A Bit of Diving, A Trip to an Island, Board Games and Boxes

12-31-08 All right. For Christmas Day, we had a potluck dinner and just hung out with each other. We would have traveled from place to place, watching the various dances that the Marshallese do to celebrate Christmas, but it was pouring down rain and was windy. But it ended up being fine, anyway. We played board games and talked. I had a good time.

On the 28th, six of us (Megan, Landen, Jordan, Ryan, Jhan Dale, and me) went diving. Ryan took us to see an airplane--well, it was a propeller and part of a wing of an airplane, but it was still very cool. It also was a hundred feet down. So, yeah, that was cool as well. Although I'm still breaking in my mask, and therefore, it still fogs a good deal, the underwater part of the dive went really well. However, my BCD (or Buoyancy Control Device; the vest a diver wears that the tank is connected to) decided to keep re-inflating after I had put some air in it so I could float better at the surface (you're supposed to do that), which, besides being possibly dangerous (if it had happened underwater) and being uncomfortable, was very annoying. The problem really was with the hose that connects the BCD to the air supply within the tank; for some reason, it wasn't shutting off. So, Ryan disconnected it and we went on the dive. It was the first dive where I went really close to the red section of the air gauge, even though I was breathing like I was supposed to. Jhan Dale thinks it was because of the BCD's constant reinflation that I was down on air. So, we finished up the dive and Ryan had me surface. When a diver surfaces, they're supposed to re-inflate their BCD so they can rest comfortably on the surface. I know how to do that, both with the hose connected and without, but I couldn't float well enough to be able to fill it without the hose. I tried to find the hose, to re-connect it to my BCD, but couldn't find it. So, there I was, treading water with all my equipment on, trying to find the hose, and I just have this abstract thought go through my mind: "So, I can totally see why the book says that the most injuries happen at the surface when a diver panics. 'Cause if I was panicking right now, that would be bad. Good thing I'm not panicking." At this point, Ryan had now surfaced and he swam over and was like, "Re-connect your hose." I replied, "That's what I've been trying to do." So, Ryan says, "Put your snorkel on," and so I did, and so he found my hose, re-connected it, my BCD reinflated, and then he disconnected it again. Then we all floated and kicked our ways back to shore. It was a fun dive.

On the 29th, we took the church's boat out to an island that's past the channel. (The channel is a gap between islands in the atoll where there isn't a reef for the waves to break on.) This particular island is mainly uninhabited. I say mainly because only one family lives on it, and it's a very long island, longer than Ebeye, I do believe. Also, Ryan told us that the family that lives there sometimes lives in Ebeye, and with it being the holidays, that's where they probably were. We got a late start, again (but not due to us), but soon enough, we were speeding along the islands. We passed Shell, Googeegoo, and Nge Nge (the island that Emily calls "the Island of Evil," for that's where she hurt her foot), and then we were in the channel. It was both exciting and scary. The people in the back of the boat got soaked, and those of us in the front got bumped around, especially when we would go down a wave and hit hard. It was like a roller coaster, without safety restraints and without going upside down. I just laughed the whole time--because I thought it was fun and because I didn't want to yell every time we hit hard. So I picked to laugh instead. Right after we got through the channel, the engine just stopped. It was because it had run out of gas, but that was why we had brought some, so they re-filled it and we sped on again.

The island we went to is called Bigitch, I do believe. I mean, I don't know how it's spelled, but everyone says, "Big Itch," and so yeah. Anyway, this island is the type that people actually imagine an island in the middle of the Pacific to be like. Tons of palm trees (and coconut), sandy beaches, and clear water. There was some very nice snorkeling--I saw lots of fish and some VERY cool-looking coral. One downside was that the water would suddenly change from warm to cool, and I would suddenly start getting cold (there may be more downsides to the temp changes, but I won't share that at the moment. I'm waiting on something, first.). First, we all ate. Then we all went off and did various things--Jordan and I went snorkeling, Megan and Landen went for a walk, Emily went looking for shells on the oceanside, etc., When Jordan and I came back, we waited until everyone else was ready, and then we all went snorkeling again. There were some Kwaj boats anchored offshore (it seemed that Kwaj people didn't want to anchor and come to shore, like we had done), and so there were some other snorkelers. When we had finished that, we decided that we had a half hour yet, since the tide was coming in, and we didn't want a very rough channel crossing on the way back. So I ended up walking on the beach, talking with Jordan, and looking for shells. I didn't find any, but Jordan did. We also got to talk to a guy from Kwaj who had been spear-fishing on the oceanside and was now heading back to his boat. That was fun. Then we headed back, and the ride through the channel was a lot calmer than when we were coming through the other way. The ride back was uneventful--no scary engine stops or anything.

On Tuesday, we had more of a down day, sort of. I woke up early (for 6:50 AM during break is early), because Emily, Ryan, Kiba, and I went to Beach Park to jog/walk. For me, it ended up being mostly walking, but that's okay, I completed two entire laps during the time we jogged, and for me, that's a good thing. After that, we went to the school, for the Internet had finally been fixed, and checked our email and such, then went to the post office. I got some cards in the mail, and I really appreciated the one from Mrs. Schulz. She's been following my posts and sending me encouragement through the mail. I just love her cards! (And by the way, Mrs. Schulz, I can read your handwriting perfectly fine. I have never had a problem reading it.) There were also a lot of packages, two of which for me!! One of those packages I had been waiting for since OCTOBER, and so I was very glad to finally get it. It turns out that it went to Guam first, then made its way from island to island to get here. Thank you, Jessica and Larry and Cindy and everybody else who stuck things in there! There were two big bottles of A-1, a bottle of 1000 Island, Sweetarts and books (of which I was very thankful to get), but what I was the most excited about was all the notes and letters from my friends at school--even though they're two months old, they still made me smile! I especially appreciated the Dutch Blitz game that Ashley Seymour sent me--we almost immediately opened it up and played for like two hours. I just love that game! Although it was a bit slow, considering that none of us had played in a while, and that we were only playing with one deck (because I learned how to play while using two decks of cards; now that is a fast game!), but we sped up as time went on and when we got a fourth player. Instead of keeping points, we were just playing to count how many times one of us Blitzed out--I got at least two Blitzes, and that was good for me. We also played a couple games of Scrabble.

The second box I got was from school. It was my Christmas box, and I knew it was coming. It was sent in enough time to reach me by Christmas, but what happens is that boxes for Ebeye don't get as high a priority as boxes for Kwaj do, at least around Christmas time. But let me tell you, yesterday felt more like Christmas! I opened the box from school, and was very excited to find the note that told me who had filled the box. It was three of my friends from Southern who also work at Timber Ridge Camp--Ryan, Baylie, and Danny. I was so excited. (Actually, I found the music CDs with Baylie's handwriting on it, and I thought to myself, "Oh, cool, they asked my friends to help out!" But it's actually much cooler than that. In the note, Ryan told me that the three of them had decided to "adopt" an SM, and that they had decided to adopt ME! It was very awesome. I am currently listening to the music you sent me as I write this. Thank you, you three!

After I had opened my boxes, that was when we decided to play Dutch Blitz, because I had found out in August or September that Ryan and Jhan Dale and Emily all know how to play, and that's the perfect number to play. When some students showed up to hang out with Jhan Dale, Emily and I decided to go back to the post office, because as we were leaving, another shipment had been coming in, and we had seen at least one box that belonged to people here in the apartments. So we put skirts on over our shorts and went forth. We came back with five more boxes--one of which was for me! It was the last box that I know of that I had floating around the US Postal System. This box was from my mom, part of the bunch of boxes she had sent a while back--and I had gotten all the rest of those boxes. So I gleefully opened my last box, knowing that I had my film camera inside, along with various other things. My mom has been asking me if I had gotten a certain sweet surprise, and I hadn't, but this is the box that had that surprise inside. All over the place. Somehow, the marshmallow cream that Mom had sent had oozed out a little and gotten onto some of the things, but nothing was ruined and everything was easily cleaned (except the book and the comics, because paper doesn't do too well under water). But most of it was still inside, under the seal, so I really don't know how it came out. Oh, well. Emily reminded me that it was much better than her package that had come dripping with a nasty-smelling liquid. I agreed. So, thank you Mom!! I really enjoyed getting the comics and my AFM. It was a very good read, by the way. :)

That brings us to today. It's New Year's Eve, and we are, of course, planning to stay up until the year 2009 arrives. Of course, you all won't think it's 2009 until it's 2009 where you are, but that's life in a different time zone. I'll tell you how it went in another blog. More later.

Pictures!

Me in November

Kiba the puppy when he was small and cute

Shoes are how we tell who's home


The Ocean on a Windy Day


Our Apartments' Balcony

I'll post more soon, but I need to go. More later.

News Update--From Final Exams until Christmas

12-25-08 Merry Christmas! Final exam week went by fairly quickly. I even got my grades turned in by last Friday (but that may be due partially to the fact that I had six tests right in a row, and no tests on Thursday morning. However, I had everything graded by the end of Wednesday, and quite happily logged into Skype on Thursday morning to be surprised by my friend Desi also being online! One reason that this was so exciting is that Desi is a fellow student missionary--but in Africa. There's still a fair bit of time difference (she was headed to bed, I had just started my day), but it was good to have a conversation with her. It was definitely a boost!

