Tropical Marine Ecology - San Salvador, Bahamas

  We woke up this morning in the Atlanta hotel bright and early, excited to start our final stretch home! At 8:00 AM we met in the lobby to venture over to the very popular Waffle House. The server took our names down for our tickets…. Except Amy who was deemed the name of “adult”. After filling our bellies with delicious food we walked back over to our hotel to pack our bags and head down to the shuttle! 10 out of the 15 of us were able to make it onto the first shuttle while the other five waited at the hotel. While we waited for the rest of our group to join us we sat and talked about our favorite parts of our wonderful time in San Salvador. We then took the train to gate F instead of enduring the 25 minute walk. Once we got to our gate, with not much time to spare, half of our group got the much anticipated Starbucks, while the rest hung out around our gate.  Before our over five hour flight, Julian needed to stretch out due to airplanes not being very conscious of 6’6” individuals

Our time on San Salvador, and in the Bahamas in general, has officially come to an end! Most are extremely excited to head home, while others are having mixed emotions and will miss the less than 2 minute walk to the beach and the sun. Our last GRC breakfast consisted of pancakes, ham slices, oatmeal, and orange juice. We then spent the rest of the morning packing, sharing our excitement to see family and friends, and triple checking that we didn’t leave anything behind. We said our final farewells to the rooms and dorm and headed down to the pavilion to weigh our bags at 11:30 am! While a small group, including the boys, Sarah, Jordan, and Amy spent their last few minutes on the beach! Mike weighed our bags and we did some resituating of our goodies to stay under the 50 pound checked bag weight limit. Then we all loaded up the truck with our luggage and sat down for an early lunch of hotdogs. After lunch we jumped into the truck and tried (and failed) to recreate our first group photo

  It's finally upon us, the last full day in San Salvador! A bittersweet mix of emotions today as we prepare to say goodbye to Gerace Research Center and the people we have been living and working alongside this J-term. While many (most) of us are excited to no longer be covered in bug bites, and to be sleeping in our own beds again, we will all miss the wonderful experiences we`ve had here over the last three weeks. A few of the more stubborn people decided to wake up early again to see the sunrise. Attendees gave it an average rating of 8.69/10-today's sunrise was arguably one of our favorites. Today breakfast consisted of cream cheese-less bagels, eggs and cereal. This was very much a rude awakening after being spoiled at Club Med all day yesterday.  After breakfast we had our last class meeting (despite Amy's plan to get everyone to revolt against Mike and have no more class.) We went over the plan for the rest of the day, for leaving tomorrow, and our very last figure

  Today was a wonderful day! After almost three weeks at Gerace filled with scientific adventures, the class decided to have a different kind of adventure today! Our adventure for today was heading down to the all-inclusive Club Med! We woke up bright eyed and bushy-tailed, most of us heading down to breakfast already dressed for the  day in our Sunday best. At 9am sharp (minus Mike, who was not as punctual) we hopped in Truck A with our beach towel and swimsuits in hand. Walking down the palm-lined driveway, our excitement built. And boy were our expectations exceeded!  With our day-pass bracelets strapped, we headed out onto the pool deck. The group decided to split up, some headed to the beach while others headed up to the second level of the dive center for drinks and lunch. (Ingvild and Amy were VERY excited for a latte). We luxuriated in the bug free atmosphere and the all inclusive bar. Lunch time came upon us fast and we ate to our hearts content. The food was absolutely specta

Today started out earlier than most because we were going on the Club Med snorkeling boat again!! This was our last day of structured snorkeling so we were going to make the most of it. Waking up bright and early so we could get to the truck at 7:15am, groggy eyes soon were filled with excitement as we drove to the Club Med boat. As we stepped on the boat we were greeted by our friend David which you may remember from our first Club Med boat excursion. A quick boat ride brought us out to our first destination, A SHIPWRECK! This old ship wrecked in the early 1900s and still has some large parts that make good structure for fish and corals. After about 20 minutes we got back in the boat and headed to our second snorkeling spot called “the wall”. This spot was at the edge of the reef when the water depth dropped from 40 feet to 200+ feet. There was also an opportunity for a group photo opp, As well as, a monument dedicated to the landing of Columbus in the new world (San Salvador was his

 Our 5 day countdown has begun! We officially have spent a lot of time here (although some would argue that we hit that point sometime last week). Breakfast today consisted of some squishy fried eggs with toast, cereal, and grits. We enjoyed the peace and quiet in the morning as one of the other schools left just before breakfast! We agreed meet on Truck B at 8:45, which gave us plenty of time to explore the layout of the other rooms on campus.  Our plan today included venturing to SnapShot (or as Mike would say, Snapchat) reef, in order to have fun and test our driving skills for the big boat ride tomorrow morning. Mike also took some fluorescent dye with him which we placed right next to tube sponges to see how they cycle water in and out. Mike hyped it up a lot, it wasn’t as cool as seeing a tiger shark but we all still really enjoyed the display. Some of our favorite things spotted as snapshot were giant crabs, some terminal Slippery Dicks, and an abundance of sand-dollars and sea

  We started the day off with a breakfast of bagels, eggs, oatmeal and muffins. Sadly there was no cream cheese to accompany the bagels, something some people were looking forward to all week. Then we had a couple hours of free time which we all spent finishing up the figure analysis due in a couple of hours and putting together some slides to share our proposal data in class that evening. We then regrouped at lunch and enjoyed grilled cheese and vegetable soup before heading to class at 12:45. After Mike helped explain to us a figure with complicated methods, it was time to head into the field.  We went to Bonefish Bay, (no actual bones found don't worry) at low tide to sample the intertidal. Mike then told us to create 2 transects looking at zonation patterns and then sat and watched as we struggled in the heat.  After much frustration we finally set it up the Mike approved way and counted a variety of organisms including snails, algae, muscles, sea urchins, limpets and more. We

Our day today was split into two! Those who like boats and those who don't. Or more accurately, those who get seasick and those who don't. For those who do get seasick, their day started a little bit earlier.  Skipping down to the beach at 9am, the early birds boarded their vessel hoping for calm seas. Their wishes were not granted as the wind started to pick up as the boat headed out toward the barrier reef surrounding Graham's Harbor. Direct quote: "land good, boat bad" -Jacob Edgington. Their boat experience included two guests, one of whom provided the fish with half digested frosted flakes, setting a bad tone for the queasy sailors. Bobbing on the waves, their troubles were rewarded with views of recovering Elkhorn and Staghorn coral, whose populations have been decimated by recent hurricanes and algal blooms. Returning back to the boat, they made their way to Green Cay, a small island off the peninsula, full of iguanas and very sharp karst. Happy to be back

For most of the class the day started dark and earlier as a continuation of the previous nights celebrations of Amy's birthday. The walk back involved impromptu singing, dancing, request for selfies (This was mostly done by Jacob himself). Others requested a stop at Grahams harbor to play on the playground and dip our toes in the water. It was definitely a night to remember. By the time breakfast rolled around at 7 am, students learned a important lesson that actions have consequences as headaches were nursed. Lucky Mike was feeling generous and allowed today snorkeling session to be "optional" but threatened if you don't go the rest of the group was going to see something amazing. Mike's guilt trip work as most students grudgingly arrived at the truck ready to go at 8:30 am. Arriving at Rocky point a group of students elected to stay on the beach and sunbath while the others went out to swim around the reef. This entailed a visit from a vary large barracuda. The