I only got to one of the three incredible events that took place about two weeks ago. I'll try to fit both of the other events in this post. Wednesday the 6th was the dive at Saba with the birds, cavern, and dark room. Friday the 8th was Mermaid's Chair and Sunday the 10th was Virgin Gorda.

Friday May 8th

It was a normal Friday. I woke up, ate breakfast, FaceTimed Sarah, and went to my speech class, the gym, and lunch. After lunch I had plans to go to Mermaids Chair (something I tried to do with my family a while ago but couldn't figure out) with Rachel and Nate. Rachel is practically a local and she has a car so she knew exactly where to go and how to get in. The tricky part, and what we couldn't figure out when my family while trying to find it, was that the trailhead was inside a gated community. I say trailhead, but it was actually just the sidewalk inside the neighborhood that took you to the beach. The walk was only about a mile and a half, but the midday sun was shining on our faces and the heat was bouncing right off the pavement so we still sweated our butts off. 

Mermaid's Chair is what the very tip of the western side of the island is called. St. Thomas comes to this narrow point where the Atlantic is on the northern side and the Caribbean is on the southern side. Picture what a mermaid's tail looks like; it starts very narrow and then curves to a point on in opposite directions. I'm poor at describing it, a photo will do it more justice. I don't know why it's called a chair, it looks more like a mermaid's tail to me. There were a bunch of tide pools to sit in and giant rocks to climb, so maybe that's why. **I put up a video because it would be too many pictures to upload. I'm sorry for the quality**

Atlantic on the right, Caribbean on
the left

This is from Nate's
Snapchat

The water was very rough so we didn't get in at all. We all explored the peninsula, sat in the tide pools, climbed to the tops of small cliffs, and watched the water spray into the air as it hit the boulders below. We basically walked around with our mouths open the entire time because we though it was so jaw-droppingly pretty. I honestly took around 200 photos because I thought it was so stunning. 

On the hike back I found another location where if you stop and listen all you can hear is the wind and a bird chirping every now and then; no man made noise. We were far enough away to no longer hear the roar of the sea or the rumble of plane about to land. The neighborhood was for millionaires, and everyone had ample amount of room in between their houses. On the 30 minute walk we maybe passed 10 houses. There was beautiful landscape and the sidewalks were well taken care of. It was absolutely quiet. Those are my favorite places I've decided; the ones where you can't hear anything. Complete silence. 

Sunday May 10th (pictures at the very bottom)

Our NSE coordinator charged us an NSE fee at the beginning of the semester, and it wasn't clear what it was for, but now I understand that it was for a trip to Virgin Gorda. Sunday morning I woke up at 6:20, grabbed a bag lunch, and headed to Redhook on the school's shuttle. Not all of the NSE kids went, but there was still about 20 of us crammed onto the shuttle. The ferry left at 8:00, stopped in St. John at to pick up more people, and then headed of to Virgin Gorda.

The trip took about an hour from St. John. Virgin Gorda is part of the British Virgin Islands and is one of the most eastern islands of this little crop of islands we are in. The first thing I noticed about the island was that it was extremely flat, except for one mountain on the north side. Virgin Gorda means fat virgin, and it's believed to be that the men on Columbus' boat could picture a fat lady lying on her back. The island is only 8 square miles and only 4,000 people live there. 

The first thing we did after customs was take an island tour. Since the island was so small it didn't take long at all. We basically went to the top of the mountain, did a u-turn, and came back down stopping at all the pullovers that we could. I took a million photos again because this place was prettier than any of the other places I've previous wrote about. From the mountain we drove to the baths going the the main town along the way. The island was very poor, and unfinished houses scattered the land. I did notice that more people had yards. No one is St. Thomas has a yard because they live on a side of a mountain or in the city. Here there was no city because it was super poor, and it was very flat so people at least had a nice yard. 

The mountain was on one end of the island, and the baths were on the complete opposite end. The baths are what this island is known for, being one of only two places in the world like it. The baths are probably what you are imagining them to be. Huge boulders scattered throughout the sand, the shore, and even in about 15 feet of water that made little pockets of water everywhere. These rocks were so huge and in such an abundance that you had to literally crawl underneath them, or turn your shoulders and squeeze between them. In between the boulders was these little pools of water. Some were deep, some were very shallow, and most were in the shade because the rocks cast such a huge shadow. The water wasn't like bath water, like I was hoping, but it was still very refreshing and pretty. I seemed like nature's jungle gym because everyone was climbing over the ones they could, jumping off the top, snaking in and out of crevices in the rocks, and trying to find the best pools. There was one area that was very open that was the prettiest beach (I know I say this every time) that I've seen so far. 

I got kind of lost exploring and ventured away from the water. I was still on a path, but it turned out to be a 20 minute walk in the wrong direction. I thought the path would take me to another cool location, but it basically took me to a parking lot and looped back to where I came from. On the path I found another spot where it was completely silent except for a gentle breeze and an occasional bird. No ocean, no cars, no man made sounds. I was glad I got lost.