Last Thursday was our Christmas program. It went really well, compared with other programs we've had this year. After starting a half-hour or so late, the groups flowed smoothly and the kids sang and everything was good. Well, not entirely. My sophomores had refused to practice, like I said two posts ago. We had gotten to the Wednesday before final exams, and they still wouldn't practice. They would just sit there and stare at the blackboard blankly. Frankly, it drove me up the wall. Blessedly, I stayed calm in front of the class (though I really wanted to explode, and, for those of you who know me rather well, you know that would not have been a good thing) and it was only through God that I stayed calm in front of the class. I ended up venting to the coordinator for the program, and when he had the sophomores during the next period, he asked them if they would practice. He got no answer, and so he said that they didn't need to be in the program. Instead, our principal had them clean the rooms where we had the performances (before and after) and they were still required to come. I don't know how many of them actually showed up, but a few of the ones who usually behave did. Figures. On Friday, one of my sophomores' moms told me that they had all known the song. *sigh*

You know, I remember my sophomore year of high school. It wasn't that long ago, you know. I remember how most of us thought that a lot of stuff we had to do was "stupid." So, in a way, I can identify with the class I sponsor. But here the apathy is much deeper. In my class, we would still get things done, whether we thought it dumb or not. We still participated. I've talked with our principal about my class--and part of the problem is that no one in the class wants to be a leader. At least, no one wants to be a leader in the sense of getting up front and getting things done. They would all rather have someone else do it. Then there's me, the sponsor. It's my job to help them lead, not to lead. And it isn't for lack of potential, either. There are lots of leaders in my class--they all just want to do different things, none of which are what they're supposed to be doing. They have the potential; they lack the motivation. Last Monday (12-15, I think), we were supposed to plan for our class party on the 19th. Okay, that's not difficult, we've planned class potlucks before. So, I write the list of foodstuffs needed on my blackboard and ask, "Okay, who's bringing what?" Crickets. (Well, if there were crickets on Ebeye, which I think there aren't.) I finally got most of the food volunteered for, and asked if they wanted to do anything else, like play games or something. No answer. So I sent them on to geometry class. Friday came, and I had six kids show up on time to eat (a seventh had to join another class because she came late). Six kids is one-third of my class--and most of that one-third did not even bring what they were supposed to. The kid who lives across the street from the school didn't even show. *sigh* I ended up combining my party with the party of Emily and the juniors. It ended up being a fine little party, but I still was disappointed. Despite thoughts that they wouldn't show, I was hoping that they would.

Enough of my angsty venting. Here's something funny that happened during the last performance (which was the Kindergarten/Preschool). Little kids began running out of the room and scrambling to the street. Why, you ask? Oh, because the Christmas parade one of the churches was holding was throwing candy to the kids. It was also blaring a siren that was completely annoying. Our little kids on stage kept singing, though I'm sure that they wanted to be running to get candy as well. I actually have video of their performance, and every so often, there's this blur that runs past. It would be another small child, dashing towards the door. We staff were just silently laughing and trying to pay attention to the kids on stage. They did a really good job of singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

Sunday, December 21st, was a day that I spent mostly in bed. Somehow, I got laid out by some sort of illness. It wasn't bad enough for them to call up a taxi and take me to the hospital, but I did stay in bed most of the day and try to sleep. I had about two good hours of sleep once I moved to our principal's couch (because their house was dark and quiet, unlike my bedroom, which gets direct exposure to sun almost all day long). I slept all night, and am now (as of Thursday) feeling much better. I don't know why I got it, but I'm really glad it's gone.

We've had no Internet for about four days, and I haven't felt the need to pay money for the Internet at NTA (I am cheap like that). This post may be a reason to go to NTA, but I'd rather have the school have Internet, because it's cheaper to me. (No, it's not free. Ten dollars of my stipend goes to using the school's Internet. Not a hardship, considering that then I have reliable (well, most of the time) access to the Internet. Plus, the Internet being off is due to NTA, not to the school. And so here I am, using the Internet at NTA, to check my email and post this.

Tonight we're going to have a Christmas dinner and just hang out with each other. Last night we had a Christmas Eve party--we exchanged gifts, using the Steal game method, and then played chess and Uno and had conversations and such. I actually won a round of Uno! Yay!

Oh, I almost forgot. I have broken the two hundred pound barrier. That's right. For the first time in a long time, I weigh less than 200 pounds. I came in at 197.5 pounds, and so I went out and got celebration pickles and Pringles. They were expensive, let me tell you. The jar of pickles (it was a big one, because I wanted to economize and because I wanted to share) cost me $6.15. Oh, but they were good! And very much worth it. More later.

Packages from Overseas and Perils in the Seas

12-14-08 Last Friday, I had a wealth of things arrive in the mail. First, part of my snorkeling gear arrived--part of the batch that Hidao sent us from Hawaii. The only thing of mine that didn't show were my boots--and so I can't quite use my fins yet. Those of us who had gotten their fins and boots proclaim them difficult to use when snorkeling, so I'm hoping to order a pair of snorkeling fins. Otherwise I'll just keep borrowing fins from Ryan and Jhan Dale.

I also got two of the boxes that my mom had sent from home. One had my Christmas present in it--a camcorder and an underwater case for it! I was so excited--especially when I plugged it in the computer and it registered it as having videos on it. So I watched them--and they almost made me cry, seeing messages from my family. However, most made me laugh--especially my mom prompting my eighteen-year-old brother to say, "Mom is making me do this." It was very funny. I also really enjoyed the DVD that I got in one of the boxes--and on it was a message from my church family. It was quite awesome to watch--even those people who really don't know me because my church has grown since I've come to Ebeye. So, thank you all!

Today (Sunday) we planned to go snorkeling (because the church's boat has finally gotten fixed). After a late start, we got into the boat and made our way to where Ryan said would be some good sightseeing. We jumped into the water (I sort of did that fall-off-the-boat routine) and we began paddling around. I even got to take some video, which looks very good, by the way. Then we noticed the jellyfish.

Yes, I just wrote jellyfish. They were very little, but they packed a large punch. I heard Ryan shout, "Ouch" and then go, "Jellyfish!" I had just turned off my camera and I swung my arm back--and yelled, "Ouch!" and my arm began to hurt. I had been stung by the tiny little jellyfish. We all clambered back onto the boat and went to another place and then we swam around and I took some more video. When we got back to the apartments, we took our showers and ate food and I got my arm taken care of. Now it just itches. But it's okay, really it is. (As of Tuesday, it wasn't even really itchy, either. Yay!)

This week is final exams for the second quarter. At the end of this week, it will be Christmas Break--and everyone has needed it. I'm looking forward to it. More later.

Tidbits of News

12/9/08 Oh, I have really come to appreciate days off of school A student thinks that they enjoy a day off here and there, but a teacher really enjoys a day off. At least, I think so. Last Friday was Gospel Day, a Marshallese holiday. To my understanding, Gospel Day is held in celebration of the original Protestant missionaries that came to Ebeye years ago and began the work here. In fact, the biggest party was held Sunday night at the big blue and white church that I and the other teachers pass on our way to our school. (The party was on Sunday because it rained on Friday night, and all day Sabbath.) My Gospel Day was spent sleeping in--I actually made it to 9:17 AM, which is a record for myself here. Then I finished up my grading and relaxed. It was a very good day.

Sabbath was very good as well. Our speaker was one of the pastors who in for supplies from one of the outer islands. He's only been out there for six months--but he can already pretty much speak fluent Marshallese and so he spoke in both English and Marshallese. Our AY program was run by Jordan and I. After song service, we broke everybody up in their groups and had a situation where they could only bring ten items with them. Then we cut it down to five items--and then I wrapped it up with a little worship thought. I think it was the shortest AY we've had, but everybody enjoyed it immensely. (I think it was a nice break from all of the Bible games we've been playing.)

There was actually an announcement regarding a future power outage! Of course, it was in Marshallese, and so our kids were the ones who told us, but we had prior warning of Monday's power outage. It was nice to be able to plan ahead for once!

The weather's definitely starting to switch over to dry season. Yesterday is what (I've been told) a perfect example of it. The sea was flat, there were no clouds, and there was no breeze whatsoever. I've been so accustomed to having to weight everything on my desk down that I was constantly surprised yesterday by my lack of having to do so. I also discovered that my classroom is an oven. I am so not looking forward to February when I learn things like that (February's the height of dry season, I think).

Talking about the natural world, the waves we've been getting on the ocean side of the island have been HUGE! They have been six to eight feet tall (I think it's eight to ten, but whatever). When they crash on the reef, it makes it all foamy and swirly and such. Matt, the teacher from WorldTeach who I met at Litaki, was out yesterday during his lunch break trying to catch the waves. It was fun to watch from the third floor of the school and hope that he made it and hope that he didn't get bounced off the reef (which would be very painful).

For all of those who know me (which would be pretty much everyone who receives an update email), you know that I'm not the--well, I'm not the smallest person on the planet. However, as you probably know from other blogs of mine, I have been getting smaller. I am quite pleased and happy to announce that, as of the last time I weighed myself, I was close to thirty pounds lighter than I was in August! Yay for me! The only downside is that my clothes don't shrink along with me.

It's really weird to sing Christmas songs when it's about eighty-six degrees and humid outside, with the sun beating down and baking everything it can. You may be wondering why. Well, it's because I've grown up in a place where it's cold when we sing Christmas songs. Sure, I sang Christmas hymns and such in India when I was there two years ago (was it really that long ago?) but it seems weirder here. And I have to take pictures of the random Christmas lights that have sprung up all over the place. One of them is this huge red shooting star that sticks up above the landscape (well, everything sticks up above the landscape; the island's flat; the school's one of the tallest places in Ebeye). The profile of said star is visible from Emily's and my window. It looks like a bright red stick at night. But at least it's far enough away that it doesn't interfere with sleep. Usually.

