writing projects haha

So my kids have been working on a writing project in English class. They had to write a character sketch and setting sketch (they could create ANY character they wanted and use any setting), then write their rough draft, illustrate their story and finally make all my corrections (oh my dear were there A LOT haha) and write up their final draft. I’m grading them right now and they were making me giggle so I thought I’d stop and write up one of the really short stories for you. This particular story is by a boy named Marion in my class that could win a prize for worlds most energized child. He never stops. Never gets tired. Is ALWAYS ready to do something next haha he sits right next to my desk. Gotta love him…gotta love him J ok here we go

            Once upon a time there was drunky. He liked to go Viking with his friends. And liked to scare everybody in the jungle. One day drunky had a problem. The problem was he had to go to war because they were attacked by other dead pirates. And they were not enough for the war. So that’s why he had to go. So then he went. The war was really deadly. After the war drunky’s team won “The Tough and Rough.” Drunky was so happy so happy that he could couldn’t stop cheering for his self. Then the next day drunky was called by his leader named Mr. Jorgy. Mr. Jorgy surprised drunky to be the leader of the army. Then drunky was so happy again. Drunky is nice, kind, an dfaithful, and good responsibility. He doesn’t scare anybody, he just walk away and be brave. He’s the leader of the army, so he just wants to be normal. The End.

            Thought somebody might enjoy reading that J oh, ok here’s another really short one (some of them were like three pages) This is by a boy named Edgar in my class, oh and his main character named Yitzi is a talking basketball, he just forgets to mention that minor detail in his final draft haha.

            Once upon a time there was Yitzi. He looked dirty and he went to ben the toy. He live at the sea castle one day he had a problem. The problem was that Yitzi escaped and I ben the toy chased him. He was running cause he went to Ben the toy. The Yitzi boy was a very bad and soon Ben the toy got him and spanked him. Yitzi stole my jaket and my cellphone. Yitzi was scared and he kept running.

            Love everyone lots, hope all is going well at home. I sure have been missing football season and college coffee runs lately….sigh…mk, back to grading! Xoxo 

An Unreal Weekend...

I don’t exactly know where to start. This weekend was a surreal experience. It was so beautiful; it was like I couldn’t enjoy it completely because I couldn’t wrap my little mind around the fact that I was REALLY there. We went to Ant Island for the weekend. Wow, um, ok so. Imagine the most incredible colors of blue you can imagine changing and stretching as far as you can see, with a blue sky full of fluffy clouds as far as you can see. It seemed as though the earth and sky met and turned into one.  Haha pretty much what I’m trying to say is that I lived in a tropical paradise Christmas snow globe this weekend. Ya know, the ones were Santa is lying on a white sandy beach with a terrible sunburn and huge smile on his face. I felt so free this weekend. At night I found myself wading out into the ocean by myself just standing in the waves with the soft sand beneath my feet staring into the night. There was this incredible mystery that accompanied the night there, it was glorious. Here I was standing in the middle of the ocean looking at millions of gorgeous stars I have never seen before, a cool ocean breeze is sweeping around me. Waves are crashing to about my waste as they continue on their way. (you could wade out for a while and it didn’t get deeper at all, so I was standing far out but still standing.) When I look back it’s a thick and haunting, in a beautiful way, jungle, and from in front of me an abyss of water and sky. It was just me and God and it was amazing. I stood there for who knows how long, soaking it all in and singing my little heart out. Truly an incredible experience. I feel like I’m experiencing so many things that people could never dream of experiencing. I truly feel so blessed to be here. Oh and Saturday was the most amazing snorkeling EVER. Wow. Wow. Wow! I couldn’t help but miss Laura haha my little snorkeling partner in crime. I found myself just kind off by myself. Haha I didn’t want anyone holding me back as I explored! It was soo fun! I’ve NEVER seen coral like that. ALL different shapes and sizes and colors too! There was bright blue, and purple coral. Soo cool! Oh and speaking of Laura haha there were these AMAZING clams! AMAZING!!!! They had the most beautiful patterns on them I have ever seen in my life. Haha it made me think of all of my fashionable girlfriends. Seriously. Like I kept thinking, oh my goodness I could SO see Laura wearing a dress with that pattern haha or wow, that would make the most amazing curtains! (I’m can’t believe I’m admitting that I thought that…) anyway, it was awesome. And I became quite attached to a few fish, I went through naming them all. Oh! haha and there was this little fish (his name was Raphael) that followed me around kissing me! I’m NOT even kidding! Haha he kept pecking at my legs and it tickled haha.

