Friendly Weekend, Sweat Hazard, and a Little Theology

So I made a tiny batch of peanut butter no-bake cookies Thursday night for Pati, our bus driver in the morning. Just a little gift to say thanks for always waiting for us and being so nice. Then, he's not there Friday morning. Of course, the day I make the cookies we have to take the next Tafuna bus. There is regular #2, the red bus. Haha Guess I'm saving the cookies for Monday. They're more like sticky cookie balls this time.

Didn't really have prep to do on Friday, so Hannah and I got off at McDonald's, where I bought a small coffee for a $1, and she enjoyed a small Coke. We do this every now and then in the morning if we don't have much to do or don't feel like sitting in our classrooms for the 45 minutes before breakfast. We both are still early risers and like our blue bus with Pati, so that's why we still go when we do. Our roommates catch another bus about 25 minutes after we do, and he's started to wait for them, too. Pretty cool how that's been working out for all of us. Had a nice char discussing possible plans for the summer and next steps in life.

With the end of "Spirit Week" for Valentine's Day, an MTV showdown took place in the afternoon. Dropped 1.5 periods at the end of the school day. The seniors actually didn't win this time, and the junior class well deserved the title this time. Can't always let the seniors win just because they are seniors. It was ridiculous dancing on stage again, but mostly well choreographed. Entertaining surely, and the students are quite talented and creative.

Matane and a few other girls came into my room after the showdown to do some yoga with me. Before I knew it, we had been doing it for almost 40 minutes already. Nina called and said the Zumba class she was going to take me to was cancelled and wanted to know if I would like to join her at the gym for 30 minutes. I passed and got started on my Insanity workout for the day in my classroom before walking home, but we made plans to meet up to hang out Friday night. I told Matane Insanity was intense, and she started doing the warm-up, and she learned what it is I've been doing for the past 6 weeks. "You go girl," she said. haha Then, we walked to the bus and headed home together.

Showered up, Nina picked me up around 7:45 for our little girls' night, and the plans were to hop around a little and chill at a few different places while we chatted . We ran into a teacher from ASCC that Nina had taken a class with. He was very friendly, had some cool stories, chatted about James Bond a bit, and I ended up asking him if he would be interested in being a guest speaker some time in my classes. He said he would love to, and I now have his e-mail. I was quite excited about meeting somebody randomly like this, who would make a great guest speaker in the series Hannah and I have. I met some of Nina's other friends along the way, including the lady who made the canvases Hannah and I received for Christmas, and a few of our fellow Zumba goers were out, as well. One of them noted how it was interesting to see each other in regular clothes, not our workout clothes. haha

I had a good time with Nina (pretty much my Samaon cousin). It was fun to hang out with her again outside of her house and be out with a Samoan friend. Pretty sure I was the only palagi at the last place we visited, and when I usually go out there's at least 5 of us, so that was fun :-)

For Saturday morning Hannah and I had plans to enjoy a breakfast at Sualua's as we had not been there for about three weeks, and it's sort of our place. I ordered the short stack of pancakes with a side of fruit. A guy stopped at our table asking if we were WorldTeach, and we said yes. He said thank you for what we do. He was sitting with his wife at a nearby table, and after a while he chatte dus up a bit asking where we are from and such. He proceeded to say that he and his wife teach at Pava'ia'i Elementary School. They've wanted to get some WorldTeach in there. That reminded me that Hannah had met the principal of that school randomly once, and he mentioned how he tried to ask the DOE for some WorldTeach at his school, which has not been acted upon yet.

Anyways, when the couple got up to leave they stopped by our table, shook our hands, and said they paid for our breakfast. A thanking smile immediately appeared on my face. How nice of them. There are some really kind people out there, and this was so unexpected. I asked for their names- Taro and Sina. Maybe we will bump into them again. Random acts of kindess can make a person's day. Hannah and I proceeded t sit in the restaurant for a couple of hours enjoying our iced tea and chatting, chatting, chatting. That's what we do when we are Sualua's.

I took a little nap after my Insanity workout, watched an episode of the Big Bang Theory with Hannah, and then I came up with the idea to watch a movie and make some root beer floats. Hannah ended up choosing Grease, which went perfectly with our root beer floats. Yum. Can't even remember the last time I had one of those. Why did we not make them sooner? Probably because I try to avoid soda for the most part. haha Great movie choice, as well. We were singing along and making comments. Good girls' night with Grease, root beer floats, and our bums on a couch.

I had an interesting thought on Saturday. Well, actually this thought has come up before but kept forgetting to write it down. Many times when I workout my t-shirt and pants are drenched in sweat. If only I sweat pure water, then I'd have a nice little system going, catching my own "rain water". haha. Also, I find myself sliding around in my sweat some times when I do Insanity. Bit of a "sweat hazard". I wonder why Shaun T and his friends aren't sliding all over that gym floor? Is it because they are not exercising in Samoan humidity? Oh well, I'm careful and have a towel handy the whole time. These comments may gross some of you out, but I thought they were both entertaining. Pure water sweat and a sweating hazard. haha :) One of these days I'll stop talking about exercise so much.... maybe...

Got my double dose of church in on Sunday with relaxation in between. When Pastor asked us Sunday night if anyone had something to be thankful for or a passage to share, I finally raised my hand. I said I am thankful and blessed to be able to serve by serving others. That's what brought me to American Samoa as a volunteer teacher. One of my favorite passages comes from Matthew 25. I only read verse 40 aloud, as the passage is a little long, but "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye a have done it unto one of the least of these my bretheren, ye have done it unto me."

Pastor's message was about giving up our lives by wanting whatever God wants for us. I am here to serve others. Not sure where that calling will lead me next yet, but I know I am where I should be right now. Here's my little theology spout for the day. Not very often I put these thoughts up on the blog. Why do I volunteer? I feel like it is one of my purposes in life - to give much of my time for others.

On the way home Pastor was asking me what I'm doing next, and I said I'm not sure yet; it isn't clear to me. I am patient and know one of these days I will know again. Fun part about life.  He also mentioned that I am the first WorldTeach to be so involved at his church. Some came regularly on Sunday morning, but that was it in the past. I think might miss me a bit from the way he was talking today.