We're getting ready for quarter exams (they're next week), and we're also getting ready for our Christmas Program. My class is singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and they tricked me into singing it solo Monday morning during English class because they supposedly don't know the song. I'm not sure if they do or not--because some sang along. *sigh* Sophomores.

Oh, I almost forgot. Sunday marked the four month anniversary of my stay here on Ebeye. Ladedah, I have six months left. Actually, Gayle, if you're reading this (and I know you do), I'll have you know that I am finally moving out of second stage and into the third stage of culture shock. For which I'm glad, because the second stage is completely Annoying with a capital A. However, that also means that I'm starting to realize how much I'll miss once I leave. Funny, because a few months ago, I didn't think I'd miss anything whatsoever (except maybe my fellow missionaries). Now it feels like time is running out instead of dragging on.

More later.

A Few Busy Days' Worth of News

12/1/08 I am officially an open water diver, as of last Wednesday night. I did relatively well on my last paper test. Thursday afternoon I went and ordered my fins, boots, mask and snorkel (it cost me $140 total for the gear, but it's worth it) and Friday we had School Picnic.

Thursday, as you know, was Thanksgiving. We had a half day of school (we finished at 11:30) and then went home. We began cooking food for our Thanksgiving potluck (I had been assigned the green bean casserole). During a lull in the cooking (and grading, of which I did most of mine), four of us walked down to Hidao's and ordered our gear. My total expenditures on scuba diving so far have been two hundred dollars for the class, and one forty for gear. But I know it's been well worth it so far. Back at home, we feasted on various Thanksgiving dishes (I even got two pieces of pumpkin pie!) and watched a movie. We had invited the three American missionary teachers from a tiny school at the end of the island, near the causeway, and one came. Her name was Amy, and she's from Kentucky. I think she was sort of nervous, coming into our "family," but it was fun having her there.

Friday was our School Picnic. The third through twelfth graders (as well as the teachers) had been split up into four teams--and I was on the gray team. We mustered our troops some time after 8:00 (they were supposed to already be there at 8:00) and began our events after a short prayer. We had relay races, strange food eating contests, and some track and field events. Yours truly was the only female staff member on the gray team who was participating. Therefore, yours truly had to run both the 50m and 100m races (against the other participating female staff, my housemates). Hey, in the bargain, I got to wear my shorts without having a skirt on top. It was worth the aching quad muscles to wear shorts out in the open. I got second place in the first race, and third in the second race. However, Megan fell during the first race (and scraped up her leg pretty good) and Lorraine stopped, and that's why I won (having been focused on the end of the race, and not on my fellow racers [read: I didn't even see that Megan had fallen until I crossed the line]). In the second race, there were only three runners (because Megan was tending to her wounded leg). So, on the whole, I'm just not fit for running, especially after almost four months of absolutely no running whatsoever. It was the first time I'd put my tennis shoes on since getting them in the mail! We had a potluck lunch with our sponsored classes, and Emily and I ended up combining ours because her class didn't have a tent of sorts to make shade at Beach Park.

Sabbath morning I ended up (quite unexpectedly) teaching youth Sabbath School. I wasn't supposed to teach, but there we go, flexibility in action. Also, prayer in action, too, for you can bet that I was sending up little prayers the ENTIRE time (because I haven't taught a Sabbath School class since the spring of 2006). I suppose that's what the "official" role of "assistant youth leader" means, anyway. It went pretty smoothly, and some of the students even offered their own ideas as answers to questions--and that was truly exciting. I also was the Scripture/prayer person at church (which is the first time I've been up front during a church service).

Sunday I went snorkeling with Emily and Ryan near Beach Park--and saw lots of fish: clownfish, little shiny blue fish that swarmed, black fish, orange fish, fish that looked like Gil off of "Finding Nemo", little saltwater snakes, purple coral, blue water, etc., It was truly awesome and I really wanted to stay longer than the time it took for Ryan to take some sweet photos of the reef inhabitants. I am totally going to take some of those pictures before I leave.

Today was Monday, and the island had the kickoff for Disability Awareness Week. The kickoff was a parade of schoolchildren going around the island, followed by the official ceremony, wherein a bunch of people spoke in Marshallese and some kids danced and they gave food to the students. The parade consisted of the various schools on the island--including ours. We had the 8th-12th graders in the parade. Happily, it started promptly at 9:00 this morning. We looped around the entire island and the kids kept trying to escape down alleys and side streets. Two of our kids even tried to bribe me with a portion of five dollars (the rest of which they wanted to use to buy water with), and of course I had to say No (even though I thought it very funny). After the ceremony, Emily, Ryan and I went to the post office to see if there were any packages--there were ten boxes, none of which were mine. However, three of them were Landen's, and since one of the boxes of mine that haven't arrived yet left shortly after Landen's, it should be arriving any week now.

That brings me to the evening. Seeing as there was no class this morning (due to the parade), I have nothing to grade and I have already updated my grades. I may just go to bed early. More later.

Mostly about Diving

11-24-08/11-25-08 Okay, this post is going to be jam-packed with factoids and tidbits of news (at least I hope so), to explain for the length between my last post and this one.

Last Tuesday, Hidao (our instructor) came by the school and requested that John Mark and I have a "makeup" dive class that evening. Why would we say no? So, I went--and spent forty-five minutes trying to get my ears to equalize. After thirty of those minutes, my right ear popped a tiny bit--but the left? Ah, I thought it was hopeless, especially when John Mark was totally getting everything. Needless to say (to those who know me well), I left Hidao's house frustrated and about ready to quit. I knew I was being unfair to myself by making comparisons between me and the others, but it was a very very human thing to do.

Wednesday night, after prayer meeting, I went over to Ryan and Jhan Dale's apartment to talk to Jhan Dale. Well, it was to play a car racing game (more like car smashing game, for me who can't handle curves) and it ended up being me listening to Jhan Dale. Here is the quite-streamlined story. He'd seen me return to the girls' apartment after my second dive class, and when he had taken the class, he'd had problems equalizing as well. So, after I'd played about four races (losing each time), he just turned to me and started talking about diving and stuff. I sat there, practically crying, and blurted out, "I'm about ready to quit," and he held his hand like he was stopping me and said, "Listen." Then he told me not to quit and gave me some tips on what I could do to try and get my ears to equalize. I looked at the clock, and it was entirely time for me to do crunches and pushups with Emily, take a shower, and then go to bed.

Thursday we had a full class session. We suited up, making jokes about wet suits and talking about my ears (Alan said that I needed to go deeper than "a foot"), and got in the water. I was nervous about going down--I didn't want to spend almost the entire class period trying to get my ears to equalize again! Hidao asked if I'd checked my ears yet--I hadn't, so he told me to go down and see. So I lifted my deflator and descended--but guess what? Alan descended, too, to encourage me to go deeper than a "foot." And wonder of wonders, my ears equalized and I got to do everything with everybody!

Thursday was also the day that Ryan came back from assisting with the Majuro accreditation--and lo and behold! Kevin Costello had sent me a bottle of A-1 Steak Sauce! I was so excited--partially because it was entirely unexpected. So, thank you, Kevin! I've been using it sparingly in order to maximize the length of time I'll be able to utilize it. We also appreciated the bananas that Ryan brought back for us, and the Subway sandwiches he brought from Kwaj on his way back to Ebeye. They were most yummy after our dive (because I get very, very hungry after a dive).

Sunday we dove at Shell Island (which Hidao owns) and we got down to thirty feet and practiced taking off our equipment and putting it back on--underwater. It figures, but when one's weight belt is taken off, it's a good thing to keep a hold of it, or else you'll pop to the surface (no, I did not do that, but it felt like I was going to, even when I had a nice grip on my weight belt). Also, to put on my weight belt, I have to twist in the water and be upside down (relatively) during part of the process. As I was doing it, there was this whining noise going through the water--and I immediately thought that something had gone wrong with my equipment. I finished putting on the weight belt and looked up in time to see Hidao signalling Landen to stay down where we were, and Landen nodded and made the "kill/dead" gesture (drawing a finger across one's neck). I looked up and saw the trail some boat had left behind it. So, boats are whiny underwater. Something new to add to the list of things I didn't know but now do! After the dive, I snorkeled around (because I'm still getting used to fins, mask and snorkel).

Yesterday (Monday) I attended a PTA meeting--which would probably be slightly less boring if I understood everything that was being said, and if it didn't seem like my presence was practically unnecessary. But I suppose because that "T" is in PTA that I must be there. *sigh* I now understand why my boss last year usually mentioned that she didn't like meetings any time that she had to go one. Meetings seem to be the bane of a teacher's existence--but maybe those are just the meetings on Ebeye, conducted mostly in Marshallese and go on forever after starting an hour late because we were waiting for the parents to show up. Argh Marshallese time!

Today (the 25th) we had our final dive, at the lagoon outside of Hidao's house. We practiced doing emergency ascent swimming, then went for a loop around the bottom of the lagoon. We got down to sixty feet--no equalization problems for me whatsoever! Some of the group say that we didn't get down that far, but I do know how to read my gauge--so, at least I got down to sixty feet. It was sweetly awesome! Now, if my mask would quit fogging so I wouldn't have to clear it underwater (which is still a little heart-stopping, but a lot easier). I had to clear my mask five to six times during this last dive. I saw some brightly colored fish, possibly a purple starfish thing, plenty of brownish coral (which probably would have been brighter had we not been diving close to sunset), and the shimmering ceiling of the surface. I am currently tied with Alan (2-2) at games of underwater rock, paper, scissors [same as regular rock, paper, scissors, but played underwater] (because we were taking turns doing the emergency ascent on the rope with Hidao), and have lost two games of underwater slapsies [you know, that dumb game where your hands are almost on top of someone else's and the person on the bottom tries to slap the person on top's hands). I stopped after two games because it's really hard to laugh underwater.

