Wrapping Up

Another semester comes to a close. Jessee was up early this morning (before 5am) to do the final room checks and accompany the students to Providenciales. Like usual, she stayed there for the day until all the students made their international connections and returned to South Caicos in the evening. I spent the day here helping the other staff with the various post-departure chores.


I'm sure Jessee will have more to say about it, but in all the semester went well. For me there were ups and downs between active and enjoyable times (like when the Smithsonian group was here) and down-right boring times (such as during the directed research projects when everybody else was very busy). Other than the short days, it doesn't feel like winter at all (it will be a complete shock to our systems when we return to the States next week). It was sunny and 85°F today.

The fact that it gets dark so early these days has meant a significant reduction in diving due to not having time to go after work hours. Although, since the directed research projects ended, I've managed to get out there quite a bit. I have more than 90 logged dives since arriving on South Caicos, and hopefully I'll hit the landmark 100 dives before break.

So what happens now? We'll have a few days of chores and work to do around the center, and then people will start leaving for the holidays. Actually, many are leaving for good, moving on to bigger and better things (we're really looking forward to 5 new staff members and at least 1 new non-staff "significant other" like me). We leave here on 17 December and return on 2 January, when we have tentative plans to visit Middle Caicos.

Fall?

The change of seasons can easily go unnoticed down here. We don't get any dramatic change in colors or those crisp evenings that smell like Fall has arrived. I almost didn't realize that September is practically over already. Recently the temperatures have been considerably cooler (though certainly still not what I'd call "cool"). It's more like the length of time that the heat is unbearable during the day has shortened. I will say that nighttime is quite comfortable though. The water temperature has remained pretty constant at about 88 degrees on the surface, which is nice.

All this hot weather has got to be making us soft. It'll be a shock to our systems when visit the families this December. We've just purchased our plane tickets for the Winter break. We'll be back in the States from 17 December to 2 January! We're planning to visit Florida (to see my Leitner grandfather), Philadelphia (to see Jessee's family), Maryland (to see my parents), and (hopefully) a quick trip to New York (to see my Matulis grandmother). Our flights make a circuit from TCI to Florida (17 Dec) to Philadelphia (20 Dec) and back to TCI (2 Jan).