Certification Complete

Yesterday was the last day of my scuba certification, and i am officially certified! It was just the academic portion, so i don't have any really good diving stories to tell, but it was still really exciting. I should be getting the temporary card and paperwork in a week or two and then i can send it out to get the permanent card. Quite exciting... I should be going on a dive soon. I thought i'd be going with some of my buddies, but it's getting a little hard to work everyone's schedule together and i don't really know if that's going to work out any more. If not, i'm sure i'll be going out in november sometime.

Otherwise, the week was fairly uneventful... more karaoke on Wednesday, which was a good time to be had by all... definitely sang "California Dreamin'" which was amazing. And there's pool there and darts, so we played some games, stayed out way too late, and then got three hours of sleep before getting up and going to class the next day. Apparently we didn't get the memo that most people go out all night on the *weekend*. Interesting...

Spent a little bit of time at the beach yesterday getting some sun and studying. It's getting more and more crowded, so i'm a little scared that one day the marriott people are going to come up and ask me to leave. A bunch of them know me already *and* know that i'm a student, so that could be a sticky situation. But it was fun... and later that night was one person's birthday, so we went out to dinner and then went to the marriott for ice cream/ fooseball/ casino time. It was really fun. The food at the place we went to was really good and outrageously not expensive. I had some chicken with garlic bread for only 10 EC, which figures out to be maybe 4 us. Quite the happy camper. And, of course, the marriott was amazing. it's a little silly how much time we spend there...

We had no tests this week, which was really nice, but i still managed to find ways to procrastinate more than i had originally wanted to... and tomorrow is our second histology exam. i'm planning on studying all day for that, after football. In lab we're dissecting the abdomen now, which is pretty fun until you get to all of the arteries and stuff... and we're going to start the reproductive stuff, which will be fun for me since that's my favorite class... i'm setting out to be really really productive again this week so that maybe i can get caught up in all of my classes so that when it comes to test time i don't have to study only one subject all day every day until the test....

Beach-A-Thon

So the last two weeks have been a little bit hectic. We had four tests over the span of two weeks, and it was pretty rough. A lot of studying to be had... which is generally why i chose not to post last week...

However, after all of the tests were over (Wednesday night to be specific) all hell broke loose. First of all, basically everyone in our class went out to the bar, Sugar's, and sang karaoke. It was basically the most amazing night of drinking and singing this island has ever seen. I pretty much rocked the house with some Beatles and a little Shania Twain thrown in for good measure. The girl in the picture with me is Amanda, one of my future roomies. Possibly the best part of the whole story is that when i went to go pick up my package at the post office on Friday afternoon, the mail lady was like, "I know you." which frankly scared me a little... until she said she recognized me from karaoke on Wednesday. Little did i know that i was so amazing.

After karaoke, the rest of the week consisted of some slacking off which came to it's glorious finale with beach-a-thon... an entire weekend devoted almost entirely to laying around at the beach. Yesterday was the beginning, and i ended up spending the entire day at the Marriott. It was glorious... basically the day consisted of laying around on the beach, playing in the ocean, heading up to the pool to lounge about, playing some in-pool volleyball, meandering back down to the beach, and ending up the entire day with some glorious sushi. It was great. And i managed to get a little bit burnt. My package from Mom really saved the day :D I finally had a beach towel, aloe gel, and new sunscreen... amazing... and what better way to end the day than to come home and have some chocolate. That stuff is like gold around here. It was great....

Today, we played football and then went out to Cockleshell beach (this is the first beach we visited here on the island). It was really fun, but less so because we got there a bit late. Basically by 3pm the sun stops baking you, and breeze picks up and you get a little cold. Yes i realize it's ridiculous to tell you people that i'm freezing at the beach when it's probably down to 75, but it's true. So, we got cold and headed up the the bar to sit and chat a little bit. It was very relaxing. And the best part is that i didn't even consider doing homework all weekend!

Now i just have to catch up this week....

We're about half way done with the semester now, and i can't wait to get home and see everyone! I definitely think about the end of the semester every day... i can't wait to spend those last few days before i come home laying out on the beach and then get home to see everyone... the first place i'm heading is to starbucks!