Man I can’t believe it’s our last day here at Heron Island.
It’s so weird to think about the fact that we have to be out by 9:00 and we’ll
be on a boat 12:30. I’m definitely going to miss this place. Today has been
pretty chill. The weather is rather damp and muggy and we’ve had on and off
rain sprinkles for the past couple of hours. I woke up early this morning, and
wasn’t able to sleep, so I’ve been spending my time reading. Breakfast was eggs,
toast, and fruit for me today. After that I hung out with my group and tried to
corral them into practicing our presentation, but it wasn’t super effective,
and we kind of just goofed off instead. Tea time had blueberry muffins that
were really good (of course). Then it was time for the snorkel of the day. Sadly,
I couldn’t go, since my period decided to start today. Edd told me he didn’t
think it was a good idea to have me “chumming up the water”. He was joking, but
still told me snorkeling wouldn’t be a great idea, especially since I was
starting to have really bad cramps.
But it’s fine. I actually walked along the beach instead, hoping
to get out some of my restless energy. It was fun, even though I got rained on
again and it was muggy out. I made it back to the research station all by
myself since I lost sight of the group
and had enough time to take a quick cold shower. Everyone else here as figured
out how to make the water warm but me, so I’ve just been living with cold
showers instead. While the rest of the group was out there apparently they saw
a big octopus and a 2 meter long green turtle. I felt I was kind of jilted, but
hey, biology can sometimes suck (*shrugs*). Once we were back, Pat had lunch
ready. They were chicken sandwiches with green onions and this kind of cheesy
sauce that was pretty okay. During lunch we were talking about who would be one
what flight and going over departure stuff, which made me a little anxious.
Then again, I’m always anxious when it comes to that thing.
Then, Brynn, Nora, and I finally got down to business and
started practicing our presentation. Well, sort of. Technically Nora and Brynn
just divided everything up by section and we all went our separate ways. We
basically didn’t practice at all… and it showed in our presentation. I had been
trying to memorize a general outline for what I wanted to say, but I relied on
the others to do their own part speaking-wise. They didn’t do what I expected
so when it was my turn to finish us all up, I fumbled a lot and I think I might
have been the worst speaker in the room. It was really embarrassing, and I was
probably a little flushed. But now it’s over, so hopefully all went well.
After that we did a mini awards ceremony, that no one knew
about. I mean, we all knew about the Pat challenge (which Nora won for number
of pieces and Sam won for weight), but there were certificates that each
individual received. A lot of them were sarcastic: the best artist award went
to Jeni because she drew a picture for their slideshow that was funny, Zach got
one for trying to be a good person when it came to the tiger shark and Hailey,
and Nora got the conversation starter one. Kennan got the one for best
academics (he’s a 4.0 student with a humungous amount of dedication to his
studies). Clark got one for being the most happy, and Katie got the most
improvement in swimming award. Russ got the most likely to be seen in the water
and not on land award, Hailey got the “not today” award (because she had the
closest encounter with the tiger shark), Sam got an award called the Ancient
Mariner (like the Rime of the Ancient Mariner) for his far off stare since he’s
seen a lot of death here, Cat got the sleeping award (we’ve made so many cat
nap jokes here, and she actually “took a break” from napping and we’ve all
teased her about it since) and Shawn got the human submarine award (since he’s
always diving and giving Edd a heart attack when he does. Brynn got the Ansel
Adams Photographic Magic (best picture) award.
And guess what I got? I got the “Anything is possible if you’ve
got enough nerve” award. It was awarded to me because 1: I’ve been the most
scaredy cat student here when it comes to stuff but I’ve always strived to get
over my fears (and boy does that sound good to say out loud). 2: Everyone was
impressed when I just went for the boat dive even though I seemed skittish
about it and wanted to tap out. And 3: Because it’s a J. K. Rowling quote and I
have now worn five different Harry Potter shirts while I’ve been here. Just
kidding. But Clark and Zach both laughed really loud when he heard it was a quote by J. K. Rowling. They’ve both been commenting on the sheer amount of Harry Potter
shirts I have. I even confused poor Zach when I wore my Hufflepuff shirt one
day and then my Gryffindor shirt the next. It’s been a running gag here that I’m
the Harry Potter girl. I take that title with pride.
Anyways, the awards ceremony was the best part of my day.
Soon after that we went to another poor sunset at the Jetty. It rained a little
again while we were there, so no sunset for us, but I did take pictures
regardless. Dinner was awesome, yet again. For our final night here Pat made us
an excellent steak and potatoes dish with veggies and some apricot cake and
cream. It was stunning. Tomorrow we’re going to take a picture of him with all
of us posing like the people in the Last Supper painting with our breakfast in
front of us, so that’s going to be fun. Speaking of tomorrow, it’s going to be
busy. I’m going to finish here for today. Talk more later!
No comments:
Post a Comment