Vacation Chronicles!!!!

As nearly a month has pasted since my last post I have a plethora of adventures to recount for your reading pleasure. The first few weeks of December pasted in a blurred frenzy of attempting to wrap up the quarter, practice for the Christmas program, and plan/attend Christmas parties. It was a lot of fun and very very busy!! The Christmas program went well, my kids sang “Angels we have heard on high” and looked adorable dressed in white. The class Christmas party and secret santa gift exchange went off without a hitch and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Immediately following the party we drove to the airport to pick up Ross. It was so great to finally see him again! Riki flew in from Saipan a few days later. It was great to see you Rik!!! We all had a really fun time touring the island. During vacation we camped at Black Coral and went diving twice. We also visited the ancient ruins at Nan Madol, which was fun. We went on the 6 waterfalls hike. Yes, you really see six waterfalls along the way. It’s a great hike, swimming around in the waterfall basins, hiking in the river and through the jungle. We even found a few ginger water balloon flowers (no idea what they are actually called) to throw at each other. One of the waterfalls had a sweet cave behind it too! We visited Twin Falls and also climbed Sokehs Rock. One day we drove around the whole island and also climbed Chicken Poop mountain (yes, it’s really called that). On Christmas day we attended a local party. New Year’s Eve we went to a concert at the Kitti Church and spent a good share of time driving around Kolonia throwing candy to kids and yelling “Happy New Year” to everyone who was out and about. We got soaked with hoses and water balloons too! It was a great vacation and went slow enough to be enjoyed too. I missed being with my family over Christmas, but it was great to be with some of my best friends and be able to show them around this beautiful island. During break there was also the high school b-ball tournament. Since I’m the assistant coach for girl’s varsity I went to some games which was super fun too. We even had a coaches vs. officials game during the last day, which was a lot of fun.

I can’t say it ever really felt like Christmas much to me, but that’s ok, the vacation was very welcome. Thanks to all of you who sent me Christmas presents and cards, I appreciate it! Well, school is starting back up again and it’s back to work! The school year is half over, I can’t believe it! Happy New Year!

Things I’ve Learned:

1. I have amazing friends and family (ok, so I already knew that)

2. Playing should always follow hard work

3. I can bake bread, but still not slice it evenly

Sokehs and Weekend Newsy News

Yesterday we climbed Sokehs rock again. The view from the top is phenomenal. We went to church in Kitti instead of Kolonia because we were supposed to have SM Sabbath there the past 2 weeks but we were doing SM Sabbaths at Kolonia both those weeks. This past week went fairly well. My kids brought in decorations and we decked out the classroom with lights, ceiling hangings and tinsel. It looks really cute. During handwriting and math time we've been listening to Christmas music. I like the music and as an added bonus it keeps the kids quieter. It was a hot week and Mr. B was in Guam. The school really felt his absence. We were glad to have him back on Friday. His birthday was last week while he was gone so we had a surprise party for him last night instead. It was a lot of fun. I like the times when everyone can just hang out and not worry about all the things we have to do for the next week. Tomorrow begins the last full week before Christmas break. The Christmas program is a week from Wednesday and I think it'll be really good. My kids are singing "Angels We Have Heard on High". It's hard to believe that the school year is nearly half over. I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing as a teacher to be honest. I have learned a lot though, especially about kids.
Well I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas season. Those of you in school, good luck with those finals!
Things I've learned in Pohnpei:
1. getting mail is in the top ten most exciting things in the world
2. riding INSIDE a car with a seatbelt is overrated

