On Tuesday we finally arrived in Jamaica after a long morning of travel. There were many steps to officially be in and many of us had the pleasure of being questioned by security of why we were staying in a marine lab, but we all made it in! After being greeted by the hit of warm air outside the airport, we waited for our mini buses to arrive so that we could make our way to the lab. This took a while because we were waiting for a professor and her two students from another school, but this gave us plenty of time to get to know each other! Most people were able to fit into the first bus, but those who went into the second one, myself included, had to keep reminding the driver that we had to wait for the rest of our group. At one point, he drove us away and we had no idea what was going on, but don’t worry, he looped us back to get Dr. Warren and the others! After a 45 minute drive, we finally arrived to the lab!

We unloaded our bags and were quickly greeted by the cutest kittens I have ever seen. One of the kittens is the size of my palm and me and a few others have taken it upon ourselves to name him Lizard… hopefully it’ll catch on. After choosing our rooms, we hung out with our roommates then all met up for a tour. The people that work here are so nice! They showed us around and everything honestly still hasn’t felt real. We then played a game to get to know everyone in the class, and I feel like I’m friends with everyone already even though we just got here. The game entailed us calling ourselves a food that started with the first letter of our first name, though, so now I have to think of a food whenever I’m trying to remember someone’s name. After arriving, all of us were so so hungry and didn’t get lunch, so we had to wait until dinner to eat. So, as you could imagine, playing a game where we had to think of a food while we all hadn’t eaten for hours was quite the struggle. Afterward, we all ate an amazing dinner together, honestly the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. I am so excited for everything about this trip and it’s been the most amazing start!

“Us waiting along with lots of others for our ride outside Montego Bay Airport.”

“Lizard the kitten asking for some well-deserved attention.”

“Pierogi Paxton (me), Raspberry Rose, and Monkey Bread Maddie in front of our awesome new classroom!”

Until next time,

Pierogi Paxton 🙂