Blog #6 Day 6

Well today was quite the eventful day! Today is Wednesday March 18, 2009. First thing I did was wake up at the refuge and Katie and I came over to the cottages at about 8 am. I made a huge breakfast of potatoes, eggs, and bacon. I ate and then Buzz, Katie, and I went to the refuge to try and get the Internet to work. After about a half hour or so Buzz finally got the Internet to work! It was great because we needed it to work for the videoconference that we are going to do tomorrow. After the refuge we went to UVI, University of the Virgin Islands, and I think I am going to transfer ASAP!!! HAHAH I’m just kidding. They do not have a biology program at all. They focus mostly on business and computer science. The campus is absolutely beautiful! They have a Koi fishpond! And if you do not know what that is then just look it up because those fish are awesome. They also have a sausage tree, which grows these huge fruit that are 2-3 feet long and a few inches around and they look just like a huge sausage! (Don’t worry of course I took pictures of it!) Anyway we made some great connections with the people in the research center at the university.
Katie is going to be able to get a microscope that will actually work on Friday morning so that she can look at her fecal samples of the mongoose. The people at the university were amazingly friendly and are going to give us some GIS photos so that we can better map our information. One of the men that worked there in the research center that showed us around (I forgot his name), said that he would rent his room out for an incredibly cheap price to anyone that wanted to stay here. He was interested in our research and wanted to help us out as much as possible. Also, he got his undergraduate degree at UMASS! How small of a world is that!
After that great experience at the university, we went to the grocery store to get some more “beverages” because with the way Buzz and I have been going we needed to restock the fridge. More elephant beer and we were in business. We also picked up some more sirloin steaks, 3 lbs. of squid, and we still had a lot of potatoes from last night. We are going to have quite the feast! After the grocery store we went back to the cottages to get ready to eat lunch and get some mongooses.
Me, Katie and Phil went to the refuge to get the mongoose. Today’s bet on the number of mongoose caught was Katie 4 caught mongoose and 4 recaptures, Buzz 5 caught mongoose and caught 4 recaptures, Phil 6 caught mongoose and 3 recaptures, and of course me being the optimistic one I guessed 8 caught mongoose and 4 recaptures. We caught 10 mongoose and 2 recaptures making me the winner! Finally I won!!! Hahaha. It was a great day.
After we got the mongoose we collected our data and then Buzz and Katie released the mongoose while Jonathon and I went on an adventure down the beach to look and study some tide pools. We found two big exoskeletons of crabs and observed so many different little crabs, snails, and other little organisms. It was a lot of fun. After that we went swimming for a while. While Jonathon and I were swimming Buzz comes onto the beach and yells that we are going shopping in Fredericksted and that they were keeping the store open for us! I bought two amazing island shirts that are bright orange. They are the most comfortable shirts that I have ever worn! I think I may buy some more of these because they are so light and have some amazing patterns.
After shopping, we came back to the cottages and had some drinks and began cooking supper. Katie took a video of me preparing the squid for dinner. Surprisingly the squid came out amazingly! It was so good but unfortunately Buzz and me were the only ones that really enjoyed it. We ate it all up along with the sirloin and potatoes. It was a great supper.
After supper I just came out and had a few drinks with buzz and prepared for night snorkeling. Buzz and I saw a jellyfish! It was absolutely gorgeous in the light. It was purple and was floating towards the top. We also saw about 8 lobsters all together and it looked so cool because their eyes were glowing red! It was like they were demon lobsters! The lobsters here do not have any claws either so they look really odd and ugly. Then we saw a great trumpet fish, which I did see and got a great picture of during the day. At night it looked absolutely amazing. We also saw a lot of sea urchins and I saw one that was white and black. It was great to see.
After the great night snorkel for an hour, it was getting late. I took a warm shower and went back to the refuge where I am now.
Tomorrow should be a great day with the videoconference. I am torn in my feelings right now. Tomorrow is going to be quite bittersweet because it is going to be our last mongoose catch day of the week. I am always excited to catch mongoose, but when it is our last of this trip I am a little bummed out. I will have to see how tomorrow goes because I know it will be quite the adventure!