Thanksgiving and other Randomness

So maybe this is a bit late for Thanksgiving, but hey, life is busy. Last Thursday night we had a big huge feast with all the SMs, the Benjamins, and some of the locals as well. I’ve never seen so much food in all my life. It was delicious and a lot of fun too! We sat around and chatted after the preliminary stuffing of ourselves. I missed having Thanksgiving with the family, but I had a good time here too. Last Sat. we had SM Sabbath and it went really well. We had a big potluck after church and then just lazed around the rest of the day because it was raining too hard to go hiking. The big excitement for the week was that we decorated our apartment for Christmas and consequently busted out the Christmas tunes! Nothing like a little bit of Kenny G and Jackson 5 Christmas to bring the spirit of the holidays. It’s hard to believe that Christmas is so soon! I’m looking forward to seeing Riki and Ross and having some time to play and relax! School really saps you of all energy. Just keeping up with my 3^rd graders is a full time job, and then I have to try to teach them something on top of that! We made snowman, candy cane, and Christmas tree nametags on Friday. They were asking me what sledding was like and how you could ice skate on a pond without falling through the ice. I realized that I have experienced so much in my young life. Although being here I admit makes me feel ancient. I am over twice as old as the people I spend the majority of my time with, trust me, it can make you feel old in a hurry. Well I hope your Thanksgivings were delicious and enjoyable!

Things I've learned in Pohnpei:
1. ants will get into your food, nothing can stop them, they have the force.
2. Being willing to do something is more important than being good at it.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Contrary to the song, made popular by the Carpenters, neither the rain nor Monday was depressing to me. Monday was a holiday so there wasn’t any school, and the nearly constant rain this week I rather enjoyed. For one, it’s been very cool outside, and secondly, I enjoy falling asleep to the rain. This week was a good one. We had varsity practice and also went to a meeting to discuss the upcoming b-ball tournament yesterday. I think our team can do well if we practice hard. The tournament is during Christmas break, it should be a lot of fun. My class is doing pretty good, this week they were really into making paper spiders by tracing their fingers. I have to admit they are kind of cute, I have a few hanging in my classroom. I went to Kapinga Village on Wednesday to help with the Band-Aid clinic. I haven’t gone in several weeks and I missed it, so I tried to make some time to go. Hanging out with the kids is fun, they are so energetic and loving. To those of you that I promised bumpy black zories for Christmas, the search continues. Palm Terrace and the few other stores I’ve looked in don’t have them in stock right now, but hopefully they will soon!
Today I am especially thankful for the genius invention of the Sabbath. Nothing compares to the utter relaxation you experience knowing that you don’t need to be doing lesson plans, grading, cleaning the apartment, or various other activities. I love being able to just unwind from the week on Friday evening and look forward to Saturday too. Today after church we went to a waterfall following lunch. Since we’ve had so much rain recently the waterfall was HUGE! We have been to that same one before but last time it was quite a bit smaller, just lightly cascading down the rocks. This time it was pouring over the edge. The current was really strong up next to it. It was so much fun to swim around and hang out.

Things I’ve learned:

1. A hug from a student can melt away a lot of stress
2. There is nothing prettier than an ocean sunset
3. Bananas are a major food group

Insectopia aka Nah

The school fair was on Thursday of this week. Wednesday we spent a good share of the afternoon preparing for it. For the 3rd grade booth Maribel (the other 3rd grade teacher) and I hosted a game where you race ping pong balls down a pvc pipe by squirting them with water. It went well and we made quite a bit of money. The fair was a lot of fun, and also a lot of work. At the end I was so tired!!! Friday morning we packed for camping and headed out around noon. It was a long and fun boat ride and Nah, the island we went to, was beautiful. The sand was so fine and white and the water was clear. It was really awesome....until sundown. We were snorkeling around sunset so I didn't notice right away, but huge swarms of insects started coming out all over the place. Getting out of the water and getting changed meant getting eaten alive. Even standing directly in the smoke of the fire didn't help. These bugs aren't like mosquitoes where you can see them and swat at them, they are like microscopic and EVERYWHERE. After dark the insects went away a bit and I was ready for bed. We were sitting on the beach just chillin when the rain started, just a sprinkle, but I've been here long enough to know what that leads to. We all dove under the tarp before the deluge hit. So much for sleeping in my hammock. I rescued my food and 5 gallon bucket full of clothes/gear and settled in for one of the longest nights of my life. Despite the pouring rain, the relentless biting of the insects, and the palm branches poking me, I wasn't miserable, just not comfortable enough to sleep. I think mostly it was the bugs. I ended up wrapping myself with my sheet into a cocoon of sorts, which was much too hot, but necessary to ward off the insects. After tossing and turning and listening to the rain for most of the night I finally slept for a few hours. At dawn 2 boatloads of itchy, wet, miserable people loaded up and drove off. I wanted to stay until the second load because, hey I'd survived the night, I might as well stay the day and enjoy the beach, so why not? Those of us that stayed walked part way around the rather large island. We saw eels hunting for fish in the low tide, which is really awesome to watch by the way. In the midst of this show another rainstorm hit. We tried to find cover under a tree, but to no avail, we were soaked to the bone in a matter of minutes. Hiking back was fun though, there is nothing like trudging through the jungle in the midst of a downpour. We got back to camp, waited out the storm under the tarp and then packed up and left. We finally arrived back at the school sometime mid afternoon. I slept a good share of the evening to try to make up for last night. It was an experience for sure, not one that I'm eager to repeat, but still fun to have experienced. School is just the same as always, we have our evaluations coming up pretty soon so that is something to be thinking about, but other than that we are just cruising into the middle of second quarter. I think midterms are coming up here in a week or two. Well that's about it for my weekend adventures. From reading my blogs you'd think my life is all about scuba diving and camping, but in reality those are the things I deem most worthy of writing about. I suppose hearing that I eat PB&J everyday for lunch or that I had to kill world's biggest spider in my room one morning, or that the ship brought oats last week is equally exciting though. In conclusion, I'm itchy and I miss you all, but life is good. It's November already which means that Dec will be here soon which means that I get to see Ross and Riki!!! I'm excited, and itchy.

