It's not over.. well maybe it is

 I am currently sitting in the lobby of BIOS waiting to call my taxi to take me to the airport. It's wierd to think that I arrived in this lobby exactly 3 weeks ago and one of the keys sitting in the new arrivals box was for me. Now they all have new names and my keys have been dropped off in the key return. Being the last one to leave I got the swell experience of having to say goodbye to everyone one by one and getting some good time out on the dock at concrete beach to think of my time here and what it has meant to me.. but before I get to that I want to tell you about the amazing adventures I did get myself into on my last days here.

So thursday after our presentation BIOS held a going away party for our class. Basically it was all the Bermudian rum you could drink for 10$. As you could guess most of the station, including all my classmates and our profs, had a great great time. It was held at the 'Passing Wind' which is the bar that is on station. It's a cute little thing and it was packed. Our team mostly took over the fooze ball table but I took some time and had some great chats with our profs.. who are all non-Christians.. about what they think about intelligent design and basically asked them questions from the Christian perspective about all the evolutionary stuff I've been learning this past week. It was a great time and this picture here, is our prof, Steve Giovannoni, Julie and Wesley, with 'ink' that says MO 07 4EVA (Microbial Oceanography 07 for ever).. I don't know if it's funny to anyone else, but if you know the quiet nature of this prof  and the saying.. you'd understand.

So friday morning we had lecture and then friday afternoon after a nice greasy and gross Fried Friday lunch, our group decided for one last time we'd hop on the bus and get up to an adventure. It was off to Tobacco Bay for some amazing snorkeling and hanging out time. It was a hot hot walk through St. George's but we took some back roads and really got to see how beautiful a city it is. We honestly thought the bus would never come to pick us up.. but once we got to the water it was worth it. We all played in the water and some of us even had business to do. Lion, my friend from Israel, is a PhD student and is studying sponges so he wanted to take some samples. Being the kind girl that I am I thought it would be fun to help him. So out we go to the reef loaded down with cameras, bags, gloves and razors. It was difficult to snorkel, assist and bag and label all at the same time, considering the waves weren't exactly helping me out.. but it was all going well until Lion decided it would be a fun thing to slash my hand with his sampling razor. Blood was pouring and I was  shreeking.. because what is the one thing I am most afraid of in life?.. SHARKS.. which are attracted to blood. So Im having a panic attack and begging Lion to let me swim back to shore and get out of the water.. and he's being noble.. no I'll save you if they come.. (all the while laughing at me).. eventually he calmed me down and no sharks came. And in the end I pawned off the assistant duties to Chris and swam back to shore..  Still it was a great day, really hot though and I enjoyed the nice nap I had once back at BIOS.

On Saturday we were up early again, and because most were leaving that day we said our goodbyes and then headed out with the Coral Reef Ecology (another class here at BIOS) to explore some underwater caves. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing these caves were. It was like what we had seen last weekend, but without the fake lights and we were allowed to swim in them. The water was cold and it was dark, but with our flashlights we could see under the water and see the rock formations down there. It was truely incredible. It was fun to spend some last times with Lion and Chris before they left, I realised as we were all swimming and hanging out how much I really like those 2 and know I will miss them now that they have gone back home. Once out of the caves, we headed back to the Blue Hole and did alittle rock jumping. It is such a picturesque spot and, although quite scary, it was fun once in the water from jumping from that height. This picture is of chris jumping off the cliff. Others dove and flipped, but I didn't dive, I jumped - with my arms straight out horizontal and I have the bruises to prove it. :)

After our morning of exploring, Lion, Chris and Julie went back to BIOS because their planes were leaving and Julie needed to tape up here foot that she sliced open on a stalagmite, so it was some teary goodbyes at the Bus stop.. or atleast for me once I was out of sight. I headed the other direction and used up the rest of my bus tickets to get me down to Hamilton for some last minute shopping and souvenirs. It was a hot walk thorough the stores,but I managed to spend all the rest of my money on those last minute gifts and made it back to the room for a nice nap and swim before dinner. So since then, I've been packing my stuff, uploading pictures and getting ready to head out. I have barely enough money to get me back to the airport by taxi and literaly have to eat my granola bars from lunch the past 3 days, because that's all I can afford. Oh well, I don't regret it. It's been totally worth it and amazing.

