Getting settled

Much has happened since my last post. Can't say that there's a most notable for each has had it's great moments.

Up in the marine center we've been having some strange behavior from our animals. A lot of them have decided that now is a good time to reproduce so we've been explaining the miracle of life marine style to the scouts for the last few weeks. It's really awkward actually to have to explain to a scout how actually that limpet isn't peeing, it's really releasing sperm. It's especially great when the kid has no idea what sperm is. Then we just tell them it's like spit. Yeah.

Also my house is finished with the remodeling which is awesome. We have new paint, kitchen, and floor tiling throughout. Makes it really nice to have a place that is once again liveable and not a construction zone. For awhile we were worried about breathing lead paint dust that was coming off the cuboards. And then there was the sticky floor they had to leave before tiling it up. But then again, it's great to have a house provided and it's really nice so I don't mind at all.

Tonight I finally got checked out to drive the boats, a process which has taken the last 5 weeks to complete. There are several checks that you have to get, like making night runs, turning on the boat properly, understanding the tinks with the boat in terms of getting it ready to go. While I was proficient in all those other things, it was the docking that I had yet to accomplish. To pass the docking challenge you have to successfully dock 4 out of 6 tries. And obviously they aren't going to pass you if you slam into the dock at all. For the past week or so I've been taking every opportunity I could get to practice my docking which involved driving in big circles around the bay and docking over and over again.

Well finally tonight I took my docking challenge and passed! I'm so happy about it it's a nice feeling of accomplishment to think that when I first got here I was actually afraid of driving the boats and now I'm getting quite steady with them.

Just a note, I've been keeping a picture website where I'm posting the different photos from being out here. Here's the address: http://picasaweb.google.com/esther.eder Also I'm putting a permanent link on the site so have a look!