Friday morning got a ride in with Christine again, the lady who works in the office with the Coral Reef Association. Was having a great day with my students. My juniors took their quizes (which, I'm honestly onto a lot of them for cheating, mind you), and then we had a little Samoan-Spanish lesson. They taught me some Samoan, and I reciprocated by teaching them Spanish. I learned the Samoan word for respect has too many a's. haha. fa'aaloaloa.
Lunch time before I knew it, and Josh (one of my fellow volunteers at our school) asked how my day was. I said great, but I still had 6th period to go - my troublemakers this week. Low and behold, I ended up sending having the VP com and take two of the boys from my class. My first students sent to the office. About that time I suppose after being in school for 6 weeks. I was frustrated at first, but then let it go and proceeded with our language lesson and had a good time with the students that were left. They struggled a bit with the double r in "perro" meaning dog. Gotta roll that tongue.
Got to chat with my parents a bit before heading home (and I may have vented to my mom a bit about 6th period). haha Walked to the main road before getting a bus, and then kept telling myself I didn't need to exercise today. Sat down and started working on my computer, but then I realized I still had all night so I better just workout. No reason not to, so I did it. Yep, I can be motivated. Didn't really do much else. I watched a movie and fell asleep rather early for a Friday night, any night actually. haha. Woke up, did my laundry, and then headed to Nu'uuli with Hannah. We had some breakfast at the Koko Bean. I had a delightful iced hazelnut chai latte, and we shared a plate of delicious fruit!
Got myself a new sweat towel - pretty proud of my new Looney Tunes towel. Yeah :) I had been using a tank top at school for this purpose up until now.
Then, we took the bus to Leone where we walked around a while, just admiring a different village. At first we thought about heading farther West, but then it had been rainy so decided not to venture too far.
Took a bus back, got off, and grabbed some lunch at this food stand that sells some barbeque that we see cooking every morning. Whole lot of food for $5, and we just split one meal. More than enough for the two of us, we couldn't finish it all. It was a bunch of rice with a hot dog, a turkey tail, and a piece of chicken. Meat out the wazoo. haha. Didn't wear my watch again this Saturday (done that a few times before, and it's a bit liberating to not think about what time it is.
Crossed the street and picked up some little yellow bananas. $1, and we were rather excited about this purchase. We walked into Tafuna from there to stop at Cost U Less for a bottle of wine (had a little girl night planned), walked for a while, and then got a ride back to the main road. Grabbed some ice cream, and then caught a bus back home.
So, I decided we should dress up a bit for our sophisticated evening with wine and discussion. I had done this a few times with my friends back at school. It's fun to dress up :) This is Hannah, Melanie, and me. I made us some Easy Mac for dinner as we shared our wine and had some good chats. Then, we ended up going dancing with the group. We kept it pretty simple today, the first Saturday in a while where we didn't go on some seemingly big adventure.
Woke up Sunday morning and headed to church, to find one of the air conditioners - the one up where I sit - not working. I was sweating, and all of a sudden someone from behind offered me their little hand fan. One you wave. It was a nice gesture from Miss Flo. Must have seen me wiping my brow. haha It is starting to get warmer here. All my friends and family back home have officially began fall, and it's doing the opposite here. Weird to think that it's not going to get cold. Also, funny story. The guy who usually drives the van - Richard - we oddly had similar outfits on today. He noticed it first, "Jess, we sort of match today." haha Both had a black skirt and a purple shirt on. Different purples, but it was still funny. What are the odds? haha. Miss Heidi, who plays the piano, asked me before she left if I sing. Well, yeah I sing. Not necessarily the greatest, but yes I like singing. She wondered if I would want to do a special song some time, maybe with Richard. At this church, you have the youth, you have us few people in our 20s, then you have your parents. That's about it. Guess we'll see if this singing thing materializes. I've done that sort of thing before, so I'm open to it. Richard joked later that we could wear our purple and black outfits. Most definitely. haha Interesting start to my day and worth mentioning these random little things.
After lunch a group of us headed for Airport Beach. Nice little walk to it along some giant lava rocks, where water is just crashing up against it, under it, and shooting out like geysers. Pretty cool. I'll have to go back with my camera. I was very minimalist in what I took with me on this little outing. A bunch were looking forward to some snorkeling, but snorkeling isn't really my thing. I tried for a while, but then just decided to sit on the beach, enjoy the view, and just ponder. I stood with my feet in the water for a while, and I find this little rock that was washed in with the tide. How cool is that? Made me smile. Someone sent me some love from who knows where. This is about the size of a ring you would wear on your finger, and this is not paint. It's seriously a red heart shape on this rock. Was nice to just sit there and get lost in thought for a while. Like I said pretty chill weekend (as in relaxing).
I was rather ready for bed though immediately after eating. I was about ready to fall asleep as I was sitting in the chair on their porch and then again on the floor in their living room before we ate. Ate my slice of pizza, walked down the hill, crawled into bed, and I was out.
Monday morning we got a ride in with Junior and his dad. Tried something new in my Junior classes today. After our little writing project for the day (part of my routine), we looked at photos from the Astronomy Picture of the Day website I've been checking every day, discussed what we saw, and read the captions understanding what was going on. Some students attentively joined in discussion, asked questions, and made comments. I'd say about half my students in three of my classes zoned out, looked like they were falling asleep, or downright just weren't paying attention anymore. Probably can't utilize this tactic for more than 15-20 minutes on any given day, but I do enjoy doing it. I was so excited when a few students started asking questions based on what they saw. This is what I hope to instill in them - be curious about the world around you. Make your brains think. Thinking and learning are two wonderful things that I partake in every single day.
Started a unit on Mollusks today in Marine Science. The plan is to have the students put together group presentations on the different mollusks. Wish me luck. Not sure how it's going to pan out but going to give it a shot. I had to sub during my prep period today. There really is no such thing as a substitute teacher here like we are used to. Someone's gone, that means the rest of the teachers in that department lose their prep periods to basically "babysit" the class. Not the most exciting thing to find out during my lunch period that I have to sub a few periods from now. Oh well, gotta do it. I usually give them a little activity to do, and then they have time to work on other homework. Also had shortened class periods, as there was pep rally practice after 2nd period. Yeah, pep rally practice. Big pep rally coming up this Friday. All the classes met separately (freshmen, sophomore...) I could hear them practicing their chants from my classroom. Oh boy, should be interesting on Friday. This practice business for the entire school is new for me. Cultural difference but intriguing.
Got to Skype with some of my best friends back in Nebraska - Sarah, Cassie, Kyle, and Jessie for a bit. It was Cassie's birthday today (Monday). Nice to see them all, then my brother catches me on Skype and we chat for a bit, too. Nice way to end a good day at school that went by rather quickly before heading home and exercising. As I was waiting at the bus stop, two full buses went by, and then after waiting maybe 20 minutes, one of my neighbors came by (also related to the landlords), and picked me up. He and his wife had also given Hannah and I a ride to Nu'uuli on Saturday. Finally, a few of us girls even watched the new episode of How I Met Your Mother tonight.
That bad 6th period experience on Friday seems like a long time ago now, and I knew it would all be okay. I forgot to mention that one of the boys came back to my room after school on Friday and apologized. All like family. They were both really good today, too. Roll with the punches. I'm usually pretty good at it, just had my moment on Friday. Was bound to happen eventually. Time to stretch and go to bed. Hope you all have a great week. I'm trying to keep up with posting twice a week now. Manuia le aso. (Have a good day.)
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