Back to School

I know I have not added an update in a while but it has taken me some time to settle in and adjust to being back at school. I have to say that the trip back to the mainland was extremely long. I ended up with a total travel time of 13 hours and I did not get any sleep during the trip. After I finally landed in Tampa, Dad picked me and Kristine up and we stayed with him for the day. It was wonderful to eat good food and relax after the long trip. The next day, Kristine and I woke up early and drove to campus to check in. After we got to our room, we began the long process of moving everything in and unpacking all of our stuff. We could not have done it without all of the help from our amazing friends and especially Kate's parents! That night we went out to dinner before falling asleep from exhaustion. I was completely exhausted and jet lagged for the next couple of days. Now I am completely settled and I am loving it. It is so nice to live in an apartment style dorm with a kitchen and living room!

Classes started with an interesting turn of events. I am sure most of you heard about tropical storm Fay, but I experienced it. Classes were cancelled for most of the day Tuesday, all day Wednesday and all day Thursday. The storm stopped over Melbourne and we got nothing but rain and winds for 3 days. Everything was flooded and one of the bridges on campus collapsed. Most of my time during all of this was spent watching movies with friends. Now classes have started again and I already have homework and a presentation to work on.

On another note, I found a work study position at the Brevard zoo. I had an interview with the curator of animals a couple of days ago and I start work next Friday. I will be working as a keeper aide in all areas of the zoo. I am very excited about this job and I only hope it will be a wonderful experience that I can learn from.

I hope everyone is doing well. I look forward to Mom and David visiting next weekend, but I don't know when I will be back in Georgia. I will try to continue the blog throughout the school year but I can not guarantee I will have new updates very often. For now I am all pau!

I am down to the final days here in Hawaii and I have to say that I am ready to get back to Florida. I spent my final day off with Kristine and a future intern driving around the island and watching the sunset on the west side. It was so beautiful and the perfect way to say aloha. I have had a great time here but I am so excited to get back to school and visit my friends.

It is bittersweet to leave because I am going to miss the dolphins and all of the wonderful people I have worked with everyday. I feel like we are just getting to become close to them and now we have to say goodbye. Tonight is the aloha party which will give us a chance to say goodbye to all of the people we have worked with this summer. I have learned so much and really changed as a person from this internship. I will never forget this experience and I am so lucky that I have had this opportunity. I could not have done this without everyone's help and support so I want to thank all of you. I look forward to seeing everyone when I get back to the mainland. I love you guys!