Jelly Fish Wall

Another day scheduled to take the boat out and snorkel. Luckily today's weather allowed us to do that. We were headed out with some friends to 8th island which is pretty far from our island and to the coral gardens. It was a bit of a rough ride to get out to the spot but totally worth it. So snorkel gear on I jumped off the boat and followed my man. As soon as we got in the water he spotted a HUGE stingray at the bottom, with a little shark riding the stingray's back. It was pretty deep down but as usual still freaked me out. I'm beginning to gather that I really am quite the "weenie." Ha but I am not used to sharks and stingrays I'm used to cows and corn, and that shit ain't near as scary lol.

So Greg tells me to put the video on and he's going down, I'm thinking dude don't piss him off this is how Steve Irwin died ya know? And this guy is HUGE! I turn on the video camera on my iPhone and Greg swim's down to the bottom. He flips his flipper  about an inch away from him to create a wave that'll startle the stingray and the thing instantly freaks swims away (from us thank God.) It was really cool to watch his big body float away and see the little shark guy riding his back across the bottom. Plus I got it on video which was cool, except I can't for the life of me get video's to upload on this blog which totally bums me out because I have a lot of cool things to share that we've caught on video.

We kept swimming around finding some beautiful fish per usual and then Greg showed me a ginormous clam. I really don't think I'd ever seen one before and what I pictured in my head was a pretty purple small clam that would hold pearls inside lol. Not at all what this was like. It was probably two foot wide and sure enough my man wanted to go down and poke it so he did and thing clamped shut hard and quick! I was hoping he'd come back up with pearls for his lady, but he didn't. I suppose I should just be glad he didn't come up missing any body parts as quick as that thing shut! We did see a shark or two while swimming around and I surprisingly didn't find myself as scared as before, I suppose I was warming up to them. It was time to head off to our next destination to snorkel.

WHEN YA GOTTA GO YA GOTTA GO...lol

I thought everything we had just saw was pretty, man I had no idea it could get any better. I believe this part was called the coral gardens. The water had such clear visibility and the colors and size of the fish were outstanding out here. First thing we did was swim over to the the 8th island. Nobody lives on this island it is literally a deserted island. I told Greg we were swimming over to it and stepping foot on it, because how many people can say they were the ONLY TWO PEOPLE on an entire island?! LoL

Unfortunately about 10 minutes into the dive we discovered my waterproof case was leaking into my phone and we took my camera back to the boat. So we didn't get what we were about to see on camera, which is really too bad. The sun rays shining down through the crystal blue water over the beautiful purple coral was a site in itself. I've never seen anything so beautiful. As we swam though the coral gardens we came close to a little drop off spot. I had a hard time seeing out my goggles it was like there was water spots all over them or something, or maybe they had fogged up. NOPE. It was a whole wall of jelly fish floating around. Just a bunch of white spots. THOUSANDS. It was incredible. But of course I was making sure not to swim or float any closer, because there seriously were thousands everywhere. It was pretty cool! I wished so bad I had my camera at that point. As we were headed back towards the boat we saw multiple sharks, and pretty good sized ones. I can't believe I've been swimming with sharks on multiple occasions now.

WARNING TMI TMI TMI AHEAD

I sort of freaked when I realized it was what my girlfriend and I call shark week for me. It happens once a month to ladies, and hopefully I don't need to explain any further that it was that time of month for myself. OH GAWWWWWWD. Sharks and blood go together like fat kids and cake right?! I'm doomed. PMS. Pissed Mad Sharks. OH NO I told Greg and he just laughed, but I seriously was freaking out, however I yet again made it out safe without any shark attacks. LoL It ended up being a great day and my favorite snorkel ever. Since then we bought a GoPro camera which is great for underwater diving and snorkeling so I am hoping before I leave we are able to go back out there and get it on video because it was too amazing not to share with the world.

Japanese Pool

We were supposed to take the boat out the other day and snorkel but there was a weather advisory and too strong of winds and they wouldn't allow any "B Boat's" to be taken out. So we had to cancel and make a change of plans. I was bummed out but it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Greg and I had one of my favorite days together yet.

It was low tide so the waters weren't covering a certain area by the runway that is called the "Japanese Pool." It' s a small coral area that is dug deeper and traps a lot of things in it. We decided that we would grab our snorkel gear and water shoes and check it out.

