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This news just in from South Caicos!

12/12/97Students leave South Caicos and begin their journeys home.
12/8/97Students have their first day of directed research presentations.
12/7/97Final soccer game against the local team ends up in a tie. No one wins the trophy!
12/6/97Directed research projects are due today.
12/3/97Students are working to finish their directed research papers.
12/2/97Students and staff visit a deserted key north of South Caicos called McCartney Key. Mark Nolan's directed research group conducts a field exercise there; the rest of students and staff are there purely for enjoyment.
12/1/97The pool is drained and cleaned in preparation for the break between semesters.
11/30/97Water volleyball tournament is scheduled for today, but it never happens. Most of the students slept the entire day!
11/29/97Students take Andrew Gude and Christophe Bené's final examinations today. Tomas Jamir's field exercise write-up is due by noon!
11/28/97Students take Mark Nolan's final exam!
11/27/97Happy Thanksgiving! Students and staff celebrate with a huge Thanksgiving dinner. Some fall asleep afterwards, but most are still awake until midnight studying for professor Mark Nolan's final exam tomorrow.
11/26/97Mark Nolan's directed research group takes a day trip up to East Caicos, the large deserted island north of South Caicos. East Caicos is currently being proposed as the site for a major tourist complex.
11/25/97All printers at the Center run out of black toner cartridges! Undaunted, students resort to printing papers in red and blue ink.
11/24/97Students take their final underwater exam on coral and reef organism (non-fish) identification.
11/23/97Students get to eat white margate, a fish caught by staff members on a day fishing trip.
11/22/97First Saturday without classes.
11/21/97Last official day of lecture! Students meet to discuss directed research projects.
11/17/97Another heavy rain refills the water cistern. A good omen!
11/16/97Workload increases as the semester nears its end. Stacie organizes a volleyball tournament to relieve some of the stress.
11/14/97Students have their first dive below 60 feet!
11/13/97Interns begin student certification as Advanced or Open Water II SCUBA divers.
11/12/97Two hard downpours refill the water cistern to overflowing. Students finally do fresh water laundry!!
11/10/97Students dive in clear, calm water to work on coral identification and to improve their habitat mapping skills. Evening activity is a poetry reading from TCI published poet Mario Taylor.
11/9/97Students and staff camp out tonight on Long Beach on the northeast side of South Caicos.
11/7/97Students take their underwater fish identification finals.
11/6/97Turks and Caicos governor John Kelly visits SFS and talks to students about the state of affairs in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
11/2/97Students and staff make goal posts out of PVC pipe for the weekly soccer game. Students tie local team 1-1.
11/1/97Students have their first day of classes since returning from break.
10/31/97Students return from their breaks in Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.
10/25/97Students pack for a much-needed mid-semester break.
10/21/97HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY BEN MAHNKE, Student Affairs Manager.
10/20/97Rare westerly wind today. Students practice fish counting techniques at a dive site called The Point and see a school of 23 eagle rays!
10/19/97No classes. Students snorkel at new location called Highland House. Students win another soccer game later on! their record is 5-1!
10/18/97Students conduct directed research-related field exercises in boats all day long. Later celebrate Liz Friary and Maxine Guay's birthdays. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZ AND MAXINE!
10/16/97Students attend field exercise presentation.
10/15/97Bad weather ends. Students spend the day cleaning up East Bay beach and Coast Guard beach as part of International Coastal Cleanup Day.
10/14/97Heavy rains today. No boat activities. Instead, students conduct fish identification on a long drift snorkel in which they enter the water upcurrent from the Center and then drift with the fast current back to the site (45 minute drift).
10/13/97Interns produce a reef creature side show for the students to help them learn how to identify the more difficult-to-learn fish species.
10/10/97Guest lecturer Lynn Garland, chief science officer of the Turks & Caicos Fisheries Department, talks with students about marine parks management.
10/9/97Students build a massage table using spare time and spare wood.
10/7/97Clear and flat waters make today an exceptional day for diving.
10/6/97Students build a massage table using spare time and spare wood.
10/3/97Students go snorkeling by the Coast Guard Station on the north end of South Caicos. Forecast indicates that rough weather is on the way.
10/2/97Students take 2 to 3-1/2 hours to complete their first exam.
10/1/97No field work today, because students are studying for their first big exam. Many staff members have their first chance to rest since the student arrivals.
9/30/97Ocean water is warm and exceptionally clear. Students switch some of their academic focus to habitat mapping.
9/29/97Fabulous sightings! A turtle, a 6-foot nurse shark with a remora, an eagle ray that jumps eight feet out of the water, and some rarely-seen fish such as a flounder.
9/26/97SFS students participate in Youth Day, an annual TCI two-day holiday in which teams of children from various islands gather for friendly competition and community-building.
9/25/97After-dinner classes are postponed to have another birthday celebration. HAPPY 22nd, MAGGIE! Birthday gifts included a cake, a tea made of black mangrove leaves, various skits, necklaces, crowns, garlands, and many, many flowers.
9/24/97Students visit the town dump and witness the open-air incineration method for getting
rid of garbage! This is quite a shock for the students!
9/23/97Weather curtails SCUBA diving again. Students go snorkelling at Admiral's Aquarium.
reef. Water temperature cooled by the recent rains down to a "bone-chilling" 81°F.
9/22/97SCUBA diving is cancelled due to increasingly choppy seas. Student go snorkeling in shallower waters to work on their reef fish identification skills.
9/19/97Students visit the Admiral Aquarium reef site. A huge order of fresh food comes in and is put away in the new refrigerator.
9/18/97The new walk-in refrigerator is finally installed and completed, allowing the students and staff to store and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Everyone's happy!
9/17/97It's Roseanne Purdy's Birthday!!!! Staff and students surprise her with a big beach party! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSEANNE!!!!!!!!!!
9/16/97Brian Riggs, curator of the Turks and Caicos National Museum gives a lecture about the history of the Turks and Caicos Islands, from the time of Christopher Columbus until now.
9/15/97Directed research projects are introduced to the students, afterwhich they take a field trip to see the research dive sites.
9/14/97Students go on their first official dive! Later, they get together with local kids for a scavenger hunt.
9/13/97Tony Mares, a local fisherman, talks with students after dinner about spearfishing and freediving for conch and lobster. Tony tells some great stories!
9/11/97Formal lectures and classes begin today. Professors review case studies for which students will be conducting research.
9/10/97Students are barraged with rules, ruLES, RULES during orientation.
9/9/97Students arrive on South Caicos Island and take their swim tests!