I woke up this morning hurting everywhere. My skin was burning, my wrists and joints were aching, my stomach was churning, I had a full week of 23 attention consuming children ahead of me, and yet I got out of bed rejuvenated. Ok, so my body was most definitely not rejuvenated, but my longing for adventure was. I had been aching for an exploration all last week, and did I get one Sunday!
I woke up Sunday morning at six o clock, and by seven there were sixteen of us (amy and I were the only girls) and fifteen surf boards climbing into our faithful read truck ready for a day out on the water. I was AMAZING. The driver for Pohnpei Surf Club graciously took all of us out for the entire day on his boat for only the cost of gas. It would have normally cost $500 to go out with a group, but we only had to pay $20 each J First of all, I can not even begin to explain how breath takingly gorgeous seeing the island from the water was, and what was even more incredible was seeing the water in stunning shades of blue I could have never imagined. I’d never seen such beautiful colors in my life. Hmmm J Amy, Matt, and I sat up at the front of the boat hanging over, with the wind blowing in our faces, it reminded me of the lake but even better. We started off the day with stopping at a surf spot. We all grabbed our boards and started surfing. The waves here are definitely different (and slightly more intimidating than at home), but I braved them anyway. Getting an obscene amount of salt water up my nose (my sinuses have never been so thoroughly cleaned), being held under water for a good amount of time, getting scratched up by coral, but enjoying myself the entire time. Some of our guys are seriously REALLY good surfers. Like I’m not sure if I’ve ever surfed with guys this good, the surf is really like the reason they came haha so my surfing capabilities looked rather sad compared to them. However, there were a few other boys who never even caught any waves, so I was feeling ok with myself J I then decided to catch my breath so paddled over to amy (who was of course snorkeling to her hearts content) where we held on to my surf board and floated, watched the guys, took in our beautiful surroundings, and talked about life. We then hopped into the boat, and our driver continued around the island stopping at another spot. Some of the boys continued surfing but I decided it was time for snorkeling, so we jumped into the water to explore! This carried on for like three more stops. It was soo fun! We’d either surf or snorkel, each spot being a little different. Then when I felt tired I’d lay at the front of the boat and close my eyes feeling the boat gently rock and listening to the islander music our driver was playing. This enjoyment had dire consequences however, I haven’t been this sunburned since I was Puerto Rico (Laura it made me miss you!!) Yes parents, I put on sunscreen (two or three times!) but apparently the Pohnpein sun has a mind of its own. My goodness! I am sunburned inside of my ears! Its crazy! Haha Lets see, ok back to snorkeling! I saw a shark! I was super excited, we had been looking for one all day, and I saw the most BEAUTIFUL fish! They were poka dotted, and striped, the most amazing colors, I can’t even explain them in words, there were so many! I think my favorite one might have been a bright turqoisish blue one with black zebra stripes. It was so me. Ha. Oh, and well…the beautiful parrot fish…um…well about that. So, we were taking turns spear fishing (I ‘tried’ but didn’t catch anything, I think I just subconsciously didn’t WANT to catch anything haha), when Eric (one of the guys, who’s obsessed with spear fishing) climbed into the boat with a parrot fish. He killed it and began scaling it right there. I would have been sad but I was just so curious! This new explorative, culture side of me has been quickly immerging. Anyway, he cuts it in squares (like you do with a mango) and pours soy sauce and lime juice on it. I was like you’re just going to bite into it RAW?! And the boat driver explained to me that its like everyone’s favorite food here, and like a real treat. To eat a fresh and raw parrot fish. Suddenly I turned to Eric and was like, can I have some? Next thing I know I was biting into a raw fish, sitting on a boat in the middle of the ocean just off a gorgeous island, and surprisingly it was actually yummy! I went back for a second bite haha I couldn’t believe it! Lets see here…talking about spearing fish. The FUNNIEST moment of the trip happened yesterday too. Amy had been swimming around with the spear for like half an hour or more trying to catch a fish, when I see here swimming towards me with the spear in the air. She goes, “Courtney, I caught one!” I smiled really big and was like “Great Amy! That’s Awesome the guys are going to be so jealous!” When she took of her goggles and I realized that she was crying. No wait, not crying, SOBBING. It. Was. Hilarious. I about died. Here she is floating in the ocean holding here fish that she had tried to catch for almost an hour, crying her little heart out because she felt so terrible. I was dying laughing! She just kept saying “It started twitching! I didn’t think it would twitch! I hurt it!” and this would send me into a fit of histarics once again. Lol. Ok, so lets see, what else. Oh, as we were heading back to the island we stopped at a few more places to snorkel and we saw a manaray! They are HUGE! I couldn’t believe it! I wanted to swim with it but only got to see it from the boat. Still was super cool though J Then after being exhausted in the most remarkable way, I drifted off to sleep as we took the enjoyable and lengthy trip back to the dock. Followed by a delicious dinner of rice and grilled veggies, and watching ‘how I met your mother’ with the roomies.
Some how that trip made all the hardships, stressful class periods, and exhausting days worth it. As of today I’m back in the classroom for a week, but its nice to know that another weekend adventure is on its way. I must admit, Friday and today have already been getting better. I think my kids are starting to get a better feel for the type of teacher I will be, and some of them are really trying to do there best, like in everything. I have about four boys that I can tell just adore me, and man do I adore them. They all have tons of energy, but are smart and when I tell the class to be quiet, try to help and get everyone quiet too. Also, I took some extra time to read to my kids Friday, and they all crowded around me, sitting on the floor and even standing next to my chair. It was soo funny because one of my boys named Burt (who I thought was going to be a problem at first, cuz he kind of acts like he thinks he’s super cool) started giggling in the middle of the story and couldn’t stop. This led my entire class to start giggling, followed by myself. When I tried to get them to quiet down Burt went into a fit of giggles once again, and I just could not for the life of me tell them to be quiet without giggling myself. So we all just stopped at laughed, it was great.
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