My Music Wishlist :)

So, today I signed onto itunes store, just to glance around and see what kinds of music I've been missing out on. I wish that it didn't take about a million years to download any form of... anything... especially music since that is my guilty obsession. So there are about a million Christian CDs that sound splendid! I decided to make a wishlist. Please don't feel obligated to buy them, I just thought I'd throw these out there ;)

1. Ending is Beginning - downhere
2. What if We- Brandon Heath
3. Wonder of the World- Rush of Fools
4. In the Making... - Nevertheless
5. Hello Love- Chris Tomlin
6. This is Our God- Hillsong
7. Addison Road- Addison Road
8. Roots- Shawn McDonald
9. Acoustic Storytime (Live Songs and Stories)- Jason Gray
10. God and A Girl- Joy Whitlock

As far as Non-Christian, I think the only thing I'm dying to listen to is the Mamma Mia soundtrack! That movie/musical is hilarious!

That'll do it for my current music obsessions.
I thought I'd share that with you. :)

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Ode to Jaimie Nicole Myaing

 

Jaimie is so beautiful

All her students agree

She cares for everyone

And she cares for me

 

She cooks for me

And sings me songs

It’s not hard for us

To get along

 

We work all day

And play at night

When we start dancing

It’s a funny sight!

 

She makes me laugh

And buys me pizza

And, well, nothing rhymes with pizza

Her best friend is Marissa

Who is also my friend too

They both live in Salem

My sister lives there too!

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Life is Beautiful?

“Oh Life, how beautiful you are.” These words are taken from a song that I grew to love last year, by Allison Sattinger (look her up on myspace, I really enjoy her music). In some ways, I completely agree with this statement. In others, I don’t. Life is beautiful. It is a gift, a present, and a daily reminder that in comparison to God, we are nothing. In a movie entitled, La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful), a family is torn apart by the Holocaust. They are put in concentration camps, and the father is trying his hardest to make his little boy believe that it is a game. He hides his son in the depths of the bunks, telling him that he’s playing hide and seek with the soldiers, and to never let them find him. It’s a beautiful story about life and compassion and love. But their life was not beautiful. It was full of pain, hurt, and dreadful murders at the hand of one hateful man. So what really makes life beautiful?  Or is this life on earth, full of so many disasters, both physical and emotional, truly beautiful? What is it that defines beauty? The world would tell you that beauty is only possible if you are willing to alter your whole image to become something else. God would tell you that you are “beautifully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14); that you are precious to him because you are His child. “The Father has loved us so much that we are called children of God. And we really are his children!” (1 John 3:1). Personally, I’m leaning towards life is not beautiful. Well, at least not this life on earth. I’m not very close to home, so I haven’t heard a lot of the news lately, but I have heard that there is pain out there. There are lives that are taken by others because they simply felt like it. There are children on the streets stealing just to get buy. There are teenage girls selling their bodies just so that they can get a little money, or feel a connection in a desperate way. There are tsunamis and hurricanes and earthquakes snatching the lives of our loved ones without warning. Is life truly beautiful? I choose to believe that life someday soon will be beautiful. When Jesus comes and sweeps us off our feet to a place so great we can’t even imagine it, even with Revelation spelling it out for us word by word. I guess my mission here is to convince you, and the world, that life is not beautiful. Not beautiful enough to want to stay here. Which in turn means, that we need to tell everyone we know that life will be beautiful, if they choose to accept that life. Eternal life. That’s sounding pretty sweet right now. “Jesus, the One who says these things are true says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20) Let’s try to reach the world, one person at a time, one child at a time. Jesus is coming soon. Let’s get on it! 

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Pictures!

Here are a few pictures I thought you might enjoy: 

These are my very own personal hairdressers. I was braiding my hair, and they wanted to help :)

This is Tim. He is hilarious and probably has the most spunk in my whole class. He is the one who insisted that my brother Zac MUST be Zac Efron! 

Here are some of my girls, both 8th grade and 5th. This was before our potluck started.

This is Andy. He is 8 years old and in 5th grade. Also one of my top students. 

Peter, on the left, is quite the trouble-maker but I like him none-the-less. Lennin, on the right is such a sweetheart. 

These are my boys. Most of them. This is pretty much how they always are. 

My new classroom! Can you tell it's at least 2 times the size of the last one? I can't remember if I showed a picture of my old one, but this picture was taken from the doorway. I really really like my new classroom.

