Oh dear. What to say...
Sunday was a "free day" but it ended up being not so "free" for us. We were kept in a lab room all day to cooperatively write a report on all that we found while SCUBA diving. It was a lot harder than I expected to work together with everyone. Yikes! I volunteered to help with making graphs out of the data, but the few I tried to make seemed useless and not too exemplary, so I felt like I wasn't really helping to contribute to the paper. I actually listened to my music and sang out loud with Squirt for a good amount of time while others were working. I know, I feel horrible! I should have been helping more! But I just didn't know how to help and after a while of asking who needs help or if there is something for me to do (and getting zero responses), I gave up!
We stopped around noon for a lunch break and headed out to the Rock Islands Cafe. It was yummy.
Back at the lab, we finished the paper by five... and it's not too great. The conclusion especially is very weak, especially because we spent so much time on it. David said it was expected that our conclusion would not be perfect because we only spent one day on it, but I think we could have done a lot better considering we were cooped up in one room all day! I had started to forget that I was on Palau.
Dinner was at "The Taj," an Indian restaurant. Everyone was super excited, except for me: Indian + Bridget just do not mix well. I tried to be conservative: I ate naan with dried fruit and raisins (yum!) and a spinach cheese dip thingy. I felt a little queasy afterwards, but not too terrible. Everyone else was thrilled with their food, as well as mine! But Indian food is just not my favorite, sorry. We smoked some hookah afterwards, then headed home. Sabrina, Mariah and I decided to walk and when we were about five minutes from the hotel (at the end of a thirty minute walk), it began to rain. Correction: downpour. We were soaked! At first we tried to stay dry but we soon gave up on that and just accepted being drenched. And I was wearing a white skirt, oops. Hehe.
When we got back to the hotel, everyone else was swimming in the rain. Sabrina and Mariah jumped in in their underwear, but I opted not to. Hehe. I did stay outside with everyone though! Sabrina and I put our swimsuits on and went out in the ocean a bit to look at the bio luminescence, but everyone else started heading upstairs. We soon went back up and got on the roof, but it was still barely raining and, thus, too cloudy to see any stars or meteor showers. (Pearl used to be an astronomy major and said that, two days earlier, the biggest meteor shower of the year was beginning. Darn, I missed it! I saw a few shootings stars, but not like I could have seen if I had been on the roof or out in the ocean on a boat like Pearl and Squirt. Bummer!).
Sabrina and I headed to bed, not knowing that everyone else was still up downstairs having fun. Bummer x 2! Eh, that's ok. I got a good amount of sleep I guess.
Monday
Our last day! It was terribly humid and hot in the morning. After breakfast, everyone in our group set out in separate groups, heading for the museum and shopping along the way. It began to downpour pretty hard while I was in a store. That was nice because then it wasn't as hot. I did a lot of souvenir shopping. We stopped for lunch in a local market place. I had some plantains of some sort (YUMMM) and ate some of DanK's octopus thingy and rice, but it made me a little sick at the stomach until dinner.
We never made it to the museum, though we had a ton of fun out all day. We returned back to a shop we had already been at so that DanK could buy a story board. This is a piece of wood with a specific story carved into it. His was about $60, but other people bought some that were $175 and more. It's cool to buy if you go to the prison and buy it, because I guess than the inmate that made it will come out and talk to you about it. But I didn't have that much money to spare hehe. Anywho, the people of this shop that we had returned to felt badly that we were walking around int he rain without umbrellas or anything. They offered to drive us back to our hotel because they wanted us to enjoy our last day in Palau. So nice! It is amazing how wonderfully nice the people are here.
Dinner was at the Drop Off... AGAIN. Bhaha oh my goodness. Blackened sashimi again! But it's just so dang good... we had a great last group dinner.
The plan was to meet around 11:15 PM to head off to the airport. We were pretty on schedule too (Sabrina and I were the first ones in the lobby but last ones back in the lobby when it was time to go because were went out for a few minutes, oops). We were nice and early at the airport for our 2 AM flight to Guam. We weren't "sterile" when we landed, so we had to go through customs and security here. Then we got right back in line for our next flight to Honolulu. The security officer guy dude who checked my passport and ticket thought that David (my professor) was my boyfriend. Hmm.... awkward. Hehe. I told everyone that, they thought it was hilarious. Our seats were all together and really great on this flight. I was on an isle, thank goodness. AND I have finally figured out the best way for me to sit/sleep comfortably on an airplane, because I can't sit still normally. I bend my legs and put my feet on my seat, so I'm in a tuck position. Then I latch my seat belt around my ankles so that I can relax and not struggle to keep my feet on the seat. Voila!
Pocahontas was on the screen in front of me and I watched it: that made me so happy! And I got some sleep. We landed in Hawaii (and my Mama did not fail to call just as I turned on my phone. Flipper said hi). We had to go out, get our luggage, then go back in. Ugh what a pain. Squirt left our group here because she lives on Oahu and needed to get her stuff for school. I was so sad :[
We landed in L.A. around 5:50 AM and, of course, my mother called right as I landed. Flipper commented, "Hi Mama Hardy!"
Leaving the group was super sad, even though we will be seeing each other again. It just won't be the same, I know it. People will have conflicts and I'm not even sure we will be able to all be together again. Although, we all want to finish our research diving certification, which means more dives on Catalina, a test, and First Aid/CPR training. Guam Squad reunites!
I miss my group :[
It's 7:34 AM and I feel like I just pulled five all nighters in a row. But now I have rush school all day. Hopefully I don't fall down/pass out at all. I do enjoy having breakfast ready for me in the morning :]
I will post more, but I want to go sleep now.
Peace,
B
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