Some More Hard Times

Waking up in a sweat is not a good start to a day, and usually unmistakable; however when it's 90 degrees and 100% relative humidity, you might pause for a second. This time I didn't pause long, and in fact, sprang with surprising swiftness to the toilet where the taste of liquid, masticated, par-digested olive pizza filled the back of my throat. The inside of my mouth sweated its own salty sweat, and my throat relaxed like one lies down to sleep. Unbeknownst to it, something fowl was already brewing. In a blur I ejected the pieces of my dinner that had not escaped to my small intestine, and I continued until my depths were sufficiently bailed, and the normal gastric processes quit. I learned after this bout that an even more unspeakable evil had awaited the food which had passed on into my intestines. They were alchemized into something, well, unspeakable... which also passed with surprising swiftness. I then went back to my bed to lay in a daze of David Bazan infused delirium and think about what mistake I had made in this heavenly place to heap on myself such wrath, and realized two possibilities.
The shrimp I had as an appetizer the night before, it tasted a bit like low-tide... perhaps it's strange taste wasn't the only payload it was carrying. Second, I have been on an antibiotic for 5 days for giardia of which I took the final one the morning before at six o'clock sharp. Bradley, my roomie, is on the same antibiotic. Now to the point: it is contraindicated with alcohol. But I wanted a beer with my dinner. The medicine causes projectile vomiting in 50% of cases and death in <1% of those cases. So being me, I quickly did the math. I couldn't have had more than half of the medication still in my system, so the equation would be (.5)*(.5V + .01D) where V stands for vomiting and D stands for death) leaving a 25% chance of projectile vomiting and <.25% chance of death. Now liking those odds I ordered one 10oz beer with my pizza, again staying well on the safe side. So taking my life and my beer in my hands I decided to celebrate not having giardia. And while statistically unlikely, my hubris could have lead me to a disgusting after party, one that my roommate was lucky enough to miss. But that being said, I woke up with a fever,which makes me think neither of those theories are true, as in science a theory must explain all phenomena. So I reject them like the young earth theory and take action like washing my hands more often.
Another incident transpired the last day of our stay on Havelock island. I'll take my time to tell about it. We decided to adventure out to Ingles Island. It's very remote, about an hour and forty five on the tiny boats. We snorkeled over a pretty awesome reef. I got the oppurtunity to see several banded reef kraits foraging for little fish in the corals as well as huge humphead parrot fish which I'm sure are the most unfortunate looking creatures god has decided to create upon the earth. I suggest you look them up. Then we took a mile hike through the jungle to arrive at an even more exclusive beach. One without a single footprint in the sand until we arrived. I spotted a rock outcrop just to the west with lots of amazing tide-pools under it. I investigated and noticed a little hole in the rock about ten feet up that looked like the perfect seat. So I climbed. And took a few pictures therefrom. Eleanor yelled out jokingly, “I'm done over here, I'm leaving you for dead!” and as I started to climb down I exclaimed “Don't leave me for [rock breaking] 'OH SHIT!!!” and proceeded to fall about six feet smashing my left ankle, right knee, and the left side of my rib cage on a piece of somewhat jagged rock. “OH GOD, GRANT!” I heard as I continued to do a barrel roll off another rock and finally land at the base of the outcrop. The hike back through the forest was long scenic and painful. My ankle is still visibly swollen and there are still other vestiges of my little tumble but after two days at least I don't walk so gimp-like anymore.
Havelock was getting a little suffocating anyway, but where we were staying on Havelock had a water heater. We just moved to a place outside of Port Blair called the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team and all we have to shower with is buckets of 70 degree filtered pond water. Gecko's have become a welcome visitor. Which is good because they would visit whether welcomed or not – there must be thousands in ANET alone, I don't mind them sneaking a peak in the shower as long as they keep eating mosquito's. That's a species which isn't going extinct anytime soon.
Apart from this incident my stay in the Andamans has been pretty good. I've got some really nice people surrounding me. Eleanor was bringing me The Life Aquatic to watch between bouts of expulsion, and all the "Peace Kids," a second group from Juniata that left the day of my plague, all dropped in to say goodbye. As well this is by far the most scenic place I have found myself so far. The sun sets over crystal waters every night at 4:30 and rises every morning around 5. They apparently don't correct for time differences, but my circadian rhythm beats on unaffected. Most mornings we rise at six to be served nutella and banana stuffed crepes by the waiters in the dining hall. They don't speak much English, so it's always fun to try and mix up some order and see what comes out. At least they got the fish sandwich right. Usually after breakfast we have a little tea. Then we kit up, donning wet suits and boots to ride a boat to some unbelievably even more scenic beach and dive into an alien world. It's not so bad a life really, puking aside. We alternate dive days with lecture days where we discuss the effects of coral on carbon production and sea grasses on species diversity etc. etc.
All this mayhem aside. I really miss a lot of you and really-really miss a couple of you...don't be jealous. It sounds a little un-bro to say the first two but when I'm sick I want my mom to go get me some lemon gatorade. I don't think there's gatorade in this whole country, just electral, an electrolite solution that tastes like salty sugar for 3 seconds and cheese for 4 hours. It's aftertaste is nigh immortal. Secondly when I’m in a place that's so different i wish that my girlfriend didn't cost so much to call. Miss you babe. (P.S. the hand soap here smells like you, hope that's not creepy.) Secondly I'm rooming with a really nice gay guy, a somewhat geeky fishing freak, and a quiet Pennsylvanian TSAS kid. The point is that those guys aren't Tyler and Seth... you complete me.

p.s. pictures later. Internet cafe connection is pretty slow.