The Cook ISlands G-String

so here I am in the Cook ISlands at an internet cafe. I hope I'll be able to do more in the comng days butr right now we're pretty busy dfoing stuff. Anyways,m here's what's happened over the past two days here

The flight from Christchurch to Auckland and from Auckland to Rarotonga were uneventful. I did accidentally cause a minor panic when I speculated whether or not OSU Federal was ging to remember that I had said I was going to be in the Cook Islands, and everyone else re3alized they hadn't even done that. But I think that all will work out, and hopefully I will be able to live on the money I gpot out of an ATYM in New Zealand. On the flight to Rarotonga I saw Quantum of Solace, a movie that was merely OK. I actyually had a hard time figuirng out what was going on.

Customs in Rarotonga went pretty smoothly, except for when one of the cops walked up to Ryan and asked him to put somnething in his pocket for a sniffer dog to rfind, for training. The first attempt didn'ty work beczause everyone around Ryan took theior cameras out, cluing the dog in, but attempt n. 2 worked well. After that we went to our hotel, settled in, and then went back out for dinner. This turned out to be at a seaside pub run by a white Hawaiian and a white New Zealander, where we had really tasty barbeque food. Thew teriyaki steak was especially good. That night a bunch of us ended up watching the Mr. Bean movie in the lounge, which was fun. I do prefer Blackadder for Rowan Atkinson roles.

First thing today we had a lecture on the history and politics of the Cook Islands by a former Minister of Justice and MP. Apparently all the Cook Islands has a smaller population than Corvallis, and a lot of MP's constiuencies are very small and made up of big families. Because of that, folks have to be careful what they do or else they can be voted out by a tiny amount of votes!

Then we went on a cruise! We wnet out in this little glass bottom boats to near a reef, where we did snorkeling. I ws initially wary, and also flet that i wouldn't be able to see anything given that the goggles on the snorkles were non-corrective, but I eventually di it and it ws a lot of fun. I saw a lot of fish and enjoyed myself, even though I had to get out to wipe my eyes a few times. As snorkle time was ending, some pople swam under the boat and did flips and stuff. I took pictures and winced in admiration.

Lunch was, again, grilled food, which was quite tasty. The most delicvious iten this time was some girlled bananas. After that was a show where the boat crew showed us how to shuck coconuts, as well as how to put on women's and men's sarongs. I was picked for the men;s part, wherew thye gave me what they called "The Cook Island G-String." They tyhen tied a rock to the bottom of my sarong thing, and, along with the other guy they'd picked, I was in structed to do a throughly lewd dance. I felt very shy but I got through it.

After that, we came back to the hotel and got a lecture on migration and ancient seafaring techniques. It was interesting, but i kept (to my embarrasment) falling asleep (I don;t know why). After that we went to these people's house, where they fed us a feast. Apparently these guys are going to teach us how to paddle canoes later on this week. Again, delicious (altho I didn't really like the coconut drink that was an option), and eaten in traditional Raro style ie with the fingers. I liked the curry chicked and the taro, which i dipped in the curry sauce.

So tomorrow we're going to market where I think I'll buy souveniers. Hopefully also I'll be able to get on another computer (I think we've got some spare time) and update my blog again. On Sunday we got to Church and Monday we walk across the island. This is fun and exciting and strange, and I'm quite enjoying it.