my dental apps during that free time before going to dinner and hanging around Hamlet for the night.

(The view from the sidewalk)

(More views from the sidewalk)

(A mural for a radio station on the way to class)

Tomorrow, we are going camping for a night at Slagbaai National Park! 

A new adventure awaits. 

I just want to know.......

The classic question--I just want to know....that seems to be a recurring theme here--no one knows what is going on. The students don't have a clue what to do or where to be at what time, the interns who we have direct contact with don't have a clear picture of what the schedule is and what needs to be done, and the top most level staff (the professors and office staff) are not present enough to help the rest of us get through the program, or change the schedule at will. It's been a chaotic first few days, mainly because of the fact that the schedule has been constantly changing and that things that need to get done are constantly pushed back. The mentality is that it will get done at some point--if not today, then tomorrow or the day after. I get the laid back attitude of the island, and I am all for that. But when it gets in the way of efficient running of a program, that becomes a problem. Take, for example, the whole debacle with purchasing gear. My understanding was that students were not supposed to bring any gear whatsoever because it did not mention it anywhere in the orientation packet that gear was a necessity. However, upon arriving, I happened to be one of the few students without gear. This wasn't a problem, they told me, since hey would go out and help me buy gear in the free time we had between Saturday and now, when classes had started. When questioned about when they would actually take us to these dive shops to get our gear however, it turned from a "we'll definitely get you out there" to a "sorry, we don't have time to do it--can we push to tomorrow?" deal. We finally got to go to a wholesale dive shop, but were only given 30 minutes to find (unaided) all of our gear. And let me tell you: buying gear,even just snorkel gear (mask, snorkel, boots, fins, and wetsuit) is not a cheap task. So of course I was not ready to invest over $100 on gear that I was haphazardly trying on in the 30 minutes before class that we were in the dive shop. Not only was it frustrating for the students there, but it was equally if not more frustrating for the interns who had to take us. All in all, it was a pretty bad experience. Long story short, I ended up biking to a place myself after lunch today to get my own gear and to get help one on one by the store manager, and I had a much more pleasant experience...It's small things like this that are getting on the nerves of myself and all the students here. The fact that we're hearded around like cattle from one place to another. The fact that the schedule is constantly changing--things getting pushed back to accommodate a late lunch delivery or a dive that lasted longer than it should have. The fact that there is so little communication between the different levels of management. These points of tension are only going to get worse as the program goes on--it is very obvious the ways that the session 1 students are tired of being a part of the CIEE program already purely because of this. I know a part of this is coming from my J personality--I am very much a person who likes to have a schedule and stick to it. But its just not fair to us, as students paying to be in this program (which, by the way, has been running for 6 years prior), to be in the midst of disorganization and non-communication amongst staff without any idea what to do, especially because we are in a new country and new environment. We still have three more weeks, let's hope that the next few weeks improve upon this shaky beginning. 

Yesterday, I spent some time down at the 7 body beach (named that way because it's so small, it only fits 7 bodies) in the morning, looking around before heading back to the house and eating lunch. We were supposed to leave at 1 to get our gear (refer to above story), but class got pushed to 2 so we ended up leaving at 1:15. To make matters worse, our lunch, like most of our meals, was delivered late to us so we couldn't start eating until 12:50. We made it to Palm Trading, a wholesale dive shop at around 1:30 and had about 20-25 minutes to roam around the shop and figure out everything we needed. Needless to say, it was one of the more stressful and hectic times of my life trying to figure out which masks fit, which equipment was good, how to get the wetsuits on, etc. Of course, I ended up buying anything, and we hurriedly drove to the CIEE research station to have our first class. The class itself went pretty well (a three hour science lecture...), but afterwards we got to go out to the waterfront for our swim test. We had it easy (our Dive Safety Officer (DSO) only wanted to know we could swim), so we did 400m of swimming in open water. I am certainly not the fittest person, but I managed to pull my body through the whole test and made it back in one piece. We headed back to the research station to dry off and talk to the DSO about our goals for diving and snorkeling, and what needed to be done in order to accomplish them. After that, we drove back to Hamlet to have dinner, and I basically hung out at the house doing homework for the rest of the night. I must admit--not having a cultural portion to deal with in this program is a bit nice, but at the same time, I feel like I am missing out on so much on this island. All it is here is class, homework, dive, snorkel, eat. That's the vibe I am getting from everyone here. 

