(For this post, assume today is Saturday February 13th)

A lot has happened since my last post (my bad). A week ago (Saturday the 6th) our NSE coordinator planned a volunteer activity for us to do. She thought it would be meaningful for us to feel like we were giving back to the community. At 8:30 in the morning we headed off to Brewer's for a beach clean up. It lasted about about 3 hours, which I felt like was entirely too long, but they fed us at the end of it so I didn't complain. The beach was surprisingly clean. I maybe found two or three big items, the rest was small stuff that didn't even fill up the trash bag. We were supposed to record all that we picked up so someone could go back over the data and find out what the biggest problem was. After that we made plans to hike to the rock for the sunset, but it got terribly cloudy and we ended up not doing it. We did do about an hour or two of snorkeling and again saw many turtles.

Nate and me

Sunday (7th) was the Super Bowl! A small group of us went to this bar called Tap & Still where I won a bunch of free stuff. They had the game projected on a screen, but the volume wasn't very loud so I couldn't really hear the commercials or the halftime show. Tough night for the Panthers, but I still had fun watching it. I hope Peyton hangs it up this year. I got to watch it with Nate, one of the other two NSE guys, who is from colorado and a huge Broncos fan. The rivalry was fun.

Top: Rachel Nate Will
Middle: Sam Anna Lucy Hannah Emily
Bottom: Me!

Tuesday (9th) was my 21st birthday!! Here it isn't quite as special since the drinking age is 18. Nonetheless, the friends I've made here all went out to celebrate. I met a guy at the bar named Bobby who I probable talked to for about two hours. He was this old friendly man who lived on the island and imploded buildings for a living. He was so nice, and he ended up picking up my tab. Earlier in the week my friends FaceTimed me to give me some exciting news. They all pitched in money to buy me a plane ticket to fly me back home to celebrate my 21st with them. I cannot tell you how happy I was. I love it here, but every time I have a good time I always think of them and wish they were here because I know it would be just that much more fun. No one has better friends than me. I've been blessed.

Today (13th) our NSE coordinator planned another volunteer activity. We gave away bags of toiletries to the less fortunate at a park in the center of town. Apparently this park is a known place for churches and organizations like the Salvation Army to give food away, so there were a bunch of homeless people there already waiting. There were very appreciative and it felt good giving back, but I also had this weird feeling. It felt like we weren't doing much t all to impact their lives, and it made me want to do more.

Here's an explanation on why this post was so late. I was going to post it on the 13th, but I realized I mentioned me going home for my 21st. Not everyone knew I was going to be back, and we wanted to keep it a surprise. I had to wait until I came back to post about it so I wouldn't ruin the surprise. Now, (or sometime within a day or so) I'll post about what happened since the 13th.

This morning Josh and I had two hours of free time after breakfast and we decided to try snorkeling again, this time with our GoPros. We just went to Brewer's so it's not like we had to travel anywhere, just walk down the hill. Brewer's is the best place to see sea turtles, and that's what Josh and I were after. The water was colder (probably because I hadn't experienced it that early in the morning before) and a bit dirtier (probably because they were cutting down some trees up the beach a ways) but we still had a blast. The sun was out and there was hardly a swell, so the snorkeling was good. We swam out farther to the deeper water just to see what it was like. Out there we saw a drop off that got very blue very fast. It was kinda scary not knowing what was underneath you, even though it was probably nothing. We traveled back in and that's when we started seeing the turtles. There wasn't a lot of other marine life out today, but I didn't complain because the turtles are my favorite (unless there is a school of dolphin that want to become friends, then the dolphin would be my favorite). We mainly saw green sea turtles, but I think there might have been a hawksbill or two in the mix. We stayed out for about two hours but unfortunately my GoPro was dying so I didn't get much footage. Here are the highlights of what we saw. This is my first GoPro video edit, but I think it's pretty good. Hope you enjoy, I know I did.

I'm getting a little behind with these. I think I'm going to start making them shorter and more frequent so it seems more like live updates.

This past week has been fairly normal. No trips to other islands or hikes to see cool views. I did check a couple firsts off my list, though. This past week was our first time we went underwater in my SCUBA class. It was a very weird feeling that I can't wait to experience again this week. We just stayed right around the dock in water that I could almost stand in. However, all the water here is super clear no matter where you are, so it was still very pretty. While we were under we practiced different situations we might encounter and how to best handle them. This is a class you have to pay attention in.

Another first happened to me and Josh while we were at the 2016 Buck Bash; a beach party hosted by the school (our mascot is the buccaneers.. still don't know what the school's colors are). The party was a lot of fun. They had food, a DJ, a band, tug-of-war, frisbees, footballs, this baseball slip-n-slide thing, and it was right on the beach so you could do all the normal water activities like usual. Josh and I spend about an hour in the water snorkeling. It was incredible the amount of sea life you could see. Last week at Coki all we saw was a couple kinds of reef fish, but here at Brewer's there were so much more. We saw sting rays, puffer fish, sea urchins, ballyhoos, this HUGE silver fish that I have yet to identify... and.. SEA TURTLES!!! I GOT TO SWIM WITH ABOUT 6 SEA TURTLES!! Apparently they love Brewer's Bay because it's so sheltered. I was so excited. Unfortunately,  there's a huge fine for touching them or else I would have gone up and given them all a hug. They were very quick though so I don't know how that would have logistically happened, but I would have tried my best. Also, I didn't take any pictures but trust me, I plan to go again very soon and I'll make sure to bring my GoPro. You will be seeing a selfie of me and a sea turtle in the very near future I can assure you.

One more thing since I don't have any pictures in this post. I try to see the sunset whenever I get a chance. Sometimes I watch is from campus, sometimes on the beach, but my favorite place is the dock below the marine lab. This past Friday someone was there fishing (as you can see, he does't have a rod, just a hand line). I forget his name, but I know his story. He was good company.