The teaching life

It has been a while since I last posted, mostly because I have gotten really busy with school. It shouldn't be an excuse, but I'm going to go ahead and use it as one. Let's just say I would rather spend my time swimming and exploring than writing about doing those things.

School officially started a week from yesterday, on Tuesday. We had Thursday off, and Fridays end at 1:40, so we really only had two and a half days last week. I actually liked that because I could do all the boring stuff like rules and procedures and I didn't have to spread it out over an entire week. I started real material this week, which is exciting! It is only Wednesday and I am absolutely exhausted from teaching all day every day so far this week. I'm on my feet for a long time, and I never really thought about that aspect of it. Teaching is overall going well so far. I've had a couple behavior issues, more with certain classes than others, but for the most part the students are good. I am trying my best to learn names, especially since I consider that one of my weak points usually. I have a couple classes down, but the students are also all in alphabetical order, so I'm afraid that once they move I won't remember them anymore. I can't wait to get into more material because right now I'm still on the boring basic science things that we have to get through in order to learn the cool stuff. The students here are a little behind normal high school students in the US in every area, but especially their English, so I'm having to do more review and spend more time on the basics than I normally would. The short school day also makes things difficult. I have each class for 45 minutes a day (theoretically...), and only 35 minutes on Fridays. The automatic bell system doesn't work, so a person literally has to ring the bell every time. This means that class could end anywhere from 10 minutes early to 10 minutes late, so class time varies a whole lot. Usually it stays within 5 minutes, but it's always kind of a guessing game.  The worst is my class right after lunch, because that bell almost always rings late and my students don't really like to show up on time. You would think they would because I have a short graded assignment at the beginning of every class, but I'm still getting a few strolling in late every day. They can go anywhere during lunch, and the school is outside, so they can roam wherever, which means they often don't make it back in time. I'm definitely learning to be extremely flexible with my lesson plans. Another thing that makes things interesting is that all we have to work with is a chalkboard and chalk. As a science teacher, this is really bizarre to me. What could be considered a lab space is just a bunch of wooden tables. I have a bunsen burner (singular), but nowhere to get gas from, and zero safety equipment. I really don't want this to be a list of complaints, but for those of you that a curious about what high school in Kosrae is like, this is what it is like. In a way, it's kind of nice, like you're going back to basics and you have to figure out how to make it interesting without anything to work with. It's definitely difficult, but I'm learning so much and I'm really getting challenged to be creative, so I think it is a good thing.

When I haven't been teaching, I've been doing all sorts of fun things! We went back to Yekela waterfall, which was amazing again. There wasn't as much water running, so I'm glad I got good pictures last time. The tree climb was more fun this time because it was a little less scary the second time. We sat at the top for a while and just hung out on the rocks in the running water a little higher up at the top of the waterfall. I haven't gotten over the fact that we can just head to a waterfall after school. It's such a normal activity here, but I hope I never get over how awesome it is that that is what our Friday afternoons consist of. Another day, we biked to a sandier beach area and just went swimming and hung out for a while. I really wanted to lay out, but I'm rocking my rash guard and board shorts because of the modest culture here and getting a really attractive farmers tan :) Last night we went night fishing, and it was really fun! Jess's host parents took us all out with them. You basically just walk around in the shallows with a flashlight and either a spear or a machete and lift up rocks and then stab the fish you find. We mostly caught small ones, but it was really fun and I was so proud of myself for catching a few! Another thing about being outside at night here: the stars are unbelievable. Being on a tiny island in the Pacific is absolutely crazy. You can see so well! I've sat outside a bunch of times to look at the stars, and I kept looking up last night when we were fishing because they are so cool.

This post was kind of a random jumble of my thoughts and experiences over the past week. It's getting pretty late here and I have an early morning yet again tomorrow, so I'm going to call it a day and try to post again soon!

