It started off on completely the wrong foot when I lost one of my contacts in the morning and also discovered that the dive shop had somehow given me a pair of mis-matched diving fins (which currently need to be shipped back to North Carolina). BUT once we boarded the bus at 6am, everything started looking up
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| Bus loaded with all of our luggage |
We left USC behind with a spectacular sunrise and a fantastic view of the San Pedro port. It didn't hurt that Petunia the Pelican was at the boat dock to see us off
A little over an hour later, we finally arrived at Catalina Island, where we were greeted by a huge pod of dolphins jumping up out of the water. I tried getting them on camera, but all I managed was a picture of their fins, which you can kind of see if you stare at the black dots in the middle of the water:
While everyone back at USC was starting their first day of classes, we spent our first day of spring semester getting into our dive gear and going snorkeling. I'm pretty toasty warm in my 7mm wetsuit, but I'll let you know if that continues once we actually start diving deeper. The water is definitely cold, but I've been in worse. There are 20 other students on the island with me, and we're all going to know each other way too well by the time this semester is over. To top off my day, the food so far is delicious, and I'll gladly put on a few pounds and stay warmer in the water.
I'll put up more pictures tomorrow of the dorms and the island in general, but it's 10:08, and I'm starting to realize that I'm going to be sleeping a lot earlier here than on the mainland. With no streetlights and the prevailing quiet, it feels a lot later than it actually is. What a sharp contrast to Los Angeles, a city that never sleeps.
I think I'm going to like it here.
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