Monday, May 31, 2004

(Finally, a Formal Uniform)

Today was a gorgeous day in St. Thomas, and I took a shore tour to Megan's Bay. I have taken it before, but didn't finish it last time, and it is a free way to get to the beach anyway (I didn't finish it this time either). I had a couple of things that I wanted to take pictures of before, so I got them this time. It is listed as one of the top ten beaches in the world. Definitely not for the surf, as there isn't any whatsoever. It is an incredibly beautiful beach, though. I don't have a wide-angle lens, but in the first picture (taken from a nearby mountain) you can see that it is a gigantic horseshoe-shaped beach. It is surrounded by rocks and cactus, with the very center of the beach as an actual beach with sand. The water always circulates the same direction, so the sand builds up on the right side. I was able to walk a long way around the right half, it never gets any deeper than waist-deep. There are two other smaller beaches along the way. It got me to a good vantage point where I could take pictures of a house I had seen when kayaking last time. Here it is close-up . . . 

Well, I finally got my formal uniforms and the officer stripes to go on my normal uniform. I still haven't had a picture taken of my in my whites, but I'll post it when I do. I have also had the professional photographer take a picture of me in the formal uniform, but I haven't gotten it back from him yet. I had Julio (my Ecuadorian roommate) take a couple of other pictures of me as the sun set. I'm sure that we looked like a couple of goofballs, wandering around the decks taking pictures of each other. I also imagine that people were questioning our sexuality . . .

Since I was already dressed up, I decided to go with Julio to the show. You aren't supposed to take flash pictures there (I had thought that cameras weren't allowed), so I didn't take my camera. I may take it to another show and try taking a couple of pictures. I was really impressed, to be honest. I know that the dancers spend a lot of time at the beach, but they definitely spend time practicing also. The costumes were impressive, the sets were much more expensive than I would have thought, and the band (in an actual pit in front of the stage) was really good. My one and only complaint was the actual music choice. 90% of the songs were the same songs that they use in every single show in the world. They also played the Macarena song, which is complaint enough in and of itself. It just seems that after 50 years of the same songs, someone could design a show using something different.

After the show I went to the comedy show. It is billed as R-rated, and it definitely was (they have a family-oriented show on another night, much earlier). However, the guy was a lot funnier than I expected. I found that a number of people were going to go to the passenger disco, so I went there to watch people. It was a pretty good night, but I am just so short on sleep. On one hand, I hate to not go to bed, on the off-chance that I might have fallen asleep. On the other, it is an extremely rare thing for me to actually fall asleep before 2 or 3, so the nights that I have skipped events I haven't gotten any more sleep anyway.