 (Kids in the water ready to do their swim test)

 (Sunset over the water)

 (The rocky beachside sunset)

 (These trees are perfect)

 (Look at the color on these clouds!)

(The pool at night--looks great for a swim)

Today in the morning, our DSO came to get us early to help us get equipment. We went back to Palm Trading, this time with an hour to select what we truly wanted. I ended up getting a wetsuit and boots (basically the underwear to my snorkel gear), before heading to class. We had three and a half hours of class, and within that, three completely different lectures on marine biodiversity, AGRRA fish identification, and coral reef ecology. I don't think I've had any class so intense before--the amount of information packed into those three lectures was mind boggling, and I definitely needed time to review after the lectures were done. That was so much information that was given compared to the three hour lectures Salud used to give us in Palma. The educational pace has definitely been changed here in Bonaire. After class we were driven back to Hamlet to eat lunch, and as soon as I finished eating, I took my bike and went to GoooDive, a nearby dive shop to get the rest of my equipment. I completed my snorkel gear with the purchase of my mask, snorkel, and fins, and happily biked home. Since the other students were doing a dive check, and we did not need to complete that, we decided to go snorkeling ourselves near Hamlet. I ended up going into the water for two hours, snorkeling around and trying to use my newly acquired AGRRA identification techniques to identify fish. The water was certainly not as clear as in the Mediterranean, but the biodiversity was so much greater--the number of fish species here were amazing, and they let me swim up close and almost touch them. It was really fun to snorkel just around Hamlet--I am sure I will get to see some other really neat things when we snorkel in the future. After snorkeling, we went to the supermarket to get food for the upcoming week, and then headed back for dinner. It's been a really relaxed night since--I have been sitting here trying to memorize the AGRRA species for the last few hours before tomorrow's dive, while at the same time trying to relax and enjoy my time in Bonaire. It's a weird feeling; not quite relaxed, not quite focused. 

[Sorry, no pictures from today--I don't have an underwater camera to capture the cool stuff underwater yet :/]

Anyway, I am rambling. Tomorrow, we have a biodiversity dive for class early in the morning and hopefully some jellyfish hunting (for fun) at night! Definitely putting that new gear into good use. 

A new adventure awaits.

PS--there aren't many pictures to take, since we're constantly moving back and forth between the same locations. Also, the island is pretty barren--only small houses and buildings line the roads. Most of the magic is underwater. I am in the process of trying to get my hands on an underwater camera--that would be really cool to work with, and it would allow me to get some great shots of what I am seeing the times I am not on land!

Changes

So, what happens when things are different--different than what you expected, different from what you've experienced, different from anything and everything you know? You adapt, or get left behind. And it's so easy to get left behind. Coming to Bonaire, I knew that the courses were going to be mostly SCUBA dive based, but what I did not know was that there really isn't much to do on the island besides SCUBA or snorkel--in fact, Bonaire is most known for its SCUBA and windsurfing. So, when I got here, I was shocked to find out that not only was almost everyone else in the program SCUBA certified, but they had also brought their own equipment--mask, snorkel, fins, boots, regulator, etc. I totally wish I had known that we needed to bring our own equipment here, I mean they provided everything for us in Palma so I just kind of assumed that they would have everything here for us. I guess not. As a non-diver coming into this program, it's hard not to think that you're not getting the whole experience. It's kind of like saying that I am going to Spain but I am going to speak Chinese and eat only Asian food there. It may be good, but it's not the whole experience; you miss out on Spanish and Mallorcan culture when you limit yourself in this way. So maybe it's peer pressure (not that people are forcing me to dive), but I feel like by not diving and not getting that experience while I am here, I am missing out on a major component of this program. I already cannot do some of the more interesting dives for class as it is, since I can only snorkel. It's crazy. I feel like I am being left behind at this point with no way to catch up. Okay, maybe there is a way to catch up. But it costs a LOT of money. Like over $1000. So at this point, I dunno if it's completely worth it. But I'm missing out on some of the experience. But it's a lot of money.............This argument is swirling through my head as I write this. As soon as I get off, I am doing some more research on SCUBA gear and masks so I don't buy the wrong things tomorrow.