For all those that said I would have the time of my life, they were right. For everyone who told me to not be nervous and to go and have a blast, I did. I am so lucky to have gotten to come to Bermuda and experience school here and everything that I saw these past three weeks. I'm going to be travelling for the entire day and won't be back until early Monday in Penticton. I work Monday day, but will probably be back to post one last time with some of my favorite pics, memories I didn't include and final thoughts. Wish me luck on my travels. For the last time, good bye from Bermuda, I'll see you on the mainland.

She's back.. now what's left to do?

I know that my blog has gotten increasingly boring since Monday but I am here in Bermuda for school and with the final week of classes comes squeezing in all the final lectures and getting together our group final project. So in between class, lab, and group work time, aside from countless laughs with our group the only real fun was a refreshing dip in the reach once a day. It was a busy week for sure but I am happy to report that the course is completed, the transfer credits are transfering and the presentation has been presented. (It went well, I kicked butt and am even considering a career in public speaking).

But with that said, the professors did suprise us with a final boat trip on Tuesday to celebrate completeing the  course (early) and to have some fun together. And boy was it fun. We took the Stommell which was the first boat we went out on, considerably smaller, grabbed all our snorkeling gear and headed out to North Rock. North Rock is 10 miles off the Northern Side of Bermuda and took us about an hour to get there. From the surface it really isn't much, a lighthouse with some rocks sticking up and some water with various shades of blue but underneath the ocean it was another story. Hands down the most incredible snorkeling I have ever seen. 100% visibility, which means that looking in the water with the snorkel is no different than looking in the air. The ocean life was so different than what I'd seen before because it was located so far from shore  the flora underwater was incredible. The corals had more color, the fans where bushier and everything was basically alot bigger. We got some rare chances to see some different marine life also, including a puffed out spiny puffer fish and a MASSIVE grouper fish. He was ugly and mean but big and super cool to see. We were probably in the water for about an hour and a half. Wesley brought his underwater camera so when we were snorkeling around we were goofing around trying to get some cool underwater pictures. (Which is surprisingly harder than it seems!) 

The purple sea fans are spectacular at North Rock, I could stand beside one and it would be up to my hips. It spectatcular and the website I just linked even remarks how they grow across wave surges, which is interesting. As we were swimming around we found a place that was super rough currents and we were literally hanging out for our lives to get away and wait until the currents passed. And the final thing that was so cool about this day was how the reefs ly about 3 m down from the surface but the sandy bottoms are about 10m down inbetween the reefs and Lion was trying to teach me how to get down there deep to touch the sand. I wanted SO BAD to get down to the bottom but I just couldn't quite do it. Apparently the biggest pressure increase is right after you go under the surface and I would get down about 7m and the pressure on my ears was just too much to equalize and it felt like 1000000 small needles (or one big needle) was about to pop my ear drum. So I'd have to kick kick kick to get back up to the surface. It was frusterating. The few times I could equalize, I would have been down to long and needed air. I tried about 5 times but Lion said I just need to practice more. Oh well. It was a great day and a great time and it was great to get out minds off the presentation for an afternoon.          

Now it's friday and I have 2 full days left in Bermuda. Hopefully this afternoon, after another gross fried friday lunch, we get some tanning and snorkeling in - we are thinking nice Tobacco Bay again. Then tomorrow, as all the group flies out,  I am joining the Coral Reef Ecology class and Im going to go check out some underwater caves and a Mangrove swamp if all works out and then, Sunday I fly home :)

With the start of this week means the start of a new part of this course - genomics and bioinfomatics. We now have 3 lectures a day to fit it all into this last week, and to allow for our snorkeling expedition tomorrow afternoon. So I didn't even really leave my computer today except to attend lecture and have meals. This is the gang in the lecture hall, notice Julie's attentiveness in class. It's great though because we all get along so well and know we really need to push through these next few days to get our presentation finished for Thursday.  

Move Over Steve, Scuba Tara is born!

