Culture Shock

Yesterday, I was sitting on the beach and thinking how weird it was that I graduated from college a year ago (an entire year?? ... only a year?? ... I still can't decide). One year ago on this day, I was still in Boston, packing up and saying goodbye to my friends... now I'm in Samoa, staring out at the ocean, preparing, once again, to pack up and say goodbye. Where will I be in another year?

I also thought... how weird is it that in one month I will be in Europe? Like, not even in my house at home but in a European city. Somehow, it doesn't seem like Europe and Samoa can exist at the same time in the same world. I had just started thinking about the (reverse?) culture shock that would come so soon... and then Jackie yelled at me from the other side of the beach, and when I went over I was handed an unshelled snail, fresh from the ocean, and ordered to eat it. So Jackie and I sat in the ocean on bits of exposed reef and shared a meal of fresh snail (crunchy AND slimy... at the same time? A real treat...) with a pair of women from the village while watching the sun go down over the ocean.

Hm. Yup. Culture shock is coming.

What I ate... it's called alili, and it can be eaten steamed, but I guess also raw? (At least, I haven't died yet) Leafa used a rock to crack open the big shell, and then you kind of have to bite it off that little round shell you can see in the opening. Yummy!