Here I am sitting while being sung to for my birthday at our so-called "meeting." :) 

Peace! :) 

What? There was no meeting? They had me fooled! 

I heart Jaimie.

This is Jim, or Mr. Spiva. He's my boss. I think he had cake in his mouth and was trying to pose, but started laughing. Note the terrified look on my face.

Meet Lindsey. She's from Walla Walla, but we didn't know each other before here. I like her. She's a sweetie. She teaches music now, Jaimie took her old job of teaching High School English.

I really like this picture. Even though I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with my hands. I was very surprised and happy. :)

This is me posing with all of my Marshallese birthday gifts. I decided to wear them all... at once.

I got some pretty fancy local jewelry, as you can see.. I really like the flowers. I wear them in my hair a lot. 

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Birthday day(s)

Birthdays in Majuro are double the blessing and double the fun. One, because I have a beautiful and wonderful class and two, because I get to celebrate my birthday twice! The first day, the actual 24^th of September here was a great day. I awoke to eat my honey-nut cheerios (which I was extremely excited to see were still on sale at the grocery store) and one of my apartment-mates, Grace, leapt up and wished me a happy birthday, followed by Jaimie. On Tuesday, my class had decided to have a potluck style lunch and invited the 8^th graders to come as well (since I teach their English class). The day went by pretty fast, and before I knew it, parents were dropping off their various dishes to share with the class. I really wish I ‘d taken a picture of all the food. It took up three long tables! I’m glad I had a nice big new classroom otherwise I would never have been able to accommodate that many people! Anyways. It was delicious and my kids had a great time. Also, side note, at morning worship Jim (our boss/principal) announced that we had a meeting that night at 6, and everyone needed to be there. So, I was scheduling my day around it so that I could get a bunch of things done before then. I stayed in my classroom from 7:45am-5:35pm. By that time I was really wiped. I was about to leave to come back to the apartment when I was greeted with my beautiful roommate, Jaimie, carrying a package and a gift bag. The gift bag was from Alana, our Australian PE teacher who is so sweet and funny. She’s so excited about health and exercise. I really admire her. She’s always inviting us to go on these crazy long walks and none of us usually go because it’s about 80% humidity outside, and probably 85 degrees or so. A deadly combination. She gave me an apple (which are super expensive, so it was a welcomed gesture!) and some teddy gram like things. That was really sweet of her. Then the package I opened was from Lizi, which made my day. J She sent me a “birthday in a box.” Which had streamers, balloons, a limbo stick, and cake to make. She also sent me these beautiful earrings which I’m guessing are from Arcata or Eureka or something. They’re beautiful. She knows me so well. Anyways. It was such a sweet sweet gift. I absolutely love things that you can tell really took a long time. She’s the coolest. I love her. And miss her terribly. Hmmm. Oh, yes, that was all within a 15-20 minute period. Around 5:55, I began to get ready for the meeting, but Jaimie was taking her sweet time! I am one who likes to be on time, but I was waiting for her like a good roommate. She kept doing weird things; taking forever to put on clothes, turn off the fan, and by 6:07 I was like Jaimie, we’re going to be the last ones there! (Which is discouraged with staff meetings). Well, when we got there they hadn’t started yet. Jim did start though, and after a couple of announcements, a door opened and I wasn’t really paying attention. Next thing I know there is a big fat birthday cake being walked into the room while the room sings happy birthday. Then I get to blow out my own candles, along with Emerson whose birthday was last week I guess. It was fun. It turns out the whole “meeting” was really a birthday surprise, and a good one it was! It had me fooled! I felt very very loved by the end of the day. It was a good day all in all.