I woke up today after a horrible nights sleep. Why the reason for all the tossing and turning? Well I had made a reservation to go Scuba Diving and today was the day. See my aquatic roomate Julie had completely psyched me out trying to give me scuba diving 101 and by attempting to 'prepare' me for what I was about to get myself into - she had only completely freaked me right out. I hoped for horrible weather, alien abduction, broken bones, or even just to miss the bus because I was convinced that something was going to go wrong as I descended to the deep. From popping an ear drum, to getting scared by a shark and bolting to the surface, I had gone over every single thing that could go wrong and I was convinced that they were going to happen to me. It was a wierd wierd feeling of knowing that I wanted to do it and get the experience, but being scared to death at the same time. But none of the above happened and bright and early Chris and I were off to Triangle Diving to take the DSD - Discover Scuba Diving course. The club gave us a great deal because we were studying at BIOS and for one of our last free days we knew we had to go for it.  We got to dive shop and walked in on a conversation between the Dive Master and his employee that 'We only lost 2 DSD's on that last dive'. Chris and I looked at each other with huge eyes and almost bolted out the door until the Dive Master looked at us and laughed, jokingly. After I excused myself to the washroom to clean out my pants, it was time for us to go outside and spend about an hour in their mini lagoon practicing the basic skills we needed to know. We spent time practicing breathing from the mouthpiece (the regulator), clearing our mask, and just learning the fundamental principles of diving. Then it was on the boat, which became loaded with approximately 15 other divers and all the staff and out to the Atlantic.  

The boat was jam filled with other divers and staff all who were doing their own thing - diving is a very individual sport. But the dive shop workers (Triangle Diving) were so great at helping us if we had any questions and just helping us feel comfortable with what we were getting ourself into. They totally had  the 'take your time, no rush here attitude'. It was also neat to hear a Christian Radio station playing inside the ships driving quarters. Both of the shedualed dives of the day were in ship wrecks. Once we got to the first dive site being the beginners we had to wait until all the experienced divers were off the boat and then they helped us get our gear - the tank, the Personal Bouyancy Device, the mouthpieces and the weights - ready and then helped us get into the water. I even got to do that epitomal picture step off the boat into the water holding the mouthpiece and mask  (It was So COOL!)

Anyways, the first dive site was The Kate. The ship was an English Iron Steamer that was built in 1874, 200 ft long and was transporting cotton from Texas to France. She was located 20 miles east off the Northwest corner of the Island. It sunk in 1878 when the captain of the ship, who was drunk, ran it into an unknown reef and then right after all the cargo was saved, it sank about 3 miles north of where it orginially hit the reef. During the early days after she sank, a powerful storm came through and blew apart much of her remains and that is why she is so spread apart now. All of the cargo was salvaged but there was still so much to see of the boat and the reef that was growing from her remains. She sits in 45 ft of water. My favorite parts were seeing the remain's of the ships hull embedded into the reef and how all the corals and annenomes have made it their home. We only saw bits of the wreck, being that it was our first dive ever, but it was incredible. The propeller was really neat to see as was the anchor from the ship. I didn't have an underwater camera, but many divers do and some previous diving trips that have gone down there have posted some cool pics of this wreck here, here and here. (I saw those things!!)

The DSD's (there were 4 of us) were down in the water for approxiamtely 30 mins until we all ran out of air and were (slowly) brought up to the surface. I made sure to pressurize my ears and clear my mask like they said. I was so impressed with the diving company who completely took care of us, they checked our regulators regularily and made sure we were okay every few minutes, yet they still let us explore and see what we wanted to see. It was an incredible feeling to be down there under water and to be able to see the surface so many feet above you. It was so different than snorkeling because you can actually get down with the fish right in their home and they are just swimming all around you.. such amazing colors too. I saw this one that was the EXACT colors of the rainbow. Yellow, green, red, etc.. all in order. So cute. So after the dive, we were all in shock and could not believe that we would get to do it again!!

I got the Captian (who's name was Graham and such a great, funny and reassuring guy) to take a few pictures of me as I entered the water for the first dive. Here's me in my gear and I wanted the quintessential picture stepping off the boat but he accidentally pressed the power button so the picture wasn't taken, so I got one of Chris going in instead, but I swear I did that same thing!  

So the second dive site was to the Rita Zovetta. The ship was a steamship from 1919 that was sold to an Italian company. In 1920's while going to Balitore it ran aground off the Northern Tip of the Ocean because of incredible bad weather and the ship sank. Most of the manganese ore cargo was salvaged but some is apparently stilll at the bottom. This ship was much more intact than the other one and more experienced divers were able to dive through the ship and into housing areas. We got to see the engine and some of the boilers. The drive shaft was very long and we got to swim around that exploring. We had to stay near the top of the wreck because the deepest part of the ship is found in 70 ft of water and we are only allowed to go to 40ft at the deepest. But what we did see was incredible and way too much fun.  This picture here is Dane (a worker) taking me and one of the other beginners to the dive line, which is a rope tied to the ship that is also tied to the engine of the boat, because of the strong currents at this location one has to descend and as cent the site using the rope or they would end up way in a completely different area. I liked this site alot, being able to see the ship still intact and seeing how species of sea life really do start to grow and even thrive on these sunken ships. I saw this incredible expanse of fire coral on this ship and was examining it pretty close until one of the instructors came and gave me a severe finger wagging. There was less marine life to see here but the visibility was still great and it was incredible to be so so so deep!!!

