Cliff Jumps and Fist Pumps

I hope you all had a marvelous Christmas this year. Right about now, most of you are probably enjoying things like hot chocolate, snowboarding, or even something as simple as trying to see your breath in the brisk night air. My holiday season has been quite different than what I am used to, but has definitely been a fun one to remember. So Christmas day, after working all day and then some, all of my fellow employees and I had a big Christmas party in our tower. I decided to make the traditional Irish Christmas drink that I have had growing up called Wassail to share with everyone and to sort of remind me of times at home. It turned out to be a big hit with everyone, and just like that it was gone. Sort of like Christmas. I feel like it came and went so quickly this year that I barely had time to embrace the holiday cheer. I mean, I still rocked my Christmas music everyday that I love so much, but I feel like it all went rushing by. Good thing I am taking pictures because time in Guam seems to fly, and already I am looking back at pictures from my first weeks here and thinking wow, that was already two months ago?! All in all, Christmas was a blast. Coconuts instead of candy canes, palm trees instead of Douglas firs, and sand instead of snow... I definitely signed up for this!

On a different note, I have a funny story that will probably gross some of you out, but thats okay because it's life here in Guam. So, about a week or so ago some friends and I were having a mellow night just hanging out on the balcony talking and what not and all of the sudden we get a glimpse of some sort of huge flying insect or something that was buzzing around. We all scurry inside only to be followed by the creature. "Oh it's just a moth", says my friend Kate as she goes over to scoop it up and throw it outside. Then as clear as her shrill scream, it was soon evident that this was no moth, but instead a cockroach the size of a digital camera (random reference I know, but I was looking around and saw my camera and it was literally the same size). SO we all get grossed out and the girls are running around while I am laughing my head off. The cockroach is flying around the room, seemingly aiming for our heads as it flies straight into us, which causes more havoc! My friend Ryann then grabs a mason jar and tries to trap it on the wall but barely misses and only gets its body with the head squirming about on the edge of the jar. Completely repulsed, I finally take action and slip a thick piece of cardboard paper over the top, trapping it inside. I then run back to the balcony and throw the bug off into the night, slamming the door behind me. Flabbergasted and speechless we all sat down half terrified, half wondering if that really just happened. Moral of the story, bugs here are big..keep the balcony door closed.

So to take your mind off of giant cockroaches I'll tell you about my new little toy. A few friends I and went in and bought a little moped. This may not seem like a big deal, but try going two months without a car and then you'll see how much harder it is to do simple things like send out mail or grab groceries. So I'm stoked on the little guy because now I have my own ride to go play water polo Tuesday and Thursday nights, which I am not sure if I had previously mentioned but my boss plays with the Guam national Water Polo team and he invited me to come play as well. Turns out they all liked me a lot and thought I was pretty good so they want me to go to the Philippines with  them for a tournament! I'll tell you more about that when it gets closer. So anyways the scooter is super fun, and I am now able to do a lot more, however there are tropical storms here in Guam that occur just about everyday. I didn't think much of it when I saw the storm clouds begin to darken, and actually enjoyed the mist that was cooling me off until that mist became little bee bee's pelting me all over. It started pouring rain and I dunno if you have been hit by rain going 40/50 mph, but it's not fun. I kept on trying to decide whether to pull over or just tough it out and try and get back home. Luckily the storm passed within a few more minutes and I was in the clear. Moral of the story, rain hurts.. bring a raincoat.

See, I am learning soo much here in Guam. If you are ever stranded on an island..call me up, I'll help out out..so now for the best part of this week. My adventure back to Ratidian and Marbo Caves! So on my day off I wasn't really sure what I was going to do, so at moments notice I heard some people were going to Ratidian (the beach I wrote about in my first blog) and so of course I wanted to go back. It's the most beautiful beach I've ever laid eyes on. So we headed out and spent the day basking in the sun on white sandy beaches, eating coconuts and playing in the clear waters. Now, my buddy Kevin was set on jumping off of something that day and so we decided to leave the beauty of the beach to try and find a cliff jumping spot near Marbo Caves (the caves I wrote about last week). Sure enough we had arrived. Jagged thirty to forty foot cliffs leading straight into the blue Pacific, well for the most part. Turns out it is one of those cliff jumps that you have to time just right and land in just the right spot to be safe. Perfect! So there I was standing on the edge of the cliff, looking down at where I was supposed to land. You'll see in the video, on one side there are shallow rocks that surface when the tide goes out, on the other are dark shadows of rocks hiding just three feet below the surface. So as I am mustering up enough courage to take the leap I start to think; Will I be sucked into the cove and be thrashed up against the rocks becoming nothing more than fish food? Will I miss the rock that I am supposed to climb up once I am in the water and be swept out to sea by the pulling current? Will I even land between the two rock shelves in safe water? And then I thought, this is why I didn't take those desk jobs back in SD.. This is my adventure.

Love and miss you all,