Tomorrow we have our final paper exam--and pay for the course--and order our personal equipment. I'm planning on getting fins, boots, mask, and snorkel. So, I need to get some grading done, compose a few emails, and go over the process of computing bottom time. More later.

First Dive and Accreditation

11/16/08 I just realized that I haven't ever described our living space. First off, most of the staff lives in one building. We just have various apartments that all face our courtyard. Our apartment is technically 2B, but no one calls it that. They call it "The Girls' Apartment". There are six apartments on the second floor--Emily the Canadian lives at the top of the stairs, and next to her lives Mervin. Next to him lives Ryan and Jhan Dale (they're brothers), and then next to them is four of the guys (Landen, Jordan, Alan, and John Mark). Next to them is us, and then next to us is the empty "married SMs" apartment, which was renovated in September and is used as the guest room. Downstairs we have the gate in the courtyard and Edwin and Jonas live in the apartment next to that. Then there's the salt water well and the very dark weight room that the guys like to use, even when it's really hot. Then there's Pastor and Rose's apartment, where they live with their eight kids. Then there's the gate that we usually use, then Abra and his family's apartment, I do believe. Around the little corner is the fresh water catchment--and then the trash monster's lair, and then back to the front gate. The stairs are in the middle, and so we have to duck underneath our "balcony" to leave the apartment. Jonas is trying to grow tomatoes on the first little landing of the stairs. There are clotheslines crisscrossing the main open part of the courtyard, and they're usually covered with somebody's clothes. (Maybe I can draw a map or something and post it. This description might not have helped you at all.)

My first confined water scuba dive was...well, it was interesting. It took the seven of us about an hour to get all suited up in our gear (our BCDs, our weight belts, etc.,) We got in the water and started working on our skills. I think I forgot to immediately equalize my ears (at least, I don't remember doing that). That led to problems later on. The first thing we practiced and demonstrated was letting our regulator go and then recovering it, clearing it, and breathing through it again. That was easy (for me, anyway). Then we did the skill of clearing a mask halfway filled. To learn how to do it, we had to let water trickle in from the top of our masks, then take a breath from the regulator, look up slightly, hold the bottom of the mask open and breath out through our noses. This was difficult for me. For some reason, it's difficult for me to have something in my mouth and breath out through my nose. (I've been practicing, however.) I'm really good at breathing slowly and deeply in and out through the regulator, but breathing out through my nose? Difficult. I think it's because when I usually have something in my mouth and breath in through my nose, I have to breath out through my mouth. That would be when I'm playing my bass clarinet. However, the skill needed for that skill is the exact opposite of what I'm used to doing. *sigh* It's a learning process. It took me a while to clear it, but I DID! Then, to learn the next skill, we were supposed to go out further, but my ears refused to equalize, and so I didn't get to practice clearing a completely filled mask (I'm sure I will at some point). Our instructor said that it takes time for some people to get their ears to equalize well. (I also think that I forgot to immediately equalize when I got underwater, like I said above.) He also said that I was descending too quickly (which, I think, is from too much weight on my weight belt). We were supposed to have our second dive last Thursday, but the class was canceled when the instructor had to go to Majuro to deal with some emergency.

Our first accreditor arrived last Thursday, and the rest arrived on Friday evening, at the same time as we SMs were holding vespers at the school. One of the accreditors, Kevin Costello, had the sermon on Sabbath morning--he spoke in Marshallese and in English, translating himself as he went along. It was about Naaman and the little slave girl and about forgiveness. We had a large potluck at Ryan's apartment and got to know the accreditation team a little bit. After our AY program, they interviewed the high schoolers that had been picked out by us and then they interviewed the four of us high school teachers. It was nice to find out that the kids' most favorite thing about the school was US! (Granted, that's the only thing they told us, but that's okay.) We spoke to them for about forty-five minutes and then our part was over. They've been working feverishly ever since, writing and writing and talking and writing, etc., etc., et. al. They leave Ebeye on Monday's noon boat, and their plane leaves Monday night at six.

Once I met them, my world instantly shrank and has continued to get smaller as the weekend has progressed. One of the accreditation team members lives two miles or so off of Southern's campus, and was telling Lorraine and I about the new Wellness Center and about other updates that have been done on campus. Another member of the team was part of the accreditation team who visited Indiana Academy on its site visit when I was a junior there (I thought he was vaguely familiar). Two others I met at the SM orientation in Honolulu in August--and then there was the last team member. Kevin Costello (the one who had the sermon on Sabbath) knows people I know from the Indiana Conference, knows people from Georgia who I worked with at Timber Ridge last summer, and was the boss of one of my friends from Southern (hi, Kevin!) He spent at least four years as a missionary in the Marshall Islands, and one of those years was spent as vice-principal of Ebeye Seventh-day Adventist School, back in the school year of 1991-1992. (I chose not to reveal that I had been a preschooler that year.)

Today was Sunday (for me). Emily and I went to the dock, worked on midterm grades (her) and on examples for the World History project (me). We ate at the "American Eatery" and watched some of the news that was on AFN. All I have to say is that the world's falling apart and we have to tell people why it's falling apart. Take that as you will. When we got back, we had to deliver something to the school and then got to play a little basketball (which is not easy in a skirt and a pair of shorts that are falling down because you've lost weight). Then we went to the apartments, and then the accreditation team took us out for dinner at Litaki (the same restaurant that Dr. Penniecook took us to two weeks ago; the only restaurant on the island other than Triple J).

Tomorrow (Monday) is a holiday, and, thus, no school. Yay for Marshallese presidents! It's President's Day, and I'm just excited that we have no school. I think EVERYONE is.

More later.

~Ashlee

Three Months and A Preview of My Sunday

11-8-08 Yesterday, November 7th, was the day that marked the fact that I have now officially been on Ebeye for three months. Three months! Seems like it was only a few days ago that I wrote about how two months seemed like some major achievement. And I am pretty sure that I'll write that four months is an achievement, and then for five months, etc., all the way until I reach home and go, "Wow! I've been home a week!" or something like that.

This quarter is the short quarter of the school year (probably because of Christmas Break), and so midterms are already approaching. I mean, we just finished first quarter grades and had conferences with the parents--and lo and behold! in our office mailboxes we already have the forms for midterm grades. I shake my head and sigh, then start anticipating writing my midterm tests on Sunday.

Our accreditors arrive this week, and, accordingly, we're having a work bee on Sunday. We're supposed to start at 9:30 AM and work for two hours, but since the church members are also going to help, it will take much longer for them to arrive, and we usually stay until everything's accomplished. Part of being the student missionary, I suppose. My classroom is going to receive a much-needed coat of paint and some electrical work. Textbooks that need moved to another room will be, and I will help clean out the teachers' workroom (and try to make it into a room where people could actually work!). After the work bee, I have my first confined water scuba dive. It's not really confined, and it's not really a dive, per se. We'll be diving in the lagoon, to learn and then to practice skills we'll need to know for when we actually go deep down. We'll be staying rather close to the surface, and that's why it's not really a dive. But the time will come, and I already have butterflies. In the evening, I will grade assignments and quizzes from Friday, enter grades into my computer, and work on those "terrible" midterm tests. And that will be Sunday, November 9th, 2008. Hope your Sunday is/was just as action-packed!

More later.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

11-6-08 Parent/Teacher Conferences. I never knew just how boring and interesting such things could be. I'm the sophomore sponsor, and so that's the parents I talk to, the parents of the sophomores. Now my sophomores are a lovely bunch of teenagers. Sure, they have their terrible moments, but on the whole, they're good kids. Of the sixteen kids I had last quarter, I had thirteen parents and/or guardians show up (one person was an older sister!). Most of the kids had okay grades, and mostly the parents were content with them. What bothered them more was the absences and tardies. I had to explain to a good number of parents (mostly mothers) why their child was late to second period in the afternoon (biology). The reason for that is that they hang outside the classroom and ignore Jordan as he tells and asks them to come in. Some of them even have absences resulting from this hallway loitering. Several of the mothers were like, "That's not going to happen anymore." One father, when confronted with his son's many morning absences and afternoon tardies, said, "I work every day but Monday, and so I ask him every night if he went to school, and he says, 'Yeah.' And why should I doubt him? I'm going to have to straighten that boy out."

It was interesting to talk with the parents of my kids, and get a feel for why they're the way they are. Mainly, the parents care, but they're not nearly as present as they'd like to be. One of the things I learned while researching the Marshallese before I came here was that they're a very family-oriented culture. For centuries they lived in large extended family units where everyone played a role, from small children to elderly adults. I think it's difficult to maintain that family connection here on Ebeye. Most people who move here do so because of the jobs they can get at the military base, which pays well but also sucks time out of their lives. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, time runs differently here. Most people I had ever talked to have called it "island time." The U.S. Military does not work on island time, but rather on precise military time. People who leave the outer islands come to Ebeye and find a place that runs on time--the ferry has a schedule, schools have schedules, churches have schedules, Kwaj has schedules. Pretty much everything has a schedule except the power outages. These schedules, if not used properly, can take over a person's life and rob them of time that they need to build relationships with their families.

Parent/Teacher Conferences was also boring. There were gaps of time when nobody showed up at all, and so we teachers talked and joked. We kept a running tally of how many parents each teacher had come (it's why I knew I had thirteen parents show). I also did crossword puzzles--about four of them, I think. It was fun. I had forgotten that I had brought a book of them with me, and so it kept me entertained, and will keep me entertained until I run out of puzzles (I only brought the one book). Ryan bought us some soda and these "fudge cake" things that had expired in May. (No wonder they were cheap!) Unfortunately, I ate one before I discovered the expiration date. (Well, Emily discovered it, but still.) I had no ill effects from it, though, and that was good.

