Oma!

This has proved to be one of my most active weeks so far. I haven't done something every day, but I have done two big things this week now. Today we climbed our first mountain! After the Rockhopper race on Monday, I was exhausted for most of the week, but once I finally recovered, I set myself up for another few days of soreness. This is already a very exciting week for Kosrae because it is Liberation Week starting on Monday. The festivities began yesterday, and different villages have their celebrations on different days, which basically means we get a lot of days off school. We had yesterday off, and next week we also get Monday and Friday, so only three actual days of school! It's a pretty awesome deal. We decided to add to the fun and go for a mountain hike today too. Oma is the easiest hike of the mountains here, but I wouldn't exactly call it easy. It was about 2 hours to the top and would have been probably just under 2 hours down, but we took some breaks and made sure the whole group was getting down okay, so we spent a long day on the mountain overall. We decided to go all the way to the top, and there was an amazing view at the top. It was really cool because we could see Lelu Island, where we live, and it was so tiny compared to the rest of Kosrae. We know it's small, but to see it from that view was just crazy! It was a really fun day, and we definitely got our workout in for the week. My legs are going to be insanely sore tomorrow. We went with a couple of the Peace Corps volunteers, and it was great to finally get to spend some time with them. They are all spread out across the island, so it's hard to get everyone together. It's very different from us with WorldTeach because we are all at the high school and have classrooms right next to each other. Not to mention most of us live together too. The Peace Corps has a volunteer at each elementary school, so there is one in each village. There are also some students from University of Washington here for a few weeks doing a sort of mini-study abroad program, and some of them came too, so we had a good sized group. Last time we went on a hike, I got really frustrated with my shoes, so this time I just went barefoot. Jess and Jesse also did it barefoot, and I think it's the best way to go. There aren't really any dangerous bugs or lizards that hang out on the ground or even poisonous plants, so it's not too bad going barefoot. The bottoms of my feet are definitely sore and tired, but overall I think it was a good choice. Last time I got frustrated because I would get mud stuck between my foot and my sandals and little rocks and it just got really uncomfortable. When you get rocks on your feet, they don't get stuck like they can with shoes on, and you can feel everything you're walking on, so I feel like I was more stable that way. A lot of people here just don't wear shoes, and even the people who do always wear flip flops. You never see anyone in real shoes of any kind. I am exhausted after a full day of hiking, so I am excited that tomorrow is Sunday. Since you can't do anything on Sundays anyways, I'm happy to just spend the day watching movies in bed. I need to recover from today so I'll be all ready to go on Monday. Monday is Lelu's Liberation Day, which is apparently really exciting and fun, so I can't wait! There are races and games and all kinds of stuff that everyone gets really excited about, so it will be fun to watch. It is the first real celebration since we've been in Kosrae, so it will be cool to hang out with all the locals and see what it is like to celebrate Liberation Day. That's about it for my update today, but I'm sure I'll have some exciting news after Monday's festivities!