This is the day we leave for Roatan. I woke up early today, mostly because I couldn’t sleep. Since I graduated yesterday, I’ve been going through a range of emotions from excitement to sadness. Either way, I couldn’t sleep. I left for the airport with a friend of mine at about 5:30 p.m. We got there before everybody else, so we had to wait before we could check in.    

Once we all met up, we checked in our luggage, and went through TSA. There were more people than I expected this late at night, but that’s SFO for you. When we dropped off our bags at the gate, we were able to explore a bit for food and merchandise. I wanted to buy a California-themed baseball cap, but didn’t find one I liked, so I got a cool t-shirt instead. There was a family there who was speaking Spanish and were also checking out the California-themed merchandise. I don’t speak much Spanish, but I was able to pick up a few words like “mujer” and “camiseta.”    

When we got back to the gate, I got hit by drowsiness like a ton of bricks, but I was able to pull through. We had to fill out some information about our upcoming scuba experience on Roatan. It was about another hour until boarding started, so we just sat around. Once we were boarded, the heater was on so we were worried we would all melt during the flight, but they shut it off, so I got to freeze instead. We’re about to take off, so I think I’m going to try to get some sleep now.  

- Cadet Erik Weisner

Professors Stephen Kielar and Ariel Setniker contributed to this blog entry.

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