Surfing/Baking Round 2

I haven't updated for a week, so I think now is a good time to post an update. This past week actually hasn't been too exciting, aside from a couple fun things. It was a pretty relaxed week because we still haven't started school. On Tuesday, Jess, Jesse, and I went to a beach down by Brandi and Miguel's house in the late afternoon. It was pretty cool because it was so last minute. A couple of us were swimming at the swimming hole off the causeway when Jess came by and said Brandi and Miguel were going out and wanted to know if we wanted to go, so we all hopped on our bikes and headed over. I got to try surfing for the first time! That beach is a lot calmer and has smaller waves, so it is a better place for beginners. It still wasn't a very pretty sight. Maybe I shouldn't say I tried surfing, because a more accurate description would be that I tried to balance on a surf board and paddle with just my arms (which is WAY harder than it looks), and I got ridiculously tired before we even got halfway out to the waves. Everyone had been saying it's really hard on your arms and it's a tough shoulder workout, but I obviously thought I could handle it because I've been playing softball for the past 16 or so years of my life. Maybe I was better off, but I did not feel like my shoulder strength was anything close to what it needs to be for me to be able to surf. How are you supposed to paddle to catch a wave if you are too tired to even get out to where the waves break? All in all, it was much less successful than I was hoping, and I'm not sure if I'll ever get the hang of it. I think I need to just practice paddling on a surfboard for the next month, and then maybe I could try again. After all that, we just kind of hung out in the shallows and watched the sun set. Brandi and Miguel brought out their paddle boards too, so we each tried that, and I got to paddle off into the sunset, which was pretty cool. I have been coming down with a cold the past week or so, and I think I finally tired myself out so much from surfing and swimming that on Wednesday I really started to get sick. It wasn't a terrible cold, but I definitely needed to rest for a couple days to let my body heal, so the last few days I've been kind of laying low and trying to get better. I'm still not quite there, but I'm a lot better than I was on Wednesday, so that's good! Yesterday we went over to Brandi and Miguel's in the afternoon and had a little expat party. It was really fun to just hang out with everyone and relax. Today was pretty lazy like Sundays usually are. I got packages a couple days ago with all kinds of baking and cooking goodies, so I was excited to try them out! Thanks Mom and Dad for outfitting our kitchen! I have been patiently waiting to make banana oatmeal cookies because the bananas here are so good, so I finally tried them out today! They turned out great, and overall I had a much better experience than last time because I had everything I needed from the boxes. I also made some chocolate chip cookie dough and froze it in balls so it is ready to bake whenever! (or just eat straight from the freezer) Baking always relaxes me and it reminds me of home, so I really enjoyed spending the day in the kitchen. The chocolate chip cookie dough turned out just like Mom's, so overall it was a successful day for me. We are actually starting school tomorrow, for real this time. I am excited to get going and get into a schedule. The time off has been really nice, but I am starting to get bored, so I'm ready to get started in the classroom.

So many cool things!

I'll start off with a quick rundown of all the people that I've been mentioning/will probably continue to mention a lot because I know it's confusing and there are a lot of different names. Smith and Almitta are my host family, their daughter is Kokok, and she usually hangs out with Falan. Falan is Smith and Almitta's neice; Falan's mother is Ruth, and Ruth is married to Smith's brother. There are a ton of other people in the family, but those are the ones that I see the most. Jess, Jesse, Aidan, Sandy, and Brandi are the other teachers in WorldTeach with me; Paige is the field director. Paige's boyfriend Kevin is sort of a personal teacher for one of the kids at Nautilus, a resort on the island. I live with Jesse and Aidan in a house right next to Sandy. Jess is living with a host family, and Brandi has been here for a couple years now and lives in a house with her husband Miguel, who is teaching at the college right next to the high school.

Now for the last couple days of fun! Yesterday and today were awesome! I started out with a pretty lazy day yesterday morning, just woke up and hung out around the house for a while, did some yoga, and then Miguel was going surfing, so a bunch of us tagged along. Jesse has been out a few times and is learning, but Jess and I wanted to try it. Brandi, Miguel, Jesse, Jess, Aidan, and I all went out and while Miguel and Jesse were out, the rest of us hung around in the shallows and just watched. Jess paddled out with them at the beginning, but it was her first time, and the water was really choppy and not exactly suited for beginners, so she came in after a while. I was going to go out, but when she came back in I decided I would try another time because it just seemed really tiring and not an easy place to start. We just hung out in the water for a while and watched Miguel and Scotty surf. Scotty is one of the sons of the owner's of Nautilus. Apparently it wasn't a great day to surf, so they didn't catch very many waves, but I was still very impressed that they got any at all. After that, we went to yekela waterfall and climbed the banyan tree to the top of it. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I have some amazing pictures, but I can't upload them because the internet is so slow. It was unbelievable. The tree climb was pretty difficult, but it was really fun! You should google image banyan tree; they have a lot of contact points with the ground, and the one we climbed was really tall and right next to the waterfall. They are pretty cool trees, and perfect to climb because they have a lot of places to put your hands and feet. We got to the top, then came down the other side, where there is a rope and you kind of repel down the rocks. It's angled down, so it's not totally like repelling, but we used the rope to get down. Once we came back down the other side of the waterfall, we hung out under it for a little while and swam in the pool beneath it. The water was really cool and refreshing, which was weird because all the ocean water is really warm. Right under the waterfall it comes down really hard and it was fun to just let it hit your back because it felt like a massage. It was a very cool experience.

