The past few days have been just as busy as the first few days we have been here. Since I last wrote, it has been a roller coaster full of ups and downs and some “if at first if you don’t succeed, try, try again”. The research portion of the course officially started on Tuesday and boy it’s been a bumpy road. Who knew working with Sea Stars and Brittle Stars would be difficult? I sure didn’t! After a few hurdles here and there we are on a better direction. The few setbacks we had, allowed us to revaluate and consider things that we didn’t foresee happening along the course of the research. 

I can honestly say, that over the past week and a half I have learned so much. Not only have I learned about marine science and coral reefs, but I’ve also learned a lot about myself. In such a short period of time, I’ve realized that I am very open to trying new things and pushing myself to be far better than I think I can be. The program has been fantastic overall, full of memories and experiences that I will never forget. One memory in particular, I will cherish, is climbing Dunn’s river falls (I actually climbed the hardest trail on the waterfall)! It was quite hard, but I did it. Before coming I was somewhat scared to snorkel. However, since arriving I have snorkeled almost every day, including one night snorkel. The night snorkel was awesome and even exhilarating. Just as much marine life comes out at night as they do during the day. To be able to swim and even just observe marine life is something I never even would have dreamed of. I can go on and on about so much more, but there’s research to be done!

Our experimental set up for running trials.

Our lovely sea table for our Sea Stars and Brittle Stars stay.

I was all smiles at Dunn’s River Falls!

– Abby