Preschoolers, pets, pancakes and more!

I got a Photobucket account which I am going to put all of my pictures. I still might post a few in my actual blog but I need to find a faster internet connection! Java Joe's internet cafe place by the laundromat isn't the fastest connection ever :) Right now I am still working on setting it up so I'm afraid I don't have it yet, hopefully soon...

So school is pretty much in full swing. On my first day, I was in the classroom getting myself all psyched up for the day and the first kid walks in with her parents. She takes one look around the classroom and me and she bursts out crying. I was like oh man, I hope this isn't a bad sign about the rest of the year! But it wasn't so bad. The first few days I was kind of frustrated because I didn't feel like I knew what was going on and I wished that the school was more structured. Now it is going better, since the staff is getting to know each other better and the routine is kind of settling down. We are still in the process of making lots of changes though. One thing is for sure though-I love my kids! They are loud and obnoxious and distractible but they are also adorable and sweet. I have a total of 14 kids but they aren't all there at the same time-they come and go throughout the day, though most of them are there for the morning. Most of my kids are Korean or Japanese-some of them barely speak any English, which is challenging. The third day of school, my Japanese kids taught me how to count to ten in Japanese :) My kids are cute and stuff but I think that most of them are used to getting their own way at home and not being told what to do. Also they like to pretend that they can't understand me so that they don't have to do whatever it is that I'm telling them to do. One thing that is challenging about my job is the long day-I am teaching/watching kids/cleaning my classroom from 7:30am to about 5:45pm. I don't really have time to do anything after work because it gets dark at about 6. Overall though I am really happy and I love my job. At first I wasn't exactly thrilled about my rooming situation but now it's going really well. We have some new members of the 'family'-I found three kittens behind the preschool! They were sitting there in the rain and they were in pretty bad shape. But now they are doing great. I still don't know what we are going to do with them because our apartment is definately not big enough for two people and three cats. We'll just see what happens.

Random Trivia of My Life
-I start the day with either banana pancakes, apple pancakes, or mango pancakes. EVERY day.
-Asian kids are SO cute!
-I love the warm water here!
-You CAN get used to being nasty and sweaty all the time.
-When in doubt, get out the play dough.
-One word: SUNSCREEN (ouch)
-I am one of the only people around that has blue eyes.
-Air conditioning is one of the best inventions ever.
-Shell hunting is addicting.

Saipanism of the Day
air con- air conditioning

Pictures!

So I still don't have internet or a phone at my apartment so this is the first time in about a week that I can be connected to the world! Today is laundry day so we hauled all of our stuff to the laundry place which is conveniently located next to an internet coffee shop type place. This week we have been having meetings and fixing up our classrooms. I can't believe school starts tomorrow! My classroom is all set up but I feel kind of unprepared! But I'm not the head teacher so I guess I didn't really have to make the 'lesson plans' (yes they have those even for preschool). On Tuesday evening I came out of my apartment to discover that the back windshield of our car was totally shattered. The police came and everything (I guess they don't have anything better to do). But it was a pain because we were without a car all week. Yesterday was kind of exciting. I did special music for Sabbath School. It was the first I'd every really sang and played the guitar at the same time so it was...interesting. But oh well. Then after church we had a potluck at the Maycocks' house. Then after that we went on a tour of the island. The five of us new people sat in the back of a pickup truck. It was so much fun! We saw some really cool stuff. Last night it was the school board chairman's (I think) birthday so he had a party at his house with karaoke. It was super fun. I need to start writing my blogs even when I don't have internet so that I can remember everything, because now I can't remember what other things happened this week!

You may notice that this blog is entitled "Pictures." Well as much as I would like to put up pictures, the internet here is super slow and I only have a few more minutes of free internet left so I have to disconnect but I swear I will put up pictures soon!

I'm Here!!!!!

Happy Sabbath! Although it is almost over for me, it's just starting for you mainlanders :). I will try to fill you in on the last few days. We had a 3-day orientation in Hawaii for all of the student missionaries going to Micronesia and neighboring islands. On Wed. myself and four other girls flew from Honolulu to Guam which took about 7 and 1/2 hours and then from Guam to Saipan which took about 20 minutes (I'm pretty sure that is the shortest flight I have ever been on!). When we got out of the airport that evening, there was a big group of people with a sign and everything to welcome us. I was really surprised! That night I moved into a very tiny apartment, but it is worth it because it is right on the beach!
Yesterday was very busy-we visited the school, we had to go to the DMV-type place to get our Saipan drivers' licenses, to the clinic to get our health clearances (required for teachers), to the bank to open accounts, and to shop for groceries and other things. This managed to take up pretty much the whole day. Last night we had dinner at my principal's house which was fun. The whole staff of the school was there. This morning some of the teachers took us up to Banzai cliff at 4:30am to watch the sun rise. It was cloudy so we could really see much but it was still fun. When I got back to my apartment, we still had a few hours before church so my roommate and I went snorkeling (we saw a bat ray it was awesome). The church here is (obviously) really small but the people are really friendly and welcoming. The church has lots of kids in it and they are so cute and fun. We had a potluck afterward and there was lots of yummy Asian food mmmmm. It has been raining on and off all day. Right now I am at the house of some of the SMs. My apartment doesn't have internet or even a phone yet but hopefully it will get set up soon. So anyway what I can say so far is that it is a major adjustment but I can see that I will really like it here once I get used to it. Wish me luck as I get ready to start teaching next week!