Finally the blog is updated: TODAY: SHARK DIVING

Today was an incredible experience - we spent the day on the Atlantic Ocean shark diving! We went out on a boat to a popular shark area; it is the place where the Discovery channel films their shark documentaries. They picked us up in a van at 5:30 am and we drove for about 2 hours to our location where we were fed breakfast, given some instructions and safety information, and then we were off to the ocean! This adventure was optional for our group, so only seven of us went, and I am really glad I did!
This is how the shark diving works: six people in wet suits climb into the cage at a time. The top seven inches or so is above water so we can come up for air (there is no oxygen tanks involved in this type of cage diving because the sharks stay so close to the surface that the cages don't need to go below it) and extend about 7-8 feet under the water. The crew members would throw bait out on a rope into the water to attract the sharks (and other fish by default).
The first picture is my pre-dive excited face... in case you didn't get that.




Laurie, Erin, Nate, and I went together with two other people in the cage. We bought underwater cameras (which I really hope turn out) to take pictures of them. The water was slightly cloudy so when we were under water it was like the sharks would appear out of no where - very exciting. We had sharks swim right up to the cage, and even bump into it. The other half of our group went later and a shark actually had his teeth around the cage when it was chasing the bait. I saw it from the boat and it was super cool to see from there too. The sharks can get up to 5 meters long (yes, everything here is in the metric system so I am constantly doing math in my head) and we saw Great White Sharks today (p.s. it is their mating season so the males were extra aggressive today). It was such a thrilling experience and I would recommend it to anyone! On our way back to the shore we saw a humpback whale and a baby calf which was also really cool to see because I don't think I have ever seen one before. The ride back was REALLY cold because we were wet and it was windy, but overall it was an awesome experience.

When we returned to shore they fed us lunch and took us back home. Just about all of us napped on the ride back; we were exhausted.