Overall, it went well. I received permission from one mom to spank her daughter if necessary (even though she's a sophomore), and one mom told me that her daughter "has no boys in her life," which I know to be utterly false, because I've seen her flirting with one of the junior boys. One of the dads joked/complained that the mom in front him talked a lot, and then reassured me that he'd talk fast. What made me laugh the most was one sophomore's sister. I didn't know she was his sister at the time, so I was naturally confused when I said that he's a good kid in class and a nice kid, and she goes, "Well, he's annoying to me." I was like, What? So, using my sisterly intuition, I guessed that she was his older sister--and then I found out later that she was. That was a relief!

More later...

Picnics and Randomosities (Yes, I know that's not a real word!)

11/3/08 Our Week of Prayer speaker was Dr. Eustachio Penniecook. He spoke on the two lives that we can choose--either a life of life or a life of death--and he emphasized the fact that it's a choice. A lot of the kids were moved by his sermons. Last Sabbath, four of the kids were baptized (not in response to the series, but just because it was a good time to have it). Our theme song was "I'd Rather Have Jesus" and so I can officially state that I have the words of that hymn memorized. All three verses!

I also got two envelopes last week--the one with the magazines and comics and the one with PK sermon CDs. Thanks, Mom and McConnell Family! It was really awesome to open the issue of Adventist World and get the section where it has funny tidbits and excerpts from Adventist life. Why, you ask? Because of the blurb that Mrs. Trubey submitted and had published, about typos in the Cicero Church's bulletin. It was so wonderful to think that I knew exactly where that was, and who those people were. It was a nice reminder of one of my homes.

On Sunday (the 2nd), we took a boat out to Nge Nge, in order to have a picnic. Our picnics usually consist of a potluck lunch and swimming. After the fifteen minute boat ride, we climbed out of the boat and waded up the beach. Megan slipped and bashed her knee against some coral (but it's doing well now), but Emily ended up getting stung by something (we still don't know what) and had to go back to Ebeye and so missed out on all the fun. (I'm pretty sure that she'll write a blog post about her adventures of Sunday, so I'll leave that to her.) After the boat headed back to Ebeye, we had our potluck lunch and sat on the beach, talking. After a bit, most of us either did a little bit of snorkeling or went exploring. I snorkeled, but the mask I'd borrowed started leaking (I'm not sure whether I had it on properly or if it just leaks) and so I swam back to the shore. I watched the others scraping out coconut and then decided to take a walk to the end of the island and take a look at the channel (the place where the ocean surges into the lagoon).

So, off I went, with the ocean on my left and the forest on my right. The beach was rather rocky, and so I picked my way down the beach, taking pictures (some of which I will try to upload so you can see). There were lots of little pools and places where my feet got wet because I was navigating around trees that jutted out over the rocks. The waves got larger and larger as we got closer and closer to the channel--the swells and crests and crashes were huge. As they say in "Finding Nemo," the Big Blue is big and blue. ( [insert smiley face here] )Now, a few of the others had followed along behind me, making their various ways over the rocks. When we reached the end of the island, we decided that we needed to head back and so I started back the way I had come. (Everyone else decided to finish going around the island, even though we were beginning to run out of time.) The tide was coming in, and so at the places where my feet had gotten wet I ended up wading through. I made it back in one piece (albeit a bit thirsty) and we had an uneventful boat ride back to the dock.

Dr. Penniecook bought the entire staff dinner at the only restaurant on Ebeye. It's a little place called Litaki Fast Food, but the second word's a bit misleading. The food is rather expensive (but this is Ebeye, everything's expensive), but it's also good. The cooks are Filipino, and they serve a variety of foods, but only a couple vegetarian options (if you're ever thinking of visiting Ebeye). Whatever your order is, it comes with a large scoop of rice and a slightly smaller scoop of potato salad. My meal was excellently good for two reasons. One, it was cooked well and tasted good, and two, it was free for me. Free meals are incredibly wonderful to a college student (and inside, that's what I still am). What was the most fun was the conversations I participated in--it reminded me of the conversations that my friends and I have back at school. Megan, Landen, Jhan Dale, and I discussed books and movies and our students. I also met Matt, an English teacher at the school run by WorldTeach. He, Jhan Dale, and Ryan play basketball together. All of us were discussing our students' lack of motivation for learning, but also what we're doing to overcome it.

I have also started scuba diving lessons! We haven't actually dove yet, but we go to our instructor's house (he's the only certified Marshallese instructor and so he travels a lot; yes, he lives on Ebeye) and go through the chapters and take quizzes over them. Our first lesson was filled with stories about what could happen if something goes wrong, but our instructor also had the advice of "I've only seen this like once or twice in my entire diving career." Our second lesson was more relaxed, and our third lesson--well, it's tomorrow, and I hope I do well on my quizzes. We've been learning how to read dive tables (an essential tool to a diver; it allows you to know how much bottom time you can have and how much nitrogen you still have in you after you've surfaced) and that's part of tomorrow's quiz.

Today (Monday) we had a class picnic. Emily, Jordan, and I combined our class picnics into one big picnic. This was for several reasons. One, Emily and I didn't want to solo supervise our classes, and two, the freshmen wanted to hang with the juniors. So we let them. Anyway, we teachers decided that we would have the picnic at Beach Park, the only "natural" spot left on Ebeye, on the end that looks toward Kwajalein. There are a few palm trees, a nice sandy bottomed part to the lagoon, and the ocean. However, the power plant looms over part of it, and it's pretty much strewn with trash from end to end and looks like a huge sandy parking lot. We chose to have it there because the sophomores and juniors misbehave in their classes and we didn't know how they'd behave on a picnic. Usually, the high schoolers get to go off the island to one of the nicer places (like Shell Island) but not this time. Believe me, we had lots of whining and complaints about how they'd rather go to Shell and lots of blather about "Miss-ah, why can't we?" and on and on. Our simple logic of "A picnic is a privilege, not a right, and the privilege of going off Ebeye for the picnic is for students who behave" just didn't sink in. When the freshmen complained, we reminded them that they had had a choice whether to stick with us or have their own picnic some other time. Even when we tried to plan out who was bringing what was a frustrating ordeal that almost ended in them having community service instead. That didn't happen. This morning came, and Jordan and I waited for an hour and a half for them to show up (Emily stayed at home until we actually went to the picnic, because of her foot). About ten students came, but they waited across the street from the school and then complained about "starting late" when they were the ones who were late, since Jordan and I had been at school since staff worship. When we finally got to Beach Park, we realized that many of the students had just gone there instead. The girls started up the fire and everyone just hung out. Jordan and a few of the guys played Rock Golf (throwing rocks at a specified point) and the kids just dribbled in. However, only about twenty of our forty students showed up (which was fine because that meant less to supervise). We had conversations, took pictures, and ate food. There was plenty of rice, chicken, and dessert. The spaghetti came late, but the kids divvied it up and took it home. Ryan dropped by (we'd invited him) and snorkeled, ate some food, had an water/ice slush fight with some of the junior boys, and bicycled our metal chair home. The kids cleaned up and Jordan, Emily, and I went home, where Emily and I ended up dozing for about two hours (there was no power, so we just relaxed instead of getting things done). So, in the end it was fun, despite the frustrations. Yay class picnic.

And tomorrow is Parent/Teacher Conferences. I think we're all nervous...

More later.

Rain, New Quarter, and Packages

10-23-08 Well, we've had plenty of rain, yes indeedy we have. It has rained every night since Sunday night, the day I wrote the blog about it not raining (hence the note at the bottom). Puddles and humidity abound! However, even when it's been humid, we have had a nice ocean breeze coming into our classrooms, sometimes making the kids cold and sweeping papers to the floor. I have learned that, whether I think it's windy enough or not, I always weight papers down--or suffer having to chase it across the classroom after its decision to take flight. (In fact, it rained so badly Thursday night that water soaked the end of my mattress and even got some of my things that were on the floor wet. Argh.)

Like I said earlier, we just finished up first quarter and have begun the second quarter. We are a quarter of the way done with the school year. I think that's pretty amazing, because we haven't hit the three-month mark yet. The way we administered the tests to the high schoolers was pretty special. We took down the partitions between Jordan's and my rooms, dragged in a few benches, and had the seniors bring down their classroom chairs. Yes, that's right, we had all the kids taking all their tests at the same time in the same room. It made proctoring a lot easier, that's for sure. There was usually at least three of us in the room most of the time, and each test period was an hour and a half long. The kids had to get test permits before being able to take their tests (you know, upholding that rule is just as hard as having to submit to it), and so some of my kids have had to make up tests they missed on Monday. My final grades are all done, except for one boy's, who hasn't taken his final yet. He was supposed to come after school, but he just has not remembered to do so. I'll have to remind him again. One of the juniors has skipped two tests, both of which are for classes that I teach. Consequentially, he is failing both of those classes. I never understood whatever it is that urges students to skip class, especially on test days. I wish they would realize that they are hurting themselves more than anything else. But I guess part of the problem comes from their outlook on life, on the future: they do not see one. So, why should they care about the present when they see no future? Others think, "Hey, I'm going to be a landowner when my parents are gone, and so I'll never need to work," and so they don't care if they pass or fail. Others don't see a need for school because they simply do not care. I understand it, but I don't agree with it. I'm trying to show them why they should care, that they do have futures. We're trying to change a whole societal viewpoint, and it's going to take time for it to change.

