When the first meeting came and the teacher talked about counting Mangrove leaves and planting, I was less than thrilled about the task. I thought it would be tedious and pointless to spend a day doing it, but I also imagined it differently. When we actually did it, it wasn’t that hard, and it was … Continue reading Costa Rica: Mangroves
After a total of 8 hours on a plane, we finally made it to London. The thing about planes is, they are incredibly hard to sleep on, so hardly anyone got proper rest for the upcoming day ahead of us. Of course, we were all excited, so it was a little easier to forget all … Continue reading In London: Tired and Hungry, but Excited All the Same
Today we arrived in London and it was immediately exciting. We boarded a bus to take us to our hotel and the driver pointed out notable sights along the way, which made it interesting. I began taking videos so that I have a video journal to post on YouTube at the end of the trip. … Continue reading First Impressions of London
This afternoon, we planted the mangroves. We had to wait until it was low tide which was between 2 and 6. We went out at about 3:00 and took all the supplies to the planting area. We did have to cross a small area of water in order to get to the mangrove planting site. … Continue reading Messy, Muddy Mangroves!
Every morning waking up in Bonaire felt extremely refreshing and peaceful. I shared a room with my best friend of 7 years and walking out to our porch each morning to do yoga made me feel like I never wanted to leave. The buildings were all painted yellow, the color alone can trigger happiness within … Continue reading SPC students making a difference in Bonaire
The main activity for this day was involving the mangroves. In the morning we went to the garden where the baby mangroves were being kept, and picked out the most developed mangroves (54 I believe) to move to the test plot later in the day, when the tide was lower. We returned later that afternoon … Continue reading The activities in Playa Blanca
Today has been quite an adventure in Bonaire. We started off the day by doing a beach clean up on the southeastern portion of the island. It was insane to see how much trash was piled up on the rocky shoreline and I believe we filled almost 20 huge duffel bags with trash. We then … Continue reading Adventures of a Study Abroad Student in Bonaire
We started another rewarding day with an hour dive transplanting coral from the nursery to restoration sites. Half the class got to transplant Staghorn coral, while the other half transplanted Elkhorn coral. There were many blue and yellow-headed wrasses on the restoration sites that were super curious of what we were doing. We had free … Continue reading Exploring Bonaire
My travels across the Atlantic Ocean to the culturally and historically rich, green lands of Ireland has been an astonishing experience so far. This has been my first time traveling outside of North America and the thought of a trans-Atlantic plane flight was dreadful, but it went by smoothly. My first glimpse of this humble … Continue reading Ireland: The little things…
This morning, we went over the research assistants’ house to help them prepare for kid’s day. This event is taking place Saturday, but we will not be able to attend because that is the day we leave. Kid’s day is an event where locals from Playa Blanca and La Palma come out to play games … Continue reading Kids day preparations