I have to start off by saying it just took me a good 10 minutes to figure out how to log into my blog because all of the instructional details are in Dutch, which is the official language of Bonaire. As we speak I'm sitting inside the residence compound at the CIEE Research Station. It is in Kralendijk, the capital. It consists of a large house with three students rooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, and big living area on the inside, and then two student rooms/bathrooms connected on the outside (with outside entry), a dive room with outside entry, outdoor showers, big tubs to rinse our gear in, and two intern rooms. It is entirely walled in and gated with a padlock for maximum security. My room is one of the outside-entry ones with two bunk-beds, fitting four girls. Due to weather/travel mishaps some students still haven't arrived yet! Because of this, we have another chill day where there's nothing required of us until 8 pm. We'll be going to the beach later, for sure!
Shall I discuss yesterday's events? Well everyone arrived in different chunks of time; a few students here, a few students there. So 4 of us arrived at the house first, around 7 am. We saw the sunrise in Bonaire when we were waiting to go through customs - that was really cool and super exciting! We had a tour of the place, got our room assignments, and then went to unpack. Let me tell you, as soon as I was outside in Bonaire, my hair began to frizz and I began to sweat like no other. It's quite a shock from the dry, cold, New England winter. Haha and you guys all have snow now! Kinda jealous, I'm not gonna lie.
Lunch and dinner were provided for us yesterday (like most days), and they were really good - nothing too fancy, just salad, sandwiches, cooked veggies, lasagna, and chocolate cake. A local man makes food for us - he's so nice! We are super close to the water! There's a set of apartments behind us, a small one-lane road, and then the waterfront. There aren't many beaches here, there are just coral fragments comprising the beach. I was walking barefoot (obviously) and my feet are on the fast track to being super tough and permanently black. Yay yayeee! We went for a stroll yesterday with one of the interns and she pointed out local landmarks and of course, fish! Tons of parrotfish, damselfish (Trop Bio, what what!), and a couple others were swimming around. We went snorkeling (you can basically just go swimming anywhere here, as long as you're careful of boats and fishermen), so we walked up to a beach near a hotel and went exploring. There were mostly craggy rocks and remnants of reefs past but tons of fish! I saw some damselfish, parrotfish, sergeant majors, trumpetfish, blue tangs, spotted trunkfish, and some others I can't remember.
After a long day of unpacking, exploring, and of course, making new friends, we were all pretty exhausted. After dinner we played a trivia game called "Pub Quiz" - the teams were "How to Drug Your Children" (my team - woot woot - we were the victors) and "Albatross." After that we hit the down and just went to a little bar that was on a pier overlooking the water. We saw a lot of flying fish hopping out of the water - they were really cool! Since we all were tired, we left after a little while. When we got back, three more students had arrived! This was big news since for most of the day about half of the crew were still not there. Three more students have yet to arrive - they'll get here tonight.
I slept for 11 hours last night - literally passed out. They gave us sheets and a pillowcase, but because I like more weight when I sleep I had a towel on top of me. We have A/C and it was pretty cool at night anyway so I was comfy comfy.
I'm thankful to have made it here safely and without a hitch. Of course, my BCD leaks, so I might have to get a new one, but at least I'm here! I am really looking forward to beginning classes and to getting to know everyone. We have the whole country just about represented - California, Montana, Colorado, Joisey, New York, New Hampshire, DC, and many more!
It's lunch time now and I want to grab something good so I will be leaving y'all. I love you all and thank you for checking out my adventures!
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