Brownie Maker

While shopping this weekend I found brownie mix. Yay. It’s a rare find here and I had been craving chocolate like no other. So on Sunday while I was madly typing away at my homework and lesson plans. Lusi wanted me to make the brownies and I was like how about you make them. Interesting fact he had never made them before nor had he ever followed a recipe before.  So I explained to him measuring cups. They never use measuring cups here. Whenever you ask a Samoan a recipe its just a little of this a little of that. Then taste. Well some of us don’t have success cooking like that. So I explained measuring cups and how you follow in order. It was quite funny watching and making fun of him. But all in all he did successfully make his first pan of brownies!! (Don’t tell him I told you this story ;)

In my classroom this week we have been doing our regular learning as always and I started a new thing this year. We are working on being a great classmate. Some days I feel like I repeat myself a thousand times and they still don’t get it. I currently have a serious problem with tattle tales. I keep telling my students they more they tattle they are going to grow a tail pretty soon. They just laugh at me. Enough to drive a teacher crazy and so we are focusing on not talking about our classmates. Oh man. I think I say, “ Are you being a nice classmate right now?” Literally every ten minutes. I really hope it clicks soon.

Bowl of Siame. I am sure none of you have ever had this wonderful cuisine because I had never heard of it until coming here. It is literally like an island favorite meal and I can usually only tolerate having one a week. It’s very similar to ramen except it’s in a bowl and has a very spicy flavor packet to put on it. It is pretty much spicy ramen noodles. Well on Tuesday they ran out of lunch food so the office sells these and so I had to go buy one for lunch. You also can put Vienna sausage in it. Which is like hotdogs in can of salty water. So you dump it all in water and bam you have your meal. Not my favorite. Though I had the luxury of eating in twice this week because I had like no time to make supper and it was the only option. But I put some leftover carrots, potatoes, and chicken in it and it made it way better. Also I add like a scoop of mayonnaise to kill the spicy flavor not a huge fan of spicy food. Some days I really miss my food back home…

With Love,

Abby

Tuesday Blues

I was working on my homework today and thinking man I should really finish this assignment so I have time to do my lesson plans. Jokes on me I thought it was Wednesday instead of Tuesday. My days all seem to be running together the only reason I know what day it is is because I am constantly repeating it to my students. This week has been great! I know its only Tuesday but my students are like little sponges picking up on everything. And it makes my life so much easier. They enjoy learning, which makes my job so much easier.

Today we tackled writing. For anyone who has ever taught or had to make someone write a paper you can understand the struggle. Now add on the fact that I am asking them to write in a different language. I often get the deer in the headlights look. Like teacher you really think I can write a whole paragraph. I found a new writing program over the summer that I was a little nervous about trying. Even before my lesson today I debated just skipping over it. I felt a little nudge being like do it, do it. So I took a deep breath and dove into it. All we did was brainstorm. Just write down your ideas and about certain topic. Easy, right? Well I can always tell when my students understand what is going on. They are silent working away trying to be the first ones done. I can also tell when they have no faith in themselves that they are doing the assignment correctly. When they don’t know. Their mouths move a hundred miles an hour trying to get assurance from their classmates. I also here a constant teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher. Well, I kept running around helping each and everyone and slowly the light bulbs started to go. Thank goodness. I was running out of energy. After school I went to review their brainstorming and to say the least I was very impressed. They actually figured it out. Let’s just hope tomorrow they can figure writing a complete sentence.

It’s been almost four weeks since I left home. It always happens for me that the first month flies by and I get adjusted back to the island life. And then like a brick wall it hits me. Homesick. Every year since I have been here this happens. Luckily, I’m prepared now. I miss being able to go hang out with friends and see/talk to my family all the time. When this happens I tend to dive myself into my work, which currently makes my mind go on overload. To avoid the memories of everyone and everything I miss. This year something great came from me being homesick. I thought of a capstone project! Yay! If you have ever been on an island you will notice trash. Our island is covered in trash. I am going to write a proposal about my class getting involved in a monthly clean up. The path my students take to school is covered with trash from them dumping it out. We are going to pick up the trash and take data on it observing what is the most dumped item. Along with brainstorming ideas to keep our island a little cleaner.

With Love,

Abby

Teacher Life

We have just finished our first week of school. My students surprised me each day by actually knowing what we discussed. My new ways of teaching seem to be working so far! Yay!! One piece of advice I was given when I was a student teacher was that you should always take your vitamins because you are always going to be sick as a teacher. This statement is sooooo true. I never used to get sick. Once I became a teacher I feel like a majority of the year I am fighting a cold. The amount of times I have been sneezed on and coughed on is crazy. I notice it more because I try to avoid the events if possible. But sometimes it just happens. This week was not exception. I was sick by Wednesday morning. I think it may have had to do with the temperature change. All in all being a teacher means you are likely to have a cold most of the year.