            After snorkeling I found myself lying in a hammock that looked over crashing waves with no one around, reading a great book. I was living in a postcard. Seriously. Ridiculous. Then decided to be scandalous and take off my basketball shorts (got so sick of being fully clothed all the time) and swam out to the big boat that was anchored out a little ways. Oh how I love swimming! I climbed up and layed on the front, it reminded me so much of all the happy lake memories I have! When I closed my eyes it was like I was at home J Then I took the opportunity to dive off the boat into the crystal clear water a few times, it is pretty high at the front so that was really fun. It’s very interesting. I find myself spending a lot of time by myself here. and its ok. Its like I’m discovering an introverted side of myself that I never knew I had, I think it’s really good for me. I’m happy with just being with Jesus and nature. I can feel free and alive, adventurous, or relaxed and renewed. Its all quite new to me haha but pretty cool I’m not going to lie.

Lets see here, oh another thing I never thought I’d experience haha I’m pretty sure I never want to eat peanut butter again! That is literally what Amy and I lived off this weekend. And now I feel gross. Lol. Definitely am looking forward to getting to the track tomorrow! Ooh I slept in my hammock! The first night I wasn’t really used to it, but the second night I slept like a baby. Seriously, like the best night sleep I’ve had since I’ve been here. (thanks daddy!) It was pretty great.

            The way back today was quite an adventure. Haha! At a certain point we all had to get off the big boat and climb onto the little boat. We’re talking like a little tiny boat with a motor on the back that Mr. B steers. And there were like 26 of us on this thing. It was about to sink haha and we had to cross through these shallow coral waters. One of the guys had to stand at the front of the boat with this huge stick and push us through the water (I was like, this is awesome) so we wouldn’t hit stuff, and cuz we had to turn off the engine sometimes. And THEN it started raining like crazy, and we had zero shelter haha I can for the first time say that I was cold in pohnpei. This took like forty minutes, it was definitely a bonding experience haha everyone was like huddled together and couldn’t like move or stand at all otherwise we’d all probably fall in. J but we all got back safe and to top it all of got WARM showers! Haha we never have warm or hot water. It’s just something we’ve accepted. I take like a freezing cold shower every day. Which I can’t complain too much about because I’m usually really hot and sweaty, so after the initial shock of cold water its nice J anyway, so that was my weekend.

Oh also I didn’t really mention this, but right before we left I ate this cinnamon bread only to realize after eating a piece that it had cashews in it. I had officially eaten like a whole cashew if not more. I panicked. It was terrible I sprinted to my apartment and shoved benedryl down my throat (for those of you who don’t know I am very very allergic to cashews. Very allergic.) and then tried my hardest to throw up. I could only dry heave though. It was not fun. I wasn’t even really reacting badly but I was freaking out because I knew I would and we were JUST about to leave in like on minute. Anyway, I ended up being ok, it was SUCH an answer to prayer. First of all that I decided to randomly have a piece of this bread right before we left (because I hadn’t packed any benedryl) and secondly because I didn’t have a bad attack even though I ate so much. I still don’t even understand how that happened. The cashews were cooked, a lot. Like they were bendy and almost looked like dried fruit. That’s what I thought it was at first until I looked at it closer and everyone verified that it was cashew. So the only thing I can think of is that since it was cooked so much, I didn’t react as badly and also that maybe since it was cooked it was taking longer to get into my system and the benedryl got into my system faster? I’m not entirely sure, but I know God had something to do with it. I was so scared. I ended up sleeping on the way out to the island and was pretty tired and out of it that day from the medicine but as far as the reaction went I only had like on tenth of the stomachache that I normally have. It was such an answer to prayer. Anyway, God is good, and I can’t BELIEVE how beautiful his creation is. And to think that he made all of it for me. For me to explore and soak in and enjoy. Because He just loves me THAT much. A pretty cool feeling… J I felt very loved this weekend. Miss you all, XOXO. 

Muscles/Boobs

So I have actually started to have brief moments where I find myself enjoying teaching.. I had to stay in my classroom until almost five today though and have about two more hours of classroom work to do. This job is quite demanding sometimes. Haha but I can’t complain because I’m finally getting to go to Ant island this weekend. I CAN’T wait! It is supposed to be the most amazing place around here. It’s an island with no electricity, bathrooms, shelter, ANYTHING. And we don’t have school Friday so this whole weekend we’ll be roughing it J I can’t wait! I’m sure I’ll have many exciting things to blog about once I return!