Birthday day two- the “real” birthday. The reason we called it my “real” birthday is because it was the 24th in the states, and since I was born in the states, that was really when I was born. This morning I woke up to a big sign on the mirror that says “Hey Beautiful” in lipstick, and a sign on the door that said, “Happy Birthday Carrie! California time” along with a note from Jaimie saying how much she loved me and hoped I would have a lovely real birthday. ☺ She’s so sweet. I really do love her.
Let’s see… today was a pretty boring day actually. It was a nice one though because we don’t have school tomorrow because it’s some holiday, but I don’t really remember which one it is. But heck, who cares? So Jaimie and I planned to leave school right after school got out so that we could get to the resort and get back in time for the “welcome party” for the freshmen class. (This was a party put on by the sophomores, juniors, and seniors, along with the staff and faculty). Anyways. So school went well, my kids were pretty dang rowdy today, especially during chapel today. I’m thinking since chapel is in the afternoon on Thursday they are more sleepy and antsy because they just got out of lunch and recess. Not such a good match. Well, so Jaimie and I left after school today to walk to the resort. There was only one problem: It was so stinkin hot! I mean, really hot! Everytime we walk to the resort during the day, I usually say to Jaimie, “This is the hottest trip we’ve ever made so far!!!” And I can’t lie, I said it again today, but I think it was true this time. Jaimie and I decided we needed to hitchhike. (You have to understand that hitchhiking here is a million times different than the states. The people don’t really talk to you. You just tell them where to go. You only hitchhike with drivers who have truckbeds, so that you can hop in and out quickly. You never sit in the cab with the people, and you always travel in groups.) We really needed to hitchhike, but then we didn’t end up needing to really, because Neil (our accountant for the school) drove by in the school truck and we flagged him down. He ended up giving us a ride to the resort which was such a gift because I’ve literally never been so sweaty and gross in my life. It was ridiculous. Well I got the hotel and signed into Skype, and about 5 minutes later my parents got on and I got to speak with them with the new headset they bought me. IT worked really well. Then after that I called Zac’s cell from Skype and got to talk with him and Lizi (because she was in the car too) which made me super super super happy. I tried calling Stacey quite a few times, but I didn’t realize it was around 10pm her time, and she was probably in bed already. I was sad I missed her, but I left a message. Sad. Then after that I called Chenelle, and even though it was 11pm her time, we talked for about 20 minutes, which is surprisingly cheap on Skype. I love Skype. Anyways. I hadn’t talked to her in ages. I miss her so much. But I was so stoked I got to talk to her.

Anyways. Tonight we had that “welcome” bash for the freshmen, and the teachers were invited as well. They played about a million games while we listened to songs I never would have thought and SDA school would play (they weren’t bad songs, but they were like you know, up to date, popular songs). It was really fun. There was a lot of food, then at the end, the losers gave us and the sophomore class some leis. It was sweet. And fun. Jaimie and I came back here and took about a thousand pictures to entertain ourselves. And its 11:14pm right now. I am so tired! If I think of anything else to add, I will. Besides pictures.

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It's a great day to praise the Lord....

I’m so jazzed about life right now. Honestly. This is probably the best day I’ve had since I’ve been here. I’m not really sure why, I can’t really even pinpoint the reason. Actually, I have a reason to be cranky today, too: I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep. I was awake when my alarm went off at 6:16. I stayed up pretty late last night getting some stuff done too. Bummer. But, for whatever reason, maybe because it’s so close to my birthday, I am actually more chipper today than normal, even with less sleep J Well, today we finally moved into our classroom. It really made a world of difference. There I was, sweating up a storm, while all the rest of the SMs who had been in those rooms all year were probably like, Um, what is wrong with this crazy girl? She complains so much! But really. The classroom is at least twice the size, and I positioned the seats nicely so I can walk down the middle and have plenty of room for discussion and whatnot. I even made a new seating chart. I was pretty proud of myself. I have a few things left to do in the classroom, but it looks pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself.

I got a few new packages today! It made me so so excited. First of all, Kelsey Zuppan sent me a package and I had NO idea! I loved it! She sent me homemade cookies which pretty much would have made me feel better even if I was having a bad day, but since I wasn’t, my day got even better! On top of that, I got 2 packages from my parents and one had a fan in it! I will be sleeping nicely tonight J For real though. I got some great school supplies. I’m so excited to get started on crafts and stuff with my kids. They’ll be excited. All in all, the atmosphere and mood of the kids was a lot better too. They agreed that the classroom was about a thousand times better. Today went by really fast, which I really enjoyed. Life is good. God is good. Today was a great day. Everyone needs an excellent (that’s one of our spelling words this week) day! J Thanks for being so great, I love you guys and miss you! Hope this finds you doing well!

-Carrie

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How's the weather?