We hung out Devil's Bay (the prettiest beach I just mentioned) for about 30 minutes and then made our way back through the rocks to get the safari by 2:45. Our ferry left at 3:00 and luckily we made it just in time.

Top of the mountain looking back on Virgin Gorda

These were some of the nicest homes on the island. I
think I saw two street lights on the entire island. Not many
paved roads either.

Hiking through the Baths. You can see
the stairs the Park Service added to make it
a little easier.

Swimming through the Baths. I wish I brought my snorkel.

If you follow the path through the Baths you end up in
 Devil's Bay. This picture is pretty and it still doesn't
do it justice.

Some incredible stuff has happened since we last talked. I got to see some stuff I probably won't see again. I'm only going to talk about one, the other two I will get to in a later post.

Last Wednesday during SCUBA class we went to a new dive site at this island called Saba. It's off the runway right beyond Flat Cay so it wasn't too much of a trek. The entire island was about the size of a baseball field and completely empty. It looked a lot like the very last scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens where Rey is on that island and (not to spoil it) give that something to that person wink* wink*. The only inhabitants are birds, and not just a few, we're talking thousands and thousands of birds. It reminded me of Darwin's finches. The weird thing was that I couldn't see or hear them until we were right off shore in the boat, but once I did that was all I could see or hear. They were loud! I didn't get the whole story, but something about some sort of bird migrates from somewhere to this one place and they come by the thousands. From mid-April (in a few days) to mid-November they arrive and the island becomes off limits to protect these animals. We went on the 6th so the birds were just starting to arrive. I would guess there were about two thousand but in a week or so there's supposed to be more like fifteen thousand. I want to go back and see what that looks like, and since we stay on the boat and never go to shore, that's still allowed.

Saba is the big rock on the horizon behind the
little rock, which is Flat Cay. Unfortunately, this
is the only picture I have for this post.

That's not even the coolest part of the story. The dive at Saba was incredible. There wasn't a mooring line so we had to find a calm spot to anchor. We started about 50 yards off of a cliff on the back side of Saba and swam toward it. At the bottom of the cliff about 25 feet underwater was a cavern (not a cave, because you could see far enough in it to spot light on the other side) that we swam through. The motion of the back and forth swell of the water was powerful in the cavern. When you caught the swell you would zoom forward, but when the water pulled back toward sea you had to kick hard just to stay in place. The cavern wasn't very long, and in about 100 yards it got shallow and opened up to the inside of Saba where there was a lotttttttttt of bird poop all over the rocks. The inside cliff was permanently stained white. We all chilled in this little pool at the end of the cavern while Scuba Steve (our dive instructor, a super cool, tan, 58-year-old named Steve just like from the movie Big Daddy) took us one by one into an underwater room.

It's hard to believe that the dive still gets better. I was third in line to go into this underwater room. While we were waiting we all were kind of exploring this pool at the end of the cavern on the inside of Saba. The pool was about 10 feet deep and I met Steve at the bottom when it was my turn. The entrance was along one of the sides of the cavern so we swam to it and entered. The cavern was pretty dimly lit, but at least you could see enough to swim by yourself and feel comfortable. The path, however, was pitch black. The room and the path to the room are very small, so we were side by side the whole way. He was on the left and I was on the right. In between us was a flashlight which we both held. That part was kind of awkward. I'm not a big fan of holding hands with other dudes and this was dadgum close to it. I'm guessing it's some security protocol, but I'm not sure. The certification I'm getting is the most basic. Cave diving is a different certification so we hadn't gone over it in class. Anyway, we make our way through this narrow tunnel and in 30 seconds we are at the room. The room has about 4-5 feet of water and about 4-5 feet of air and ceiling space so we pop up and he starts talking to me about the room. The room was sealed, pitch black, and about the size of that thing on the Millennium Falcon where Han Solo and Luke Skywalker sit in and gun down TIE fighters, and shaped like that too (second Star Wars reference, someone stop me). The swell I previously described could be felt inside this little room (idk why I keep calling it a little room, it's more like a big pocket of air trapped underwater). Since the room (or pocket of air) was sealed, the swell would drastically mess with the pressure in the room. When the water rushed in the pressure dropped and the beam of light from the flashlight got really clear. When the water pulled out the pressure increased, the beam got super fuzzy, your ears popped and you kind of got dizzy. (I think that part was right, it could have been vice versa, I don't really remember.) There also was a serious echo that was fun to play around with. We only stayed about a minute in there and then made the quick trip hand-in-hand back to the pool where the others were waiting their turn.

The entire time I kept thinking that I would probably never be there in that spot again, or in an underwater cavern/cave/underwater room. That made the trip more special in the moment, but also kind of bittersweet. I don't want to peak this early in my SCUBA career.

