While I was planning two years of leisurely writing on a deserted beach, circumstances that would offer me an opportunity to change my plans on Kwajalein were gathering in the water and eventually washed up on my shore.
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Postcards from Kwaj
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Day 59: Changing my stripes
Day 39: How to tow a kayak with a bicycle
Ever wanted to tow your kayak with your bicycle? Here’s how.
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Day 33: A bit of a Kwajalein tour
Our first island tour started with, “So this is the lagoon side … ” A few minutes later, we had driven a short arc around some houses, and our guide said, “There’s the ocean.” Let’s start our tour there.
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We’re ready: Sign up today for Postcards from Kwaj!
The house in unpacked, I’ve hung all my pictures on the wall, and we’re pretty well settled into our new house on Kwajalein. So what that really means for you is: I’m ready to send some postcards.
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Day 17: Snorkeling in a Kwajalein tide pool, or: What it’s like to swim in an aquarium
When I first started telling people I would be moving to Kwajalein, I never knew what reactions to expect. I got a lot of “That sounds great for you, but we’ll really miss you.” But one response from a computational biologist stands out in my mind: “Why would you move there? There can’t be very much species diversity, right?”
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Day 12: Make new friends but keep the old
When we moved to Kwajalein, my greatest fear for Nora was that she would retreat back into herself. Making friends is chancy. It takes reaching out, extending yourself out into the world, risking rejection. To our great delight, Nora began making new friends before we even made it to the island.
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Day 9: A Kwajalein Top 5 List – Bikes are best
I’m pretty excited about my two-wheeled transportation on Kwajalein. Bicycles are the superior mode of getting from point A to point B, and here’s why.
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Coming soon: Postcards from Kwaj
While we were in Honolulu in July 2018, I send out nearly 30 postcards to family and friends, some of whom we haven’t seen in years. No worries, I’m planning to send more messages from Kwaj!
Complete a Google form to sign up to receive an email when I’m ready to start sending postcards.
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Day 5: On the color of sunrise through my window
On my first Kwaj morning, I was padding barefoot around a still-unfamiliar house making coffee when I saw a pink glow through my dining room window. It was the beginning of a sunset, and the tiny slice I could see through the palm trees looked glorious. I grabbed my sandals and walked toward the glow and down to the beach along the ocean.
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Day 1: Island bound, in search of a big life
We had been looking at photos of Kwajalein Atoll for six months, so when the airplane approached the runway, I recognized the features my family and I had been zooming in with Google Earth to see: the characteristic U-shape of the island, the square tide pools dug by the Japanese in World War II, dome homes, coconut palm trees.
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Small Island, Big Life 