Finally November

This week was another short one. Apparently November is full of short weeks. I’m looking forward to it. This week started out rough and continued much the same. I’m glad we had Friday off, I think I might have gone crazy otherwise. On Halloween a bunch of my kids came to the apartment for trick-or-treating. They were cute in their costumes. On my day off I mostly read and sat around, it was relaxing. We also went out to The Village with everyone for breakfast. That was fun to just chill and hang out with all the SMs. I don’t get to see the high school teachers much during the week. Today we played ultimate frisbee for a while and I took a nice long nap. The annoying thing about napping here is that I always feel ants crawling on me so I wake up to slap them all. Last week I got a package from WWU with a bunch of notes from old friends and stuff, it was fun to read those! I’m glad it is finally November. October was one of those months that just seemed to never end. This week is the school fair, similar to the fall festival at home. Our class is hosting some ping pong ball race. It should be a good time even if it is a lot of work. Last week when we had Wednesday off I tried my hand at break making for the first time. I’m quite pleased with the results if I do say so myself. I didn’t have all the right ingredients, but it turned out alright and it is a lot cheaper and healthier than buying pre-made loaves. Well, I’m off to see what fun there is to be had this evening!

I'd like to be, under the sea...

This weekend was a 3 day weekend because Friday was parent teacher conferences instead of school. I didn't have any angry parents or anything, so that was good. After conferences, we loaded up the boat and headed to Black Coral, an island not far from the main island. This one didn't have much sand and it was TINY, but very relaxing to get away from school and everything for a short while. We sat around all day Sabbath and snorkeled a bit in the channel near the island. This morning we went diving right by the island. I got to use my own BC this time which was nice, and I actually had weights too! I saw about 4 reef sharks (one of which was a baby, very cute) and a sea turtle for a fleeting second. It was down pretty deep and was moving fast so I didn't get a good look at it. Our dive was pretty long and fun, also uneventful, which is generally a good thing when talking about scuba diving. I'm not looking forward to school tomorrow because I'm really tired, but hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep and make up for this weekend. I slept on the hard wood floor of our hut the first night we were there because it was so hot that I was burning up in my hammock without any breeze. The 2nd night was much better as it was raining and windy. I hung my hammock from the low rafters of the hut and slept really good, but I'm still pretty tired from everything. Well, back to school tomorrow, we have Wednesday off because of U.N. day, which will be a nice break in the middle of the week. Our leaky shower got fixed this weekend as well, so now we don't have a permanent puddle on our bathroom floor anymore. So much to be thankful for if you really think about it. Sometimes it's hard to look on the positive side though. One quarter down, three to go!

Things I've learned in Pohnpei:
1. Teachers deserve the utmost respect, they work hard
2. Balance is key to happiness
3. Cabbage salad is salad nonetheless