Water shoes were necessary to walk around on the parts that were usually covered in water because it was rough and slick walking around on it. It was really cool though because there were little pools or puddles that had some sea life trapped in it that couldn't get out and that didn't wash back into the ocean when the tide lowered. So we found a semi easy entrance to the Japanese Pool and tried to maneuver our way in. I was nervous as usual at first because who knows what could have got trapped in this confined area. But once I got my flow down and we got to moving around in it I felt better. It was so pretty and there were a lot of pretty fish in it. We saw a black and white spotted fish that was like a ball with spikes coming out of it, of which Greg later told me is called a tiger fish and it is poisonous, AWESOME probably a good thing I didn't know this while in the pool.

 I missed it but Greg signaled to me that there was a shark in this pool too, which totally freaked me out because as I said before basically all the sea life that's in this thing is trapped, and it's a really small space. I figured this shark was pissed off and wanted out and maybe he was hungry for humans lol, but sure enough he never bothered us. It was a little difficult to get out of the area because there is so much coral around but once we were done snorkeling we found our way out and exchanged our flippers for water shoes. We walked around the land part (I'm struggling to find the right terms to describe it) that wasn't covered in water at the time, but usually is during high tide. The ground is real squishy and slippery, but I only busted my ass one time. It was really cool though to walk around and look in the little puddles at the different fish left in them. We even saw a couple eels, which totally grossed me out. And of course naturally I think all eels are electric and can kill you (thanks crash bandicoot game ha) but Greg said they aren't those kinds of eels. They looked like thick slimy snakes. After we saw those I was afraid the whole rest of the day I was going to step on one. There were a few starfish left in the little pools too. It was a great experience just exploring around and seeing the different life that existed and bicycling by later that day to see that it was completely covered by ocean now and that whatever was trapped in there had probably washed back out to shore and the next time would have a whole new party crew of fishies in there. I can't wait to go back and do it again!

It's Not All Rainbows And Unicorns

I know I've done my share of bragging about how awesome my life is and how great the island life is....however it's time I share, it's not all glamorous and fun and games. 

When the dark night sneaks up on us, it's when they come out. What comes out you ask?! ROI RATS! Gross right? Seriously there is tons of them all over the island. And of course the first one I see I squak and freak out and the usual response from people about all the creatures I've encountered is, "They won't hurt you, they're just as scared of you."

YEAH OKAY maybe. They are still gross and creep me out! Same goes for the geckos they crawl everywhere at night, so fast and eeeeek lol. I was sitting down the other week at the shack watching the sunset and had hung around  a little after. Sure enough it had gotten rather dark, all of a sudden a gecko runs across the table in front of me, another across my foot, and a rat climbs up the tree by my head. 
Here's the little gecko dudes that hang out....

EW I'm out! Of course the residents here laugh at me and call me a weenie but c'mon rats and lizards aren't anybody's thing right? So I forget to bring a flash light and attempt to make my way down the stairs to my bicycle without screaming. What  a terrifying ride home lol I was dodging running over rats with my bike the whole time. However, the moon and stars here are out of this world bright! It's so beautiful in the sky at night with no clouds or polution you can see all the stars perfectly and the moon so bright reflecting off the ocean is just stunning...until you see a rat and freak out ha ha. And then there's the bugs. UGH. I have bug bites galore all over my body. Day and night there's always something looking to bite. Bug spray is a must all the time. But besides those gross things as I said before it's wonderful out here, I mean you can't have it all right? =) One of the residents actually asked me to paint them a rat out of my palm frond art....I am not sure how it will turn out but I'll definitely give it a shot! Until next time.....

Peace Out! 

Art on Palm Fronds

Who Knew?
Recently I started getting back into my art. I had shipped a small box of acrylic paints with brushes and 2 canvases to help me pass time on the island. So far I have yet to touch the canvases lol. However I came across an old palm frond that had fallen from a palm tree when Greg and I were out and about. It was dried up and hard and looked like it was the shape of an elephant. Instantly I wanted to paint it. Here's a first glance at what it started out like and 2 pictures after showing my progress:

So as you can see it was just the base of a palm tree branch and had dried up. I just brought it inside and washed it up and started painting. It ended up workout out really well. When I was finished with it, I thought was okay but didn't expect the response I got when word traveled around the island that I had been making these. I started out with a safari theme. Next I did a tiger and a giraffe. 

Multiple people on the island have come up to me with interest in purchasing so now I am trying to push myself to work a little every day on them. Every couple of days now we will put the wagon on the bike head out with a knife and cut some good dried palm fronds that we find, bring them home wash them up and get them ready to be recreated into masterpieces. It feels great to get such positive feedback on my work especially since it's been years since I've made the time to get back into my artwork. I forgot how much I love it. I used to be an artist back in high school, took a lot of art classes, voted best artist in my class, hell I took a trip with my art teacher and a few other students to Italy to see all the art museums around there, it was wonderful. (Thanks to my parents for making that possible and letting me go and a shout-out to Mr. Kling!) 