This morning we went out snorkeling with Doug, the owner of Nautilus. We went out on the boat into the open water, which was very cool. We saw a lot of fish and even a couple eagle rays. One eagle ray came very close to us, which was super cool! Since we were out in the open water, the water was cooler and we could wear real bathing suits since nobody would see us. After a few weeks of swimming in sorts and a rash guard, I was very excited to actually let my skin see the sun. I'm hoping I got at least a little bit of color from today. After we snorkeled, we drove around on the boat for a little bit looking for dolphins, but didn't see any. Hopefully next time we can see some! There are usually some out by where we were, so I'm sure we will see some at some point over the year. It has been a very exciting and fun past 24 hours, and we might even go spearfishing tonight! The past two days have been awesome, and I just can't believe all of this is real. I can't believe that I'm here in this amazing place doing all sorts of amazing things for the next 10 months. I look around and just can't believe it's all real. Seriously, who gets to surf, climb a tree, see a waterfall, go snorkeling, and spearfish all in a matter of 48 hours? Man, life here is hard...

First attempt at baking

This morning I spent a little time at school getting my classroom prepared and making some copies, but it wasn't too exciting so there isn't much to write about as far as that goes. I came home and ate some lunch, did some yoga (which is basically hot yoga because of the climate here but you don't have to pay for the hot room), and then I had a bit of an adventure baking. So yesterday I had a craving for some chocolate and I have been talking to my parents a lot about sending me some baking items. The thing I am really excited about are banana oatmeal cookies because the bananas here are the best bananas I have ever had in my life and I can imagine that they will make the best banana oatmeal cookies ever. I wanted to make them soon, but the recipe calls for ripe bananas, and we just bought a ton of bananas yesterday, but they aren't even ripe enough to eat yet, so I decided I would settle for any kind of cookie.  I'll definitely make the banana ones soon, but I needed something sweet today. I could go buy something at Ace, but I really wanted to bake. Once I got this idea in my head, I wasn't going to stop until I satisfied my craving. I have a few recipes that my parents sent, and I love my mom's homemade chocolate chip cookies, so I decided that would be the best choice. I wrote down the ingredients I needed and headed to Ace. I don't think I've described Ace in here yet, but there are two stores  across the street from one another. Ace Hardware is a typical Ace Hardware in the US, but there is also an Ace grocery across the street. It is a toned down, smaller version of a grocery store in the states. There are more asian food items since we are so close to Asia, and the fresh food only comes every few weeks. They have most of the basics you need, but you can't always count on them to have everything you need. Knowing this, I headed over there praying they would have all the necessary cookie dough items. First problem: no vanilla extract. There is almond extract, lemon extract, and some other kind that I can't remember, but no vanilla. Well, that is until I looked down on the bottom shelf to find a gallon container of it. Okay, I decide, I'll just use honey. The vanilla is really just for flavor anyway. So they'll taste a little different, I knew that was going to happen anyway because I'm in Kosrae. So I choose not to worry about it too much and move on. Brown sugar, white sugar, no problems. Chocolate chips are here (they even have ghiradelli!). Then flour... No flour. I look up and down every aisle five times. No flour anywhere. Well crap, no cookies today I guess. I decide it's worth asking, and since Almitta works at the store, if there is some anywhere, she will get it for me. She tells me there are only giant bags of it, which I definitely don't need. Her next question is how much I need, and then she proceeds to send someone back to her house to fill up a bag of flour for me to take home for my cookies. Almitta is a wonderful woman. My cookies are saved, I think to myself. I head home, excited to finally eat some of these cookies I have been craving. I get home, look at the recipe again, get everything out, and realize I need baking soda. My mom sent me baking soda in my package, so I go look in the box and realize I left the baking soda in my classroom because I could use it for experiments with my chemistry class. It's late enough at this point that I really don't want to bike all the way back to school just to get the baking soda, so I scour the internet for recipes that don't use baking powder or baking soda. It's pretty difficult, as you can imagine if you're at all a baker. It took me a little searching, but I did come across a recipe for some chocolate chip cookies without baking soda or powder, so I get to work. Next issue: no cookie sheet or pan of any kind that will work for cookies. We have an extremely rusted 9x9 square pan that would probably fit four at a time, so that would just take way too long. Aidan and I had quite an interesting time trying to figure out how to cook cookies on just aluminum foil. The challenge was getting the foil all the way in the oven without any rolling off the foil. The solution ended up being putting a piece of foil in the oven, then reaching into the oven and putting a roll of cookie dough on the foil with a spatula one by one until you fill the foil. It was an interesting tactic, but ended up working pretty well, aside from making my face sweaty from staring into the oven for that long. Because of the leavening agent-less recipe and the lack of a proper cookie sheet, the cookies didn't really spread out much, but they are pretty delicious! While I was putting cookies in the oven, Ruth and Falan came over to use my computer and the internet (they live right next door to us), and brought me dinner! It was delicious like it always is, and I was very excited. I sent them home with some cookies to share with the rest of the family. It was nice to spend some time with them again too. As long and drawn out as that story was, I feel like it is a perfect example of life in Kosrae and how you have to go with the flow and not get frustrated. Sometimes the island lacks staple food items, and they don't have everything you need to make what you want, but that's okay. I have a feeling I'm going to become very good at cooking with substitutions and changes, and I'll learn to make it work with what I have. I do think I'm going to wait until I get the cookie sheets in the mail before I go for the cookies again, but for now, I have satisfied my freshly baked cookie craving.

