I just want to start off by apologizing for the absolutely ugly template that I apparently had.  When I type, I just see a plain white screen and did not know that I had a picture of an old chair in the background.  Hopefully, it's fixed now.  Anyway...

Although I'm not a huge fan of waking up at 3:00am for a flight, watching the sunrise from thousands of feet above the ground almost makes it worth it.  The sky burns an orangish-red along the horizon in every direction you can see out of a plane window.  Watching the world wake up from the sky, as fog retreats through the valleys, is quite an experience.  With the scenery, I was unable to get any sleep on my flight, but it was totally worth it.

Unfortunately, taking a picture of bright lights through a scratched plane window kind of dilutes the effect, but take my word for it - it was unreal.

Aside from that, the trip from Miami to Provodenciales, the main island in the Turks and Caicos (hereafter referred to as the TCI) was fairly uneventful, but the scenery was spectacular. 

The short, 25 minute flight to South Caicos, however, was slightly sketchier as we moved away from all the tourism money.

We flew like kings to our final destination - they actually had to bring in two planes to fly all 36 of us.

Nothing really happened on the flight, and we were picked up and taken to the Center where I will be staying.  It's an old inn, with a kitchen area, classroom, study area, and a few wings of summer camp style housing.  We sleep six to a room in three bunk beds.  The view, however, is absolutely stunning. 

This is about a fifteen second walk from my door.


We spent the first night getting to know our classmates and the staff, and called it an early night.  Three hours of sleep will do that to you.  Even though I have been here a few days longer than this, the internet kept crashing when I was trying to blog, so I'll write more about snorkeling and the town and island later (and when I have some fly pics).

Before I stop, though, here’s just a few quick thoughts so far:

Biodegradable soap smells amazing.  I feel like I’m walking through a forest of eucalyptus everytime I take a (saltwater )shower.

Salt and sand are going to get everywhere.  I guess it’s a good thing that there’s no carpet to ruin.

It’s pretty chill going to class barefoot.

Speaking of class, I still can’t tell if it’s a good or bad thing that I can see the ocean from our classroom (yes, we only have one classroom).