The Universal Sign for Shark is....

Whenever you go snorkeling or diving, one of the things you learn is the sign to let your fellow divers/snorkelers know if you see a shark. You calmly tap the side of your hand to your forehead (like a fin) and point the shark out. Well, that's all well and good for Jacques Cousteau, and other shark enthusiasts, but I'm here to tell you that when the rest of us see a shark, all learned shark symbols get abandoned in favor of something more practical. Swimming with Olympic speed for shore, and making sure you swim with at least one person who is slower than you. :)

My shark encounter went down yesterday when I decided I'd give snorkeling a second go around. Johnathon and I snorkeled with some friends when we first got here, and it was a very okay experience. Don't get me wrong, the snorkeling on Kwaj is beautiful. There is lots of reef to explore with fish I have never seen before, but I found that I spent most of my snorkel time looking behind me for rogue dorsal fins instead of down at the coral. I felt like since we have such a short time out here, I should give snorkeling another go, cause I may never be in such a pristine location again. I was talking with my friend Paula, who offered to take me snorkeling again, and promised we could have a nice and easy snorkel day to get me comfortable in the water. Paula and I met up yesterday morning to go snorkeling off of Emon Beach (a very popular beach on Kwaj were LOTS of people swim and scuba daily). I didn't have any fins and would've had to borrow some, but since Paula and I are pretty good swimmers, we opted to swim without fins. Mistake number 1. 

I was a little nervous starting off, but Paula was a really great guide, and pointed out lots of cool fish, and I started to relax and actually enjoy it. We were out relatively early in the morning, and I noticed that way more fish were out and active than they were on my first snorkel trip. We saw a puffer fish, lots of pretty colored reef fish, and a small school of some bigger fish (maybe Aku or Cawa Cawa?). We started to swim back toward the beach and were not very far from shore when Paula abruptly stopped swimming. This is were we abandoned all universally recognized signs for shark, and Paula yelled through her snorkel "oh look, there's a shark!"It's important to mention for your mental picture benefit that Paula is 7 months pregnant. I wish I could report that I stayed calm and admired the shark from afar, or did the noble thing and put the very pregnant girl behind me and away from danger...but I'm gonna be honest with you...that was not at all what I did. As soon as I heard Paula's muffled, snorkel declaration of "SHARK!" I latched myself onto her leg and did not let go. She grabbed both my arms to reassure me, and we floated there in a awkward human knot, and began and 10 second staring competition with the shark that was floating over the reef maybe 15 ft away.

Everybody told me that sharks on Kwaj are not that big, and are scared of humans. Everyone said they're more scared of us than we are of them, and swim away as soon as they see us. Everyone on Kwaj is a lair. That shark was freaking huge, and not at all alarmed that we snuck up on its breakfast time. It stared at us for a few seconds, then swam TOWARD us. I couldn't really tell how long it was initially, but I could tell it was fat. This lead me to conclude that:

A) it was pregnant, and probably territorial and hormonal
B) It was fat because it ate a lot, and is thus very good at what it was put on this Earth to do.

Either way, not the tiny, scared shark I was expecting to see. Awesome. I love surprises.  The shark kept some distance between us, did a half circle around us, then (thank God) swam off toward to reef drop off. Paula and I then began what some might describe as a "vigorous, free style swim" back to shore. Seriously, I was swimming so fast, I think I was more on top of the water, than in it. Once we were on the beach, we had to debrief about what just happened. All I kept saying was "THAT WAS BIG, RIGHT?! THEY'RE NOT NORMALLY THAT BIG, RIGHT?! I MEAN...HE WAS HUGE...RIGHT?!" Paula did indeed confirm my suspicions that the shark was, in fact, larger than the average bear. We also decided that the shark was a grey reef shark, which, after a brief search on Wikipedia, I discovered is the more aggressive of the reef sharks here on Kwaj. Terrific. Paula and I were sure the shark had to be 6ft long, however, Wikipedia informs me that 6 ft is the max length they ever get. So I'll say it was probably a husky 4 ft. Seriously, all kudos to Paula, she was very calm through the whole encounter, and didn't hold it against me that I clung to her leg- preventing her from a quick escape, and kept her between me and the shark at all times. Gotta love that kind of intentional oversight in a person.

I guess I'll sum up this story this way: I met a shark in it's natural habitat, and lived to swim another day...with both feet attached. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the shark did not immediately try to eat me, as my fears had led me to believe. They really are graceful, powerful creatures that are (in a way) cool to encounter. I will never describe them as cute like many Kwaj people do. I also have no desire to see one again, unless its at an aquarium. :)

Grey reef shark

Another Grey Reef for your viewing pleasure...

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

Oh gosh, let's not deny it....I love me some Christmas. I love everything about it, and I am in a happier mood from the day after Halloween-December 26...when I go into my post Christmas funk where I am a just a little bit more grumpy. Just kidding...I'm delightful all year long...right Johnathon?!?! :) Anyway, growing up we were aloud to put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving...which, in retrospect, I'm sure is exactly what my parents wanted to do least the day after cooking on their feet all day just 24 hours before. But hey...I guess that's one of many joys of parenting we have to look forward to. Anyway, once I got to college I lucked out with room mates that were as crazy about Christmas as I was, and we would have a Christmas tree up and Mariah Carey's Christmas album blaring no later than mid-November. Now Johnathon shares my love of Christmas, but he does try and restrain my need to hang Christmas lights November 1st...probably because he's the one who has to hang them...I supervise. This year Johnathon held off my decoration desires until November 10th. I figured since it's 80 degrees and humid all year round...I get to decorate a week earlier than last year to make it feel more like Christmas...indoors at least. Here are our Christmas decorations for our first Kwaj Christmas!

