Turtles in Levera

catching some shut eye before the fun begins
In front of the ocean spirits sign with Haley
Amazingly large turtle!
Posing with a new friend
Levera beach, walking back to the car..
Unfortunately I've had an insanely sore throat the past week that has just started clearing up. Luckily, last sunday I had an excursion of a lifetime to make up for it. Went with friends Megan and Haley to Levera to see the Sea Turtles:) It was an amazing road trip accross the island to levera beach. The turtles were absolutely amazing, we saw 12 come up and lay eggs. They are so much bigger then I had anticipated! They are about five feet long with front flippers that are almost a meter! As part of a conservation effort, ocean spirits, the organization we went with, helps turtles by counting the eggs that were layed and moving them if the nest that has been dug is not in an appropriate spot and covering nesting sites with sand to prevent poachers and other animals from finding the eggs. It was an all nighter adventure and hopefully I will have the opportunity to go again next year:) Here are some picts of the event!

Update

So sorry about the lack of updates. School has been super busy with extra projects which I have just finished. All that remains between me and going home for the summer is final exams which are at the beginning of May. I have really been enjoying having the car and have been taking advantage of the extra freedom by cruising around the island and exploring when time permits. I will be attempting to post lots of pictures in the next week to make up for my blog laziness:) Hope everyone is doing well and talk to all y'all soon!

New Wheels!

ROLLIN Gangsta’ Style
Very exciting news!!! I have a new member of my Grenadian family –a Suzuki escudo!!! My friend DJ from class knows a little something about cars and how you fix/maintain them so he helped me narrow down quite a few choices to “betsy”. This jeep is like no other!! It’s as local as they get, right down to the decals all over. Pictures are worth a thousand words… but here is betsy….
Her official name is “Empress” and on the back we have her slogan “local beauty”. At first I was a tad horrified at all the bling but after thinking it over, I think I am going to keep her that way. Not only is it kind of cool to have a vehicle like this (I can’t foresee having a gansta vehicle at any other point in my life) but looking more local should prevent a lot of hassle from other locals! With my tinted windows up no one will no the difference… Mom was saying that of course I will have to take care and drive carefully (everything here is backwards, left side of the road, signal on the wrong side of the steering wheel, merging and yielding are all backwards) but frankly I think it will be safer then the school buses. They just installed speed bumps at school to prevent busdrivers from speeding through the campus. As fun as it is to roll full speed ahead on grenada’s awesomely rolling hills in a bus, it gives the illusion of safety when you are in control of the steering wheel and the gas!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!! I miss all of you so much and can't wait to see you in less than 2 months!! Hope you are all eating chocolate easter bunnies and easter dinner!
Hard to believe summer is almost here.. can't wait - I've already got a list of musts for the summer...

Summer to do list:
-camping with jess/colleen/keith/mike and whomever else is feeling adventurous!!
-ride with cheryl, anna, melissa
-go sailing with dad on the new boat
-hang at the lake with family
-run everyday with gromit
-vancouver/seattle trip to visit the cousins?
-mini horses!
-bowling!
-spend more time with my grandparents
-make it to the summit of at least three rocky mountains
-whitewater rafting!!
-take it out of the indoor gym and rock climb outside with colleen/mike/keith
-campfires and bbq with friends
-visit colleen and jess
-trip to new york?
-trip to visit beth in oregon.. friends in florida?

River Tubing!

Got up early and met friends at the campus early to go river tubing. Now granted it is Grenada, so the rivers here are not quite like they are in the Rockies but it was a good time, a good way to cool off and meet some new people. The float itself was about an hour with a couple of stops where people could do some cliff jumping if they wanted. I was the designated photographer so here are a few picts of the whole day.

On the way back from the river, annandale falls

Floating and ready to hit the rapids!

The river

Group shot!

Sandblast 2008

Since SGU doesn't have an Easter weekend -this weekend was it. The student association puts on a big beach party every term -Sandblast!! It's an all day affair -the whole school turns out for the event and lots of fun is had by all. Here are picts from this years escapades...

Fig eating one of the sandblast hats

tthe coastguard boat making sure no one drowns

beach shot

the view -busy day at sea with two cruise ships

Alex and I ready for the party to begin

Heath and his awesome 'stach!

me and the girls...

Friday

All the stores are shut for Easter weekend and there wasn't a whole lot to do... Went with Beth and Jodi to Louise's apartment to feed the turtles and watch tv (Louise has cable -it has been soooo long since I watched american tv!!).

turtle attacking the water conditioner tablet that was shaped like a turtle -it was pretty funny!!
turtle up close
Holding one of the two tiny turtles..


Took a break a couple of hours in to hit the beach with some of my friends. It's amazing how much damage the larger waves have done, half the sand is gone and sharp things are poking out all over the place. The sun bathing was still good and playing in the waves reminded me a lot of west edmonton mall waterpark!!