We start Week of Prayer on Sabbath, and our speaker arrives on Friday. When I know more about him, I'll let you all know. We'll be having two sessions a day, one for the high school and another for the upper elementary students (4-8 [unless we stick the eighth graders in with the high school]). A lot of our kids aren't Adventist, and probably some of them aren't even Christian. A lot of them are nominally one denomination or the other, and their parents' primary reason for sending them to our school is that we teach everything in English. So, this is definitely an area where souls can be reached, definitely a time when we need prayers. I'm quite sure that Satan will do everything he can to disrupt our Week of Prayer, and so I'm asking all of you to send some Heavenly Support our way. Please?

I have taken my first step towards becoming a certified open water scuba diver (but I haven't gone anywhere near the water yet). I have read the dive class training book, and I am rather excited. Yes, I am also sort of worried, and yes, it does cost a little bit of money--but who knows when I'd have a chance to check out the reef here? My only reasons for not taking the class would be money and fear of the unknown and the possible bad things that could happen--but those are not good enough reasons to not take the class. Therefore, I will be paying it. It's cheaper here than it would be anywhere else (and we get a discount because the instructor's kids went to our school). Besides, why should I live with regrets of adventures not taken? I'm doing it, and I am looking forward to it. Plus, I have been fascinated by coral ever since I was in fourth grade--and I've finally gotten to see some!!

Wow--as I finished typing the above sentence, there was a knock on our door. Emily and I both called, "Come in!" and Ryan came in, his arms laden with mail. Two of his burdens were for ME! I was so happy, because they were a day or so late, by my reckoning. So, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, my dear wonderful loving family! Thanks for the shorts (even though I'm guessing some won't fit anymore, but that's okay) and thanks for the T-shirt. I don't even mind that it's my Andrews T-shirt; I was just happy to see some other T-shirt than the five that I brought with me. And the Thousand Island dressing--oh, thank you, that made me laugh! And yum, Oreos and pasta and sunscreen (I thought you said you couldn't find any at home in the fall?) and everything else. Thanks a lot!

Obviously, you can tell by the above paragraph that I enjoy getting mail. Priority-rate/flat-rate boxes are pretty cheap (relatively) to send, because the Marshall Islands are part of the US Postal Service (even though they will tell you that they can't find the Marshall Islands in their database). Its postal code is MH, and one of my friends asked me why wasn't it MI? Well, because MI stands for Michigan, that's why!! However, it seems to go at different speeds to get here; Megan and Landen were both sent mail from the States before my boxes were sent, and theirs hasn't gotten here yet. That's weird in general and very frustrating for them. Then again, if it was by regular mail, it may take more than three months to get here. Ah, the joys of being far away!

So, thanks for the packages and the love! Komol tata (that's "thank you very much" in Marshallese; "comb-mol ta-ta")!

More later.

~Ashlee

PS: If anyone has any particular questions about the Marshall Islands, Ebeye, or Ebeye Seventh-day Adventist school, e-mail them to me at the address I send updates from. I'd love to try and answer them.

Quarter Final Annoyances and Rain

On Monday and Tuesday we've been having quarter finals. One, I've decided that I prefer the semester system. Two, I am tired of kids who do well trying to cheat so that they can do even better. Three, I wish students would study, but I suppose that's a case of horses and troughs. For example, I am in the middle of grading my juniors' English exam. It was not long, I told them exactly where I got the questions from, and their test covered less chapters than the other classes'. But did they study? I can tell that they didn't, not many of them, anyway. One junior did not even show up for his test. ARGH.

It rained on Sunday night, the day I wrote the last post. I posted it on Monday, but the site still says that I posted it on Sunday. Well, it also rained last night (Monday for me). Rained so much that it left puddles and lots of humidity. Was so windy that it left a puddle on my bed--again. *sigh* And laundry day's not until Friday afternoon...guess I'll have to use Emily's nice-smelling spray to cover up the smell until I can dry out the mattress and wash the sheets.

Okay, well, this was a random after-classes post.

~Ashlee

Weather Prayers Matter, and A Well-Done Piece of Homework

10-19-08 Well, supposedly it's rainy season. However, it has not rained hard in almost two weeks. Our water catchment at school is dry--which means no filtered rainwater to drink, which means going to Kwaj to re-fill our plastic jugs or buying new jugs at Triple J. Our catchment at the house is also dry--which means saltwater showers and a nice layer of salt on the counter from the rinse water that ran off of the dishes. So, basically, we're praying that it rains. Right now, we have clouds that are mocking us because it's not gloomy enough to rain and we need rain. Fresh water is a luxury that I will indulge myself in once I get back to Indiana in May.

Today we re-arranged our house, and in such a way that it makes it look a lot larger than it actually is. We also got Lorraine to get her mound of stuff squared away, which makes the house look neater and makes Lorraine calmer. We vacuumed, and we're currently doing laundry--we're even going to wash our curtains. Curtains do make a big difference in how hot a house feels, even when the AC's on. We like the natural light, but we like the house feeling cool as well. Supposedly our power's now to 24/7, but I'm not making any bets. Jhan Dale says we can tell by the fact that we have streetlights and basketball court lights again, but like I said, I'm not entirely convinced. I'd rather live the possibility of a power outage and be pleasantly surprised forever, than to think that we'll have power always and be disappointed. It's all perspective, right?

The pastor's third-grade son, Sam, has a new puppy. Its name is Kiba (Japanese for 'dog') and he is a very cute puppy. All of us SMs play with it whenever we get a chance. Playing with Kiba is a great stress reliever for me, right up there with reading books and playing with Sam and Vicky (she's seven and also lives downstairs). My language lessons are also a source of amusement and challenge for me. I'm on my third week of words, and I usually have to laugh at myself because of the way I pronounce the words (since Marshallese vowels are said very differently from English vowels). I actually have to go over my list of words that I get quizzed on tonight--I've started making mental images of what the words mean, instead of trying to remember what each word means. (I got the tip from Megan, and it's been pretty useful.)

So--Marshallese word of the day--"elikin ralep." It means "afternoon," literally. You pronounce it this way: L-eh-kin rall-lip. (I think. I mean, I hope I've put it into the blog in such a way that you can possibly say it properly.)

I am very excited. I assigned all of my English students to read Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger?", and set the assignment that I had been given as an academy freshman (thanks, Mr. Rector!), which was to write the ending of the story. I also let them have an extra credit opportunity by telling them to find at least ten words they did not know inside the story and find the definitions. Well, the freshmen and sophomores blatantly plagiarized out of the story and succeeded in making endings that made absolutely no sense. I made them re-do the assignment after a reminder about my rules about copying the story and each other. None of them found definitions. The juniors did a little bit better (they didn't plagiarize), but most of them didn't understand the "make it like a story" part, and only a few of them did definitions.The seniors, however, have made me smile. Of the ones who turned it in (because not everyone did), they were all original and pretty well thought out. Most turned in definitions. However, one of the students entirely made my day with his response. It was the longest response, it was fairly well written, and it answered the question posed by the author and delineated the responses of the various characters inside of the story. He even used one of the words he had looked up for the definitions correctly! (And his definitions were most definitely more than ten, but he could only get ten points. More power to him, anyway.) But my favorite line inside his response was this: "If she hadn't been to her father's many barbaric killings and had she been in a good environment and maybe gone to church she wouldn't be this cold hearted, jealous princess" (if you've read the story, you will probably think this very funny, like I did). I gave him extra credit on the assignment, it was that much first-rate over everyone else's. It was awesome, and I was so incredibly happy, I was bouncing up and down inside our apartment. I think I'm going to photocopy it and keep it, just because I'm so proud of him.

More later.

~Ashlee

NOTE: Last night it poured. Happy day, thank God for the rain!



Picture of a rainbow from the first day of school

A Bit of Routine--and Return of the List!

10-16-08 On Sunday, we went to Kwaj. Well, only to the dock--we're still not allowed to go past the security checkpoint. However, they are looking for sponsors for us now, and all of us are eagerly anticipating being able to go inside, even to just go to the stores inside where the prices are slightly cheaper than on Ebeye. It was nice to sit in an air conditioned place and eat a sandwich that had very, very nice vegetables on it. I mean, the lettuce was actually CRISP! I have a new found appreciation and love of vegetables, even those that at home I have usually shunned in the past.

It's nice to break up our routine a bit, since there's not much to do on Ebeye. We pretty much have a nice little circuit here, of home to school, school to home, and trips to Triple J on the side. Occasionally (on Sundays) we go swimming at Beach Park or get online at NTA. Other than that, we read books (I have read over thirty books in the last two and a half months), work on grading and grades, work on lesson plans, write blogs, talk with each other, and go to bed at very decent time (unlike most other people at our age *coughcollegestudentscough*). However, it can still get pretty boring, so we're all really excited when people such as yourselves send anyone of us things to read, especially if they're newspaper comics. My mom has been wonderful enough to even send along a Reader's Digest, which are hard for her to part with. One of the things I'm wishing to read is Southern's alumni magazine. I'm not an alumnus yet, but it's still awesome to read stuff about my school. Plus, I could possibly use it to recruit from the seniors.

It has been rather difficult to figure out what to write, because a lot of what we do has become more routine--and, yes, I know that it's still new to you all, since you don't live here, but it's still hard to find something to write. However, I have decided to add to my list of "Things I have Learned as an SM."