            Ok, random clip from my class today. Haha just thought I’d give your imagination a little picture of what I deal with everyday. J I looked over at one of my chubby little twins named julien and he had tennis balls (or maybe it was just wadded up pieces of paper, who KNOWS) under his shirt like muscles and was flexing. How could I NOT laugh? But they were SUPPOSED to be doing science, so I asked him to stop flexing and put his muscles away. About five minutes later he walks up to my desk with his once muscles conveniently placed on his chest, in order make two quite large breasts. I was like. What??? Lol, I’m pretty sure that his muscles/boobs then transformed into basketballs as he turned into Kobe Bryant, throwing wads of (I still don’t exactly know what) around my classroom in a very sorry attempt to make a basket in our classroom’s (always overflowing and disgusting) trashcan.

            As far as exercising goes, I’ve finally figured it out J well getting there. Last week I dragged someone with me every day but one to go running or walking at the track. Then I figured out that a towel makes a perfectly good yoga matt for our dirty floor in our apartment. Haha last we had exercise class with Courtney. Five of us girls spread out in our apartment and I made the girls to “killers” where you do jumping jacks for a minute, then quick feet for a minute, then back to jumping jacks etc for ten minutes. Then I led out in a yoga class J haha from the limited amount of yoga I know from going at walla walla (thanks Lisa). So I’m thinking I might start like a workout class a few times a week for all the girls, or whoever wants to join. Maybe even some of the locals J I’ll keep you posted. I’m thinking I’m going to need a few yoga movies to learn stuff so I can teach everyone haha.

Oh! and I have FANTASTIC news! I found a piano on campus that I can use! Or a keyboard at least. Who cares! Something I can sing with J I’m soo excited! I haven’t played it yet but hopefully soon! Definitely an answer to prayer J anyway, hope everyone is doing well. Love you all! Xoxoxo!  

this past week

So, the last week..Hmm..well as far as class goes, it went much better. I think I’m starting to get the hang of the teaching thing. Well a little bit more at least J I seriously adore my kids already, I can’t imagine how close I’m going to be with them after the year is going to be over. It’s going to be so hard to leave them. Even the ones that I was worried would drive me absolutely crazy are making a way into my heart. I think I am finally understanding about where they are academically so it will be easier for me to deal with when they don’t understand certain basic concepts. I’m more prepared for that, so I don’t think I’ll get as frustrated. Since school has started they’ve had a three tests. The first two (science and math) some did TERRIBLE on so I let them find the right answers and fix it (I mean I just want them to learn the stuff) but for social studies almost all of them aced it! I was proud of them J later in the week we were talking about different cultures, and Irish dancing was mentioned, so I told them that I had a friend who was an Irish dancer and they thought that was pretty cool (I love you Megan!) and then the next day I brought in my laptop and played them some Irish music. Haha but all they wanted to do was see pics on my computer, so I gave in and showed them about four pictures. I have told them about Zac and how he is in Majuro as the coach. One day in prayer requests I prayed for him, and now the kids raise their hands and say “Zac!” I was like who? And they were like, “Your brother!” haha it was really cute. They all want to meet him J and when I showed them a picture of him making a silly face with me they were laughing so hard. It was super cute. So now they ask if he’s coming to visit and I have to keep telling them no L I am also figuring out the whole grading thing. It goes like this, grade ANY free second you have, then I don’t have to do it after class. However, I haven’t recorded ANY of my papers yet, which is now a massive stack. Ha, better get on that! Oh, and my kids finally like to sing! I guess they were just shy at the beginning. I taught them the Milk song and they LOVE it haha it’s so cute. This week had its rough times in the classroom for sure, but over all it went pretty well. And the days that I was struggling I got to open care packages from home (which just make EVERYTHING better) thanks familia and walla walla! J J

