July 30th Day 40

Today started off very slowly. Russ and Sally didn't come down before 8:30 am and so we decided to do the Gump reef damselfish survey since they were not around. That was really the most exciting thing I did during the entire workday. After that I worked on a variety of menial tasks from painting cages to cleaning boats. Once the day was over, I cleaned up, took a shower and got ready to go to a party with some of our local Tahitian friends. These friends were supposedly meeting at the public beach near the station. We took some pots to the snack shack near the public beach to be filled for dinner tonight while we had a good time at the beach for a couple of hours. Turns out that they didn't come to the beach and they instead were at a family members house where Mathieu had lived. We decided to stay at the beach for a while to take some pictures and have a drink while the sun went down. It was a beautiful day that couldn't really have been better as far as sunsets are concerned. While we were talked to each other, a English man named Tim came up to us because he overheard us speaking English. He talked to us about how he is two years into a five year worldwide sailing trip with his family. He interestingly has two boys who are 7 and 9 which he home schools of course. Crazy to think that you would put aside your life after having kids to go sail around the world but man was this guy doing it. They started in Panama and have moved their way across the Pacific to now being in French Polynesia. Hearing his story about his travels was a bit inspiring to me because it struck a chord that I have always wanted to do that. After we finished talking to Tim, we left the public beach and went to the actual party. It was very cool to go to a house here and experience what life is like as a native Tahitian. The house was very quaint consisting of a kitchen connected to a bedroom and that is it. The yard however was much larger in size than the house, especially with the customary fare pote. Everyone was sitting in chairs in a circle around some older men with guitars and ukuleles. We had fun socializing with everyone and then we left to go pick up our food from the snack shack to take back to the research station. We ate some curry chicken and chow mien that were both delicious. After we finished dinner we went back to the party for a bit longer. I spent a lot of the time while we were there staring up at the stars which were absolutely stunning. Can't see the stars like that back home. After a drink we ended up calling it a night and going back to the Gump. It was really fun to experience the hospitality and kindness of the Tahitian people. It was an experience I most certainly won't forget. Now I am in bed and I am beat tired. Until later.