I even made myself an art studio out of my 3rd bedroom at home when I bought my house so that I could no longer use the "I don't have space" excuse and still never made the time to get down there and create! So out here there is no excuse I am unemployed for 2 months, the space isn't exactly here and poor Greg's kitchen table has turned into my art studio LoL but hey it's working out well. With all the compliments I have been getting I hope my motivation to keep creating stays with me and follows me to my studio back home! If I can figured out a way to ship them over 6,000 miles back to the states then I even have some pieces sold back home too. So if you are reading this and are interested in a piece let me know, I am selling them for $50-$75 a piece and am willing to knock the price down for purchasing more than one. Maybe a dream can come true and I can sell art for a living and live on and island with the love of my life.....crossing my fingers. Help me get there by buying and sharing my artwork! =) THANKS and here is one more picture of my Safari art!

Reflecting on Roi

It's be wayyyyy too long since I've updated this...

So it's been quite some time since I have had the chance to write, better yet since I have made the time to. It's just things are different when you're living "Roi Island Life." It's wonderful though. For instance if you want to get ahold of someone or make plans, you actually go knock on that person's door and talk to them face to face instead of sending a quick text like you would in the states or you call their house phone and actually speak instead of just type. 

It's also great when you meet people for a day at the beach or at the bar at night. This might seem crazy I know so brace yourself. . . but people ACTUALLY LOOK AT YOU, LIKE MAKE EYE CONTACT instead of staring into their smart phone the entire time you are out and about. That in itself is amazing, it's almost like how it used to be before these smart phones were invented. Even though I will confess to being a bit of a Facebook addict, I LOVE being out places and not seeing the tops of people's heads. Now I see their lovely faces and get to hear their awesome life stories. I get to see people enjoy spending time with others instead of spending times on their phones while around others. It almost makes me wish we didn't have cell service and internet service in more of the places we go, but with that it sure does come in handy at times! 

Aren't you going to get bored, I mean seriously what are you going to do?!

I can't tell you how many people said this to me before I left. Followed by, "Wait you won't have cell phone service and only limited internet access? A tiny island with less than 90 people, what are you going to do? I would die!" 

Well if that's true ya'll have a serious problem. C'mon this is f*!$'n paradise! For real! Just look at the island sunsets and that should be enough to sell anyone. 

I've actually considered moving out here, I love it so much and it's only been a month. However, they don't let you have dogs on the island. For anyone who knows me, you know living without my little girl is NOT an option. Hell this 2 months away from her is killing me. HA. Plus I have a great job and beautiful house in Iowa that I couldn't just leave on a quick notice. Luckily Greg's contract is only for 1 year and by the time I leave he will only have about 8 months left and should get some vacation in that time period so we can see each other. 

But seriously it's amazing here. You instantly become part of a little family. I mean when you are one of 80 some people on an entire island you all get to know each other real quick. You can actually trust people here, leave your bicycles out and a backpack sitting on a picnic table and nobody is going to bother it. Everybody is so nice and helpful. With Greg being new to the island and me being just a visitor, there are a lot of times we haven't had something we needed and every person here has been so willing to help us and let us borrow things. Maybe it's not for everyone but I can totally entertain myself and get along with most anybody. I've read quite a few books to pass time, worked on some art of which I'll be posting more on soon, and just made time to do nothing. Think about this.... 

When is the last time you did nothing and embraced it? Didn't have a plan or schedule for the day? Just lived in the moment with no time restraints?

I know most people aren't lucky enough to be in the spot I'm currently in and with jobs, reality, kids, and all that stuff it can seem impossible. Sometimes it's great to just do nothing. 

Literally I'll just lie in the hammock and take everything in. Feel the warmth of the sun, hear the ocean waves crash in, feel the ocean salt infused breeze on my skin, hear the palm trees blowing above me shading my face, watch all the little creatures come to life as I sit there so still and peaceful. The geckos, hermit crabs, ghost crabs, butterflies, birds, just everything. I actually laid in this hammock for 2 hours once expecting to finish a book and instead watched this little army of hermit crabs beneath me. There were probably 50-75 of them. I was eating sunflower seeds (just like I am now as I write this lol) and when I'd spit the shell out they would all fight over who got it. I was even able to spot the bully crab LoL I let him know real quick I was part of the anti bullying movement and poked him with my stick so the runt crab could enjoy my seed and the bully move on! I let him know he shouldn't be so crabby with the little crabs HA HA! It was so fun to watch them crawl around with their beautiful shell homes on their backs. It's just great because here you can actually be BY YOURSELF and think, reflect, observe, and people need that yet a lot of people never do that. Any other beach you go to is packed with people and the people you do see aren't truly getting away they are laying out with their phones or I pads tweeting about what they are doing at that exact moment instead of just living in it. I am living in pure bliss right now and absolutely love it, every second of it. 

