I officially have booty tan lines.

So for those of you who don't know, booties are the neoprene boots you wear with fins when you go snorkeling/diving...hence the tan lines. Oh well, at least it means I'm having fun!
Anyway, let's back up a bit. Sunday was our day off, so I went for a swim in the bay. That is one thing that's nice here: I love swimming in a pool, but there's something so much better about swimming and seeing swarms of tropical fish and corals below you as you swim! Right when I got home, some of the guys decided that they wanted to swim across the bay, so I was enlisted along with my friend Julie to kayak with them to protect them from oncoming boats. It was sooo nice, Julie and I made some awesome musical kayakers, rowing and singing as we crossed the bay. Next on the agenda was wine and cheese at Professor Brent Mishler's hut on the hill. Each of the professors gets his own little hut up on the hill above the Gump Station, from which there's an amazing view of treetops and the bay. Brent provided us with boxed wine (which actually wasn't too bad) and some hors-d'oevres, and we hung around chatting with the professors and GSI's (graduate student instructors). It's so nice, I've never really gotten to know my instructors like I have here. We invite the graduate students to dinner every couple nights, so we're actually getting to know them too.
Monday we went on the last of the class field trips, a hike with Jean-Ives the French botanist to the Col des Trois Cocotiers. Jean-Ives was quite a character with his extremely French accent, army shorts, knee high red socks, and transparent plastic jelly sandals...arrgghh I wish I could upload pictures! Anyway, that was a nice hike, we followed a ridge up to the top of a gorgeous lush mountain, learning about plants on the way. We got to the top, where only one palm tree remains as the other two burned down ("Col des Trois Cocotiers" means "Pass of the three palms"). The view from up at the top was amazing, but it soon began to rain...and REALLY rain. We were all soooo drenched by the time we got down, but it was oddly fun at the same time, since it was warm tropical rain.
The next couple days were devoted to working on a write-up for a class assignment and figuring out projects. I went out snorkeling again and decided that I really like corals...there are soooo many species that are so colorful and intricate, and it'd be really interesting to work with them. The ultimate goal will be to compare their biodiversity with the coral biodiversity in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and maybe try to figure out WHY differences in biodiversity occur. Well, that's the current plan anyhow...it'll probably be modified multiple times.
Last night, to celebrate the end of our write-ups, we went to a Tahitian dancing show! It was a lot of fun. I asked my friend Trisha, who has family in Hawaii, how it compares to hula, and supposedly it is a lot faster paced than traditional Hawaiian dancing. The best part of the night was when a few of our students got dragged on stage to dance with the Tahitians...oddly enough, the guys were a lot more into it than the girls, and it was pretty hilarious!
This morning Irma, the Tahitian housekeeper/house mom, taught me how to cut papaya and pineapple (the local agricultural school gives us huge baskets of fresh papaya, pineapple, bushels of baby bananas, and Tahitian apples)...she likes me because I speak French :) Apparently she likes to treat us as her 22 children.
Today there was a huge walk out at Berkeley to protest the budget cuts and furloughs, so in solidarity, the professors gave us a lcture about the history of the university and its budget. It was really interesting to hear their perspective, but rather depressing - apparently, at the rate everything is going, Berkeley won't be able to keep up the same quality of education for that much longer...and there's not too much any of us can do.
Anyway, sorry for the looooong entries, unfortunately I don't get a chance to write too often, and then when I do, I go all out... Life here is just sooo different from home. Over here, we can tell the professors where we want to go, for example to snorkel in a particular area, and they will actually listen to us and take us there! We are the ones with the power! So strange.
Well that's all for now! Hope everything is good in the real world ;)