Work has begun!

Work has begun! Things are absolutely crazy, and I am home literally just to sleep for 6 hours before I head back to the harbor.

 Public transportation: my new best friend. I have actually met a lot of really interesting, really nice people on my hour long daily commutes.

Most of my time has been spent in the office or the classroom, attending turtle or odontocetes lectures, peeing in a cup, or signing lots of paperwork, but my first day out on the boats, I saw 2 whitetip sharks and one grey reef shark out at Molokini, which definitely was a good reminder of why I came here in the first place.

Molokini

So cool-especially since I haven't seen a shark since I was in the Seychelles almost three years ago!

Ma'alaea Harbor

Then, this afternoon (my first day actually working the boats), we went to Molokini again in the morning and to Lanai'i in the afternoon, where we ran into a pod of 200 Spinner dolphins! They put on a pretty good show for us, jumping in the air and surrounding the boat, and then we got to hop into the water, and I saw about 100 of them swim right underneath me!

A spinner we saw from the boat this afternoon!

Dolphin watching from the boat

Working on the boats is pretty exhausting, but it can also be a lot of fun. Surprisingly, we take a lot of non-swimmers out on the boats, so this morning, I actually spent about an hour holding a 40 year old woman's hand and floating around the reef with her. Its an awesome feeling to be able to introduce someone to the reef for the first time and to help them overcome that fear of water. Then, the afternoon ended with a few Hawaiian Green Turtle sitings off the side of the boat- pretty perfect day overall!

 Snorkelers at Lanai'i today

I have so much to accomplish in the next few weeks: finding a place to live more permanently, getting my bar tending license (meaning I have to read/ memorize a 300 page manual), becoming a lifeguard, and learning everything there is to know about Hawaii and Marine Biology.  I'm just starting to realize what I have really gotten myself into.