My Maiden Voyage

Tuesday was my first real field trip as a group and my first time in the Atlantic Ocean. All of the REU students arrived today and we had our first orientation meeting! The group is full of so many smart people and I know this summer is going to be a blast working with all of them!

There are 9 of us total and here are their names.
Immanuel- University of Puerto Rico                Angelica- University of Puerto Rico
Jonathan- University of Puerto Rico                 Kathryn- Virginia Tech
Kristina- Williams College                                Maureen- Stockton College
Nick- Connecticut                                           Me- Utah State University

Our first activity was to head into San Juan today and sign some paperwork and then to have fun! The bus ride was fun because we attempted to take group photos, yet we sadly failed in our attempts! We went to the largest mall in the Caribbean. Its literally the biggest building I've ever been into in my life! It has 3 levels of stores and then a skyscraper for the office building. Everyone in Puerto Rico seems to go there and its NEVER empty. Just strolling through the mall I saw every store that we have in our malls in Utah and then tons more that I had never even heard about!

        

     

For dinner we went to the beach and got Alcapurias, Coconuts, and Tacos! Then the best thing of all; Maureen took me through the Tide Pools and we had an amazing time finding shells, fish, sea fans, and crabs! It was so much fun! Its awesome being around other biology and ecology students because it gives us free reign to act like nerds. We literally walked around the tidal pool spouting off the scientific names and such of each organism. It was awesome! 

 

The sunset was beautiful!

 I'm holding a crab... first time!

 This is a special kind of rock called Coquina. Its a mixture of rock and red pigment!