(Pretend today is Wednesday May 4^th)

This past week I’ve been balancing studying for finals with doing things for the last time.

Glimpse of the most beautiful
sunset all trip as I rode the
safari home

Saturday I went to St. John one last time to see my girlfriend’s family. Sarah’s sister, Rachel, is graduating soon and her dad wanted to take her on a trip. They weren’t coming to visit me; it was just a coincidence that they picked here. Unfortunately, it rained most of the morning Saturday so our snorkeling plans got ruined. We did get to go for about 15 minutes, and ended up getting to see a 5 ft. nurse shark. I haven’t seen a shark since I’ve been down here, so I’m glad I got to check that off the list. I’ve been really eager to see them in my SCUBA and snorkel/swimming classes but we never got lucky. When I saw it on Saturday I first thought it was a rock. It was just calmly sitting on the bottom 5 feet below me. I never thought I would be scared, but as I swam over it I saw how big its mouth was and how little my arm was and that was unnerving. It was a nurse shark, so it’s pretty docile, but still. That scenario where it gets pissed off and chomps your body in half always flashes through your head. After that experience we dried off and went back to where they were staying. We played cards and ate lunch until it stopped raining, and then we went to Salt Pond Bay. After snorkeling some more at Salt Pond Bay I caught the 7:00 ferry back to my dorm. It was another fun day.

Sunday I spent the day packing and studying. The semester was winding down and it was starting to hit me. I am super excited to see my friends and family and get back into my routine back home, but I’m going to miss this way of life I’ve gotten used to and the friends I’ve made, and the beauty. I had three days left.

Monday I took all of my exams and packed a little more. They ended up being nothing I should have stressed over, which was a blessing.

Brewer's at sunset

Tuesday was my last time hiking to the rock and swimming in Brewers. John, a local who was in my SCUBA and steel pan classes and one of my good friends down here, accompanied me. At night I got to see the sunset one last time, and she showed off for me. They sky lit up with pinks and oranges as I sat there with some Kenny Chesney playing. Over the course of this semester I've watched the sunset move further and further west. It used to set off the runway (look back at my blog post in January), but now it sets over the mountain. The no-see-ums made sure to tell me bye too. That night I packed more, retook and online test, and hung out on Brewers for a couple hours with Nate, Josh, and Erik. I’m going to miss them.

Wednesday (today) is my last day here. I’m sitting in the airport because I got here three and a half hours early. Traveling stresses me out pretty badly so I like to allow for a lot of time to ease my nerves. I’m not sad anymore like I was the past week or so. Today I am excited. Goodbyes were tough, but I honestly believe I’ll see these people again.

What Carnival looks like

Friday April 22nd
Carnival is a huge two week festival here that shuts down half the city. There are parades, concerts, food, drinks, rides, and traffic every night for two weeks. Friday was the start of it, and coincidentally the first night Erik's friend Christian came to visit him. Christian is from the same university as Erik back in Denmark, who is also on exchange but in California. He, like Erik, quickly became one of my best friends and I hate he only had a week to stay.

Erik and Christian while
walking home in the rain

On Friday night Josh, Erik, Christian, and Mackenzie (NSE girl who is also a fairly new friend) went to Tap n' Still to get burgers before we headed to Carnival. The Carnival celebration takes place every night in this place called the Village. The venue is basically huge parking lot that they closed off. Lights are strung up all around to make the night glow. Along the perimeter of the parking lot are these little huts that all sell basically the same local food and drinks. In the center of the lot is a stage where different bands perform. That night I wasn't familiar with the band, but it was some sort of local island music. We only stayed for a little while, and then decided to leave. Instead of getting a taxi, we walked home, something the two Danes said was very common to do back home. The walk would have been about 45 minutes, but it started raining so we hitch hiked back. It was a fun night.

Sunday April 24th

There was a hammock on the boat.
That's Josh to my left.

Pulling up to the sailboat.

Erik far, Christian near.

