Finally here!

Hi! I made it to Mossel Bay! I made it yesterday, actually, but it's been busy! So I flew into George, and just because my travel wasn't difficult enough, they lost my bag. Like my big one. Like the important one. So... that happened, and they didn't even have any record of it. They kept calling for a description and all, which is terrifying. Anyway, decided not to worry about it. Ryan came to pick me up (Ryan Johnson is the head researcher here, not to be confused with my Ryan) and we came back to the house. The house is great, in a really nice part of town, and is really big. There are four bedrooms-- two for girls, one for the boys, and then Stefan, one of the scientists, lives upstairs part time. I haven't met him yet; he's in Cape Town this week. So there are 10 interns total, 4 Americans, 4 British, and 2 Italians. Everyone is probably in their 20s, maybe a little older. We can see the ocean from upstairs, which is cool, and there's a big balcony. I have one roommate, also an American. Let's see, what else. So today we were supposed to be doing a 24 hour seal survey (like the one on the SAMPLA blog at www.sampla.org) but the wind picked up tonight so we're waiting until Friday. I was supposed to be out from midnight until seven on the boat, so I'm not too sad about missing it tonight. Although the night part of the survey apparently involves night-vision goggles, which is pretty sweet. We did do a few hours of daytime seal watch today, where we sat on a balcony on the top floor of a hotel and watched seals coming to and leaving from an island for a couple hours. Sorry, we're watching a movie, so I'm a little distracted. So what else. Tomorrow we are going out chumming, which means I should actually get to see the sharks! I kind of have an idea of what happens, but I'll save the details until I can tell you first hand. I'm pretty excited. The weather here is pretty cold, not too bad but definitely sweatshirts and stuff. It's crazy that the cold southern breezes are coming up pretty much straight from Antarctica. Then again, the hole in the ozone layer makes the sun stronger, too, which I guess makes it warmer. What else... we had a barbecue last night (which is apparently called a braai in Afrikaans), then six of us went out last night to a bar, which was fun. Everyone seems really great. Oh, and my bag came today while I was on seal watch! So that was very exciting. I'm all unpacked and settled in. It feels like I've been here way more than a day and a half. Okay, totally distracted, so I'm going to watch the movie. I will definitely let you guys know all about the sharks tomorrow! I can't wait.