Week 8 of Semester 2--Managing to Find New Ways to Hurt Myself...

What a week... again...  at least there were no exams, so that was a plus!

Monday was a day off from classes, but insanely busy otherwise... with studying and everything other than relaxing.  I had to get 2 new tires, for example. 

Classes are going along as always--have a parasitology exam on Wednesday, so I've been focusing on that... and, after meeting with Dr. Moffatt (one of the anatomy instructors), she's been able to help me focus my studying for that exam in the following week.

I got my hair cut on Friday--I'd been told there was an excellent place by the Marriott (above the Rituals Coffee shop), called the Pink Daisy Spa and Salon.  Maxine was a wonderful stylist--reminded me of the hair salons back home.  You can tell she loves her job too.  I gave her free reign over whatever she wanted to do with color and just gave her a basic idea of the cut I wanted.  I now have bangs... I haven't had bangs since 7th grade!  I also let the stylist dye it a maroonish color.  I like it... most of the time.  I'm just not used to it yet.

Yesterday (Saturday) was a busy day--woke up at 5:30 in the morning to head out to Keys Beach to start my first turtle patrol.  We met with Dr. Stewart for our training.  The beach walk is about a 2 mile stretch... very good workout, for sure!  There were 2 already marked nests on the beach, and we came across the third... so we learned how to determine the coordinates of the nest, took some measurements of the width and distance from the high-tide line, and just learned some of the basic leatherback turtle nesting behaviors so that the track patterns began to make sense.  By doing these patrols, we'll qualify to do night patrols, which are longer shifts, but we'd get to see the turtle digging her nest and work with the turtles themselves.  How awesome would that be?  I'll have to bring my camera out there next time... or steal some pictures from Alayna at some point. 

P.A.W.S. had their second adoption day of the semester--5 found homes, 3 cats and 2 dogs.  I'm hoping Tink doesn't stay with us as long as Trix and Foo-foo did.  :(  I managed to keep up with the website updates, so things were so much easier this time.  Midway through the event, I realized just how dehydrated walking the beach can make you--I had SUCH a headache.  I've also learned that I can't use the sneakers that I wore--they created a huge blister on my heel that ruptured through the walk.  Time to retire those and get a new pair of running shoes when I go back to the US in June for Rachel's wedding (and to get my filling fixed). 

That's about it--I need to head off to bring in the laundry and make the cheese sauce for the brocco-flower that we found down here.  :P  A little taste of home!

See you next week post-parasitology exam.