The First Few Days of CRAZINESS!!!

Ok. So. I've been absent from Hawaii since tuesday night, and it is now friday night... my time at least. So there is alot of catching up for me to do. Actually, I need to start this friggen thing before I can catch up, eh?

So. After reaching the airport with a nice cush of time -but not three and a half hours (thanks Stevo) like i had originally thought i would have- I had a little more time as my flight was delayed about 20 or 30 minutes until we boarded... and then more on the runway... Sleeping through the flight to LA only offered a slight comfort to my worried mind, for as we came in to LA, getting in to the gate and deboarding around 615/620, I heard my name being called for last boarding on my flight to Miami... thankfully it was just at the gate down the hall, or else i would have inevitably missed the plane. Luckily, the flight was a little less full than my previous one, and I got the whole entire row to myself... so of course, i took out my trusty fleecy sleeping back, stretched out, and passed out for the entirety of the flight. Ahh, airplane sleep.

So then I spent about 3 hours in Miami between flights rescuing a russian girls passport, social security work card and oodles of money from being captured by the evil bathroom janitors, and took it to the 'i kind of speak english but really dont know much of what is going on' lady who was directing people to their proper gates, etc. She then took me to another gate where we looked up the girls info and took her effects to teh proper gate where she stood waiting anxiously for her stuff.... eventually i did get on my flight, arrived in St Thomas, and, surprise surprise, no bag. Actually it came as no surprise to me seeing as A) I have had my bags lost about 50% of the time i travel, and B) I had one small layover in la... i dont htink my luggage can sprint quite as fast as i can to catch a flight... So i got to my "hotel" and checked into my wonderful hotel room which was basically a room with an A/C and a bed... with the bathroom down the hall... I walked down the hill to get some grinds at a place called "The Green House", which during the daytime would have offered me a wonderful view of the harbour. Not only did i get a wonderful meal of a chicken parm sandwich with a salad and yum yum fried plantains, but i got a shirt there so that i wuold have something to sleep in and thus give my clothes a little R&R and give them a little time to dry after the shower laundry time that happened in the bathroom down the hall...

I managed to get to Tortola without a hitch (besides the one of me not having luggage), got picked up at the ferry by my internship mentor Rob, and got a little bit of groceries... stuff for turkey cheese sandwiches... pb&j sandwiches.... and granola for b-fast. yum. And apparently soy milk is cheaper here than regular milk... is that the case for hawaii?? i honestly dont know...

I spend the rest of yesterday learning some of the ropes, meeting people whose names i cant currently remember at all, and then going for rides on two of the four boats that Sail Caribbean Divers (http://www.sailcaribbeandivers.com/) owns. One (the 46') for docking tests for skipper-hood, and the other (the 36') for driving and docking practice by my mentor Rob and Dale. I got to help out a bit on the boat, bridleing the line and hooking up to the moorings, cleating and uncleating, etc... and with my trusty piece of line that Rob gave me earlier, I also practiced my knots (to be honest with you I think people are starting to expect me to always have that line with me as i have been playing with it non-stop). They were thankful that I had at least a little bit of boat experience seeing as my roomate, Claudia, broke her leg going up to the bow to learn how to bridle the line and hadn't been on the boat in quite some time apparently. Luckily, the break was clean and with todays advances in medicine, she is already sort of walking (with crutches), does not have a cast, and will be back in the water in about 2 weeks. Damn. where was that medicine when i was broken, eh? Oh... and there are a crapload of mosquitos... ugh and itchy... ive also seen a tarantula that lives next to the path i take to get back to my apartment... (which is in slight shambles but its free so hey cant complain).

Today, i had the pleasure of going over to one of the islands with another shop worker, Ria (who is incidentally also injured but hers from a weird reaction to a bug bite). Cooper Island. So we learned how to set up shop there and how to sit and do absolutely nothing all day, with th exception of eating an delicious local dish called Chicken Roti at half price cuz we work out there. Mmmm tasty. We also watched a weird bug that looked like a black wasp with red moth wings dig a hole, and a little crab stalk a bird. Very entertaining. I got alittle more practice with the lines coming back on the boat, and got to tie on a bumper and everything.... oooooooh yeah baby thats right. And not only did I get back to tortola, but I had my bag waiting for me... and though half of my clothing was damp, it was still a relief to get it back.

So far this internship is a little different than i had anticipated.... i was thinking i was going to be mostly diving... but actually its almost like job training for new employees even though we are not new employees. We have to learn how to run the shops, how the boats work, the diving, etc etc.... but everyone does everything, driving, diving, working shop, etc.... so its more familial and there is a deffinate sense of commraderie that i like seeing. According to Rob, during htis internship i get to chose an area that i want to concentrate on: diving, shop management, driving boats, etc.... So I thinki am going to try to drive the boats and hopefully get to dive a bunch, haha.

Apparently tomorrow i actually get to go diving. I am looking forward to it and taking pictures and looking for stuff... apparently they dont see many nudibranchs here (sigh... ) so i am just going to have to look that much harder to find them and take pictures.

Speaking of pictures... i will put some up shortly. I have to actually take some first, heh. But they will be coming! I promise that I will put up at least one picture while i am gone. There. now im committed.

Hopefully you all are ok and having a wonderful time in each of your places wherever they may be. I know this is loong winded, but hey, what can i say.... you all have heard me talk, and i do alot of that.. so why should typing be any different.

CHEERS TIL NEXT TIME!!!

The Annafish...