Happy Thanksgiving!

So I figured to get in the true spirit of Thanksgiving (and because I can't say it around the dinner table with my family this year) I'd compile a list of things I'm thankful for:

• My job. There's nothing like an economic depression to make you truly thankful that you even have a job. But beyond that, I truly love what I do every single day. I love the people I work with and the people I work for, and not everyone can say that. 
• The Internet. I know, it's a superficial thing to be thankful for...but I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with all of you beautiful people so well without it. I mean, I'm able to write this so you can all read it, Skype with you, and keep up with you on Facebook and through email. The internet is a wonderful thing, and there's nothing like being halfway across the world from everyone you love to make you realize it. 
• The opportunity to live and work in such a great place. I've had so many great experiences in the three short months I've lived here and met so many great people, and I know there are far more experiences and cool people to come. 
• Having a place to go and a turkey to eat on Thanksgiving. Even though it's the first Thanksgiving I've spent away from family altogether, it will still be a great day. : )
• Love- it makes the world go 'round...: ) I love you all very much. 
• The fact that I will be with my family (my WHOLE family for the first time in 3 years) for Christmas. And that Gaby, Joe, Will, Pat, Chris, Nicole, Klaus, and our newest family member baby William will be joining us. It's going to be an epic Christmas.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I love and miss you all!

My living room all Christmas-ed out. 

My Christmas tree! : ) 

Diving!

So ever since I first arrived here, one of the first questions people asked me was "do you dive?" Apparently in Guam there are a few things everyone should do, and one of those is strap a tank of air to your back and swim underwater with God-knows-what. Now anyone who knows me knows that I have a weird irrational fear/dislike of sea creatures. So the thought of scuba diving had only briefly crossed my mind when I was like...14 and formulating my "things to do before I die" list. However, I'm not one to pass up a challenge, and after enough people harassed me about how sea animals are more afraid of you then you are of them and how I'm probably not going to even see anything scary and how diving is perfectly safe except that one time when my equipment malfunctioned or the time I got the Bends (yeah, way to convince me people) I gave in and signed up for the class. This is normally my technique for doing things I don't really want to do but feel like I should. I sign up, pay the money, and lock myself in.

When my instructor asked on the first night of class "Is everyone excited?" the four other people in my class nodded their heads with enthusiasm. I raised my hand and said "Actually, I'm just scared." He then launched into the normal speech about how nothing bad could possibly happen...and moved on. The first time we practiced diving was in a swimming pool and to my surprise it wasn't that weird to be breathing underwater. I guess since I love to swim (I know, I love to swim and hate the ocean...doesn't make sense) it was just kind of cool to be able to stay underwater for long periods of time. Surprisingly, though, it was awkward. You would think that being underwater would make you a little more graceful because you're all floaty and slow-moving, but it is entirely possible to be clumsy under there. Let's just say I'm a little bit of a mess.

So after the pool dive, I was still not sure about this whole thing. I was a little more comfortable that I wasn't going to drown, but I wasn't sure how fun it would be or that I wouldn't freak out when a fish came at me in the ocean. But the minute that I went down into the ocean and looked around at the reef, I was sold. It was just breathtaking. The fish are colorful, the reef is so cool, and it's so peaceful just floating around under the water. And nothing tried to eat me.

In just two dives, I got to see a sea turtle (soooo pretty), a moray eel, a magnificent anemone with lots of little clown fish, and I got to hold a pufferfish and a sea cucumber (ew). I think I've finally gotten over my fear of ocean creatures, and it only took moving to a tropical island surrounded by ocean to do it. Another one to cross off the bucket list.

Latest adventures

So I haven't written anything in a while...thought I'd update you on life as I know it.

First and foremost, my stuff finally came!!! I am officially sitting on my own couch (way more comfortable than the last), sleeping in my very own bed, and have more than 2 suitcases worth of clothes (although half of those are useless here because they are sweaters and pants). It's so nice to have my familiar stuff, and now I can start decorating and hanging up pictures of all of you lovely people that I miss so dearly. Once I get the place a little more set up, I'll post new and improved pictures of my apartment.

The latest exciting thing that I've discovered here is something called "hashing". Basically, what this is is a bunch of people who like to run and drink beer get together and run through the jungle (or whatever terrain you have where you are, but here it is the JUNGLE!). Someone sets a trail and then sets false trails and basically you have to find your way to the end. The fast people are trying to catch the people who run first and set the trail, but for me I mostly just try to not fall down cliffs and rocks. Along the way, there are usually "beer stops" and at the end there is a campfire and more beer. Needless to say, this is SO much fun. The first time I went was quite an adventure (as most of my firsts seem to be here) that involved a a very long drainage tunnel filled with what seemed like quicksand that we weren't supposed to go through, then having to climb/pull each other out of a concrete ditch, and some serious swimming. I came out of that one with some sweet bruises but it was really fun.

One interesting thing I've discovered here is that you can basically divide the people (or the white people anyway) into certain groups. The first is military people, then there are the lawyers (I know a lot of lawyers), the hashers (people who do what I described up there), and the biologists/University of Guam students. Some of these groups overlap, but for the most part this is how people categorize you here. I'm not sure where I fit, but I'm determined to form a new camp of teachers! Me and Jackie are really the only ones in this group, but perhaps we could recruit more. In any case, there are some really interesting people here. The Chamorro word for a foreigner is "haoli" and I haven't quite figured out if this is a negative word or not. I assume it's like the Japanese word "gaijin"...could be neutral or negative depending on the situation.

Last weekend was Halloween, which is a big deal here. On Saturday night, we had a Halloween hash, which was essentially a scavenger hunt that involved some bar stops. It was really fun. I went as Poison Ivy, and I must say I thought my costume was pretty good. Although the boots were a little hard to walk in after about a mile of walking. Our team made an executive decision to only find 1/2 of the stamps we had to and just sit a little longer in the bars. It was a good decision.

Team 55% (as we deemed ourselves...we exceeded our goal)

If you're wondering what the girl on the left is...allow me to explain. So I described in an earlier post how there are very few bird species on Guam because of the invasive brown tree snake. They eat all the eggs and therefore no birds. Well, the biologists have come up with a solution that involves parachuting mice laced with Tylenol into the treetops for the snakes to eat. Apparently this is toxic to the snakes, and they're hoping it will bring the snake population down. So since she is a biologist working on the brown tree snake project, she chose to go as a dead Tylenol laced mouse...hence the parachute. She made that face in every picture. 

And the latest news in my life is that I've decided to finally get dive certified! I'm starting the class tomorrow night, and I'm really really nervous. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it, but I figured I'd kick myself if I didn't at least try it. So I'm going to go into it with an open mind and try not to freak out. I'll let you all know how it goes. Supposedly Guam has really good dive conditions so it's a good place to learn, then I could dive other islands around there that have more stuff to see (although Guam has really good marine life). 

And to end this post, more pictures of a magnificent sunset from my apartment...feel free to ooh and ahh. 

Red sky at night, sailor's delight.

It looked like the trees were on fire.

Full moon and the evening star...a little blurry but it was so pretty! The night sky here is amazing!