Under the Sea

Lucky for me (and everyone else on this trip) Mikala has an underwater camera so that means all of our water adventures are documented. Thanks Mikala!!! Since I have had multiple requests to post more pictures of me– voila. I feel a little vain.

Alex and I just win, win, win. Even underwater.

The blue starfish I mentioned in my previous post. They're
bigger than my hand.

Me! And the blue starfish (left hand corner.)

And a few more pictures from the island:

Winning with the water buffalo

I think that Erika and I had the best guy navigating our boat. He just wanted us to have fun. He spun the boat around and around and would rock it back and forth. He also tried to teach us how to paddle– it really is quite difficult to emulate the movement perfectly. It is almost like making figure eights in front of the boat– you only have one paddle. It is unbelievable that a circular boat can move forward so easily when doing the movement correctly. Another reason why he was the best: he made us rings and bracelets from the beautiful plants seen in the background.

If anyone is confused about the winning pictures (hi Mom) I will explain. I thought that flashing the peace sign was a Western-created stereotypical image of Asians. However, this is not the case. When posing for pictures Vietnamese tend to hold up the peace sign, although it is not referred to as the peace sign it represents V for victory. Both young and old, male and female do this– it is a cultural phenomenon! I think it is pretty neat that it represents the same value across the country. Big smiles and holding up the victory sign is way better than American's habit of faking a smile and trying to look attractive. So when we take pictures we smile really big and flash the victory sign– and that is why we are winning!

Today we are heading to Da Nang for some more fun in the sun and sand. Yay yay yay! I love the grand excursion!!!!