Much has changed since last I wrote...

So about halfway through January, things started to happen. I don't really know how to explain it but multiple factors were involved and there was drama, and I often found myself stuck in the middle. January 22 I came home from work and my wonderful roommate Eva told me that she was really having a tough time here and that she would probably be leaving. I was of course very shocked and saddened by this news, but she said she would probably still be here for a few weeks. Missy and Amy and I were planning to do special music for church the next day, so after I composed myself I went and knocked on their door to see when they wanted to practice. Missy silently opened the door and pulled me inside. Then she told me that she would be returning home the next Tuesday. Wow. Ouch. Double hit. I totally lost it. My poor eyes.

Anyway that was the start of a very tough but meaningful weekend. We went to church (but we didn't do special music since all three of us were feeling quite emotionally fragile), and then afterwards Amy, Missy, Bev, John and I went to Capricciosa's for lunch. The best part was taking the youth on a hike to Forbidden. It was so much fun! We went to this little underground pool/cave thing and it was so awesome! I couldn't believe I had never been in there before, it was incredible. Here are a few pictures from the hike (there aren't very many because I was too busy having fun to take pictures).

We ended our excursion by having a sunset devotional on Mt. Topachau (I'm still not sure how to spell that), and Missy individually told all the kids that she was leaving. Oh man. Sad.

Afterwards, I went out to crepes with Mai, Jess, Judith, and the Piersons. It was really good because it made me realize that even though 2 of the people with whom I shared much of my life with were leaving, it would be ok because they would all still be here.

Thanks friends!

On Sunday we went diving for the last time all together at Lao Lao. It was a good time as always. Monday was sad knowing that Missy was leaving the next day, and on Tuesday I woke up at 3am to say goodbye. :(

Written like halfway through January...

I used to blog every week back when nothing really was going on, but now I am too busy doing fun and interesting things to write about them! But I’ll try to at least record a brief report of the past month of my life

The preschool put on a mini-musical called ‘The Littlest Christmas Tree.’ It was so adorable! The kids looked so cute in their costumes (which included bunnies, deer, birds, and trees) and they sang so well (for 2-4 year olds anyway)! The elementary school’s production was also really well done, it was a great program overall!

We got 2 new ESL teachers from the Phillipines, Antonee and Girlie. Our school does a ‘winter ESL’ program and a lot of students come from Korea for a few months to attend. It

I went to Pohnpei for Christmas break. It was so awesome to see you Katie! I had an awesome time riding in the back of the truck, hiking/climbing, carving ivorynut, diving/riding in the boat and just hanging out at the compound. It went way too fast of course, and I was sad to leave.

But I was super excited because my family came to visit me! They got here a day after I got back. Words cannot describe how incredibly fun it was to have them here, so maybe these pictures can do better.

This week I lucked out and didn’t end up going back to work until Wednesday. So on Monday I cleaned up the disaster that was my apartment and on Tuesday Missy and I spent the day relaxing at the spa. Afterward, the preschool staff had our meeting at Taco Bell, which was a good time! It was actually kind of nice to go back to work. I missed my kids! Another fun thing that happened on Wednesday was that my wonderful neighbors Missy and Amy hosted a fondue party (mmmm…..) and we watched Chocolat.

On Friday, Amy and I went snorkeling and we saw an eagle ray!

Saturday after church we had a potluck to welcome our newest teacher, Cornell. He’s an older Australian gentleman and he’s taught on a bunch of different islands, he’s a cool guy.

Sunday was our school’s Walk-A-Thon. We are trying to raise money for a new school building.

Right now in my class we are talking about plants, so it’s really fun coming up with activities for that. We are watching our beans sprouting (in plastic bags taped to the window, but hey, they still think it’s cool) and learning the names and functions of the basic parts of a plant. I brought in a coconut sapling (isn’t that what you call baby trees? It doesn’t sound quite right in this context but oh well). You know, the ones that are sprouting right out of the coconut. My kids thought it was the coolest thing ever. You’d think they’d never seen a palm tree before or something. That’s what I love about kids- they are so enthusiastic even about seemingly ordinary things.
Last night was the preschool’s Family Night. We had it at Kilili Beach park. There was a pretty good turnout. We had a potluck and played games. I think the kids had a lot of fun, we had a bounce house and we were also right next to the playground.