The entire experience was like nothing I had ever experienced before. The entire ride back to the dock I was in shock of what I had just done. The scenery was so Bermuda-esque (read incredible) and it was nice that it was a cloudier day and not too hot. I was really struck while out there that so much lies on the ocean floor. So much to be seen, it sound clique, but it really was so amazing to get to see and explore what is right below us as we float with boats. Too cool. Also, I added a picture here of the Long-Tails. They are the famous birds found in Bermuda and they are like seagulls but smaller and they have this long, skinny tail at the end. I don't know if you can quite make it out in this picture but they were flying so gracefully that I wanted to add it :) We started steaming back around 2pm and pulled right up the BIOS at 2:45. They were nice enough to drop us off right at the station and you should have seen the looks on the faces of the other divers when us 2, beginners no less, got the royal treatment dropped off at this incredible facility. It was awesome and good because I got back to my room within 5 minutes and was in bed by 3pm for a nice long two and a half hour Sunday nap. (Scuba Diving is tiering). It was a great day and I can see scuba diving again in my near future. It's an incredible way to explore the world around us and I'm so lucky to have had the chance to do it.

Across, Around and Under Bermuda

 So for our last weekend in Bermuda, we made it into a three day weekend and pledged to split the friday lab work throughout the group and for the entire weekend. We did this because we found out that there was a ferry that ran (at a very reasonable price) for locals from St. George's (one side of the island) to the Dockyard (the other side).  So Friday came and off we went. We just barely made the ferry but thouroughly enjoyed the ride around one side of the island. It was stupid because at one point I swear I was getting sea sick again, but we made it to solid ground and I was okay. The Dockyard is the southern tip of Bermuda and is the grounds where the British Royal Navy used to be based out of during the second world war. They turned all the old navy buildings into little shops and artist exhibitions (Glass blowing, bakery, clay and painting). Some of the group went into the naval museum while others just looked around (I was in the latter group). There were 2 things that I knew I had to check out while at the Dockyard 1) The Official Tip of the Triangle and 2) the Bermuda Rum Cake Factory. The Official Tip of the Triangle turned out to be a statue-like-road-map but the Cake factory was not such a bust. Using 80 proof rum they sell these cakes from crazy prices, but they are oh so good. I only had 2 samples knowing how strong the rum was going to taste but I practically felt it after those 2 samples. (Just kidding, but they sure did have a strong Rum flavor) (Oh and if I didn't mention it Bermuda is apparently famous for it's dark rum and is frusteratingly the only answer I get whenever I ask locals what makes the best Bermudian souvenir)  Anyways, after the rum cake factory, we continued to look around until it was time for a few of us to catch the last ferry back to St. George's. Part of the group wanted to bus back up the island, but the impending promise of beaching and snorkeling sounded much better. :) (That last picture was a really cute palm tree line'd road and one of the cute pink buses that we happily ride all over this island.) 

The ride back to St. George's was nice and relaxing. We all fell asleep on the ferry and were nice and groggy when the boat docked in St. George's. What wasn't nice was how hot and overtierd we were drudging up the hill to get to Tobacco Bay. This beach is known for it's snorkeling and laid back feel, as well as being one of the most beautiful and quaint beaches on that end of the island. So it was totally one of those walks when we were so tierd, so hot, so annoyed with life, but yet keeping on because we KNEW how great the water would be. And omg it was. It was an amazing amazing bay.  It was small and private while still having all the emenities of all the other beaches. The sand was soft, the scenery was beautiful and the place was just teeming with locals. It felt way to good to hit the water and Julie took me out for one heck of a swim with the waves crashing and wind just blowing like mad. I even saw this HUGE parrot fish right infront of my eyes chomping on a rock and I could hear his one large tooth knawing away. It was incredible and felt very well deserved. After the Tobacco Bay we made our way back to the bus stop and had to SPRINT about 2 blocks to catch the bus, which we were told was the last one for 2 hours, only to have a local yell at us 'theres another one in 15 minutes'. With our water stained clothes, sunburnt faces and dripping hair - sprinting up the street (I was in the lead so that tells you something about how tierd we all were) we must have looked like the epitome of what a tourist looks like. But we got on the bus and had a nice A/C'd ride back to the station, a nice meal and eventual early sleep. (Hence the lame blog yesterday)