Get out there and enjoy whatever bliss may be for you, find a day and do nothing but ENJOY and live in the moment! 

Kayaking

The First Day of 2014!

So it's New Year's Day and we decided we would go kayaking. This is something I'd never done before, and especially never thought I'd do in the Ocean. So we packed our beach bags and snacks and hit the beach. They have community use Kayaks and life jackets at one of the shacks. So we hauled them down to the shore and off we went. I really don't have a lot of upper body strength and it turns out this Kayaking stuff is one hell of a workout lol, so again I say I am so thankful I have a patient boyfriend. =)

We kayaked all around the area for about 2 1/2 hours which by the end of that I was real wimpy. Greg mentioned Kayaking over to the 1st island but I didn't feel like I had the strength to go against the current and wind after a couple hours already in. So after some practice we will give that a shot, and hope I survive! We saw a few sea turtles pop their heads up but nothing that was really close to us. It was still really awesome to see the insane colors of the water and the clarity of it all. What an incredible first day of the year. If this is any indication of how the rest of 2014 will go, I'm in for a real treat....because my life is already way better than I could have every imagined. Here's a few more shots of us kayaking around the Pacific. 

As you can see it was a beautiful experience. So happy I got to experience it with my man....it's even more bittersweet because back home in Iowa it's been record low temperatures. Knowing that it's 85 every day here and how miserable Iowa winters are, makes being here THAT much better! It is going to be a rough adjustment going back in March.



PEACE OUT!

S is for SHARK!

BEACH DAY WITH MY HONEY!

Greg was home at 8 A.M. from work the next day so we decided to pack a cooler and head to the beach. After chillin and hangin out for a while we decided to throw on our snorkel gear and swim around. Now Greg had previously told me that around the marina there were a lot of sharks, so naturally I told him we were staying the F*** away from that area. LOL.

We swam out to some coral and saw some really pretty fish. I even saw a black and gold Hawkeye fish....GO IOWA! 

As I said before I sometimes struggle with swimming so I make Greg hold my hand while we snorkel along. I look left and see what looks to me like a sting ray, you know that creature that KILLED Steve Irwin....

I grab Greg's arm and squeeze him as I "hide" behind him, he signals to me that it's okay and it won't hurt us, but I was still freaked out. We swim off the other way making our way towards the shore and as I'm finally calming myself down Greg taps my arm and points right. So I turn my head....A F*ckinG SHARKKKKK! 

OMG I instantly cling to him and think to myself, "just breathe, don't freak out, remain calm, that F*cker will eat you as soon as it smells your fear. AHHHHH Greg again signals to me that it's fine and as hard as it is for me to believe him I trust him but was sure as shit ready to get out of the water! I could see him keep looking behind us to check for it and as I am quickly flapping towards shore all I could hear was the JAWS theme song thinking he was behind me the whole time. LOL But we made it back to shore without any shark attacks! RELIEF! Once we sat down Greg told me that it was actually an Eagle Ray that we saw not a Sting Ray, and the Shark was a Black Tipped Shark and apparently neither one of them are anything to worry about. I am still not convinced, however I am grateful that these two guys had no particular interest in a petite serving of Iowa Inked Chick Filet. HA SHEW!



TONIGHT IS NEW YEARS EVE!

What better way to bring in the New Year then on a warm beautiful island?!

The "Outrigger" bar and grill is throwing a party. Now this isn't your typical bar or NYE venue. The bartender isn't the average hot young half naked 20 something. LoL His name is Wally and he's worked her forever I guess. 

Awesome right?! LoL It was technically a Masquerade, but we didn't wear any because there is no party store or Wal Mart for that matter on the island. We did put on some borrowed masks of our friends though for a few photos opportunities.  

It was a really low key and fun NYE. My main wish I got and that was to be able to kiss the love of my life at midnight! =) We did just that and were home by 12:15. What a great way to bring in the year 2014. Hell 2013 brought me so much, 2014 has a lot to live up to but I have no doubt! Hope you all had a great New Year! 

PEACE OUT!

