Boat Rides and Dinner Parties

Right when I woke up today Catherine, Frank and I got to work making marinades for the meat and fresh pasta for later. After we had finished we went to High Island. Frank, Catherine, Alex and I went by boat and Carrie ran the six miles there. It isn’t actually and island anymore, the made a reservoir there and there are three damn connecting it to the mainland. While on the boat Frank explained to me that there are all of these islands that are only for graves. It has been a holiday here where everyone goes out and cleans the graves of their loved ones. They make these little figures of clothes, cars, food ect out of paper and burn them. The ashes then go up to heaven for the dead to use.

Graves cleaning holidays happen twice a year and one of them is going on the weekend. Also we passed fisheries where they put nets underneath their boats and catch little fish. They then wait until the fish get big and harvest them. The clusters of boats are like little villages on water. People will live there their whole lives and never set foot on land. The people just walk from boat to boat like we walk through streets.

Once we got to the island the girls ran for the beach in front of the restaurant. At lunch I try fried squid that had lots of salt on them. To my surprise I loved it! We walked through the village and went to a local temple. On the way there were old and abandon houses. People just picked up and left leaving all, or most, of their belonging. The temples here are so much different from the temples in Japan. They are much more colorful here and decorated. Japanese temples are more elegant and simple.

One of the things that I love about it here is how international it is. All of their friends are from different countries. One family was from France and they were tall and skinny, verrrry athletic, and hilarious. The wife, Corinne, was an amazing cook, and the husband is training for Iron Man. He almost had a heart attack when someone said that Michael Phelps relationship with his mom was a bit “odd.” They had two little girls who refuse to eat Chinese food even though their family has lived here for eight months! Another couple at the party, I think they were Scottish or Irish had the cutest little girl. She was about five years old and had long blond hair. They also had a little boy that was adorable. The whole family was very nice. The other couples, Mandy and Brian, are both locals and were hilarious also. They food was amazing and I was exhausted by the end of the night. I had also promised the French lady that I would try dragon boating the next morning.