So, Saturday morning came and as expected it was cloudy and windy. So instead of braving the elements some of the group decided that they would go underground and indoors. And by that I mean the famous Crystal Caves or Bermuda and the Aquarium. Off we went, not really knowing what we were going to see and because of all the hype I read in my tourist books and how little I had heard about the caves from anyone here on the island I was half expecting them to be a total hokie tourist attraction. The cave we went into was called the Fantasy cave and was only opened to the public seven years ago and was in surprisingly great condition. We entered and descended down 88 steps straight down into the earth until we were approximately at sea level. The caves were found in 1905 when 2 boys lost their cricket ball down a hole. (The same boy whos family still owns the land and the caves and are the richest family in Bermuda.) They descended with simply a lantern and although I can guess they were surprised with what they found, somehow I doubt they could have been more surprised and amazed than I was. I was just completely blown away, it was easily one of the best things I've seen in a long time. As we came to the common area in the center of the cave, only the center of the cave was lighted up and we could only faintly see some of the incredible formations. The crystal clear water that filled the cave, and coincidentally were the caves got their name, was so clear that it made the 55ft bottom of the pool, look like it was barely 5ft deep. There was water, clear blue and magnificent in the pool below the formations and it turned out that for us it was good that it had been raining the night before and today because not only was it nice, muggy and humid inside the cave but because the crystalized formations had water and CaCO2 dripping off them. They were forming right infront of our two eyes! The stalagmites and stalacties were amazing to see. As I learned today, they are formed because the soil is mostly limestone in Bermuda and as the rain falls, it leeches down through the soil and since rain water is acidic, it causes a reaction in the earth with the calcium carbonate that then makes a ionic like mixture that drips down through the earth and when reaching these caves creates these formations of run off  that crystalize over time. They form with the same principle as icicles and they then form a formation from the ground up where the drips land. We even got to examine this really cool of crystallized rock that had fallen off. Anyways after showing us the main cavern, the guide turned off the lights to show us what it was like when discovered and then she turned on all the lights for all three caverns and we got to explore. It was pretty stinking amazing to see these caves and the a cool part of the tour was near the end when she (the guide) found out we were from BIOS she told us extra information, including pointing out a tree root that had been growing down and was now crystallized in calcium carbonate. She also stopped us on the ascent to show us where some sea snails had their shells encrusted into the limestone so many thousand years ago during one of the ice ages. It was an awesome adventure into the earth for sure and fun getting the extra tour and attention. 

As we got out of the cave we saw the sky was clearing up so some of the group split to go to the aquarium and the rest of us (Lion, Julie and I) decided that we wanted to rather slowly walk back and check out the blue hole.  We had no idea what it was exactly but we just knew that we weren't ready to come back to the lab and work and wanted to explore the outdoors abit more. We ended up pretty much just stumbling across this really interesting little nature/beach/walking trail and enjoyed the wild chickens, shore birds, hibiscus flowers, hiding geckos (can you see him in my pic?) and mangrove coves. It was really a neat walk and when we finally found what we were looking for we were just blown away. It turned out Blue Hole was exactly that. It was a little salt water lake that obviously provided some of the water that runs through the caves all under neath Bermuda. It was an amazing clearing and it was so awesome to see some of the same stalagmites hanging, but one's that had actual vegetative growth and that had seen the day light. This picture doesn't really show it but at the other side of the lake was the same cave formations that we had seen earlier. There were tropical reef fish, just like we'd seen snorkeling in this pond and with our new knowledge about the series of caves that all spread under the island, it was neat to see here and see the water entering down into the caves.  We enjoyed watching a family feed the fish there and really enjoyed this little sight that we didn't expect to see or discover.

We then took the bus back to the station and after a nice afternoon swim (where I stupidly ended up successfully frying my face a nice shade of bright red after almost falling asleep on the dock) we spent the rest of the afternoon before dinner working. I can't believe that tomorrow is already Sunday. We were mentioning how the first week of the trip went so slow because we filled it with so much and then suddenly it was the beginning of our last week. It's been great so far, I can't imagine what we'll pack into these last 7 days.