School Picnic

Last Friday was our last elementary school picnic for the year. I have mixed feelings about the picnics. While I am there I thoroughly enjoy myself because my kids are infinitely more fun outside the classroom than in. I can play with them and enjoy them. However, planning the picnics is a lot of work. Finding parents to drive and supervise, sending out notes, collecting money, and the like. The day of the picnic dawned with pouring rain, and I mean POURING. I was a bit nervous about it, but low and behold, an hour later it was sunny and beautiful. My drivers all showed up and we transported the kids to Nihco Marine Park. The kids swam and eventually dragged me in after them. We played chicken fights and launched kids off our knees into the water for a while and then ate lunch. Right when we packed up and got in the cars it started pouring rain again. Good timing! It was a fun day.
I got another package from the Lawrences (you guys are the best!) and my students have been enjoying the new books, puzzles, and Bingo game. Last week they were kind of crazy and it was a rough week, so it was nice to end with the picnic. On Sunday a group of us hiked through the fields and jungle to a waterfall that we normally drive to. It was a few miles away and we didn't really have directions, but we found it without too much trouble. The water felt so good after the hike. I have become accustomed to the weather and the river water feels cold now though!!
Spring Break in 2 weeks and only 15 days until Mom comes!! Oh, the SDA church women's ministry group is doing a prayer vigil next weekend, if you have anything you would like me to add to my prayer list for my hour, let me know!

Things I've learned in Pohnpei:
1. warm showers are nice even when it's 80 degrees
2. don't take cereal for granted
3. fans are amazing inventions

V-day Banquet and Spirit Week

The last two weeks have been jam packed with activities and a lot of work too! Last week was Spirit Week, which made things interesting to say the least. I enjoyed seeing the kid's costumes everyday, but finding something to wear for each day was rather challenging given our limited wardrobe. Nonetheless, I never pass up an opportunity to wear a fabulous costume, so I managed to dress up most of the days. Pajama day found me wearing comfy pants and my spiderman pj shirt. Tuesday was career day. Since I didn't have scrubs or a dental hygiene mask I decided to dress up as a pro b-ball player. Hey, at least I got to wear pants for a day! Wednesday was weird day. My outfit was pretty exciting and my kids all laughed at me. Thursday was cultural day and Friday was class colors day. My kids voted to wear red so the playground was a blur of red during recess that day. To end off the exciting week was the much anticipated Valentine's Banquet put on by the Junior class. The banquet was held at Club Cupid on a hill above the school that offers a stunning view. It was gorgeous. The best part was getting all dressed up! We had fun taking pictures and getting ready together. The entertainment for the banquet consisted of students singing, break dancing, and a few numbers by some of the teachers as well. It was a fun relaxing evening.
This week has been kind of hectic for me. I have fallen rather ill in the past few days which makes teaching less than pleasant. A head cold can seem a thousand times worse when you have 20 little kids screaming in your ears and grabbing onto you all day long. This Friday is our school picnic and we will be going to the same swimming spot as last time. It's so much work to plan these things!!! I think it will be fun if I can get enough sleep and hopefully feel better by then. Another stress this week was sending out midterms. This means getting all caught up on grading and recording whilst trying to prod the lazy kids to turn in their work! It's practically the weekend though, or at least I keep telling myself that. Only 4 more weeks until Spring Break! I can't wait for mom to visit, we'll have a rockin good time!

Things I've learned in Pohnpei:
1. with enough hairspray my hair can stay curled, even in the humidity
2. Nyquil is my best friend, Vitamin C is a close 2nd
3. cereal and dried fruit = the value of gold

thus far in 2008

It's midterm time yet again. 3rd quarter is half over next week. The weeks have passed rather uneventfully this quarter, which is certainly not a bad thing. Let's see- Last weekend we hiked down to Sahwertik & Sahwerlap again. It's a fun hike especially with good company. A few weekends ago we hiked up Chicken Poop mountain. There was a crazy drunk guy yelling at us when we came down. The B's called the police and they came and took care of it. About 3 weeks ago I decided to brave the waves and go bodyboarding with the crazy surfer SMs. These waves are on steroids, I kid you not. They are HUGE. So it turns out I'm not terribly good at duck diving waves with a body board (where you dive through them as they are about to crash on top of you). I ended up being spun 3 times in a row in monster waves. I now know what my clothes feel like in the spin cycle. It's not a pleasant feeling, well, that and you can't breathe while being tossed about. It was an experience, that's for sure. I'm alive to tell the story and I amazingly didn't get cut on any coral either. I was lucky. Now I can check bodyboarding off my list of things to do....and not repeat.
We finally poisoned one of our resident rats. It chose to die right in front of our microwave on our counter. It was a gruesome death too. Gross. One down, who knows how many to go!
Only 5 weeks until Mom comes out to visit. I'm super lucky to have so many people come visit me. I can't wait to see you mom! Thanks to all of you that have sent me packages/cards in the mail, I appreciate it!

Things I've learned in Pohnpei:
1. Karaoke makes me happy
2. It is possible for time to go both fast and slow simultaneously