Yesterday was the first day in Bonaire, and it was great. The island is very dry, just like Mallorca, but it is at least 2 or 3 times more humid here than in the Mediterranean, which means that all sorts of creatures that I am not used to come out in swarms to me. As soon as I got into the airport, the first thing I noticed was the sweltering heat, which was not helped by the fact that I was wearing long khakis and shoes. Customs went by smoothly, and I was found relatively quickly by CIEE staff and then transported to the Hamlet, which is a waterfront resort. So apparently a high school program is staying in the residence halls where we would normally be staying, so we are instead at a resort within easy walking distance to the water. The accommodations are nice--we have one other roommate, a living area with TV, a kitchen, and lots of space to hang stuff around and do homework. It's actually really nice, although I do miss the privacy of my homestay. The people, I instantly noticed are different. Both the island and CIEE people. The island people are so much more chill than those in Mallorca--Bonaire truly runs on Island Time, whereas I suspect Mallorca runs more on Spain time than the famous "Island Time"...I could be wrong though. The people are also super different--everyone is a bio/environmental science/marine bio major, which means that we all get to geek out together. Really really different than in Palma, where people were in pretty diverse majors working towards all fields. I definitely feel out of my league hanging around these people, especially when they delve into marine biology talk since my only exposure to marine bio is the four week survey "course" I took in Palma, if you can even call it a full course. Ah well, I am sure we'll learn a lot of things here. When we got a little settled into our resort homes, a group of people went snorkeling, and others went diving, but I ended up staying around since I did not have any equipment with me to do anything. Ah well, after tomorrow I will have stuff. We then had dinner, and went back to go to bed really early to recover from traveling. I definitely needed that. 30 hours of traveling was pretty long, and made me super tired and disoriented from the time change.

 (Line for the runway at Newark)

 (Klein Bonaire from the plane window)

 (Thanks for taking us to Bonaire!)

 (The tiny Bonaire International Airport)

 (Bonaire windsurfing is apparently world famous)

 (View from the waterfront)

 (Some great areas to view the water)

Today, we got up and had orientation about the resident life here, especially since we are living off campus this term instead of in the regular CIEE. Most of the stuff was common sense, but there were a few interesting tidbits, especially about theft around the area which apparently is really common. Anyway, we had lunch and then headed off to see the CIEE classrooms and old dorms to rent out bikes so we could get around the island. The bikes were kind of in bad shape--a lot were rusting, and some had flat tires, but I ended up getting a pretty good bike. We then had class orientation with the professors and teaching assistants, and played some ice breaker games to get to know each other more. We then went to Spice, a beachfront resort to have a welcome BBQ, which was a great opportunity to talk and network with students and staff in a relaxed atmosphere on the beach with the sun setting behind us. Afterwards, we stopped by the CIEE research station to pick up our bikes, and headed back to Hamlet (where we are staying) to chat. I had a chance to skype my dad for Father's day (Happy Father's day!), but now I am heading to bed after all this activity. The heat and the sun definitely takes a lot out of you!

(Path to the waterfront)

(Spice resort beach--one of the few sandy beaches on Bonaire)

(Classic Caribbean beach)

Tomorrow, we have the first day of classes and a swim competency test. We'll also be getting snorkel gear which I am excited about!

A new adventure awaits.