today was another excellent day. i went snorkeling for the first time!! it was totally awesome! sometimes when i'm swimming in the water i get a little nervous about going out too far because i get these stupid visions of shark attacks in my head. granted, a 20 foot tiger shark was seen in maui waters just a couple of weeks ago chewing on a sea turtle and they're known to eat anything in their path whether it be man, creature, or inanimate object, but still i feel it's ridiculous to be scared in the water. well, i've found a way to solve any of my ocean going fears... put on a mask!! seeing what's going on around you does wonders for calming the imagination and the awesome fish swimming all over the place doesn't hurt much either. in fact, i felt so confident with my mask on i actually wanted to see one of the white tip reef sharks that frequent maui waters (don't worry, they're not known to be aggressive toward humans). unfortunately, i wasn't that lucky, but i did get to see tons of other cool stuff including a green sea turtle!! it was my main goal for this trip to see a turtle and i'm very happy that my wish was granted. this was a really large turtle as well (probably 3 feet long) and he was just chilling on the coral taking a nap. i was able to swim up right next to him without scaring him off. he did open his eyes and look a bit nervous so i backed up, but getting so close was truly amazing! they truly are beautiful creatures. i also saw tons of other cool things including various species of sea urchins. some were huge with fat red spines and others had really long thin black spines with bright blue ones inside. they were gorgeous. there were also plenty of sea stars of different colors and thousands of different fish. i won't name them all, but i was especially excited to see a couple of flounders and two species of pufferfish which are pretty much my favorite fish ever. there were spotted pufferfish that were itsy bitsy and some giant ones that were over a foot long. there was also one box puffer i was super excited to see. they're spectacular with a blue body covered in yellow spots on the sides. pictures can't do justice to their true beauty. there were also tons of angels and other colorful fish including the picasso triggerfish which has the best hawaiian name ever: humuhumunukunuku! unfortunately, i didn't get an underwater camera for this trip to take pictures (so any of the underwater ones i've included are not my own) because i didn't want to have to deal with that on my first time out. i will definitely take one in the future though, so don't worry too much. ;] as well as seeing a ton of cool sea creatures (although no sharks, eels, or octopus *crie*) i also found some nifty souvenirs. they're all explained in the image i've included. i also collected a bunch of large urchin spines that i plan to make into something interesting. i'll keep you posted on that one haha. that's about it for my fabulous underwater outing. as a side note, i've included some pictures of the burning of a sugar cane field. i understand why they do it, but it's sad to see so much pollution in my new paradise. in fact, it's sad to see so much sugarcane in maui period. to think that the vast miles of cane that covers about 15% of maui used to be forests full of native birds makes me really sad. it never ceases to amaze me when looking at the extent of change we've procured on the world in order to fit our own needs and how much it has affected the native ecosystems negatively. *sigh* i guess that's why i have a job here though... but really it's not worth it.