I am halfway done with the school year! I don’t know whether to feel happy or sad. I have to admit, I’m a little on the sad side. I mean, it will be nice to live near my family and friends again, but I’m going to miss my Saipan family/friends so much! I don’t want to think about it. I am just going to try to make the most of each moment I have left here. I hope it doesn’t go to fast, but usually the last half of things tends to go faster than the first half. I guess the first half has gone kind of fast, but it also feels like I’ve been here forever. I don’t know how that works but whatever.

Plus, I feel like when I finally get the hang of being a teacher, the school year will be over…

December (so far)

It's December! It totally does NOT feel Christmasy around here. I feel like it's permanently summer. They try though-stores have out their lights and Christmas decorations. It feels like a joke to me. Don't get me wrong, I am super excited about Christmas too-I am having my students make all sorts of Christmas decorations and stuff too, it's fun.



The student that I consider the most challenging moved to California. Even though the classroom is more peaceful without her, I was sad to see her go because we had invested so much time and effort into teaching her. I hope that she will continue being guided in behaving appropriately because if she is not, she is going to have major problems as she gets older. One of the kids at school got lice, so we had to check all the kids' heads. We didn't find any cases that day, but the worst was to come...



December 1 was the school's talent show and I have to say it was the funniest, cutest talent show I've ever seen, with the talents ranging from jump-roping to poetry to Tae Kwon Do to somersaults. Me and Ana were one of the 2 musical acts, we did a uke/guitar version of a Norah Jones song.



The next day, Missy and I went diving with Ken and Crystal and Mark and Tammi to Obyan, and it was amazing! The visibility was awesome and there was so much to see. We even saw a pretty big octupus! So the day started out awesome, but it quickly took a turn for the worst when, after diving, I discovered that I had become the new host for the little creatures that my students brought to school with them in their hair. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!! I was having a minor meltdown when Eva came home. I was afraid she might get freaked out, but she just whipped out the lice removing kit that she had so intelligently brought from home. After I used it I washed every fabric thing in our apartment and bleached the heck out of the rest of it. So that was an interesting experience that I would not care to have again. I haven't worn my hair down to school since then!



So even though the month started out with some not-so-greatness, it's been going pretty well. Especially since I get to go to Pohnpei next week, and then my family comes! Yay!

Saipanism of the Day
ever since: 'a long time' or 'since forever' or something
For example our car is so old...it's been around ever since. (A true statement, I'm afraid.)

Part II

Here are the notes I jotted (is jotted a word? Hmmmm....)down last week about what I wanted to write in my blog. I will try to fill them in...

Missy brought me a sweet hat from the Phillipines.

The disappointment of Taco Bell-So, the sign said 'open' but really just KFC is open, not Taco Bell. And they wouldn't even sell me just plain biscuits, those bums.

Movie Night-I went to dinner with Judith, Mai, and Jessica and then we watched 'You've Got Mail' at the compound, it was a good time, yay chick flicks

The Beach Cleanup-There is this group here called Beautify CNMI and they do things like picking up trash and stuff. Last Sunday they did a beach/underwater cleanup and so I got to dive, yay! Except it was only like 10 feet deep and the water was really gross.

A Most Unusual Prize-The people in charge of the beach cleanup had hidden golf balls around the cleanup site and if you found one you got a prize. I found one, and guess what I won-a $25 gift certificate to a pharmacy! Try not to be too jealous.

Amy and Missy's Sweet Deal-My lovely neighbors and friends were planning to go to China for Thanksgiving, but the couldn't get their visas in time. They decided to go to Tokyo instead. They were supposed to leave on Wednesday but their flight was overbooked. They got a free night at the Hyatt as well as a free flight to Tokyo the next morning. As if this weren't enough, they also get an additional free flight anywhere in the Asia/Pacific region. I hung out with them at their hotel for awhile, and it was super touristy and beautiful. It's an aspect of the island that I don't really see every day, so it was fun. I also got to take a bath in their bathtub while they were at dinner!

The Turkey Trot-Where were you at 5:30am Thanksgiving morning? Well, call me crazy, but I was getting ready to embark on a 4-plus mile all-uphill run (well it ended up being more of a walk-jog for me). I was so nervous-I've never run more than about 2 miles at a time before in my life! I didn't train or anything. I thought I was going to die, but it didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought. I mean, I definately didn't run the whole way, but I made it to the top alive, and that was all I wanted. It also helped me not feel guilty about eating as much as I wanted at Thanksgiving dinner!

