7/6/02

Airports are so boring…

8:00amà 10:45am Newark to Miami- and how terribly dull it was too. Ever notice how airport staff like to be mean? Just as I had finished saying goodbye to Mom, the security guy made fun of me and started joking that I was going to cry. I wasn’t…I was just nervous. Anyway, on the plane, I found my seat: 9C, an aisle, how depressing. The plane had a few empty seats. Every time a person boarding came down the aisle, I’d beg the god of airplanes that they wouldn’t be in my row. Just my luck, it was working fine until the very last couple boarded. Fickle airplane gods. I’m so mad. Anyway, halfway through the flight, they realize that they’re supposed to be in E and F on the other side of the aisle, not A and B. which were all empty before they came. They decided they didn’t want to move. *sigh.

I’m in Miami now, waiting for my 2:30pm flight to Barbados. I couldn’t find any worthwhile restaurants @ which to eat. There was a Chili’s and a Sbarro’s…. Unfortunately, I don’t really consider that food. So I went, got my bag, rechecked it and went to my terminal: F. I asked the woman guarding the entrance if there were any good restaurants in the terminal. She gave me a stern look and a long lecture about different points of view and how should she know? Why should she care? *shrug….Why shouldn’t she care? Anyway, I’ve spent so much $ already: $3 for a cart to push my bag in, $1 for a teeny, tiny bag of chips, $3.75 for a Newsweek magazine about the current court case about the Pledge of Allegiance. Alas, it only took me about 2 hours to read the entire thing. Plus, they turned on the air conditioning for some strange reason. Who knew Miami could be so cold? Plus, It’s raining out and the plane for Chicago has been delayed which only inadvertently affects me, since all the business men are strolling around looking terribly upset.

Arrived in Barbados @ 6:30 pm. Beautiful Sunset and arrived at the institute @ 7:15. I was introduced to the group and shown to my room by my roommate who is named Lauri. She’s very talkative. The room is a little scary. A lot of cracked walls, an ugly bathroom with iron stains dripping from the faucets. Oh well, soooooo……tired.

7/7/02

woke up at 6:00am this morning, but went back to sleep as they told us at instructions that we didn’t have to meet until 8:30. Woke up again @ 8:00 and shook Lauri awake.

Everyone made their own breakfast: a lot of cereal and eggs. I had a glass of milk and a slice of bread with peanut butter and honey. Suzanne told us our objectives and how we would be observing over breakfast. We left to get ready at 10:15! That’s a long conference! We then went snorkeling and were shown the nests. I have #’s 5 and 13 on the near-shore reef. There were a lot of fish out there. We monitored our nests, watching for activity. We checked for eggs and took pictures of the eggs. Got out of the water about 25 minutes before lunch which was @ noon. Sandwiches. With HUGE chunks of cheese. *shrug. Ok.

going to listen to some music and then d r i f t o f f. sleepy time