7-17

Britt left this morning. It’s going to be strange thinking of this apartment as my apartment, but I christened it this morning by giving it a thorough cleaning. I’d planned to get some errands done as well but have not had time yet (it’s around 5PM) because I decided to go snorkeling.

Britt had told me about a place just on the other side of the bridge, on the ocean side of the island (as opposed to the lagoon side). When the tide is out, a number of deep tide pools are formed. So around 1:30, I packed up my stuff and headed out. It was about a 45 minute walk, but I had to make a quick stop because it started raining. At the time, I was just about to the bridge, so there were no buildings nearby that I could duck into. Instead, I had to make due with a few trees.

There was a lot going on by the bridge. I met an old man who had gone fishing, and there were a bunch of guys who were diving off the bridge. The snorkeling wasn’t great. The water was a little murky, and there weren’t too many fish. But it was great to swim in the ocean, and the fish that were there were beautiful.

I’m glad I went, but when I got out of the ocean, my flipflops were gone. I had left them a fair ways in from the water, but the tide was coming in. So I don’t know if the waves washed them out to sea or if someone took them. I walked barefoot along the shoreline on the softer parts of the coral for about 20 minutes, looking for them, but to no avail. Finally, I just gave up, walked up to the road, and took a taxi home. It’s actually been a fun story to tell people. It’s pretty funny, in my opinion.

I feel very blessed to have been able to go out and swim, especially since it started to rain about a half hour after I got home. I still need to go downtown and go shopping, so hopefully the rain will stop soon. Luckily, I brought an extra pair of flipflops with me to the Marshall Islands.