Life is like a day in Majuro. The weather is sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, sometimes rainy, and sometimes all three within minutes of each other. Life can be a sunny day. Everything can seem to be going your way, and, just like the unpredictability of the Marshallese rain, your day can be hit with a downpour you never even saw coming. Sometimes your day just seems to start with the rain, and gradually, maybe through the smiles of some of your students, the sun peeks out through the clouds, convincing you to turn that frown upside down. Life is unpredictable. It always will be. Who knows what will happen next, or what your emotional weather will be? All I know is to look out for those rainbows. After the rain, after all that pain that we endure, God will always send us a rainbow- a little promise. It's as if He says, "Hold tight, it will get better!" or "I'm so proud of you for sticking with it" Watch out for those rainbows. God will provide. He always does, even if we don't immediately see it. So, my question is, how's the weather? ;)

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These are a few of my favorite things....

There are so many "little" things in my life that truly makes a difference. Some people might laugh, but hey, it's who I am. These are some of the "little" things that I adore.

- Waking up to the lull of the waves of the ocean going in and out, in and out... it's the perfect white noise. I'm falling more and more in love with the ocean.

- A song with the perfect lyrics. Sometimes I feel like a song has been written specifically for me... like that person knew exactly when I'd be on my knees, laying on my bed, or just needing a pick-me-up. Sometimes it's good to know that someone, even if it is a famous musician, feels the way I feel. It's silly, I know.

- The smell of fresh bread. I really really like walking into my apartment when bread has been baking all day in the breadmaker. It's like smelling heaven! 

- Rainy days in Majuro. The locals actually call it cold! Which, in reality, probably only means about 70 degrees. But it's so nice to have a break from the blasted heat. 

- Getting packages. (No, that's not a subtle hint) But really. It makes my day. Not only because it shows that someone actually took the time to think about each item that was placed in that box, but because I get to anticipate it my whole week long! I can't wait until M, W, or F just because I know it's mail day. 

- Weekends. I'm so thankful for when the weekend rolls around. I remember liking them when I was a student, but as a teacher, I need those blessed 2 days to rejuvenate and recharge myself. I've come to appreciate resting in God. 

-I'm addicted to Saturday afternoon naps. If I don't sleep, at least I lay in my bed and read, or just lay there. It's nice to not be moving to the motion of the world for at least a few minutes. 

- The sound of children singing. Chapels here are incredible. Here the kids sing their hearts out! You have to plug your ears sometimes because they're so into it. I absolutely love it. I have my kids sing in the morning and afternoon. It makes my day and it ends the day on a positive note.

- Sunrise. It's beautiful, when I'm actually awake for it. This morning I distinctly remember thinking, "Ugh, no one should ever be up before it is light outside" But, I also remember in the past seeing some incredible sunrises from my bed. It's amazing to be able to look out and just see God's creation. Loves it. 

- Massages. I really love hand massages and back massages. Man I could totally use one right now. Haha. 

- Swimming in the ocean. I didn't do it much until I got here, but now I can't see why I would ever want to swim in a pool! (minus the intense waves) It's a cool experience to be able to look down and see fish swimming with you. 

- Reading a book in a day. I haven't had the chance to do that yet. I hardly ever have time. I did finish the book I started last Friday night last night (Thursday). So I guess less than a week is not bad for a teacher.

- The color blue. It makes me really happy. I'm not sure why, but whenever I see the color blue I just smile to myself. I really like it. 

- I really like the feeling of a towel right out of the dryer. It feels so nice and clean. On that same note, I really like fresh sheets that have just been washed too. It's so great.

- Emails from friends. It is amazing to be able to keep in touch with friends miles and miles away from home. On a tiny little speck of an island, no less! It makes my day to see an email from family or friends. 

- Singing. It is my passion, it is my life. I can't go anywhere without humming, singing, or dancing. I get too nervous to sing up front sometimes. I don't want to be like conceited or whatever, but I know I'm not tonedeaf or anything, but I still get nervous. I guess I care too much what other people think.

- Sand. There are millions and millions of grains of sand on the beach. It is just mind boggling to know that God knows how many hairs are on my head. That must mean he knows how many grains of sand there are in the world. Crazy! 

- Clean air. Someone is smoking right now and sharing the lovely air with me. I appreciate clean Oxygen. For real. 

:)

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Hello world there's a song that we're singing... come on get happy!

That song is in my head right now :) I'm sitting here in the resort, as always, enjoying the air-conditioning and all-you-can-eat pasta night. I don't know why I haven't come to this more often. It's really yummy! Here's a picture of Jaimie getting ready to eat the amazing pasta!

