As well as being the 9th (geographically) largest country in the world, Kazakhstan is also the largest land-locked country in the world. Sam and I know several people, natives of Central Asia, who have never seen the ocean. Can you imagine? Seriously, can you?

The photo above was obviously not taken in Kazakhstan, but 70 km off the coast of Australia, bobbing above the Great Barrier Reef. It’s been exactly one year since Sam and I vacationed in Australia—the SCUBA portion being the obvious highlight.

In this photo, I have just entered the water, camera in hand. Several of our fellow divers prepare to jump off the back of our dive boat and “ocean hotel”. My and Sam’s dive master can be seen on the right edge of the photo holding an empty plastic water bottle which he used during our dives to attract sharks. Yup, you read that correctly. Squeezing on the sealed bottle while underwater creates a sound very much like what a tropical fish makes when in distress, which might mean a meal for a hungry shark. (BTW: It works.)

Speaking of sharks, a portion of our conversation at dinner last night alighted on America’s recent obsession with Katy Perry’s Left Shark. At our table of twelve (all young, educated, in-touch individuals), there were at least three who had never heard of this phenomenon, and another two who had only gotten around to watching the YouTube videos that same afternoon.

Can you imagine? Seriously, can you?