Oh the ocean

If you ever in your life have the chance to go to the South Pacific I highly suggest it. The ocean is the most breath-taking things you will ever see. I can still remember the first time I encountered the ocean here and could not keep my eyes off of it. As I was away from the island for a couple of months seeing the ocean again reminds me of its pure beauty. I cannot even explain the colors of blue when I see it. I also have never watched waves break and been able to actually see through the waves. I could stare at the ocean all day if given the opportunity.

This week the ocean was not my friend. As I am now on my year three of living on the island. I have become familiar with a lot of island things. For instance island time when they tell me I have to be somewhere at a certain time its safe to say you can show up an hour later than that time and still be early. I have also learned more about the ocean while here. We are currently located in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. Our harbor is the only harbor in the world where you can take cruise ships right into it because it is so deep. Off the top of my head I am not sure the depth of it but my first year I researched it while teaching my students about the ocean. Whenever teaching the ocean unit I always tell my students I want to take a submarine around our islands to see what its like underwater. Our ocean is also known for its coral. We have the Rose Atoll, which is the largest piece of coral in the world.

The ocean can also be mean as I like to say. This week the ocean was mean. The reason I call the ocean mean is when it is rough. Usually I do not have much of a problem with it being rough but this week was the worst that I had experienced. I had seen these huge waves crashing and everyone piled onto one boat which means its about to be the last boat. As we were leaving the wharf this huge wave crashed right next to us. I was like oh man I better start praying. Then the person next to me goes do you know how to swim in the ocean? Because today might be your day. Just what I wanted to hear. I turned my back to the front of the boat and white knuckled it all the way to the island. The waves were so big that when we were at the crest (the top of the wave) you could feel the boat teeter and then boom you fell down the front of the wave. When you fell down the wave it was similar to the feeling of going down a big hill on a roller coaster. The people who were sitting in the back of the boat were getting soaked from the waves crashing into the side. Since the waves were coming a little bit over the side of the boat we were also taking on some water. So there were two people in the back constantly throwing the water out. Wasn’t my most comforting boat ride and when I got home I said never again am I going if its that rough. It scares me too much.

With Love,

Abby