It really is quite delicious. I have a picture of me eating too, but it's not such a lovely one. Oh, okay so there is a bit to write about. On Friday I got 3 packages from my parents and it was so amazing! Getting packages here is like Christmas day every day! :) I absolutely love it! I got a lot of neccesities, which I might add included mashed potatoes, 2 cans of big franks, and the LAST can of little links. They love me that much. Jaimie and I ate the little links for Sabbath morning breakfast. It was incredible! (See the picture on the right) Jaimie's plate is so obviously the one with tomatoes on it, because I DETEST tomatoes. Yuck! That is homemade bread with the peanut butter and little links that I got in the mail... and Jaimie scrambled us some eggs. And that orange was actually pretty sour which was disappointing. :(

And to your left, you see me enjoying this blessed treat on Sabbath morning, before church. Jaimie and I then got ready for church and I wore my cute new dress my mom got for me at Nordstrom Outlet. I absolutely love it! She also got me this way cute skirt that I'll probably wear tomorrow. It's just so nice. I adore it. Here we are at church, on the right. I'm wearing the new dress that Mom and Dad got me, but I guess you can't really tell. I'm not going to lie, it looks pretty good on me :) Haha. What a dork I am. Anyways. That was Saturday. Saturday night I had the priveledge of chaperoning my first event as an official "chaperone." It was the 8th grade party for one of the girls whose birthday it was. She just turned 14. Her little brother is in my class, and her little sister is in Jaimie's class. They're a cute family. They go to our church. Anyways. They 8th graders decided to have a sleepover so I was by default (because I am their English teacher) chosen to supervise the girls while David watched the boys. We watched The Parent Trap and then First Sunday. IT was pretty fun. However, it ended around 1 or 1:30 AM. And, now I have new respect for those chaperones on all of our trips, because of course I stayed awake a little longer to make sure none of the girls decided it would be fun to sneak out or anything. So I was up pretty late. I slept on a table. It was a little uncomfortable. But heck, it was an experience. The next morning, the church hosted a picnic for us on one of the outer islands, so we had to get up at 6ish. One girl left at 6, so the rest of us were basically awake. The boys came back over, there was a prayer, and I barely had time to run back and shower before we left to go on the picnic. However, when we got to the dock where we were to take off, we of course waited about an hour, because it is Marshallese time after all. It was about a half hour ride over there, and I really wish I had remembered to bring my camera because that beach was the most beautiful beach I've seen since I've been here. The water was that crystal blue you see in the magazines, and the sand was white and soft. I went swimming, but it came with a price. Even though I put SPF 80 sunscreen on twice (Yes, I did say SPF 80! I didn't even know that sunscreen went that high...) I still burnt horribly. I was smart and stayed in the shade the rest of the afternoon though. I know my body's limits. Here's a picture of my sad farmer's burn.... :( Can you see that horrible line? ah, so embarassing. In addition my knees got sunburnt too! That was silly. I didn't put any sunscreen there because I hardly ever get burnt there.Oh well. Oh, another new thing that happened this weekend was that Jaimie and decided to rearrange our room. It was feeling a bit crowded. Here's a before and after for you:

Before:

After :)

I just realized I don't think you've seen my class yet! Jeepers. Let me upload that now. I have 22 as most of you know. They're all so funny and amazing and sometimes a handful, but for the most part they behave. :) Yeah, they're quite the characters. But they're great. Can you spy the white teacher in this picture? Haha. I just realized I do smiley faces quite a lot in these blogs. I guess since I can't talk to most of you in person, I have to portray my emotions this way. That's how I roll.

As I said earlier, my parents sent me a few packages, and one was full of books which made me so so excited! I started one on friday night, and I'm about 3/4 of the way through. I love reading! Ah, the one I'm reading about right now is about a few people that work in the ER. It's very intriguing. Medical stuff intrigues me. A few weeks ago, one of my kids got his nose smashed in during Recess, and he was bleeding everywhere. David took him and got him cleaned up, but there was blood all over the gym... and yes, I got to clean it. I didn'tget sick or anything so thats a good sign. It got me thinking if I could like doing something medical... but that thought is probably only going to last about a week. So anyways.

I think that's about it. This was a super long blog. I really hope this will post. I might cry if it doesn't. Haha as for prayer requests here: Just pray that I can stay strong and keep the faith. It's hard when we all get hit so hard with the devil. You know how he rolls. Pray for us. I'll do the same for all of you. I miss you all! God Bless!