This week in island terms it was cold. Meaning it was prolly low 80s to high 70s. Every morning my students have to decide what the weather outside is like. They get to choose all the different weather types. They always laugh when I bring out the snowing one. This week a majority of the days the kids picked that it was cold outside. Being cold here means that I can put a long sleeve on at night. It also means I will choose a t-shirt after school instead of a tank top. It also means ill break out my hot tea after school.  Usually I don’t drink it in the heat of the day because I will just end up sweating uncontrollably. But when its cold ill drink it right before I take a shower so I warm up enough that its not so cold.

Saturdays are my favorite days of the week. I put all my work and masters stuff away. I don’t let myself even think about the mountain of work I need to complete. Lusi and I go to town every Saturday one because I need food and this is the only day that I can go to town. Secondly, for a change in pace. We spend all morning and sometimes the afternoon across. Going from store to store trying to find food that is similar to home for me. This Saturday was a good Saturday because the shipping boat just came in which means we have lots of options. Some Saturdays can be some very slim pickings and I have to resort to making more Samoan like foods for the week. I have learned to stock up on my favorites because it’s a gold mine sometimes if you find those things.

With Love,

Abby

The first days

The school year is off and running already! We just finished our second day of school. To say the least it was great so far. Last year was a pretty tough year for me with my class they were quite difficult and made for some not so fun days as a teacher. I am not kidding it was like a night and day difference from classes. It’s amazing how much you can get done when your students enjoy what you are teaching. Don’t want to speak to early though since it’s only the first days and usually the kids don’t act up right away. My students from last year still try to bother me but at least now I can tell them to leave my classroom J

Also big news I have a co-teacher who comes in and translates everything into Samoan for me. Which is AWESOME. No worse feeling then your students giving you a blank stare and you don’t even know how to say the word in their language. Well now I have someone translating and helping me. It was amazing how much we accomplished today in reading just from someone helping me. It also helps that my students really look up to this teacher and so they really listen when he’s talking.

Overall the first couple of days have gone really well. Its taking a little adjusting for me getting used to talking all day long. My poor voice is gone all ready. This always happens at the beginning of the year for me. I guess I need to talk more leading up to the weeks of school.

With Love,

Abby

Oh the ocean

If you ever in your life have the chance to go to the South Pacific I highly suggest it. The ocean is the most breath-taking things you will ever see. I can still remember the first time I encountered the ocean here and could not keep my eyes off of it. As I was away from the island for a couple of months seeing the ocean again reminds me of its pure beauty. I cannot even explain the colors of blue when I see it. I also have never watched waves break and been able to actually see through the waves. I could stare at the ocean all day if given the opportunity.

This week the ocean was not my friend. As I am now on my year three of living on the island. I have become familiar with a lot of island things. For instance island time when they tell me I have to be somewhere at a certain time its safe to say you can show up an hour later than that time and still be early. I have also learned more about the ocean while here. We are currently located in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. Our harbor is the only harbor in the world where you can take cruise ships right into it because it is so deep. Off the top of my head I am not sure the depth of it but my first year I researched it while teaching my students about the ocean. Whenever teaching the ocean unit I always tell my students I want to take a submarine around our islands to see what its like underwater. Our ocean is also known for its coral. We have the Rose Atoll, which is the largest piece of coral in the world.

The ocean can also be mean as I like to say. This week the ocean was mean. The reason I call the ocean mean is when it is rough. Usually I do not have much of a problem with it being rough but this week was the worst that I had experienced. I had seen these huge waves crashing and everyone piled onto one boat which means its about to be the last boat. As we were leaving the wharf this huge wave crashed right next to us. I was like oh man I better start praying. Then the person next to me goes do you know how to swim in the ocean? Because today might be your day. Just what I wanted to hear. I turned my back to the front of the boat and white knuckled it all the way to the island. The waves were so big that when we were at the crest (the top of the wave) you could feel the boat teeter and then boom you fell down the front of the wave. When you fell down the wave it was similar to the feeling of going down a big hill on a roller coaster. The people who were sitting in the back of the boat were getting soaked from the waves crashing into the side. Since the waves were coming a little bit over the side of the boat we were also taking on some water. So there were two people in the back constantly throwing the water out. Wasn’t my most comforting boat ride and when I got home I said never again am I going if its that rough. It scares me too much.

With Love,

Abby