            As far as this weekend and last weekend, pretty great. J last weekend we went to this AWESOME waterfall that you had to hike to. OH MY GOODNESS! I was seriously in heaven. Pohnpei has to be the best island hands down. I LOVE the jungle haha anyone who knows me, knows that exploring through a jungle is most definitely my idea of fun J we started the hike and then like we turned straight into like the thick mass of the jungle and kept going there like wasn’t a trail at all, so we were like climbing over and under trees in the mud, jumping across creeks. (I had to pee, quite exhilarating actually…in a rainforest J) and then we got to the waterfall. There was like a forty-foot drop straight down and so of course I immediately jumped off. SO fun! And then we climbed up the side of the waterfall where all these rocks were, I was like oh my goodness this is why I was made! Lol I love exploring soo much! It definitely makes me miss some friends from school though. Wow. Anyway, then you had to quickly cross the river where the waterfall was so you could get to the other side and jump off again. Haha so I saw the current and was like, ah its not that far why don’t I just swim it really quick. Bad idea. Lol I just lunged forward and realized that I didn’t quite make it and suddenly I thought, “oh my goodness if I can’t grab onto a rock or something I’m going to go over the water fall” haha luckily I grabbed onto a rock and was fine. Possibly not my brightest idea ever J all very fun though. Then it started pouring rain, which just made everything better. I decided to run back in the mud and rain, everyone probably thought I was crazy but I was just loving life haha. Then the next day we went out to breakfast at this place and had macadamia banana pancakes, followed by an outing all day. They took us on the big school boat out to these ruins that were so fun to climb and explore! I guess no one knows much about them, it’s like a mystery. But it used to be like a city and civilization. And it’s all made out of rock, so climbing up the walls were really fun! Then, we went to this little island and explored it. There was actually SAND at this island and the water was unbelievably clear. So we just sat like in the water or leaning up against a palm tree eating out packed lunches. Pretty awesome. I still can’t believe how beautiful it is here. Then yesterday after church (oh haha I did Sabbath school and gave like a miniature sermon, it was actually kind of fun. I kind of enjoyed it! Still haven’t sang for church yet, like special music that is, man I’m going crazy I’m really missing singing..) Amy and I and Joel and Barbie (two Australian guys) went on a picnic with the phillipianos to this amazing like little open hut at the end of a dock type of a thing. It was beautiful (of course). It was for Noli’s birthday (he’s the maintenance guy at school and is awesome, we live right next door to him :) we ate AMAZING Pilipino food AND had icecream!! We played bible games with them, it was so funny they are wonderfully happy people lol laughing at everything! It was great. And then we met up with some youth from the church at climbed to this ridge that looks over the whole island to watch the sunset. Man, was it a hike! I’m not sure if I’ve ever hiked up something quite so steep! It was fun though, I was sweating like crazy, I felt so good after haha it was a great workout J and on the way there were like old war bunkers and an old rusted tank, and really cool stuff like that. That was fun to explore. Then when we got to the top there is like a phone tour thing that I climbed up part way to be even higher. Pretty cool J when we got back down it was completely dark and we still had to drive back, so about 25 of us all climbed into the back of our faithful truck and drove through pohnpei. We went through a side of the island I hadn’t seen yet, at it was so cool just soaking in the island and their culture at night time. Really enjoying being here. it is so different at home.

            Which all leads me to right now! Typing and flicking off the annoying ants that have decided to share my bed with me haha. This morning has been a cleaning day for the school. So I got to go clean my classroom, and wait for it….drum roll…my little fourth graders DISGUSTING bathroom. Oh. my. Goodness. There is NO way my dad would have cleaned that thing lol. I kept thinking about that and laughing. Anyway, I’ll spare you the details but lets just say it’s as clean as it’s going to get now! Then there is some party tonight for someone leaving the school or something which means lots of rice and fish and bananas and fruit for free! Actually, I’m rather surprised with myself but, I’m ENJOYING cooking. Like, we have to get fairly creative here but my dad and gramma have sent me quite a bit of cooking stuff and I’m having fun with it. Amy and I make beakfast burritos, French toast, and like fruit parfaits for breakfast. And then for dinner I’ve been cooking like sautéed veggies, and rice, and veggie meat cooked with spices and sauces and baked beans etc. it’s been great. Oh, and apparently soymilk, frozen bananas, honey, ice, and dried apricots make for the greatest smoothies of all time. Haha, so I’ve finally gotten the food thing figured out. I’ve finally been able to exercise too! It is so awesome, this last week I went to the track every day but one. I have been power walking and doing sprints (trying not to kill my knee) regardless its great. You can get away from the school, and there is such a cool atmosphere there. Like all the people from the community come out. It’s awesome. Haha I want to join one of their track teams! I think it would be super cool J and I just realized how long this is getting! Sorry my faithful readers! J I guess I’d just like to conclude this blog once again with prayer requests. Pohnpei SDA school is going through a difficult transition time right now. There is a lot of drama going on, we don’t exactly have a principal, and may not have our sm coordinator now too. I’m not exactly sure. We don’t know everything as sm’s but there are some fairly big problems going on right now. Also we lost one of our SM’s last week. Rian went back home. That was pretty hard for the school too, I think a few of the administrators and island teachers took it personally. I hear that we’re getting two other girl sm’s now, but I don’t think anyone knows exactly whats going on haha. I think that would be great! So I’m praying for that to work out J anyway, thanks to everyone, miss you lots and can’t stress enough how much I appreciate all of your support! 