My First Day ALONE

Greg had to work today so I am on my own. I was pretty lazy all morning since I was still not feeling 100%. After a while I decided to grab my DSLR Camera and head out on the bicycle to capture some of the scenery. HOLY HOTNESS. Lugging that thing around while pedaling against the winds in 88 degree weather makes for one hell of a workout. I hadn't planned out my photography session very well, because I had to wait about a half an hour for the condensation on my lens to go away...woops. I was a little worried about getting lost at first, but then I realized the island is way too small to actually get lost. So I spent the day venturing the island solo and soaking up the scenery. I got quite a few pics so I'll share some...

Pontooning The Pacific

My First Actual Day On The Island:

As if I'm not already in enough bliss waking up next to my man for the first time again in the like two months, we are going to take the pontoon out in the Pacific today! As I said before I hadn't been feeling the best but I didn't want to skip out, I was ready to start taking advantage of island living! So we get some breakfast and meet some people out at the Marina to get in the Pontoon. We packed some snacks, tunes, and booze, prepared for a great day. Being out on the crystal clear water for the first time was absolutely breathtaking. Here is our friend bringing his booze over lol

We took the boat out near the "Third Island" and anchored down! A few other people met us out there in their sailboat and came over to hang. A couple folks jumped in to snorkel before us. There was an immediate mention of Jelly Fish and that totally creeped me out. I had never seen one before and wasn't sure jumping into an ocean to swim with them sounded like a great idea. The only thing I knew about Jelly Fish is if you get stung by one someone is supposed to pee on you, and personally I didn't feel like being stung OR peed on today....I know such a fun hater! LOL

Sure enough we jumped in anyways. If you know me I'm not a very good swimmer...I'm actually one of those nerds who still has to plug my nose and can't dive to save my life. 
Shout out to my mom for never giving me swimming lessons, thanks alot Mom. Ha Just kidding I Love you! Anyway I'm so thankful I have a patient boyfriend for me to get a grasp on my snorkel flow. It didn't take long before we saw a jelly fish swimming right next to us and Greg ha to shew him away. Right then I instantly wanted to go back to the safe zone on the boat where the couldn't get us..but as he always does Greg convinced me everything will be fine and encouraged me to keep going, so we did. THAT is one of the many reasons he is great for me, always helps me conquer my fears! I still stayed far away from the jelly fish when I could but Greg got right up in there face with the camera:

The rest of the day we just spent snorkeling around, drinking beer, and jammin out. Overall a fantastic first day with new friends, a new place, and the love of my life. Here's some pics of me snorkeling and Greg doing crazy tricks of the boat. LoL

                              **CLICK READ MORE IF ITS UNDER THIS PIC TO FINISH BLOG**

First week on the island

I'm playing catch up here from my journal because I haven't been able to blog due to Greg's laptop being down. So here  is the first page of my journal:

12/31/13 7:05 AM 

It' my 4th day on the island and I've yet to adjust to the day and time difference. Which basically means I wake up at 3 AM on the dot every day which would be 9 AM back home. On top of that I haven't really felt good since I've been here. My whole family was fighting a stomach bug on Christmas, so I assumed that combined with a 33 hour travel itinerary, jet lag, and lack of good eating has been what's dragging me down. Yesterday around noon I finally started feeling myself. So on to the good stuff let me catch you up from day one!

One thing not many people have probably experienced is flying on/off of a runway of which the whole length of is the entire island....for those of you who haven't let me tell ya SCARY SHIT! I fly often enough I never really get scared but when you look down and see your descent is almost complete and you still see no land under you, just ocean you start to panic. I just knew we were going to touch down in the ocean. Obviously I'm aliving writing this so we made it but talk about freaky. Here's a little pic to get you some of an idea...but not really capturing the no land part:

Obviously I'm alive writing this so we made it but talk about freaky! And as you can imagine the same level of freakiness taking off, it looked like we were going to drive right off the runway into the ocean.

So after a few more island stops and a bit of a delay I arrived into Kwajalein. I felt like a kid at Christmas when we pulled up. As I walked off the plane I could see Greg waving at me outside the fence. AHHH FINALLY! But all the passengers had to go inside the "Airport," which is the size of my living room. As soon as you enter all the officials make you put your bags on the red line, take a seat, and fill out paperwork. The polic K9 comes in and sniffs the baggage and after about 20 minutes of processing I was the last one to be let FREE lol. I hopes the door and found my love hiding around the corner trying to surprise me. 

BEST HUG AND KISS EVER

It was so great to finally be back in his arms. BUT after all this flying I'm still not to my final destination. The next flight we have to catch is a daily flight they run back and forth from Kwajalein to Roi. That flight was only about 15 minutes and it was really awesome to be able to see the different tiny beautiful islands in the chain of the Marshal Islands from above.