After a LONG night, we woke up bright and early to the sounds of howling winds. After an interesting breakfast (which I refuse to describe), Dean Conover gave a very informative 3-hour lecture on reef fish biology. Most students had a quick lunch, since everyone was rushing to wrap up their presentations which were due a couple of hours later. After spending a painstakingly long amount of time in front of a very old and very slow computer, cutting and pasting pictures of fish and the like, Brooke and I eventually gave up and braced ourselves to face the toughest audience: our fellow students. Not surprisingly, everyone’s presentations went smoothly, and some were quite humorous (see: Christophorious Goblorium). After a brief debate regarding the proceedings for the remainder of the day, Ann-Marie, Brooke, and I got suited-up to go in the water. This was a desperate and frenzied attempt to gather as many specimens as possible for our tank presentations. Thankfully, the waves broke on the reef crest, so we were considerably safe, although the current was quite strong. In about 30 minutes, we managed to gather a variety of algae, a couple of sea cucumbers, and sea urchins, memorized all their scientific names, and were back in time for Gobler’s lecture on global warming, which was just plain fabulous! We all had a very quick dinner and then ran into the wet lab for some last minute memorization of our tank contents. When the time came for our actual evaluation, Gobler and Peterson tested each group individually. Of course Gobler and Peterson gave us the third degree, instead of simply asking us to name our specimens, as expected. Alas, their questions were not that bad, so I can say with confidence that we all did quite well. We have another long day planned out tomorrow, and hopefully we will soon be allowed to leave the compound8)