A Whale of a Tale

When the first group of the day got off the boat and said that they hadn't seen any whales I didn't let it get me down. First of all, the fisherman ALWAYS has hope. Second of all, you learn that just being out on the water is blessing enough, so if there isn't hope... it's a foolproof philosophy. Seeing the same people shrug it off as they walked away with two rum punches each in their hands didn't make it seem all that bad either.

I had been looking forward to today's whale-watching trip since Wednesday when I signed up. If nothing else, I was looking forward to getting away from campus, my apartment, and my books for just a little while. I wanted to have some time to myself to not have to think about study methods, or what was coming up in class this week, or what I was behind in. And my plan worked... for the first half of the trip anyway. What I forgot to realize is that if you put 40 people from the same school on a boat, eventually someone's going to talk about school.

And speaking of school. Today, for the third time, a complete stranger, on a sparsely-populated tropical island, after seeing my t-shirt that says FIU really big on it, asked me if we were the school that got into "that big brawl with UM last year." Now, part of me is disappointed that the only claim to fame of my university is the hijinx of a dyfunctionally premature football program. And well, another part of me is getting just plain annoyed. Maybe I'll write a letter or something. But anyway... As it turns out, the fine southern gentleman who inquired as to my t-shirt today was a 3rd semester here at Ross, who ended up sharing a wealth of information with me - one of the nicest people I've met here yet, and that's saying a lot.

In the end, we didn't see any whales. But I did have a great time back out on the water. The views (see photos) of the island were great, as was the weather, and I was able to really relax. And last but not least, I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of nice people along the way. Cheers!