Two days later I got invited by Josh to go with him and Erik and Christian to the boat races. That's all they told me when they invited me. I agreed to come, but I honestly had no idea what they were talking about. Around 1:00 we gathered on campus and got a safari to the grocery store, because apparently we needed food to grill. That was cool. I didn't know this was going to be a cookout type situation, but I was all for it. We picked up some beer and brats and walked to this girl's house that was right on the water. I wasn't expecting to get to watch a boat race from a private home, so that was a pleasant surprise. Right when we got there we saw the first race, and it was 4 people each in a very small boat about the size of a twin mattress. They explained to me that this was the smallest of the races. The bigger and louder boats where the people wore helmets was coming later. I honestly was expecting sailboat racing, but this was much better. The final surprise, and the best one of the day, was that we didn't stay at the house. The invite was actually to go on her sailboat which was moored in the bay about 40 ft away from the track. We spend the rest of the afternoon on her boat, grilling, and watching the races. The day was awesome.

Tuesday April 26th

Today was the last day of classes, which I was thrilled about. It also was the day Rock City was coming to play at Carnival. Rock City is a musical group from the St. Thomas. They have been on some pretty big tracks like Locked Away with Adam Levine and Make Up. That concert they put on was pretty crazy. I didn't know they words but all the locals did. I mainly hung back with Erik and Christian and observed. It still was a great experience. Click here to see a little bit of their performance that I put on YouTube.

Thursday April 28th

Today was Christian's last day so we (Erik, Christian, Laura, and I) went to St. John. We played the role of tourists and just went to Trunk Bay via taxi and then hit happy hour at Joe's Rum Hut. Pretty average day, but the company made it fun.

One of my goals in coming here was to meet locals to have an excuse to come back whenever I wanted. Never did I think I would meet two people from Denmark and want to go visit them instead.

Things are winding down and I need to catch you up on the past several weeks in the next few posts.

Sunday April 17th
The weekend after visiting Virgin Gorda I found myself back in the British Virgin Islands thanks to Laura. Laura is a friend of a friend (who is now just a friend) and a local from St. John. Her family owns a boat, and they let her take it and some friends out for the day. She had plans to scoot on over to Jost Van Dyke, and I managed to get invited to go. The boat was nice; probably 30 feet with triple 300 Evinrudes on the back. We met her at the dock in the morning around 10:45 and loaded up the boat and did some paperwork and by 11:15 we were on Jost. That thing could fly.

If you have kept up with my blog you can remember this was my second time to Jost (Sarah and I went for a couple days over spring break). This time was much different than the last. Instead of being on the beach and looking out we were on a boat anchored just past the breakers looking in. Instead of lounging on the beach and drinking painkillers were jumping off the boat and throwing frisbees with Josh and Erik and some of Laura's friends. Instead of spending the night on Jost we were packing up by sunset to get home in time for dinner at the cafeteria. Both trips were very fun in their own way.

Another thing that those who have followed my blog might be questioning is who is Erik. Erik is Josh's roommate who is also an exchange student but he's from Denmark. During the first half of this semester he stayed in and kept to himself because he was working hard writing a thesis. Apparently that's some Danish thing that's required to get a bachelors degree. He finished that in mid February, but then spring break came, and then my family visited, and then he went somewhere for a week. I never really hung out with him until a few days before this trip on a hike up to the rock. Now, he and Josh are my two closet friends here. They are very similar to my friends back home, and that's kind of weird. One of my biggest regrets from this exchange is not hanging out with these two enough.

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.

I believe I left off on March 10th.

Friday (11th) my parents flew into town. It still being part of spring break, I didn't have much to do all day until they came in around 3:00. I met them at the airport and was there to give them a big ole hug when they got off the plane. They rented a car for the week, but unfortunately the car rentals aren't at the airport, they are two miles into town. I got to show them how to catch a safari and we made our way to Avis. The VRBO they rented for the week was a condo on Bolongo Bay, and I regrettably didn't take any pictures of it. It was a nice place on the south side in an area I had never been before. The only thing around it was a few restaurants, bars, and other condos. The first night we ate at one of the bars on the beach.

On Saturday Joseph flew in because it was the start of his spring break. The airport is right beside Brewer's so I got to show off the turtles to mom and dad before he landed. We even had time to eat and go explore the west end of the island a little. I hadn't done that before because safaris don't go over there, so I'm happy mom and dad decided to rent a car. After we picked up Joe at 4ish we ate dinner at the cafeteria since we were right there and it was free with my meal plan. Then we went to the grocery store and headed home to watch UNC play in the ACC tournament. Also, I believe this night was when the time sprang forward. We don't do that here in the islands, so now I'm on the same time as my friends and family back home!