yogurt covered raisins!

At this moment I am sitting on my couch eating yogurt covered raisins from my father, and a granola bar from Walla Walla University. Boy are care packages the best. I’ve decided that besides Jesus, they are officially the most comforting things ever! And the rollercoaster of my life continues. Yesterday was awful. Probably the worst day since I’ve been here, yet now as I write today there is a smile in my heart and consequently there has been one on my face for most of the day, AND I’m about to go jump off a buildings and swim J Yesterday class was really hard, my kids were not listening and crazy. And then I stumbled back to the apartment to try and use our bathroom. Didn’t exactly work. Our toilet flooded like our entire apartment. It took Amy and I like almost two hours of work cleaning up, moping, sweeping, etc. And then I had to do laundry to have the washing machine broken. Anyway, I didn’t even get to sit down until like 7 something at night and was so fed up. But this morning I woke up renewed. J Today was a great day of class. My kids all like aced their social studies test, and we talked about Jesus and sin and heaven in bible for two class periods. The kids got really into it and were asking so many questions. It was great! AND its over half way through the week! Meaning another INCREDIBLE weekend is almost here J haha this one boy draws me a picture like every day (its always the same picture haha its so cute.) And he usually drives me slightly crazy cuz he asks the stupidest questions literally every thirty seconds. He’s growing on me though haha I don’t know how he couldn’t! yesterday he wrote me a little note (accompanied with the same picture as always) that said “Miss Breann is the best teacher. I love her.” Those are the things that get me through the day and keep me from losing my temper! These kids just need to be loved (along with learning how to count and minor things like that) and I’m doing my very best to do exactly that. Oh, and did I blog about my amazing weekend yet? Hm…I’ll have to do that J

An interesting day.

It’s amazing how many emotions you can go through in one day. Earlier today I was playing football in the middle of a gym with (120 little kids running around playing every game all on top of eachother, no seriously volley ball, basketball, tag, jump rope, soccer, CHAOS) a group of my boys and loving life. I was Qbing telling them all plays and they were SO excited. It was amazing, I was having so much fun. Haha I made them huddle up, and acted all serious and they got so in to it. It was crazy, with no rules, or anything but quite fun. I went from that to a terrible lunch period where everyone was yelling and screaming. (barely got to eat) then trying to make my kids understand science for like a full hour, helping each one individually do a stupid (easy) worksheet. To get them prepared for a Test tomorrow.  Then, I surprised them by making cupcakes and having a surprise birthday party for the kids with august birthdays. This was chaos until we went outside to play duck duck goose. I made the kids pretend they were ninjas so they would be quite for the other classes that were still in class. This made me laugh because here all my kids were running around campus jumping and being ninjas. (myself included of course) BUT then it started raining all of a sudden so we had to run back to the classroom. (didn’t even get to finish a session of duck duck goose) This led to everyone all loud and disruptive. Finally school was over and I had six or seven kids stay to work on their math assignment for the day, (it was just review over stuff we had already learned and they hadn’t gotten like half way through it) I was tutoring them and going through every problem individually but some of them wouldn’t even pay attention, and I was SO tired and trying to help them. Finally I only had three left. I was trying to explain rounding. For instance a problem was the number 59. the assignment was to round it. So I would tell my kids ok, is this number closer to 100 or closer to 0? And they would look at me like I was a crazy person. So I said. Alright, when you have a number 50 or higher, you round up so it would be 100. but if you have a number 49 or lower then you round down to 0. So is the number 59 bigger or less than 50? And they all looked at me and said “less?”  I didn’t know what to say. So I would repeat the question like five times. I did this with every problem. This is COUNTING. I kept saying, well lets count. Do you count up to 59 from 50? And they’d say “um…no?” I felt SO helpless. When kids left and I was on the verge of tears. I felt so over my head today. I don’t’ know how I’m supposed to teach kids like that anything that’s remotely close to 4^th grade. and I’m putting everything I can into it. I didn’t even know I was this patient. And yet today I was seriously about to yell at a girl, “are you THAT stupid?!?!”  So I’d really appreciate prayers. I need it. My days are kind of like roller coasters here. either absolutely amazing, or frustrating and exhausting. Last night I read a text in Isaiah 58 that said “The Lord will guide you always, He will satisfy your needs..you will be like a well-watered garden. Like a spring whose waters never fail.”  Sunday I felt like a spring that just had a flash flood and was erupting everywhere haha but today I felt like my spring was drying up pretty quickly. I had to keep reminding myself of the promise that God made to me. I have a lot of needs right now, but I know that he will meet all of them and fill me completely. I just didn’t’ feel like that today. I felt like my garden was dying and withering right in front of my eyes. Not to depress anyone J I really wish I could have music time with just me and God here. like have access to a piano and room, just for myself. It’s so healing to me. Sigh…