-Carrie

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Asking for Rain

Yesterday I asked for rain. Literally. I was sitting there, listening to music and talking with God. I was feeling a little insecure, confused about my place on this little tiny dot in the middle of the ocean. I was wondering why on earth God would send me, out of all the people in this world, to teach 5^th grade at Delap Seventh Day Adventist School? I guess you could say that I’m more insecure at times than people really think. Yeah, I’m outgoing for the most part, but there’s a piece of me that has always leaned on the insecure side, always needing some sort of reinforcement. Well anyways, I was just crying out to God… sitting in wonder of his majestic ocean that I have the privilege of waking up to each and every morning. I told God if this was really where He wanted me, and this really was his plan for me, that it should rain. Not just any rain. Here in Majuro there are often random downpours that last a few minutes, and all of the sudden it’s over. I told God I wanted Him to send the biggest rain of the season. Then, I’d know that this truly was his plan. Of course, I knew there had to be some reason I was here, and of course it was his plans, but I was vulnerable, and, like the man who put the wool out in the rain, I asked God to do something. It didn’t rain all night. Usually during the night we wake up to drops on our face, causing us to close the window. This morning I woke up a little bummed. I had heard of stories of God answering crazy prayers like mine. Well, around 7am this morning it started pouring. The hardest rain I’ve ever seen. In fact, a leak started in our room, but that’s a different story. It continued to rain through the majority of the day. In fact, it’s only stopped just long enough for my kids to have like a 10 minute recess outside. It’s still sprinkling a bit on and off. We always appreciate the rain here. It’s a nice break in the heat. But today I was thankful for the rain because it confirmed my request. God has me here for a reason. I’m not really a hundred percent sure yet, and maybe I’ll never completely know why, but I do know He wants me here for this year, and I can accept that. All I can say is don’t be afraid to ask for rain. God works in mysterious ways. Mine happened to be through a rainy day, which was just what I needed. J

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Randomness

Hi world,

It really hasn't been that long since I've updated you, and I really don't have that much to update you on! Ha, but at least now the internet is working relatively fast, so I can possibly upload some pictures of my lovely children. :) 

Sup? This is me in my lovely little uniform shirt. We have to wear these 4 days a week. Fridays are called "Mafty" days, which are kinda like spirit days. The sponsoring class decides on a theme, and the whole school can dress up according to the theme, but they have to pay a dollar. This is a fundraiser that is pretty nice, and raises like a hundred dollars almost every week. Only the 7th grade, 8th grade, Junior class, Senior Class, and possibly Kindergarten raise the money. I'm not so sure about that last one. Anyways yeah, those are like the "graduating" classes. 

Hmm. Well, my life is not too shabby at the moment. Getting myself ready for another long week :) As of now I don't really need much... I guess the only thing I could ask for anyone to send is some games! :) We're always dying to find things to do here, and I'm craving a game night one of these weekends... Hopefully that can happen sometime soon. Also, I can never get enough bandaids! :) I seem to have run out within the very first week! 

Another note, I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but if you ever send a package, make sure it is sent PRIORITY mail! It doesn't have to be express, but make sure it says airmail instead of boat. Because it'll take months for it to get here if it is anything else. So priority is the way to go. Also, if you haven't heard yet, you can get boxes at the post office called "flat rate boxes." These are beautiful! You buy the boxes, and it's a flat rate to ship it. As in, you can stuff whatever you want into these tiny boxes, and they only charge you for shipping. At least that's how I hear it goes. Don't take my word for it completely though, considering I haven't like, sent myself a package. 

As far as needing supplies, I can always use construction paper, pencils, markers, generic crafty things. I'm constantly trying to make up what to do in art class for the week, so if anyone has any suggestions that would be lovely! :) 

Oh in other news, it looks like I'll be moving from my hot stuffy classroom to a classroom that actually has a breeze! I'm excited for this. I had a room above the gym, which not only was ridiculously hot because there was no ocean breeze, but it was a tight fit with 22 kids in there. So I guess there is now an extra next to some of the other classrooms so I also won't need to be such a big loner. :) I get to hang out with other teachers, yes! And the bathroom breaks should be shorter because we're not so far away from them anymore. I'm not sure when I'll actually be moving my class to that room, but at least I want to get a look at it maybe today or later on this week. I want to get in there and clean and decorate and stuff. Should be fun stuff.

Rawr. Internet won't let me upload pictures for whatever reason. I did upload a few on my myspace. If you're friends with me on there, have a looksie! Sorry! I'll try to do it later! Right now by battery has only 20 minutes left, I forgot to bring my charger! oops. Catch you later! God Bless! 

