So here I am, second winter in a row on a beach in some exotic place for a week or so - although I have to say relatively, the Indian Ocean is more exotic than the Caribbean Sea. We checked out the cape yesterday, where the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal meet - supposedly you're supposed to be able to see three different colors from all the different bodies, but we all stood on the dot with the arrow pretending to see things that may or may not have actually been there. Word from the wise: NEVER wear a skirt to a cape. It's really windy on points of things and it never turns out well. Let's just say, Marilyn Monroe II, III, and IV. Sort of. Anyways, Kerala is really cool. We have fresh pineapple or fresh pineapple juice at every meal at the hotel, and some places on the beach sell drinks served in coconuts! The waves are some of the biggest I've been in: sometimes even if you dive under them they rip you like a rag doll, an electric shock, shaking the wind out of you like sand from a towel. This one guy lies to us every night, telling us there's good snorkeling, but it's just beach. Seriously. Even Gus says so, and he knows his oceans, and LOVES scuba diving. We rented some boogie boards for a day for 200 rupees - about $4 or 5 I think - and I lost my fuli (nose stud), jammed my toe, crashed into Nicole and bumped heads, landed on top of Elias a few times, hit my head on the ground, skinned my arm, burnt the soles of my feet, and got sand INSIDE my suit, like between layers of fabric... Nicole wiped out and has a huge scar on her cheek and her shoulder from hitting the sand. It was a fabulous time. We did laundry and hung it in the bars of our window. They got rust stains all over them. That's what I get for being too cheap to send my laundry out to get it done, or just too slow or lazy to get it in on time. I don't really care though, it makes it interesting. And it was just underwear anyway, so it's not like anyone will see them. Nicole had some T-shirts up there, though. Ooops... And I got a tattoo. But it's just henna, so don't worry. So I know I'm a little late, but I decided to do a little cheesy New Year reflection too... 2005 was a big year, I guess, full of "rites of passage," if you will... First semiformal and formal school dance; I left home, flew without my parents; learned to bargain; learned to french braid; had my Sweet Sixteen; wore a saree; spent Christmas away from home... I did a lot of screwing up but a lot of learning life's most practical lessons, about appreciating things that I have and people that I love; about cultural differences and similarities and how to adjust, adapt, and get by; about relating to people and giving myself out, throwing all caution to the wind and taking emotional risks even if I know I could be smushed like a bug (BIG RED TRUCK!!) because there's a better chance of being accepted and embraced if you open yourself instead of waiting for somebody to open themselves to you... I've gained confidence in a lot of areas and learned a lot about myself. I've found appreciation for security while watching myself become more daring and make more plans, have more and more impractical dreams and even wilder practical ones. And I've watched my world shrink and shrink until it seems everyone knows everyone and you will spend the rest of your life running into old friends in the most unlikely places at the most unlikely times. That's it in a nutshell, I guess... We decided that we don't think about time in years, though, but by how old we were. So I'll remember 11th grade and the summer before it, of course, for the rest of time.