Hey Everyone!  Well it finally happened, life in Palau got busy.  I never thought I would see the day when I didn't have enough time to post a blog!  With under a month left here I am racing to finish (or start and then finish) projects at work and get out to all the sights I still want to see before I'm gone.  Here are some photos of what I've been up to the last few weeks.





Some friends and I rented kayaks and paddled out from the office into the rock islands to our own private beach. 

Last Weekend we went to Carp Island, a small Island an hour from Koror near Peleilu.  There is a tiny resort where we stayed that happens to be owned by our friends family, so we got the royal treatment thanks to our friend.  

Me with the most impressive plate of sashimi I have ever seen.

Views from Carp Island...

I did some fun diving a few weeks ago and finally saw sharks, lots of them actually, plus some turtles and big schools of fish.  I also got to dive down to a big cave that you can swim through.  From floor to ceiling it's probably 60 or 70 feet tall.  I am still hoping to get out to the most famous dive site, Blue corner, before I go.  It's a spot were a lot of sharks hang out.  I am also still hoping to do a wreck dive.  There is one we pass every day on our way to the Australian's field sites, so I am thinking of going on strike if we don't get to stop there one of these days soon.

There was a festival back in October for Koror, the state we live in.  There was traditional dancing, lots of food (including the largest cheese cake I have ever seen) and...

GREASED PIG CATCHING AND GREASED POLE CLIMBING!!!!!!!!  AMAZING!  The pig catching actually ended up being less comical then we imagined mainly because the pig wasn't really in the mood to run (can you blame her, it's hot out!), and it wasn't nearly greasy enough, so really it was more like pig tackling.  Three or Four guys would run at the pig, jump on top of it, and then fight each other for it.  Whoever caught the pig won it so it was quite the battle.  I think in the end most of us just felt bad for the pig.  The pole climbing was much more fun, and impressive.  The champion ended up being a young kid who put sand in his pockets and carried it up to the top of the pole to de-grease the final stretch of the pole.  Smart kid!  

Watching the spectacle with friends.

I didn't have time to get the photos from Halloween from my friend, so you all will just have to wait.  There is a US Army civil action team here and they had a haunted house.  The were looking for volunteers, so obviously I convinced a car load of people to come be zombies with me at the haunted house.  We got to chase people into a small mettle shed and then bang on the building and try to break in and eat their brains.  Pretty exciting stuff.  They told us it was from 7-11 pm, and we were figuring be a zombie until 9 or so and then their would be a post haunted house party.  WRONG!  We had to finally turn people away at 11 pm.  I am proud to say that our zombie crew carried the rest of the zombies, who were in need of a zombie break by 8 and not excited for another 3 hours of zombie fun.

So that's the update.  I'll try to post at least once more before I leave.  Hope everyone is having a happy November and that day light savings isn't getting you too down!  Talk to you soon,
Katharine