Rounds

Thursday - meant to write this on Thursday but forgot, actually on the 23rd
2 trips
First one had a few people who are friends with the skipper/crew, so they came on board with us; one guy going through law school in St. Louis; another couple working in Congo, guy working for US government; lived in Seattle, grew up in New Haven; saw I was from Yale, talked about pizza and plans and all of that stuff
Being best friends with Grant!!! Anchoring, data, etc.
Full breach at bow as we were dropping the cage and preparing to return to the house; Grant was the only one who saw it
Second trip exclusive; getting shaken into my suit again, this time by Paul (Jan was filming it all); diving into the cold water; Jan filming in cage, saw lots of jellyfish, sharks, I touched one!!! on the fin, when he rammed into the cage it was awesome
Having the cage to myself; seeing lots of sharks, filming with Matt's go-pro
Coming out, realizing that we only had 1:17 of footage... Oh jeez.
Jetting out to Dyer Island and Geezer Rock and Shark Alley; seeing lots of seals and smelling them and penguins and birds and etc.; Hospital Rock, where all of the (injured) seals go to die; meeting Grant's girlfriend, Allison, who does tissue sampling research and stuff
Getting back, Jan skipping for Gerald; no Ally, which was sad
Going to Great White House for 'lunch' with a bunch of the guys, getting sticky ribs and chips which were SO GOOD; everyone impressed by how much I eat...
Ally and Jan walking in and sitting in the armchairs by the fireplace and drinking Black Labels, while the rest of us are at the table; one of Ally's friends coming in and sitting with them (Ally and Jan); good looking guy, probably in his mid-20s; occasionally looking over at us
The rest of us finish eating, getting up to pay; as we're paying, Ally calls me over to where he, Jan, and his friend (Oliver - Ollie) were sitting; introduces me to "one of my friends. He's one of the best white shark biologists; does really amazing research" I say hi, he says hi, I ask Ally why I'm being introduced; "Well because he's here and you're here, you're both here so I figured I would", "...are you trying to set me up?!"; Ollie is the head biologist and skipper of another vessel in the harbor
Jan is just watching this interaction unfold and laughing; I ask Jan and Ally if they're going to play rugby with us later (which we decided to do while on the boat); Ally says maybe we should play cricket instead; too scared to play me in rugby? Ally tells Ollie "you should come out with us. we're celebrating her last night at Taphuis" I say "nice to meet you" to Ollie and leave with the rest of the guys; try to tackle Matt but he picks me up and spins me around and slings me over his shoulder; so maybe we won't play rugby...
Go to the little store to get a six pack; Ally walks in; "what was that about?! are you trying to set me up?!" "he's very attractive right?" "Ally, I'm here for 2 more days. Also he's your friend, which means he's like 30" "no, he's quite a bit younger than me. great guy. also, all you need is one night" leave, shaking my head
going back to the house; getting tackled by Matt and picked up and swung around again; definitely not playing rugby; get the cricket stuff instead
everyone grabs a beer, walk to a really pretty park right by the coast; playing cricket with the guys, drinking beers while doing it
really pretty dusk/night; playing cricket by moonlight
coming back, everyone showering, asking me if I want to stay in for dinner or go out; we end up going to De Seemans Taphuis (pub and restaurant); all get burgers, beers, shoot some pool, eat
Go to the bar; the guys getting me a Picasso, which is an artist's palette with 6 different colored shots on the edge of the circle and one large mixed one in the middle; suck it all up with a straw, do it in record time; Matt buying a round of beers for everyone, then a round of shots on the house, then everyone getting rounds of beers, many many rounds of shots (springboks, gummy shots, working our way down the shooters list, have no idea how many we got through - at least 10 or so); doing 'blow job' shooters, no hands, we all failed, it was terribly messy
Playing music on the jukebox, which apparently hasn't worked for years until I tried it; huge loud blast at first, scared the crap out of me and Matt, who bolted out of the room because it was so loud; dancing around with everyone, everyone in a good place; talking and laughing with all of the guys, Matt calling me "princess"from now on
Talking about boobs with Jan; his girlfriend is shorter than me but apparently has bigger boobs - cool.
All drinking a lot; guy named Harry, friends with Jan and Ally and a bunch of the crew, arrives; does research on a different boat, which is why he knows everyone; we sit and talk about life, traveling, plans, he was a lawyer for a while but then decided it was too boring, travelled around to South Africa (originally English) and got into marine biology; I asked if he was planning on doing this for the rest of his life, he said no way, just until it stops being interesting to him; lots of bonding
Playing more songs on the jukebox, dancing around, talking about rugby with Jan; somehow, it turns into me and Jan tackling each other in the middle of the pub, which was fine with everyone... getting picked up a lot and tossed around and slug over shoulders
Lots of shooters and beers happening in the meantime; can't remember how much anyone drank
Lots of loud talking and such
Staying until 3 AM, when it closes; walking out, Jan driving me home; talking about his car and being really loud and laughing a lot and having too much fun
Passenger seat vs. back seat; what's that?!!? holy crap! pulling a package of them out of a box in his glovebox ahaha
Showering