The Simple Life

A lot has happened in the past two weeks, yet i still sit here blankly staring at a white and empty screen unsure of what to write about as i kill my fifth flying termite. Meanwhile River is commenting on how dark his bellybutton hair is and Ryan is listening to cows and sheep on Age of Empires. It's a simple life that we lead here.

We've begun to number our reoccurring conversations to save ourselves from that awkward "i think we had this conversation two nights ago" comment. Anything related to Guam is "convo 1" while Canadian bands have been affectionately named "convo 2". And now we're at 7 dead termites. Such a simple life.

In fact, life couldn't get more simple. i wake up with the sun in my eyes, roll out of bed, make a "Tasty Bread -- Mechanically Sliced!" PB&J, stumble to staff worship, start class whenever the bell decides to ring, spend my day frustrated and confused as to how you fail a spelling test with a word bank provided, pass out exhausted, wake up and spend the afternoon at the beach, make beans and rice (River makes rice in the afternoon) for dinner, and repeat. This doesn't mean that our days aren't exciting, but just very simple.

Speaking of excitement, it was put to a vote (silent and unspoken, but still a vote) that the ocean is the most terrifying place on our planet, day or night. Fishing last week i could not figure out where all of the fish had disappeared to. It wasn't me, i wasn't moving. Fed up i turned around to find a better spot. As i turned, there was, 10ft in front of me, a 5-6ft long (yes the water magnifies things and that has been taken into account for this very accurate measurement) black tipped reef shark who had been following me. So THAT'S where the fish went. Much satisfied that it wasn't me who had been scaring the fish i decided to chase the shark. Being the superior human being that i am, he quickly out swam me and was no where to be found. i'm convinced that as he was running he secreted a "fear virus" into the water that i managed to soak up, because the next morning i was decrepit and in bed with a fever (and then the next day and the next and the next as well). One week later and i have regained 5 of the 8 pounds i lost and am caught up on all 4.5 hours of grading.

In other news, the Kosrae government is still open and running fine. Along those lines, i just drank the greatest coconut, until i cracked it open to find out that half of the fruit was rotten and fermented. oops *hic* no wonder it was so good. This paragraph is not political in any way.


And now for the beloved "updates" paragraph:  Surfing at low tide is bad, scraping your toes across the rocks while paddling for a wave hurts.  We are bad fishermen as demonstrated by our machete fishing attempt tonight (River and i caught one each while the locals caught 20+ each). Peanut butter, cold cereal, coffee, and trail mix is cheaper on amazon than on the island (it's $4.50 for a loaf of that "Tasty Bread" and $6 for a box of raisin bran). You can never have too many green tangerines in your fridge, while, one slice of poverty cheese in your fridge will always be too much. Poverty cheese grows and multiplies. Our vegetable seeds (still in their packets) have neither grown nor multiplied. There is a such thing as a 4ft long aquarium fish, i've seen it with my own eyes, and about peed my pants i was so scared (i chased it too, but it disappeared very much like the shark). And finally, don't make plans for your 12 day Christmas break, the youth Christmas program will be scheduled dead in the middle of it.

Enjoy and Happy Sabbath,

Tyler