Anyway thank you so much for being supportive at home. I just received  my first package (thanks Gramma Haskins!) and it made my heart smile J Its nice to know I’m not so far from home when I feel lost! And most of all I can’t thank you enough for your prayers, I need them now more than ever!

Lots of love, Courtney  

An Awesome Day

I woke up this morning hurting everywhere. My skin was burning, my wrists and joints were aching, my stomach was churning, I had a full week of 23 attention consuming children ahead of me, and yet I got out of bed rejuvenated. Ok, so my body  was most definitely not rejuvenated, but my longing for adventure was. I had been aching for an exploration all last week, and did I get one Sunday!

            I woke up Sunday morning at six o clock, and by seven there were sixteen of us (amy and I were the only girls) and fifteen surf boards climbing into our faithful read truck ready for a day out on the water. I was AMAZING. The driver for Pohnpei Surf Club graciously took all of us out for the entire day on his boat for only the cost of gas. It would have normally cost $500 to go out with a group, but we only had to pay $20 each J  First of all, I can not even begin to explain how breath takingly gorgeous seeing the island from the water was, and what was even more incredible was seeing the water in stunning shades of blue I could have never imagined. I’d never seen such beautiful colors in my life. Hmmm J Amy, Matt, and I sat up at the front of the boat hanging over, with the wind blowing in our faces, it reminded me of the lake but even better. We started off the day with stopping at a surf spot. We all grabbed our boards and started surfing. The waves here are definitely different (and slightly more intimidating than at home), but I braved them anyway. Getting an obscene amount of salt water up my nose (my sinuses have never been so thoroughly cleaned), being held under water for a good amount of time, getting scratched up by coral, but enjoying myself the entire time. Some of our guys are seriously REALLY good surfers. Like I’m not sure if I’ve ever surfed with guys this good, the surf is really like the reason they came haha so my surfing capabilities looked rather sad compared to them. However, there were a few other boys who never even caught any waves, so I was feeling ok with myself J I then decided to catch my breath so paddled over to amy (who was of course snorkeling to her hearts content) where we held on to my surf board and floated, watched the guys, took in our beautiful surroundings, and talked about life. We then hopped into the boat, and our driver continued around the island stopping at another spot. Some of the boys continued surfing but I decided it was time for snorkeling, so we jumped into the water to explore! This carried on for like three more stops. It was soo fun! We’d either surf or snorkel, each spot being a little different. Then when I felt tired I’d lay at the front of the boat and close my eyes feeling the boat gently rock and listening to the islander music our driver was playing. This enjoyment had dire consequences however, I haven’t been this sunburned since I was Puerto Rico (Laura it made me miss you!!) Yes parents, I put on sunscreen (two or three times!) but apparently the Pohnpein sun has a mind of its own. My goodness! I am sunburned inside of my ears! Its crazy! Haha Lets see, ok back to snorkeling! I saw a shark! I was super excited, we had been looking for one all day, and I saw the most BEAUTIFUL fish! They were poka dotted, and striped, the most amazing colors, I can’t even explain them in words, there were so many! I think my favorite one might have been a bright turqoisish blue one with black zebra stripes. It was so me. Ha. Oh, and well…the beautiful parrot fish…um…well about that. So, we were taking turns spear fishing (I ‘tried’ but didn’t catch anything, I think I just subconsciously didn’t WANT to catch anything haha), when Eric (one of the guys, who’s obsessed with spear fishing) climbed into the boat with a parrot fish. He killed it and began scaling it right there. I would have been sad but I was just so curious! This new explorative, culture side of me has been quickly immerging. Anyway, he cuts it in squares (like you do with a mango) and pours soy sauce and lime juice on it. I was like you’re just going to bite into it RAW?! And the boat driver explained to me that its like everyone’s favorite food here, and like a real treat. To eat a fresh and raw parrot fish. Suddenly I turned to Eric and was like, can I have some? Next thing I know I was biting into a raw fish, sitting on a boat in the middle of the ocean just off a gorgeous island, and surprisingly it was actually yummy! I went back for a second bite haha I couldn’t believe it! Lets see here…talking about spearing fish. The FUNNIEST moment of the trip happened yesterday too. Amy had been swimming around with the spear for like half an hour or more trying to catch a fish, when I see here swimming towards me with the spear in the air. She goes, “Courtney, I caught one!” I smiled really big and was like “Great Amy! That’s Awesome the guys are going to be so jealous!” When she took of her goggles and I realized that she was crying. No wait, not crying, SOBBING. It. Was. Hilarious. I about died. Here she is floating in the ocean holding here fish that she had tried to catch for almost an hour, crying her little heart out because she felt so terrible. I was dying laughing! She just kept saying “It started twitching! I didn’t think it would twitch! I hurt it!” and this would send me into a fit of histarics once again. Lol. Ok, so lets see, what else. Oh, as we were heading back to the island we stopped at a few more places to snorkel and we saw a manaray! They are HUGE! I couldn’t believe it! I wanted to swim with it but only got to see it from the boat. Still was super cool though J Then after being exhausted in the most remarkable way, I drifted off to sleep as we took the enjoyable and lengthy trip back to the dock. Followed by a delicious dinner of rice and grilled veggies, and watching ‘how I met your mother’ with the roomies. 

