Most of my first week:
If you go to UNA, you may or may not know that we have a Marine Biology program. It's super small, and before coming to DISL, I felt like I was the only Marine Biology major on the face of the planet. But on my first day at DISL, I found people who go to UNA. What?! What?! You mean that there are other people who are just like me and we haven't met before?? Well that ended very quickly. We found each other and we shall never separate. I love our little UNA group! It feels like home. And all we talk about is nerdy marine biology things. Seriously, where have you girls been all my life?! I believe the count of UNA Marine Biology majors that I know about is up to 7. We are movin up, marine bio majors!
Day before classes started, we had 20 DISL students go to the beach all day. It was nice to meet everyone and it was tons of fun! I learned how to play Redneck Golf. Oh, and I'm a pro at it. Florence is wearing off on me, y'all! ;) But while we were at the beach, someone saw a dolphin and as soon as he said something, everyone in our group stopped what they were doing and started talking about what the dolphins were doing/ why they were swimming that way/etc. This is the moment that I felt I belonged here. Where else do you get enthusiasm like that?? Nowhere but DISL.
So here's my little wake up call:
This is not college. Nope. Not at all. This, my friends, is glorified camp. Super small room, cafeteria food, spend your life outside, and the craziest one for me: no campus activities. Now I'm not complaining at all! I really love that I can bum it all day, erryday. And having "nothing to do" here is just studying and going to the pool and the beach. I don't have to run around in a million directions like I normally do. And while it took me a minute to adjust to that, I have to say, it's really nice to relax a bit! I have time to...wait for it... read! I've already read a couple books and a third one is in the mail coming to me. What is this? Awesomeness. Beach bummin awesomeness.
My Classes:
This is the First of Two Sessions that I will be taking here. I'm in Marine Botany with Dr. Just Cebrian. And next session I'll be taking Marine Invertebrates with Dr. Carmichael, but you'll hear about that later. My current professor, Just, is just awesome! (see what I did there?) He is so enthusiastic with his teaching that learning is way more fun than it should be! It's wonderful! I never knew plants could be so exciting. Class is only Monday, Thursday, and Friday for full days and Tuesday for a half day in the morning. So Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday all day is beach bum time! With class, I will be going on three trips, one being overnight. I also get to do a group research project for half of my grade. My group is six brilliant girls and we are going to rock everyone's socks off with out project. I'm working on one of my goals in life: Be published in a Scientific Journal. It's going to happen.
Some of my spare time:
Shark fishing. Yup, I went there. We fished from the shore, so no boat was needed. Unfortunately, I am a pro at catching Catfish. I caught like 10 of them before giving up. So we were not successful at catching a shark this time. But one of these days, it'll happen. It was still fun to go fishing at night! I've never done that before.
Lighthouse Bakery. Really cute coffee shop. Out of the sun, avoiding the lobster look. Delicious cinnamon rolls. WiFi and cell service. We spend a lot of time here.
WalMart. Guys, the closest WalMart is like 30 minutes away. The Stuggle. Really though, we plan WalMart trips... But the road trip is always a fun one. Especially with Macklemore on the radio and Anna and Angela jammin out with me.
Red Box Nights. So far, we've had two. And we watch the cheesiest Chick Flicks ever. It's good times.
