Our campus was closed on Wednesday in observance of Veteran's day. My students did not know what the term "veteran" meant, so I gave them a short lesson on Veteran's day, hoping they would remember why they were getting the day off of school. I talked about appreciating simple pleasures (like praying and dressing as we choose) and how soldiers have helped us gain those freedoms. I have one American student in my class whose father is in the air force, so I used him as an example of a "real life solider." By the end of the lesson, all the students were pretending to salute one another. When we returned to school on Thursday, a few students were excited to share that they said thank you to the soldiers they saw on Veteran's day. I couldn't help but smile and feel so proud of my students!
With Veteran's day off, Rachel and I headed up north, to the aquarium. We actually found the aquarium easily and didn't get lost for the first time, in a long time!
We stopped to take our first picture before entering the aquarium and these ladies stopped us and asked if they could take a picture with us. We laughed and all took a picture together, they spoke broken English but were very friendly, they kept saying thank you and waving as they walked away.
When we arrived, we found a lunch buffet, including all you can eat ice cream, cookies and little balls that looked like cream puffs but tasted like pancakes with syrup! Our table had this gorgeous view of the dolphin cove.
View while walking around outside the aquarium
Cute grass fish were everywhere outside!
Couldn't resist acting like a kid for a few minutes!
Before I even started waving for this picture, four Japanese girls that were standing below me started waving. When I waved back, they all got excited and started waiving excitedly. I began wondering if they thought they knew me. As I walked down the stairs they were still standing there, I said hello and they began whispering and giggling while waving again. Rachel and I couldn't help but laugh. Weird!
The inside of the aquarium had an ample amount of tanks with various fish and sharks.
The giant white sharks and mantas in this tank, hold the world record for the longest time kept in captivity. The world's first successful birth of a manta pup in captivity also happened here. It's weird that they brag about holding a world record for keeping an animal in captivity!
We were actually able to touch and pick up these starfish, they felt fake, almost like rocks.
The aquarium was much smaller than expected, we were finished eating lunch, looking at the tanks, watching the dolphin show and walking around outside within two hours. We decided to go to the butterfly garden which was right down the street from the aquarium. We took a nature walk on the grounds, took a few silly pictures and a few amazing pictures of the view!
There were butterflies everywhere inside, they even had red hats for us to wear to attract the butterflies. We were a little scared of the butterflies crawling on us...I think we hid it well though (not really!) =0
The butterflies kept trying to land on my legs but I wouldn't let them. I was moving around so much that I was afraid I was going to smash one of them! This is the only one that I let land and stay on me.
This one stayed on Rachel for a little longer than she was comfortable with!
After the butterfly garden, we stopped by our favorite resort hotel on the island, Busena Terrace, where the 2000 G8 conference was held! This was our 4th time stopping by the resort, just to hang out and imagine staying there! Sometimes, I even like to imagine that I live there =) We sat on beach chairs and watched the sunset.
It was a fun little adventure! We stopped by Pineapple park on the way home, bought a few more bottles of pineapple wine, cookies and ice cream before calling it a day. It was random to have a Wednesday off but a nice change of pace! We got a lot of sightseeing in, I'm starting to worry that I might run out of places to see here!
XOXO
Kristen
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