Two Weeks Notice

So I am now 21.  I was fortunate enough to be able to celebrate with everyone here, as well as with Mom and Ben the next day.  On the actual day of my birthday, I had to give my final Independent Research presentation which I believe went surprisingly well.  I was definitely nervous (because of my dislike of public speaking), but everyone sang Happy Birthday to me right before I went so my nerves were alleviated.  After all of the presentations were done, CIEE took all of us out for dessert, where I got to listen to another rendition of Happy Birthday.  I got peanut butter pie.  It was delicious, but they took it away from me twice, because Amy (a woman who works with CIEE) wanted them to bring out my dessert last with a sparkler in it, but they kept handing slices of pie to me, which kept getting taken back.  I finally got my pie back with a sparkler in it, so I was happy in the end.

On Thanksgiving was when I finally celebrated my birthday.  In the morning, Mom, Ben, and I took Katie and Mike diving at Margate Bay and the Lake.  Both were beautiful dives and I was able to take some really good pictures using my camera and my new underwater housing for it.  Here are some of the pictures that I took.  I would have taken more throughout the day, but I forgot to charge my camera battery.  I'd like to think that these are a good starting point.

Queen Angelfish

Graysby

Three Lionfish

Great Barracuda

Two Flamengo Tongues

Scorpionfish

Schoolmaster Snapper

Guess who?

Fatty Rainbow Parrotfish

Spotted Drum

Initial Phase Stoplight Parrotfish

Large Midnight Parrotfish

Gorgonians

In afternoon, we took Amanda and Ian to Karpata (my favorite dive on Bonaire so far).  Sadly, Mom forgot her wetsuit, so it was Ben and I.  On any other day, this would not have been a very large problem, but because of all the rain recently, the water has been colder.  We saw a green sea turtle and large green moray eel swimming around.  It was an interesting dive.  I was really happy to have celebrated Thanksgiving in such a fantastic way, considering we were away from the family.  It made me really excited to come home for Christmas so that I can take more pictures and tell all of the stories and such that has not made it to the blog.

This week is all about producing Physis, CIEE's research journal.  We don't have any classes this week, excluding our short meeting with the advisors in the morning.  I have less than two weeks to go.  It is definitely a bittersweet feeling.  This has been an amazing experience up to this point so far.  I have met some amazing people and it will feel weird not seeing them everyday, but at the same time I'm excited to get back to the States.  It will be nice to have a washer and dryer so that my clothes stop smelling worse coming out than going in.  It will also be nice to not have to plan trips to the grocery store in order to get milk.  It will also be hard to go back to diving in Lake Pleasant, or for that matter, not diving at all.  That's all I have for now.  Love you all!