Sand dollars, Jellies, and Broken Glass

I can hear the waves crashing against the rocks from the front porch. The past few days have been really stormy which has put a small wrench in our plans for teaching lessons. This morning, Ana and I walked over to Holiday beach, only to have our first lesson not come! The walk is pretty long and there isn't too much to look at, but we certainly see our share of lizards, soldier crabs, and black crabs. There are also a lot of abandoned cars in the woods here. I wonder how they got there and why people just leave them. We waited around for a while and then decided it would be best to try to walk back, eat lunch, and try to do lessons at Long Bight Beach. We ended up giving lessons for the next four hours and they went surprisingly well considering the massive waves and the number of kids we had. We only had four or five at a time, but some of them couldn't really swim at all, so that was a little stressful. We went out in a kayak though! I didn't realize how strong the waves really were until I was trying to paddle against them!

Ana and another girl got stung by a jellyfish today. It looked like it really hurt! They were both troopers though. We finished up the lesson and one of the boys found a sand dollar for Ana. It is so beautiful! I hope I can find one before I leave! After our last lesson, we walked back to the house with two of our swimmers. They picked us some goose berries, which weren't like any other berries I've ever eaten. I'm not sure if I can even describe the taste... The boys then refused to leave until we gave them a cookie, and even then wouldn't go. They hung around outside on the porch until there was a bit of a mishap. One of the boys was trying to see through our kitchen window (because we had locked them out) and decided to stand on a glass table. We heard the glass shatter and went outside to make sure they were alright. One of the boys had a few good cuts, so we cleaned up and sent him home. He felt really bad about the table and offered to stay and help us clean it. Hopefully we can find replacement glass for it somewhere. It's so hard to find anything here! Ana and I may have to hitchhike to find some fresh veggies. I'm really missing salad right now. I can't believe it's been almost a full week already since we've been here!

I still feel like I'm in the ocean being rocked by the waves...