Sunday we had a lazy morning and mom cooked breakfast. We packed a lunch and headed to Magens Bay where we spent most of our time not on the beach at all. Most of y'all know my parents are big into the outdoors, so we mainly walked through the arboretum and hiked the nature trail as they tried to look at all the local trees and plants. When we actually got tho the beach the weather was bad and it was raining so we packed up and left. It was funny watching them stare at different things trying to name them. From Magens we drove up the mountain and back down, pulling off every now and then to see the views. We went home and mom and dad grilled burgers. That was really exciting. Also, mom made my favorite cookies so I got to snack on them and drink milk and watch TV and that's something I haven't done in forever. It was awesome.


Monday wasn't spring break anymore. I had 4 classes spread all throughout the day so my parents dropped me off at 11am and picked me up at 10pm. They went to Coki Beach and snorkeled and fed the fish, then went back home and just hung out while I was in class. I believe they ate dinner somewhere called the Lobster Gille. At night sometimes dad would go out with his flash light and UV light to look for tarantulas and scorpions in the brush on the banks of the road. It was fun to tag along.

Haulover

Eating lunch on the side
of the road

Car ferry to St. John

Those rocks are where
the snorkeling trail was

Tuesday morning we woke up super early to go to St. John. We found that it would be cheaper to take the car ferry than the regular ferry so we did that. This allowed us to explore the island which I also hadn't done before. The rental car was a Toyota Camry and there were some hills I thought we were never going to make it up. I'm talking pedal on the floor only going 15 mph because the hills were so steep. It was kind of scary at times. At the peak of the hills it would drop so quickly that you couldn't see the road in font of the car. Anyway, we eventually made our way past Coral Bay, past some donkeys on the side of the road, and into the very east tip to a place called South Haulover Beach. This was the prettiest and most secluded place I've been to yet. You couldn't hear anything but birds, wind, and the waves lapping on the rocks. That was the only problem, there were rocks instead of sand, but this made the snorkeling incredible. It all looked untouched, above and below the water like a hidden gem. It was so remote I probably could have played a game of chess in the middle of the road and not interfered with any traffic for the entire game. We were all happy. After about an hour of snorkeling we came back to the car and ate the lunch we packed right there on the side the road. Then we packed up and headed to Trunk Bay, probably the most famous beach in the VIs, known for its underwater snorkeling trail. Yes, underwater. They had informational and navigational signs on the floor of the ocean that lead you through the reef. I had high hopes for it, and so did mom, but we both agreed it wasn't as nice as Haulover and it was super crowded. So crowded it took about 45 minutes to decided what to do about finding a parking space. After Trunk we went into town to and explored a little before getting the 4:00 ferry so I could make it to my class at 6:00. I had class till 8:30, and while I was gone I believe my family all went and checked out this festival thing at Havensight. Tuesday night consisted of more TV, cookies, and scorpion/tarantula hunting.

Lindquist

The crazy man

On Wednesday I just had two classes from 11-4 so while I was at class mom and dad did a historic walk through Charlotte Amalie and toured some fort/church/jail thing. Joe decided to stay in and sleep. That night dad made pasta, which is another one of my favorites, and mom made salad, which is one of my least favorites (but it turned out to be pretty good). At 8:00 there was a Carnival performance on the beach where we were staying. There was a guy, I believe named Moca Jumbo, who walked on 20ft stilts and interacted with the audience. After his performance there was this crazy man, probably on drugs, who danced around, walked on glass, jumped on glass, jumped on burning glass, blew fire, touched fire, put the fire stick out with his mouth, and did the limbo under a burning rod. It was a blast to cheer him on.

Mom waiting for shrimp

Dad waiting for shrimp 

Me waiting for shrimp

Thursday after my 1 hour class we went to a beach I had never been to before called Lindquist. It was super pretty, but they all are here. What set it apart was that it also had turtles! Not many get to boast that. And even cooler than that was that we saw a spotted eagle ray in the water. We didn't have snorkel gear, but it let us get close enough to tell what it was. We even got to see it jump out of the water! Other than that we kinda just walked along the beach and explored it a lot. We left around 5:30 because we had to get back and get showered for our dinner reservations at Mims, one of the restaurants previously mentioned that was right beside our condo at Bolongo Bay. On Thursday nights they do an all you can eat shrimp and fries special, and although very slow, they were good and Joe and I made sure we got our money's worth.

Friday they all had to leave, so the day was spend packing want waiting for planes. I ended up with a lot of food to bring back to my dorm.

Joe waiting for shrimp