35. Two water jugs in one hand is equal to stiff fingers.
36. Water jugs overflow more quickly when one is not watching.
37. Mice are just as scary to me in the Marshalls as they are at home. {Stop laughing, Mom!}
38. School newspapers are fun to read even when one isn't on campus.
39. Thirty books is only the beginning. (Maybe ya'll will send me more?)
40. I cannot wait to eat off of a salad bar at camp or at Southern.
41. I have discovered that I like being a vegetarian, and that right now, I miss being a vegetarian. {Even though I still really do not eat a lot of meat here. Our apartment is vegetarian.}
42. We definitely feel as if we're on the front lines of the Great Controversy.

Well, that's all--wait! I almost forgot. Some nice school in the States shipped us some world history textbooks, and they're updated versions of the ones I was using. Next week, we start using them. Each student gets a book, and--wonder of wonders!--I get a teacher's edition!!!!!! I am so excited. Also, I'm starting a "Create a Nation" quarter-long project with the World History class, and I hope it goes well. The students are capable of the work, but they're lazy (they say it of themselves) and so I wonder how much and how well they will actually do. So, pray for us! Pray for us as we teach and us as we are out of school. I know we need it. And if you choose to let us know, let us know. We can pray for you in return.

Language Lessons, etc.,

10-7-08 So, I have been here exactly two months. Yippee. That makes for eight months left. Not that I want to leave or anything, don't misunderstand me--but two months feels like some sort of accomplishment. A little accomplishment, perhaps, but an accomplishment nonetheless. Today was a wet and windy day; sometimes the rain came down so hard that I couldn't see the corrugated metal roof of the building outside of my classroom. (By that point water was coming in the windows and so the windows had to be closed, or else all of us and our books, etc., would be drenched.) Each week has sort of a "camp" feel to it; each day in the week sometimes seems almost unendurably long, but Sunday rolls around, and it's like, "What? We're at the start of another week AGAIN?" and so we dive right back in.

Language lessons. I mentioned that I would talk about them a little more in length in another post. Well, I am taking weekly lessons with Mama Rose, our pastor's wife who is quite motherly. The lessons consist of her writing down a list of words, teaching me how to pronounce them, and then making me memorize them. I am on my second week of words--and what's cool is that I don't have to learn the language. I don't, but I still am--because I want to. It's sort of difficult; I have my age and my nationality against me, but I do have tenacity and willingness to laugh at myself or to be laughed at when I flub once again at pronouncing a word whose vowels are pronounced in a completely different way than in English. Megan's also taking lessons, and since she's practically tri- or quad-lingual, it's a lot easier for her. Me, I just have the high school Spanish I took three years ago--and this language is completely different. Still, I want to learn, and that's key to it. Also, it makes telling kids what to do just a tiny bit easier. Some of them don't understand English, and some of them pretend to not understand English--and so it really shocks them when I whip out a word or a phrase of Marshallese. For example, one of the seniors (yes, the seniors) was pushing the boundaries of the rules and was standing up when he wasn't supposed to. I told him to sit down a few times in English, but he persisted in not doing it. (Yeah, yeah, probably should have sent him to the office.) Anyway, I got tired of it, and said, "Jijet, Peterson!" and he looked at me, shocked, and did. The class applauded. (It was actually pretty funny.) Yesterday I had to say, "Jijet kia" and that worked, too. ("Jijet" means "sit down"; it's pronounced "shee-shet"; "kia" means "now" and it's pronounced like we would say it in English, "key-ah".) SO, that's your phrase for today.

Whenever I log onto Facebook or MySpace or whatever, all I see are status updates that include the words "cold" and/or "snow". We don't get that here. We're way too close to the equator for that. We have two seasons: the rainy season and the dry season. Right now we're in the rainy season (hence the rain at the beginning of the post), and I've been told that dry season starts in about February. The kids were asking if we were going to cancel the afternoon portion of school because of the rain--and of course I said no. The kids treat rain like kids in Indiana treat snow--they wake up, hear rain (or see snow) and wonder if there's going to be school. I asked them if rain has to be shoved out of the way so that people can walk or ride the taxis, and they said, "No, of course not." And so I replied, "Then you can come back from your home after lunch and go to school." And since it was the seniors, I went into telling them about REAL weather that can shut down a school. (Of course, our resident Albertans would have been like, "Pfft! Your winters in the States are nothin'!")

It has been rather awesome to read my fellow SMs' blogs--and not just Emily's blog from her time here on Ebeye. I mean, I really enjoy reading the blogs of my friends who are in rather far-flung parts of the world right now, friends are reaching similar two month marks. If you have time, I recommend reading the blogs that I've listed down the side of this page--you'll find an assistant dean in Kenya; an English teacher/everything and anything in Tanzania; teachers in Majuro, Marshall Islands; a third grade teacher on Palau; people living in the jungles or on the rivers in Peru--and if I've forgotten anyone, I'm sorry. I'm typing up this blog at home. It's nice to see that, even though our experiences are vastly different, they're more similar than we'd probably guess. God bless you all!!!

Oh--just got my air mail from Southern today. Thanks Andrea, Krystin (I hope I spelled that right) and Nate for the lovely little notes--and double thanks for the copy of the Accent. Totally made me happy and wishing to be at school at the same time. Thanks!!!!!

Love,

Ashlee

PS. This blog was written on the seventh, and posted today because we've had wacky power recently. First time in weeks!

In Between Classes Again

Well, the thought just struck me. Sure, it's still Monday at home, and so this will post under that date, but for me, it's the 7th of October, two months since I arrived on Ebeye, jet-lagged yet excited.

Everything has settled into a routine--but nothing's routine. (I hope you know what I mean when I say that.) My kids are settling down (most of the time), and I'm beginning to pick up some Marshallese, something that's sort of difficult to do when we have to enforce a "No Marshallese in class" rule, since they're supposed to be learning English. Actually, I'm taking lessons from Mama Rose and it's really awesome. I'll expand on it in some other post.

Well, I have to go to Advanced Reading. Talk with you all later.

Love,

Ashlee

Pictures from Carlos

These are pictures of the cement ship, a nice shot of the beach, and Jhan Dale making a fire with coconuts (very smoky).

A Little Bit about Manit Day and A Lot about A Crazy Campout on Carlos

Warning: This is a very LONG post.

9-30-08 Last day of September!! It is almost officially my two-month mark here on Ebeye. Whoa.

Well, we had a short week of school last week--three days of class, one very long day of a holiday program, and then no school because of the holiday. This particular holiday was Manit Day, the day when the students celebrate Marshallese culture. Each class, from PreK to twelfth, sang a song or had a small skit--or both--all conducted in Marshallese, and thus, mostly incomprehensible by the teachers who are making everything run smoothly. After the program, the parents of each class provided huge potluck feasts for each class--and although only one of my sophomores' parents showed up, they all brought what they had planned. The whole day ran rather smoothly, considering we had a late start because we had to wait for the prince to show up. Yes, you read that correctly, the prince. He's the only royalty on island right now, but he still had to come and kick off our program. We started approximately forty-five minutes late because the prince had to go to each of the schools on the island and be honored at each one. Hm. Talk about a different culture!

Then, on Friday, we teachers and staff headed off to Carlos Island for a short camping trip. We left at about ten in the morning and got to the campsite across the lagoon and were set up by noon. A group of us took a quick dip off the lagoonside beach, and then, after lunch, when Ryan saw that it was high tide, we trekked back to the harbor and swam out to the huge cement ship that is used as a breakwater. It's a leftover from World War II, an experimental ship that is mostly made out of cement. Weird, right? Well, the tide is super-high on this island (hopefully I can get some pictures to load and then you can see for yourselves). There is part of a scaffold tied to the lowest end of the ship, and at high tide, you can climb up the scaffold by clinging to the rope that tied down the middle, make one's way through the upper decking, and then launch off and jump into the ocean below. Well, I'm still not the strongest swimmer in the world, and the waves in the harbor were large, on account of the fact that there is no natural reef on that part of the island, and it's near the open channel, where there's no island breaking up the ocean at all in the atoll, so I was the last out to the ship. Then, because my upper body strength isn't all that I wish it was, I had difficulties getting up the scaffolding. Everybody else had already gotten to the top, and Ryan had waited for me by the ladder. He tried to help me, but I couldn't even get onto the bottom rung. I let Ryan climb up, because I wasn't about to spoil his fun just because I couldn't climb up the stupid scaffold-ladder-thing. Well, everyone who had swum out there (Megan, Landen, Ryan, Alan, Melvin, and Jordan) jumped off and then swam over to climb up again. And thus everyone helped me get up the ladder, which I had spent their first jump trying to get up by myself and failing spectacularly. I had succeeded in getting on the bottom rung, but I couldn't get enough leverage to go any higher. So, this is how I got up the ladder (which I discovered was part of a scaffold because the second rung has instructions on it, and I read it when sitting on the bottom rung, being unable to go higher). First, Jordan and Melvin climbed up and steadied the thing; then, Ryan (who had his snorkel) had me step on his shoulders and we got myself up onto the second rung. Then, Jordan and Melvin climbed up onto the top and then helped me up the rest of the way, while the rest shouted encouragement (especially Alan). Once up there, it was pretty cool. We made our way through what was the upper deck--Ryan made sure to remind us that we had to watch our step, because it was all rusting. I mean, it is over sixty years old. Then we walked out onto the higher part of the ship. Now, the jump everyone else made first was lower than where they wanted to jump the second time--but I didn't do that first leap. And I would not say that I'm particularly fond of heights--and yet I leaped. Of course, I had to will myself to do it (I mean, how else does a sane person hurl themselves off of a height of about twenty-five, thirty feet, and into salt water?), but it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. First, there was that initial thought of "Oh, why did I do this?" because it's not like the cartoons, you can't go running back to the safe place, and then came the thought of "Oh, this is fun." However, it was the highest that I have ever jumped from, and I wasn't expecting it to be so long between jump and splash, if you know what I mean. So then the thought of "When am I going to hit the water? Am I ever going to hit the water? Oh, this is scary!" hit, and then I hit the water. Which was fun, by the way. I sputtered once I popped through the surface, but it was still totally awesome.