Post-move update

I haven't posted since we moved into Tradewinds, so I'll give an update on the new living situation. It is very nice by Kosrae standards. However, as anyone who has lived with me can attest to, I am typically a neat freak and I like things to be clean, so it has been a little bit of a challenge for me to adapt to this new living arrangement. The bugs here are pretty much impossible to keep out, not to mention the gecko things that crawl around too. I had all of these at my host family's as well, so I've had some time to get used to it, but it's definitely a change from what I am used to. We've been cooking together for the most part, but the first couple days our meals were typical college students with ramen and hot dogs being our main caloric intake. However, a cold ship came in on Monday (which you totally can't appreciate unless you live on an island that relies on cold ships for produce that only comes in every few weeks), and we were able to get some vegetables! I was extremely excited, because veggies are pretty scarce on the island. There are a ton of cucumbers, which are really delicious by the way, and a lot of fruit, but no vegetables. This appears to be the result of two things: most veggies don't grow here, and people here love their rice and sugar, so they aren't too concerned with vegetables. Anyway, to sum up my tangent, the past 24 hours has been filled with delicious vegetables and I was really excited about it. Although most of the dogs around are mean, our landlord's dogs are actually very sweet, so I have finally been able to get some puppy love that I have been missing out on. It's so hard to see all the dogs and not be able to go pet them. There's one especially mean one on the way to school that I actively avoid. The weekend was nice, especially being in our own place. I loved my host family, but it is nice to have a place of my own where a ton of family isn't constantly coming and going. I am already staying in touch with them and plan to stay very close to them all year. They are a very short bike ride away, and are so sweet and make me feel welcome anytime. They brought me a plate of dinner to my house on Sunday so that I wouldn't have to cook! I went over today and went swimming with Kokok and Falan, and I frequently see the rest of the family because of the trips to Ace Hardware and grocery since all of them work there. I feel so lucky to have gotten put with such a wonderful family and that I am only living a short distance away so I can still see them all the time. I had the time to swim today because we got a last minute week off this week. We were supposed to start school today, but it got postponed until Monday, so now we have the week to do whatever we want. This is the first of many times that the schedule will change at a moment's notice, but that's island life for ya! Everything is relaxed and will get done when it gets done. Since I had everything planned and ready to go for this week, I don't really have any extra work to do and can really enjoy the time off. I'm hoping to go fishing and maybe kayaking this week to make use of the time. I want to post pictures of everything so far, but the internet here is really slow and it takes forever to get even one up, but just so everyone knows, you are really missing out on some beauty.

And it begins

For everyone who I told that I was going to do a blog, I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get it up and running. I have moved into the house I will be in for the rest of the year after a couple weeks with a host family (the most amazing host family by the way). The internet is always a battle here, but we finally got it set up at our house, so I've gotten the blog going. I have been keeping a journal, so I'll backlog all those posts over the next week or so, but for now, I'll just say that Kosrae (pronounced Kohsh-rye for those of you at home who have no idea how to speak Kosraean) is a beautiful place and I am very happy to be here. My host family was wonderful and I am very lucky to have them. I'll just post a picture for now and then try to post the rest of my updates soon. Kuht fa ohsun (see you later)!