Frozen Fruit, Guest, Music, and Rides

With my food stories in my last post, I forgot to mention that I froze some fruit. Hannah kept talking about it, and now that we have a regular freezer I decided to do it. Grapes work wonderfully in the freezer; plus, this is a great way to make the supply I bought last longer, as I probably wouldn't eat them fast enough otherwise. Bananas are also interestingly good, an interesting texture that comes out. Still soft on the inside, but hard on the outside. I also froze some pieces of apple and orange, but there are basically like an ice cube. Fun experiment. Definitely something I can do at home, as well, to make fruit supplies last longer. They don't lose any of their healthiness by freezing them. We each had a small bowl of some frozen fruit with a scoop of delightful New Zealand vanilla ice cream Saturday night. Mmmmm. Now, the frozen fruit is there in the fridge for whenever either of us would like any. Great idea.

My friend Richard from church came as a guest speaker to our morning classes on Monday. He currently teaches at the community college and has been interested in my guest speaker series ever since I mentioned it to him. Their school was on spring break this week, while ours is next week. This meant he had more time, so he volunteered to come this week. He is a fantastic speaker. He talked about his background in kinesiology and his interest in physical health and education, mostly. Shared some really cool statistics about obesity and being overweight in American Samoa. He also talked a little about what he does at ASCC, where he teaches teachers how to teach P.E., as he works in the Education department. The college here has their first Bachelor degree program in Education, where students can get it for free. Finally, he briefly mentioned how he now is planning to attend a seminary school starting in August. I know he will do great at this, as he does such a great job whenever he preaches at church. I really enjoyed his entire presentation, and he included a few activities getting some of the students involved. It was fun to see him teach, and I learned some more about him. Also, since he is half Samoan, he commanded pretty good respect in front of the student and was fun and easy going the whole time. Glad he was able to make it to some classes. The students really enjoyed his presentation, as well.

I've been listening to a little bit of music each night before I go to bed lately. I've really been into He is We lately, a singer I was introduced to by my good friend Karena. Just a random bit of information. The other music note (pun haha) I have for you today is I recorded my 2nd period singing at the beginning of the school day on Wednesday. I only get to listen to them sing 4 times during the year, and Wednesday marked number 3. I've mentioned how they sing with such truth and it is a powerful experience for me. There is something about the way they sing that is different from the other two classes I hear sing on a regular basis - 1st period and 3rd period. Watch the video to listen - not about the video but the sound.

Last thing I want to mention in this post. I have been hitting it good with rides lately, which have been very much appreciated considering it's been rather hot out this week. I don't much enjoy the little sunburn I can get sometimes when I fail to put sunscreen on for the little walk or miss a spot. ha Anyways...

 The counselor that picked us up once last week saw us again Monday morning, and we got a ride with her most of the way to school. Came home on the school bus that day after I had walked about halfway home. My landlord, Keith, saw me Tuesday after Zumba class and dropped me off. I got to know him a little better that way, which was cool. I headed home before Zumba on Wednesday as we got out of school early enough after some finals, and a bunch of my roommates saw me and I crawled in the back of a mutual friend's truck with them and made it the rest of the way home that way. One of my fellow Zumba goers, Lina, saw me walking after class Wednesday and offered to drop me off. She proceeded to offer me a ride anytime I want after class as it is on her way home. I could technically still ride with Erica, but she waits a little while to pick up her daughter from an after school program, so walking home usually got me home sooner. I may ride with Lina some now, though. Very nice of her. Finally, our "aunt" Tai saw us Tuesday morning and said she could probably regularly pick Hannah and I up as she drops her kids off at the school right next to our town house (Manumalo). We headed out a little earlier and caught her Wednesday, and as she dropped us off we parted with a "See you tomorrow." She was really excited to catch us, as she and Segi have been wondering about us and wanting to get together. Members of our Samoan family :-)

Oye... that was long paragraph. That means I've caught a ride at least part of the way to school or home every day this week. Cool beans.

Depending how my day goes on Thursday, I may have another little post for you before the weekend. Then, I'm on Spring Break, so surely something fun to write about will occur that week. Have a great day, everyone!