We went back to our campsite and just looked around, drying off as we went (since it was rather hot, sunny, and windy). There are a lot of little hermit crabs on Carlos, and they are all so totally cute! The trick to getting them out of their shells is to breath on them like you're de-fogging eyeglasses from the cold. It makes it look as if you were kissing the crab, though. Also, there are a lot of flies on Carlos, who like to land on people and generally be annoying. Anyway, we wandered around taking pictures and looking for shells and cool-looking smoothed off, washed-up coral rocks, and then had supper. After supper, we swam a bit more, then dried off, took bucket showers in our bathing suits, and then had sundown worship. It was pretty awesome--the stars had come out as we had gotten ready for the night, and it was so clear on that island that there seemed to be millions of stars. The clearest constellation that I recognized was Scorpio (and the only time I can see very familiar constellations is very early in the morning, like at four or five), which at home is only a few bumps above the trees at camp. Also, we could see the dusky trail left by the Milky Way, which was just awesome. Seeing all those stars made me feel small and made me want to go Home (you know, as in Heaven). Ryan talked about the fact that Jesus would pull His disciples apart for a time for them to rest, and that that was what we were doing, and after prayer, we all just sat or laid back on the mats and talked. At least, that's what Jordan, Alan and I did. Fun. Then we decided to go off to bed, and so we all bedded down.

It began to rain soon after--and the tent where the girls were sleeping was discovered to have some slight leaks. However, the wind blew water into the guys' tarp-tent and so they did not sleep much on Friday night. I slept well, however, even with the ground hard and the slight drippage of water. Sabbath dawned early and bright, and so we went about drying the stuff that had gotten wet. People went walking on the beach or just rested in their tents or whatever. As for me, I spent my time napping, reading Patriarchs and Prophets, my Bible, and writing in my journal. It was very nice.

As we finished up eating dinner, it began to rain. Nice, big, heavy drops of rain that came straight down and rammed themselves into the Earth. Mama Rose gave Jordan and I her umbrella to make a dash to where the tents were, because I had my poncho spread out over my stuff in case the roof leaked. Well, we got to the door of my tent and Jordan dashed off into the pitch-black darkness of the rainstorm and night, dropping the umbrella neatly onto the ground. I splashed into my tent--literally. The inside of our tent was like a mini re-enactment of Genesis 7. I grabbed my stuff and slid it to dry ground, and then grabbed everyone else's bag and slid it to dry ground. However, that dry ground wasn't going to last forever, because the rain was pooling on the roof of the tent, making it look like it was about to cave in and drench the stuff that remained dry. I went about, shoving the ceiling up and casting the water off the sides. This was a losing battle because it was still raining, and almost as soon as the water had been pushed out, more came to fill its place. People came and we grabbed everybody's things and got to the guys' tarp-tent, which wasn't getting wet because it wasn't as windy as the night before. I was quite happy to have found out that my backpack was still very much dry--the bottom was a little damp, but it was overall dry, which meant that the two books, two notebooks, my journal, and (most importantly) my Bible were still very much dry, along with my pajamas. So my backpack was on my back and under my poncho (which I had thrown on in the tent).

Our pastor's cousin's family, who had gotten us permission to camp on the island, opened up their house to us, and so when the rain died down a bit, we hiked through the dark palm-tree forest with only a couple of flashlights and to "civilization". There, I gratefully bedded down in an icebox of a room (eventually using my dried-off poncho as a second layer to keep me warmish) and spent the night. It rained all night long. The next morning, we went back to camp to finish packing up. All I had to grab was my swimsuit, shorts, tanktop (my entire swimming outfit) and my swim shoes. I threw these into a plastic bag where I eventually put the things that had gotten wet in the tent: my blanket and my clothes for Sunday, one piece of which was my skirt, which was so wet that I couldn't wear it. I grabbed one of the gallon jugs marked 'GIRLS' and headed back towards the dock when Ryan said we should head out. Jordan was only a little bit in front of me, but he reached the house before the deluge started. I was at the edge of the house and had to practically make a run for it so that I didn't get soaked (happily, my poncho was on). Alan, Jordan and I spent the next two hours or so sitting in the main room of Pastor's cousin's house, reading books and talking a bit. Then Lorraine showed up and said that Ryan had said that it was so windy that it was unsafe to try and cross the lagoon, and that we may have to spend another night. It rained some more after she went swimming, and so I read a book. (Yes, an entire book. It was only ninety-six pages long.) Then Ryan showed up and said that we were going now, so we took our things down to the boat and got in, more or less. We had to split the load because we had only one boat to use. I got to sit in the only passenger's chair, while everyone else (Jhan Dale, John Mark, Emily F., Lorraine, Tirose, Rosa, Alan, Jordan, and Peanut (Mama Rose's dog)) was in the back. I was still wearing my poncho, and had my backpack on my lap under the poncho because I was determined to keep it dry no matter what.

The ride was a thrilling and terrifying roller coaster. We hit hard several times, but managed to bump and bounce our way back to Ebeye--and we were thankful to be back. Very blessedly, the power was on and so we could take showers and (in my case) do laundry (it was our time for it, that's why). We ate food and were entirely dry for what seemed like the first time in a very long time. Also, because all of my shorts were being washed, and due to the fact that I didn't want to wear a skirt on inside, I put on my jeans--and they're starting to not fit! So I went over to Emily F.'s and weighed myself (wrong time of day I know, so this may not be entirely accurate), only to discover that I have supposedly lost 3.5 more pounds. Yay!!!

So, that was my crazy fun weekend. By the way, thanks for the package, Family!!! I much appreciate it.

More later.

Love,
Ashlee

Mostly about students--and some thoughts about water

9-18-08 I have been trying to get the seniors to write stories, right? And most of the time their "stories" have been poorly written re-tellings of Marshallese legends. Technically, not bad for a bunch of kids whose imaginations have been fed mostly by television and movies. Today their final drafts were due--and, trying to keep ahead of myself in grading everything, I began reading them this afternoon. One of the seniors is a quiet kid, pretty smart, sometimes picked on by the other guys who are very immature--and he finally grasped the idea that stories usually have some plot to them. Something happens in them--and he understood that. Granted, his paper to begin with had been all description--good description, but not a story in the truest sense. Today he comes into class, brandishing his final draft. I asked him how many drafts he'd done. "Three," he admitted shyly. Oh, he has no idea how much that excited me!!! That answer just totally made my day.

On the other hand, there are lots of kids who DON'T get what we're teaching. We just finished up midterms (we're on a quarter system), and many of the juniors are doing poorly, mainly due to their lack of studying, but still. It's disheartening to see that these kids just do not care about education in general. And there is so much potential sitting in those seats! Smart kids without any motivation, whatsoever. Some are motivated--and I would love to see some study done about why this kids studies and this kid doesn't. Quite possibly the deciding factor is their parents--if the parents don't care, the kids probably won't, either. I wish we could get the parents to care.

I'm the sophomore class sponsor--and we had chapel last week. The three girls who actually volunteered to lead song service really didn't lead it--they more or less stood next to the wall, singing quietly, and the one holding the microphone was holding it level with her hip. No use whatsoever! It's weird, that these kids who will talk practically incessantly while in their seats instantly clam up once they're in front of the classroom--I'm considering having them do group projects that require reports being made to the entire class. *sigh* I care a lot, and they care so little. It's certainly one of the hardest aspects of my job thus far.

We finally had rain after approximately four days without it. Rain is good, by the way. It fills up the fresh water catchment, which provides us with fresh water showers and tap water. For the rainy season, four days is a long time without rain. Without rain, we use the bucket of standby fresh water and a cup for showers and wash our dishes--and sometimes our clothes--in salt water. Salt water doesn't rinse very well, we're finding out. One night last week, it rained while we had no power, so Megan and I (it was her idea) washed our hair in the runoff from the gutter (well, really the flatbottomed plastic pipes that eventually empty out into the catchment) that was so full that it was spilling onto the walkway between all of the apartments on the second floor. Maybe someday I can draw out a map of our house, which has lots of apartments and rooms fit into a rather small space. However, the hair cleaning from that water was very refreshing. I think I've mentioned that because we have air conditioning, we don't have heated water--which is something that I am looking forward to from back home, that's for sure.

I certainly like living near the ocean--right now, anyway. We actually live in the center-ish of the island, but the school is across the street from the ocean. I love the sunrises and the waves and the vista that I see. If I had film for it, I would wish that I had brought my camera with the panoramic feature. Unfortunately, that camera has no film, probably needs batteries, and is inside of the camera bag hanging from my bunkbed at home. The ocean changes colors and wave intensities--and it's always interesting to watch the tide come in and go out, like the ocean was breathing or something. I've never lived where I could observe tide changes before. It's really cool. The sound of the waves is also awesome. It's like background music to our everyday lives of going from home to school, from school to home--and sometimes we deviate a bit and go to Triple J. I am thinking that a hop on the ferry and a splurged meal at the so-called "American Eatery" at the dock would be a nice treat. Ooh, news for those of you who care about my weight and such! (Which is probably next to almost none of you, but whatever, this is exciting to me.) I have officially lost 6.5 pounds, so I'm "winning", whatever that means.

All right, I need to be off to bed. Night.

~Ashlee