Some how that trip made all the hardships, stressful class periods, and exhausting days worth it. As of today I’m back in the classroom for a week, but its nice to know that another weekend adventure is on its way. I must admit, Friday and today have already been getting better. I think my kids are starting to get a better feel for the type of teacher I will be, and some of them are really trying to do there best, like in everything. I have about four boys that I can tell just adore me, and man do I adore them. They all have tons of energy, but are smart and when I tell the class to be quiet, try to help and get everyone quiet too. Also, I took some extra time to read to my kids Friday, and they all crowded around me, sitting on the floor and even standing next to my chair. It was soo funny because one of my boys named Burt (who I thought was going to be a problem at first, cuz he kind of acts like he thinks he’s super cool) started giggling in the middle of the story and couldn’t stop. This led my entire class to start giggling, followed by myself. When I tried to get them to quiet down Burt went into a fit of giggles once again, and I just could not for the life of me tell them to be quiet without giggling myself. So we all just stopped at laughed, it was great.

Today I was just really tired from yesterday, but not as much exhausted as sleepy and sunburnt, which in my book is much better. J I think Wednesday I’m going to throw a little birthday party for my class, for the kids who have birthdays in August that is. Also because they have two tests this week (plus a spelling test), so I figure they deserve a break! Doing this once a month for the birthdays in that month will get slightly costy, (from making them cookies, or cupcakes or whatever) but I figure that it will give the kids something to look forward too, and will make them feel special. I don’t’ exactly know what they all get from home on their birthdays. This leads me to something else. I was reading one of my girl’s papers today and she mentioned that her dad died this weekend. I’m not sure if this is true (I just read the paper tonight, and she went home early today, plus she doesn’t have very good writing so I’m not entirely sure if that’s exactly what she meant) but it has me very concerned. So I’ll find out what’s going on tomorrow, but if you guys could really keep that in your prayers I’d greatly appreciate it. Also, I have a girl who has been bullying this adorable sweet girl named Zara (she’s from Australia) and it has been very hard for me to be as sweet to her because it makes me so mad. I just found out though that her father died last year, so I’m worried about her. Clearly she doesn’t know how to deal with her feelings in a positive way. (as you can see my social work side is kicking in) So if you guys could pray for her too, I’d also appreciate it. Besides that, prayers for my energy and stomach would be great! I’ve been having some problems with my stomach and it just adds to the stress of being a brand new teacher. Anyway, love everyone at home, sorry this blog was so long, I just had so much to tell! J