An Adorable Snack

 If you have ever been to Cayman there's a chance you have been to the Turtle Farm and if you have, you know my new found joy. If you haven't, when you come visit me we will go. This place is awesome! You walk through the main gate and you are greeted by a big pool filled with sea turtles!

Understandably this was one of the cooler things I have seen in the animal world. It was almost as awesome as when I saw wild elephants for the first time. You grow up hearing about sea turtles and how awesome and endangered they are and then you get to see them face to face. This is really a special experience. Then you realize that there are probably 50 big sea turtles in the giant concrete tank. It honestly gave me some Blackfish flashbacks. You find yourself a little torn as you see these animals that would travel great distances out in the open ocean and they just swim around in circles. You soon realize a few things however. The first thing that you realize is that this is a farm. These turtles are raised commercially for their meat. So, you don't feel as bad. The second thing you realize is that these animals are incredibly endangered so, unlike our good friend Tilikum, there aren't a lot of these guys out there in the open ocean and the other side of this operation is that they release a good number of the turtles that they raise. You then find yourself, once again, overwhelmed with how awesome this place is. You then move on and you find yourself standing over tanks filled with little sea turtles. You look around and see people reaching in and catching them as they swim by and you realize, "holy crap, I'm about to hold a sea turtle!" and then you grab him!

 He's so tiny and cute! It was a pretty incredible experience that promised to only get better. I was told of The Lagoon! The lagoon is a place where you can actually go swim with sea turtles. My dreams were unfolding before my very eyes. I was so excited and I couldn't quite contain myself. We approached the lagoon and I got some bad news. It had closed just before we had gotten there. I was disappointed but I just decided that I will have to come back and swim with the turtles another time. 

When you come visit me, lets go ride some turtles!
 

ROCK FLAG AND EAGLE!

Its 10:15pm. I am sitting out on my balcony, enjoying a cool breeze coming off the ocean and looking down at the lighted pool three stories below. Today for the first time in the last 13 years, I am in a different country on what is arguably the most notable day for Americans since we landed on the moon. I am sitting here with mixed emotions as I flip between the football game and that same 911 documentary that History channel shows every year on this day. As I went through the day, it was the first time in 13 years that this day hasn't included conversations about what I was doing when the planes hit, (I was in earth science and my teacher had just turned on the TV to show us a video at 8:48, a mere two minutes after the first plane hit. As a 9th grade student, I, along with the rest of my classmates, was understandably confused by what I was seeing. Fifteen minutes later, our class still affixed to the TV, the second plane hit.) For the first time in 13 years, no prayer gathering was held. For the first time in 13 years, I was in a place, surrounded by people that weren't majorly affected by the events of that morning. In Cayman, September 11 is a day just like any other. So much of the world seems to fault Americans for being loud, obnoxious, arrogant, self-centered and so much more. It seems like if you are proud of being and American, the world sees that as a negative. Today is one of those days that I have no intention at all to apologize for loving my country. We grew up being taught that America is the greatest country in the world, and to be sure there was a time when that was a fact. Whether it is anymore is up for debate and to be honest irrelevant. To be a patriot is to believe with all your heart that your country is the greatest country in the world, even if you know it isn't. It is why I always tell people that Buffalo is the greatest city in the world. I know that there are more exciting cities to be in, more beautiful cities, more successful cities, but Buffalo is my city and I believe, with all my guts, that it is the greatest city in the world. I feel the same about my country. Hearing the stories of heroes that sacrificed themselves to save others from the collapsing towers, or a group of passengers that stormed the cockpit of their plane so it wouldn't kill countless more people to the way everyone rallied around New York City. Americans kick ass!

Now that I am finished with my patriotic rant, on to life. Tomorrow marks 6 weeks that I have been on the island and needless to say it has been an interesting six weeks. That being said, nothing really that interesting has happened. I did have an awesome day last Thursday. My friends Steve and Susan stopped on the island for a few hours on a cruise. Its always nice to have visitors and I encourage all of you to get down here while the gettin is good, (Nov. 6 is the start of Pirate week). After they returned to the ship I was walking by the water and I saw a smallish shark swimming around which was pretty awesome and then I got back to my office to find that my new guitar had arrived a few hours earlier. (The guitar is a limited edition, Taylor Mini-e GS with Koa would and I talked to my sales rep today and he said they got 100 in and they were sold out in three days) I'm pretty pumped I got my first new guitar in 10 years and it sounds so great)

Tomorrow marks my first day as a teacher. I will be teaching ethics in the high school which is going to be pretty exciting. I have no idea how its going to be, but I finally get to see how I like teaching. The beauty and paradox of ethics is that its a class about right and wrong and there isn't really right and wrong... or something like that. Anyways, I'll let you guys know how it goes.