Not much has happened since my last post besides my normal daily activities of going to class, doing homework, sending emails, hiking to the rock, and going to Brewers. I did watch a lot of college basketball last weekend, so that was different. Also, on Easter I went to a Mormon church with one of my friends here just to experience what that was like. Today (Friday April 1st) I had plans to go to a beach somewhere but it's super gloomy and spitting rain so that got canceled.

This post is going to be a little different in that I'm not going to tell you what I do every day. Instead, I'm going to tell you about some of the smaller details of living here that I've left out over the past three months.

1- Everyone here greets people with good morning/afternoon/evening/night/day. It's almost rude not to say it immediately. Getting on a safari, walking in class, passing random strangers on the side walk, checking out at Kmart - every time you see someone that's the first thing you say. Also, it's really weird to greet someone with good night. To me good night has an underlying sense of finality behind it. It's always been the last thing I say in the day, but here it's different. When I walk in to my night classes the teachers alway welcome me in with good night to which I awkwardly mumble good night back. I'm still not used to it yet. (Also, still not sure if good night is one or two words.)

St. Thomas terrain

2- St. Thomas is only 32 square miles with 51,000 people. Sitting on a safari, it's not surprising for people to yell out at someone they see on the sidewalk. It seems like everybody knows everybody. The terrain is mountainous with houses scattered up and down the mountain. St. John is maybe a mile away from St. Thomas and it takes 15 minutes to get there in a ferry. 4,000 people live on St. John and it's very rural and very pretty. It seems untouched to me. St. Croix is about 40 miles away with 50,000 people. Their terrain is flat. I'm not sure how you get there, but I've heard it's fairly expensive.

3- The temperature doesn't change much. In the winter it's in the mid 70s and in the summer it's in the lower 80s. The water temperature is about the same as the atmosphere.

The tree where
Iggy lives, and a
cool rainbow all
from my window

4- There are a lot of stray cats around campus. None of them will let you get close enough to pet them which is a bummer, but it's fun to watch them explore. Also, I've seen several mongooses (Why isn't that mongeese?) running around. Apparently they were brought in to control the rats, which I didn't know was a problem. Tarantulas live here, but I haven't seen them quite as frequently. I've heard horror stories of people finding them in their dorms, but I haven't experienced that. Normally I see them dead on the side of the road. A couple times I saw one outside the cafeteria underneath the steps. There also are iguanas. I have one that lives in the tree outside my window and it quite entertaining to watch him play. Sarah named him Iggy. Chickens are really common here and a lot of them run around the city.

5- My meal plan started out good, but now it's tiring. It's not necessarily bad, it's just the same thing over and over. Often times they will literally put out the leftovers from lunch on the dinner line. Breakfast is usually really good. I have no complaints about breakfast. I normally get bacon, eggs, and hash brows. Lunch and dinner are the tough parts. In the beginning I liked it because I thought it was kind of local and they had items that I had never heard of or tried like goat, yucca, salt fish, and fungi. Now it's gotten to just be redundant. This is my summary of every meal. Rice, pasta in some sort of sauce (marinara, pesto, Alfredo, this creamy one, or mac and cheese), mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables (it's always a medley of grenebeens, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower), another vegetable, and some sort of meat (pork, ground beef, chicken) in some kind of different sauce. They always have a fish and tofu option and a salad bar. Just recently they opened up a grill line which gives us some variety.

Brown stuff in the bowl is cream
of wheat

6- I have a single dorm room with no air conditioning. At night I sleep with the windows open and a fan running. I hate having air blown on me. Normally I can't sleep with a fan on and I stay under the covers, but here I had to change. Now I sleep with just a sheet, if I decide to use it, my bed is positioned right beside the windows, and the fan is always cranking. Mosquitos are the worst and I'm always spraying bug spray on me when I'm in my room. In my building there are 8 single rooms and 1 double room, so 10 guys total. There are two full bathrooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. There also is a lobby with a microwave, water bubbler, ironing board, couches, and a dry erase board.

Outside of my dorm

I just sleep with a sheet,
if that

I had to bring the Kenny flag

I don't have a way to hang
wet clothes so this is what I do

Views of upper camps from
lower campus

7- UVI is an HBCU with about 1,600 students. The campus is kind of spread out at the base of a mountain. At the top of campus is the library, classrooms, dorms, and the cafeteria. Further down the mountain you have the gym, more classrooms, and the administration building. All the way down is the marine science building. Marine science and nursing are the two main degrees they offer here. My biggest class has about 20 kids in it.

View of a cruise ship
from a safari

8- Cruise ships run this island. Sometimes I can hear the horn going off as they are leaving. They normally come in early in the morning and leave right around dinner time. At dusk it's cool to watch them leave because they are all lit up and it looks like a little floating city in the middle of the ocean. A lot of people here plan their days around the cruise ships, meaning they know when to go out and when to stay in and avoid the traffic. Normally there are about 4-6 cruise ships everyday Monday - Thursday with maybe 1-2 Friday and none on the weekends. Its pretty weird to go out on a Saturday night and it be completely dead because all the tourists have left. But, when the tourists leave you can have the beaches all to yourself.