Good-Bye, Astypalaia!

On my last full day here, I feel that it is appropriate to record my "trip in review" on day 39 of 50 (78% of trip complete!!!).

I know I have said this a few times - but this trip has been awesome. And not just awesome in terms of school, but also in terms of how many neat people I have met and how many laughs we have all had. And so, in no particular order, my top 25 countdown of AWESOME ASTYPALAIA MOMENTS!

1. Beer shooting out of my nose, mouth, and eyes when Emily made me laugh during the final flip-cup battle with the supervisors
2. Watching the sun come up over the Aegean sea at 6AM with Emily and Gen
3. Simon refusing to acknowledge that my petrous portion was a petrous portion, and therefore forcing me to write a tag that said "Foramen surrounded by dirt. Likely Left. Could be bone. But not sure." (I left this on his desk which made him laugh for a few days)
4. Gen dumping a water bottle on my head after school, soaking me much to the delight of the onlookers, and much to the dismay of my then-soggy undies
5. Archipelago hot chocolate with baileys and spicy pepper corn chocolate cake dates
6. The feeling of success completing my first baby
7. The feeling of success and happiness completing my last baby and tallying all the burials I worked on while here
8. Late night swims & Chilling on the Beach
9. Swimming across a giant bay and back without stopping
10. Running 5 km without stopping (and running part of the way with goats)
11. Epic Mealtime Sunday morning breakfasts - Corn beef hash with Em, Gen, and Mel
12. Every insult Mel and I hurled at each other in the lab, which made me laugh and kept me on my toes, and inspired the Can-Am war
13. The Water-Bottle Wall of awesomeness
14. Exploring the submerged cave during the boat trip
15. Watching the sun set at the yacht club
16. Simon saying he was thrilled with the work I had done, and giving me an A+
17. Anna setting an "obstacle course" in the Katsalos room to slow me down during photography
18. The lab camera being accidentally set to "video" resulting in over 2 hours of footage of bone trays passing under the camera lens, then disappearing; also viewed were feet, and people saying "why is this camera acting so WEIRD!?" in the background
19. Creating an Astypalaia play list on iTunes with Em and Gen
20. Inventing the nicknames "Shreddie" "BAMM" "Hamily" and "Wink Ninja"
21. Seeing the little owl on the way up the hill, and Gen offering to voice the little own with a semi-demonic sounding vocals
22. Inventing the best school ever: Shreddie U
23. Being able to Skype home almost every day
24. Running into other peoples' labs to yell BACON STRIPS or LEEEEROY JENKINSSSSS!!!! and then leaving again
25. Writing Em a note every day to paste into her lab book