Play in Colonia, Yap, Micronesia
Sunday is Tress's birthday. Her husband Peter had planned to be out of town for 3 weeks litigating several cases in Chuuk -- but the aggressive American prosecutor had just rolled over and dismissed the first case during his case-in-chief on Wednesday afternoon -- so Peter hopped immediately on a plane and made it back to Yap. So we had a little party at the pirate ship restaurant "MNUW" last night.
I started on Cuervo Gold margs on the rocks with salt, umm, and then I was buying ice cream desserts for Peace Corps Volunteers Lisa, Caroline and Megan, and then there were 6 teachers from Pohnpei (Patty, Mary Jane, Dan, Don, John, and hmm, I'll get back to you . . . ), and then Danka gave Tress a bangly turquoise tennis bracelet thing from us and a blue balloon, and then we were showing off Danka's drive guide to the whole group, and then I was explaining in detail how the Dutch had brilliantly marketed a bunch of common shiny rocks into supposedly precious stones over 500 years by inculcating the tradition of diamond rings for marriage into European (and subsequently American) culture, and there was discussion of birds and reptiles and aphibiians with a biology professor with ornithological and herpetological interests . . . .
And there were many margaritas.
Followed by red wine and pizza (ground beef & jalapeno).
And Peter livened up the discussions, especially with Danka and about his new status as Minister of Spiritual Humanism. And somewhere within this hyper-educated group of Americans (plus Danka), the subject of the European Union came up. These very intelligent Americans had no clue about Europe. One remarked (seemingly knowledgably!) that France was no longer using the Euro. In general, the others didn't know if England was in the EU or not, nor who any of the other members might be. Tequila plus lack of audience knowledge combined to bring out "Ron the International Relations/Political Science" professor guy, so I lectured a bunch of university professors ad nauseum about the general nature of the EU as an economic entity (with recent political and defense unity), how the French and Dutch voters had made the correct choice to reject an overwrought Constitution document, that the EU is the best thing to happen to the Old World -- ever, and several points that fade from memory -- uhh, another marg, please?
And then, among other topics, Peter was putting the pressure on Danka to at least learn to snorkel and swim, with the goal of learning to ultimately SCUBA dive. I mean, we're on a tropical island, right?
I started on Cuervo Gold margs on the rocks with salt, umm, and then I was buying ice cream desserts for Peace Corps Volunteers Lisa, Caroline and Megan, and then there were 6 teachers from Pohnpei (Patty, Mary Jane, Dan, Don, John, and hmm, I'll get back to you . . . ), and then Danka gave Tress a bangly turquoise tennis bracelet thing from us and a blue balloon, and then we were showing off Danka's drive guide to the whole group, and then I was explaining in detail how the Dutch had brilliantly marketed a bunch of common shiny rocks into supposedly precious stones over 500 years by inculcating the tradition of diamond rings for marriage into European (and subsequently American) culture, and there was discussion of birds and reptiles and aphibiians with a biology professor with ornithological and herpetological interests . . . .
And there were many margaritas.
Followed by red wine and pizza (ground beef & jalapeno).
And Peter livened up the discussions, especially with Danka and about his new status as Minister of Spiritual Humanism. And somewhere within this hyper-educated group of Americans (plus Danka), the subject of the European Union came up. These very intelligent Americans had no clue about Europe. One remarked (seemingly knowledgably!) that France was no longer using the Euro. In general, the others didn't know if England was in the EU or not, nor who any of the other members might be. Tequila plus lack of audience knowledge combined to bring out "Ron the International Relations/Political Science" professor guy, so I lectured a bunch of university professors ad nauseum about the general nature of the EU as an economic entity (with recent political and defense unity), how the French and Dutch voters had made the correct choice to reject an overwrought Constitution document, that the EU is the best thing to happen to the Old World -- ever, and several points that fade from memory -- uhh, another marg, please?
And then, among other topics, Peter was putting the pressure on Danka to at least learn to snorkel and swim, with the goal of learning to ultimately SCUBA dive. I mean, we're on a tropical island, right?