-Carrie

 

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September 5, 2008

Aahhh, I love holidays. Today happens to be "Dri-Gerbal" day, which is Labor Day. So Jaimie and I slept in so nicely this morning.... actually not really. I woke up at 6:08am, a few minutes before my alarm went off. Thankfully I turned it off. But we kinda just laid around until like 7:20, then we made some delicious pancakes and then went back to bed and listened to music until like 9:30. It was lovely. Today most of my day has been spent here at the resort, as always. It is such a nice feeling to not really have to be doing anything. Of course, I really ought to be working on my lesson plans, but those are just minor details. 

 

I'm trying to think of anything interesting that has happened since the last time I've written. I'm loving being able to chat with my parents on Skype, even though my computer is dumb and apparently the internal microphone doesn't work... or the webcam I brought. So I get to see and listen to them, but they don't get to hear or see me... Sigh. Sad day. Hopefully I can figure that out sometime soon.

 

It's 19 days until my birthday! Well, at least here it is. In the states it's still 20 for a few more hours. Wowzers the internet went from full bars to barely any. Shoot man. Hopefully I'll be able to post this blog today. 

 

Last week I had the worst migraine I have ever experienced. I had blurry vision, massive headache, and i felt like i was going to throw up. So, pretty much the rest of the day was "reading" time (aka free time basically) because I couldn't move. I suppose I could have taken the afternoon off, but that seemed pointless once it hit like 1. Plus, at 2:20 they go to PE where I hand them over to another teacher while I watch. So that was nice. I'm thankful for that. After school, I slept from like 3:30-6. It was lovely. Except I didn't sleep that much that night because of it. Oh well. I sound like I'm complaining. Sorry! I lectured my kids on how complaining doesn't help anything. I need to listen to my own advice! 

 

Did I tell you about the pants party? When was it.... last Saturday night I believe... our apartment hosted the first 'pants party.' What is a pants party you might ask? Well, seeing as we have to wear skirts day in and day out, we get a little tired of not being able to wear pants or shorts! So at the pants party, absolutely no skirts were allowed. Shorts, jeans, tank tops, and basically everything else illegal (within reason, don't worry!) was encouraged. We watched an episode of Friends and ate lots of junk food. We decided this should happen more often. It was fun to bond with the girls of Majuro. :) 

 

Last night I experienced my first (and hopefully last, but I doubt it) Marshallese funeral. It was really sad. First, you need to understand Marshallese time. When someone says it starts at 7, don't believe it. In general, things start at least 20-30 minutes later than stated. This happened to start probably around 7:45. It lasted nearly 45 minutes. None of us knew the man who passed, but I think it was the father or husband of someone in our church, therefore the SMs were asked to attend. When we got there, we stood outside for awhile, until we were ushered in to a tiny little room where all of us sat on the floor with the casket. It is somewhat of an open casket, the body was covered but the head had plexiglas over it so you could see the face. The whole service was spoken in Marshallese, so most of us had no idea what was going on, but it was really interesting to see the cultural difference of services in the states. In the Marshalls, it is customary to give the family of the loved one a dollar. I can't remember exactly why. I think it's partially because they give you a LOAD of food at the end to take home. The dollar is placed on the casket, then you proceed to shake the hands of the family as you respectfully make your way out the door. It was an interesting experience. Sad, but interesting. 

 

Hmmm. Last night I fell asleep facing the wrong direction. Jaimie and I had watched one episode of Samantha Who? and I conked out without even getting up to put bugspray on! Bad plan. Jaimie said she almost sprayed me hahah. I woke up this morning with quite a few bites. (Send me bugspray?) I really need a screen on my window. I don't have one! I try to sleep with it open a crack, but I'm nervous that weird bugs are going to join me in bed. I don't like sharing my bed! Especially with bugs! 

 

I miss everyone! Chenelle has been emailing me with updates on her life. It makes my day. I miss my Rio friends too. Hollie, I hope you're having fun at Southern! Lizi, have fun at disneyland! Everyone else, because I know like a million of you leave for Argentina soon, have fun! Sigh. Keep in touch. I miss you guys! 

I'm going to try to post this now. The internet is being screwy. Hope you all are doing well! Sorry I couldn't post pictures! Silly internet. Love you all! 

-Carrie

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