Our tree...some of the ornaments didn't survive the trip which resulted in some bald spots, but I'm proud of our tree!

View of our decorations as seen from the ktichen

Christmas pillows...Sadie loves laying on them when were not home

I am mourning our lack of a fireplace, but our bookshelf will suffice

Santa's here!

Special Note to my Sister...I put all of the ornaments on the tree, when I realized I forgot to put the garland on. This resulted in a very frazzled me, and some oddly placed ornaments. I think Johnathon was dying a little inside at my lack of forethought and organization when it came to the tree, but he let me do my thing. I can't help but think if you and Johnathon were in charge of decorations, Christmas would be a organized, well-oiled machine with a tree that doesn't suggest it's owner has spacial relations issues. I know..I miss you too!

So there you have it...McClellan Christmas decor 2013! In other updates, Johnathon went fishing on Jon's boat last weekend, which meant they could go to Lib! For those of you not living on Kwaj, you don't have to hear about the Fish-Mecca-that-is-Lib 24/7 like us Kwaj ladies do. Lib is an island Southwest of Kwaj. It's a big deal because it's too far for the rental boats to get to, so only people who own their own boats can go. Because there aren't that many people who live on Lib, and not as many boats that can fish there, the fishing is supposed to be really good. But I swear the way these boys talked about it, you'd think the fish actually try and jump in their boat, no hooks or reels required! Needless to say, Johnathon was very excited when he got invited to go. They left at 4 in the morning and didn't get back until 3 that afternoon. When they did get back, Johnathon was a sweaty, bloody, dirty, ecstatic mess. Seriously, Johnathon's shirt was so dirty it looked like he stuck his head in the water, and let the fish latch on to that. Apparently some of the fish didn't go down without a fight, and there was a serious fish vs man battle that ensued. I'm happy to say Johnathon was victorious and they came back with an extreme number of fish including some seriously hefty tuna! They caught so many fish, they ended up selling a lot of it and that made up for the cost of the trip! Here are some pics of the boys and there catch!

Preston, Adam, and J making their best menacing faces

This isn't even close to all the fish they caught

Boys will be boys

This past week has been a busy, crazy week for our Texas group here on island. Our Texas group has a lot going on right now! On Monday evening, Johnathon and I walked Sadie down to Emon Beach to watch Pastor Kevin baptize people in the Lagoon. It was such an amazing, surreal environment, and God provided a beautiful sunset as a backdrop. It was such a peaceful happy event and I know Johnathon and I were happy we could be there to watch people take such an important, wonderful step in their lives. It was a great end to a crazy week. God really is so good!

Halloween 2013

Somewhere between Mamapalooza, Swashbuckler's Ball, watching Hocus Pocus on repeat, and Halloween, the month of October just disappeared. Seriously, this has been a crazy busy month, and Johnathon and I were so excited to have this past weekend to ourselves. The weekend before Halloween, the island threw a big Halloween party at the Vet's Hall. Now I'm not a big party planner, and to be honest, hosting things really stresses me out, but for some reason Halloween really speaks to me, so Johnathon and I volunteered to have the Halloween pre-party at our house. Poor Johnathon had to put up with me stressing out the my "deviled eggs" wouldn't turn out right, helping me wrap my "mummy hotdogs" in crescent rolls, and even cleaned the house while I cooked...that's a good husband right there!! :) We had also gone fishing that morning and got back a little after noon, so I was also crunched for time to get everything ready, but it all turned out really cute, if I may say. Here are some pics of our fishing trip and our Halloween spread.

Me with one of our "big ones" :)

Johnathon was ready to catch some fish!!

Me, Amy and Captain Greg

Our Halloween goodies...Mummy Hotdogs, Pumpkin Seeds, Devil Eggs, Tombstone/Ghost sandwiches, and pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Coffin cooler courtesy of the Vail's. There was also some "Vampire Blood" Halloween punch that I didn't get a pic of....just know that it was awesome...and strong...oops

Johnathon and I as Pocahontas and John Smith

All the ladies in our Halloween finest

After our pre-party we all biked to the Vet's hall where Greg and Jon's band RadarLove was playing. We left the camera at home, and to be honest it was probably for the best. Let's just say, the punch caught up to us and there was lots of dancing that I was sure looked great at the time, but is probably best left undocumented with photographic evidence.

On Halloween, we stayed in, I watched Hocus Pocus for what was realistically the 20th time this month, and past out candy to Trick-or-Treaters. Last year in the states we only had a handful of kids come by, so I was really excited to see so many kids out and about this year. The island lets a lot of the kids from Ebeye (the native Marshallese island next to Kwaj) come over to trick-or-treat, and it's a really big deal to them to get so much candy. I thought that made Halloween extra special. I tried to get a pick of all the kids out on the street in their costumes, but I felt a little creepy taking pictures of random kids....I thought their parents might find it creepy, and my explanation that I needed it to put in my online blog didn't help my creppiness factor. So I asked Johnathon to do it instead. This is what we came up with...

Hard to tell, but trust me...there were lots of people!

I really love Halloween, and I was a little worried that being all the way out here, and away from the cooler weather and all the fall activities, that it wouldn't feel right. Luckily, there was no shortage of festivities, and Kwaj really did Halloween right! (Special thanks to Leanne for hooking me up with pumpkin spiced latte's at Spartan Expresso TWICE!) Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween back in the states.