By the way, here is my teaching schedule

homeroom/1st period: 10B English 21 students
2nd period: free
3rd period: 10C English 18 students
4th period: 11A Teacher Academy 30 students
5th period: free
6th period: 10A English 22 students
7th period: 10C Reading 18 students


Sarah's parents just sent a ton of books and copies of Cricket/Spider magazine. So now we have a class set of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Sarah Plain and Tall, and Dear Mr. Henshaw (Beverly Cleary).

Since I'm teaching 3 sections of English, my focus is probably going to be on writing for the 2nd-4th quarters. I hope to drill some essay/descriptive writing and critical thinking into their brains.

My chai tea bag tonight said, "to know, read. to learn, write. to master, teach. " Sarah said, "oh good, so we're going to master English and Reading."
"Wellll, it's about time I got around to doing that!" I replied.

I remember taking German at Dartmouth that not only was I truly learning a foreign language for the first time (yeah, Espanol at good ol' Mack High doesn't count), but I was also learning English grammar for the first time. If I could go back and learn German with the knowledge I have now about grammar I think it would be a lot easier! It would be great with my students if I could scaffold onto their knowledge of Marshallese, but in order to do that I need to work on my own Marshallese first. Plus, Marshallese is mostly a spoken language. One of the only books written in Marshallese is the World Teach Language Manual that I have a copy of.

Speaking of books, here is a list of the ones I have read so far:

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Flowers for Algernon
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
First Year Teacher's Survival Kit
Teach like your Hair's on Fire
The Cay
The Giver by Lois Lowery
Sophie's World
Ruby Fruit Jungle
Franny and Zooey- Salinger
The Book of Laugher and Forgetting- Milan Kundera
Up the Down Staircase- Bel Kaufman

Run From Satan, Swim with God

We went snorkeling ocean side again today. The water was the perfect temperature- refreshingly cool but not too cold. The waves were intimidating at first and we weren't sure if we could get past them. The hardest part is battling the waves when you first enter the water and still have to walk because first of all, it's hard to walk in flippers and second, the waves do their darndest to topple you over. Once you get out a little further it's easier because you can swim and just dive under the waves. They will pull you back towards the shore but then give you a good push towards the ocean when they go back out. The waves push you quickly and you move forward with no effort, the ocean floor disappearing quickly behind you- I feel a bit like a turbo-speed human submarine when this happens!

As we were walking to go snorkel we passed a church with the doors wide open and everyone sitting inside fanning themselves with palm leaves. I was reminded of the phrase outside the Mormon church that says: "exercise daily: run from satan, walk with god". Passing the church to snorkel made me feel like I was running towards satan, since most physical activity is discouraged on Sundays.

"What are you doing over there Heather?" asked Eric, observing me floating in one spot for quite some time.

"I'm looking over the edge where the reef ends. It's like a deep blue nothingness!"

Despite my description of where the reef ends, the ocean continues on and on and is anything but nothingness as it contains much more life than humans will probably ever know.

I survived one full quarter of teaching

If you can believe, this trip into town marks the completion and celebration of the end of my first quarter of teaching! I made it through many hot afternoons standing in front of the class with chalk on my hands and coating my throat, and sweat dripping into my eyes, while trying to control rowdy 10th graders…oh and did I mention, try to teach them?

One highlight of the past couple weeks includes playing guitar with our neighbor (and now my host sister), Amanda. She knows a few songs like, Love Will Keep Us Alive by the Eagles and Wonderful Tonight (and then just repeats them….Marshallese are fans of repetition…) Everyone that plays guitar seems to be great at strumming, harmony, and rhythm while singing, all things I need to work on, so it seems I am in the right place! Allison’s host sister, Delacia plays guitar and is a leftie. Instead of stringing the strings backwards like I think lefties in the states do, she has learned how to play by just switching the guitar upside down, which is pretty impressive! I brought my guitar out and have been playing along

