New Pictures, Near Death Experience, and an Alternate Universe

Hey everyone,
Check out new pictures in my webshots website. They include pictures of me and my fellow JVs teaching, some of my living situation, and the students. I'll try to get more of me and the students later. Enjoy.
Don't be alarmed by the title of the blog. I'm OK. But here's what happened.
We went swimming to the Japanese dock again. It's nice to get off the Xavier campus on the weekend. It's hard to have time to yourself or time away from the teaching world. Anyway, it was a beautiful, very hot day. Perfect day for a swim and some snorkling. We went in, and it was nice an relaxing. Anyway, we were out pretty far, past the small coral reef that's about 50 yards from the dock. I was with Adrienne and Chris Luthie, another American teacher 3 years older than us. We looke up and noticed that the rain and clouds that were approaching the island were closer than we expected them to be. The waves were starting to get choppy and the current pushing us slighty away from land because of the wind. I looked up as we decided to head back and noticed that half of the island was covered in a grey mist, meaning the storm was coming a lot faster than we thought. I started swimming against the waves back to the dock, but not directly towards the dock in a straight line, because we had to swim aroun the coral. But then it started to rain really hard, which meant I had to stop using the snorkle to breath through. The rain and the waves were getting in them anyway. When I looked up again, I couldn't see anything other than greyness from the rain and clouds. It was even a bit hard to see the coral underneath me. I didn't want to swim into any where it was too shallow. So that was probably the scariest moment: not really seeing where the dock was and anything infront of me, and the waves being really big and the rain being really hard. But I wasn't freaking out, unlike Chris, who was kind of panicking and swimming on his back right towards the coral. So I had to swim to him to calm him down and to make him not swim right into the coral. We found Arienne (I was the only one without flippers) and I told them to head to the coral so we can atleast rest on it. It was sharp at first, but once we grabbed on we were able to stand on it. I got a few cuts since the waves pushed me into it, but I felt a lot better knowing I can stand on it. I told them we should just wait until the storm passed. It eventually did, and we made it back to the dock. The rest of our group was waiting at the dock for us, a little worried, but I was fine. Chris was very glad to be out, because he was freaking out a bit. Adrienne was ok. So it was just for that one minute where the waves were really strong and I couldn't see anything where I got a little freaked myself. But it was only for a minute. Nothing more. I'm brave.

So yeah, it was Adrienne's birthday, so we all went out to the Blue Lagoon, the really fance resort on the island. This is where all the divers come when they stay in Chuuk. It was really an alternate universe. The grass looked well trimmed, the hotel rooms and huts looked beautiful, like something out of a Hawaii resort. The service and food was also very good. There were some Americans and Australians at the bar that we hung out at. It was a really nice time, but it was as if we left the third world and entered Florida. It was a nice break, but I actually felt weird entering into the Blue Lagoon property.

Ok, so that's all that's new. Enjoy the pictures. I have a lot of grading to do, since it's Mid-1st quarter. Peace out! Thanks for the comments and emails.
AJ