Thanksgiving-This was my first Thanksgiving away from my family. Although I did miss them, I had a great holiday with wonderful people here. The food was of course amazing, and I found out that I actually can cook if I have to. The company was the best-I am so lucky to be here with all these awesome people! I enjoyed my Friday off of work by going to the beach for some R and R as well as the three S's-snorkeling, sunbathing and shell hunting. Yay vacation!

I can't wait to go to Pohnpei for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

Part I of II

Blogapalooza November 15, 2007

This is another one of those crazy blogs that has been written over a period of like 2 weeks.
Nov. 15
So…not that much has happened since Friday really but let’s see if I can remember. There were a few things that I was like ‘man I need to write about that in my blog’ but of course I can’t remember them right now. On Saturday Missy, Virle and Barbara left for the Phillipines. On Saturday afternoon I ate lunch with the girls at the compound and I jammed with Peterson all afternoon, and then that night a bunch of students came over and we played Life, it was a good time. On Sunday we were going to go diving but the ocean was super rough so we didn’t go, it was sad. But I did go longboarding! I rode from the preschool down to Garapan. It was really funny because nobody here at all skateboards here (let alone people my age), so everyone was looking at me. Here, people give you a second glance anyway if you’re white, and I guess it’s not every day they see a white chick skateboarding down the road. Well anyway it was a pretty long way and it was of course really hot, so when I got to Garapan I was like all sweaty and I went into a deli to get something cold to drink and the lady was like “Is it raining?” and I was like “No, I’m just really sweaty” it was funny. After I finished my drink (and dried off a bit) I went into a store and I ran into Eva and Veronyka, so I was able to catch a ride with them instead of riding all the way back.

Nov 19
Today I almost burned down the school. Well not really but it sounds exciting doesn’t it. My class went on a field trip to the elementary school to make cook. They each made their own little pizza. They loved mixing the dough and rolling out the crusts, I think they love anything where they can make a mess! The oven at the elementary school must have been dirty before we even came, because it started smoking when I was preheating it. Anyway, so when I was checking on the pizzas the last time, I opened the oven door and it was like WHOOSH and the bottom of the oven was in flames. Luckily all my kids were outside on the playground but I was kind of freaked out, especially because the fire extinguisher was gone from its place in the kitchen. But the fire went out on its own before I could finally find it. Anyway, it was kind of exciting. And yes, the pizzas were a bit crispy but the kids ate them anyway.

Let’s see, what else has happened that I want to write about…Amy and I have had some adventures this week. The first one was that our car ran out of gas and we had to push it to the gas station. Luckily the gas station happened to be next door to the place where we ran out of gas. On Wed. we went to PIC and we talked to this really hot Korean lifeguard. On Saturday we did special music for church.

One sad thing that happened is that on Thursday Peterson left for the States. He might be coming back in a few months, but still, that’s far away.But wait, there’s more….I just don’t have time to write it right now because I need to go put my laundry in the dryer, I’ll post the rest later…

So it's been a while...

...since my last update. The meetings in Kagman went really well. For the first few nights, we were outside under a little tent, but then this store across the street cleared out a huge space for us in their store, so we had the rest of the meetings there. It was super awesome of them! At first, not a lot of kids showed up, but as the weeks went on, more and more started coming. They were so much fun! I loved leading out the song service, they were so enthusiastic. I enjoyed hanging out with kids older than 4. Don't get me wrong, I love my students, but it's just different, you can't really have an intelligent conversation with them (or even really a conversation, they won't stay in one place long enough :) ). Anyway, we kind of made friends with the store owners and of course with the kids. It was really exhausting though. I would get home at like 5:20 and we would leave for Kagman at just before 6. The meetings supposedly got over at 8 but it never really happened so we got home at like 9:30 every night. Even so, I was kind of sad when they ended because the kids were so cute and fun. The second to last night, they were all giving us hugs and stuff and they were running after our car as we were leaving! It was really a blessing to be able to create a relationship with those kids. Actually the Kagman meetings were extended for a week but we decided not to continue the kids program because we were absolutely exhausted. I feel kind of bad but I guess that we are going to have a Sabbath school type thing/party/game time once a month to follow up, so hopefully I get to see them all again.

The Sunday before Halloween I was super excited because Missy and I were going to be in an underwater pumpkin-carving contest, but then I got sick so I couldn't go, I was so bummed.
Other random fun things: running, snorkeling, cooking, shopping, playing with my kids, laughing, it's all good

Saipanism of the Day:
No, those red spots you see all over the street are not rust stains...it's the result of half the island chewing betelnut and spitting it out their car window. Yeah, kinda gross.