I like to eat AND cook



Everyone has always known how much I like to eat, and that appearances are deceiving because I can really put food away when I want to. One day last week it occurred to me that I even like to cook! After being in the kitchen for about two hours putting together various meals, I realized how long I had been in there and that I really didn’t MIND! Turns out that when I have the time, cooking is something I enjoy. Nothing fancy, but then again it’s tough to be fancy on an island where supplies are limited. See a couple of my favorite recipes below:

Heather's Tortilla Pizza
1 tortilla
Spaghetti sauce
Cheese
Hot dog
Red hot chili pepper flakes

Slice hotdog into dime size pieces. Cook over high heat for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and slice into smaller pieces. Grate cheese. Spread sauce on tortilla and sprinkle with cheese. Melt over medium heat. Once melted, sprinkle hotdog pieces on melted cheese. Remove from heat and slice. Sprinkle with chili pepper flakes. Enjoy your thin crust tortilla pizza!

Tuna Veg (thanks Kiersten!)
1 can special value mixed vegetables
3 cans chunk light tuna
scoop of mayo, squirt of mustard
salt, pepper
siratcha sauce
papaya (optional)

Thai stir-fry
1 can coconut milk (I have yet to try it using real coconut milk, but I should since it is accessible via just a short walk out my front door)
2 Tbsp Thai red curry paste
Soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
any veggies you can get your hands on

Bean salad
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can cut green beans
onion
garlic
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt/pepper

Other than this, it’s a lot of oatmeal, French toast, PB&J, with the occasional egg

Red Fish, Blue Fish, Striped Fish, Enno Fish

Eric and I went snorkeling again today (a Sunday, gasp!) and walked right by a church...you aren't supposed to do any active things here on Sundays, so I felt pretty guilty, of course. But my guilt was quickly washed away with the tide as the waves carried us out to the watercolor coral of the Pacific. It took a while to swim out to the reef and we weren't sure we would ever get there, but we could hear the waves crashing beyond so we kept on swimming. Eventually it was worth it when we saw acres of pink, purple, ivory, and blue coral with red fish, blue fish, one fish, two fish! There were yellow and black striped diamond-shaped fish with long tails, small shimmery silver fish, big black pug fish with flattened noses like their faces had been squashed between a semi-truck and a highway divide, small black and electric blue fish that could mesmerize anyone, large speckled fish, and more. Maybe this is wrong, but for some reason It made me really hungry. Every fish I saw, I thought, "I wonder how that one tastes?!" Even the little swordfish swimming at the top of the surface looked not only shimmery and pretty but delicious too and I could just imagine their scales crisping at the edges and flaking off onto butter soaked aluminum paper over a hot grill. I think it is a sign that I need to get more protein into my diet. Either that, or a sign that I am going to be a bad-ass spear-fisher-woman someday. On our walk back we ran into the head-man from the missionary family who told us that a lot of the kids around here get started spearfishing by using any skinny, long car part that you can sharpen a point onto the end of. With so many broken down vehicles perched behind various palm trees through out Laura, I think it's time I find my weapon of choice and start capturing some fish.

4 of the best sentences I have ever seen in a row, by Jackhead Francis:

1. The man has been lied.
2. Many people like to eat a...(crossed out) and then wrote: Why hotdogs is good?
3. I like to welcome you to here!
4. I love you so much.

The Children of the Palms

I’ve figured out why all the cars here are such junk- because they double as playgrounds. One day I was at Alison’s host family’s house and two of the little boys were climbing all over a car outside and sliding down the window, and jumping so violently on the top of it that I thought the top would cave in. Walking down the street makes you feel like a movie star as children call out from behind trees, under cars, inside stores “Miss Heather!” or “Good night!” or “Good morning” or “Yokwe!” They put out their hands to be given a high five and cheer endlessly when they get one.


Glowsticks: Are awesome and so is Gail, my future sister-in-law's mother, for sending them! Thanks Gail!