Happy New Year!

Well, most of you still have a few hours before you enter 2009, but I have been in the new year for a little over 13 hours... how does that feel? Haha. It's really weird actually. Last night we (Me, Jaimie, Trevor, and Evan) went to a thing called a block party, and they blocked off a street and a bunch of people were there, with live music and drunk marshallese to boot. it was fun though, i'm glad we went and didn't just sit around like we were going to do. Don't have too much to write about. I'll just try to upload pictures.

This is a picture with the President of the Marshall Islands and his wife.

Haha. I think Jaimie was the more aggressive one on this one.

We took this at midnight. On self-timer.


Well, we left there around midnight, and the party I guess officially didn't end until 4. But we went back to our apartment and watched Friends with the guys until 3:30ish. It was good stuff. Didn't get to bed until around 4, but that is what New Years is for, right? :) Hope you all have a good New Years tonight! Be safe! Hope to hear from you soon!

-Carrie

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Christmas in Majuro

So I’m sitting here…. Trying to remember the last time I wrote a blog, and I’m realizing it has been quite some time. My bad. Christmas has come and passed, and there have been many stories in between that I suppose I should fill you in on.

Our class Christmas party was entertaining. I only had 17 of my 23 kids show up, but we had a recess most of the day, and then went to the library to watch a movie. The kids had voted on a tradition where the parents bring in presents for the students to open, and we also had ourselves a giant potluck feast o fill our stomachs. The parents definitely went overboard! We had 2 tables full of food, and a table and a half full of presents. I took advantage of the relaxed day to take some pictures with my kids.

The days leading up to Christmas were full of grading, grading, and more grading. Grades were due the day after Christmas, and since Jaimie and I were staying at the resort, we wanted to get them done by Christmas Eve. We had music or movies constantly playing in the background, hoping to keep us entertained while we slaved away at grading. Finally, Christmas Eve came, we turned our grades in, and got a ride to the hotel.

Christmas in Majuro was admittedly lonelier than I thought… but it definitely was worth it. We stayed in the hotel here for 2 nights; Christmas Eve and Christmas. We packed up all of our stuff (including wrapped Christmas presents) into our huge suitcases and headed off to the hotel. When we walked into the room, a wave of air-conditioning washed over us. We were in love. The room had two spacious beds, a TV, a nice bathroom, and a balcony overlooking the ocean. We turned up the AC as high as we could so that it would feel as close to Christmas as possible. We hadn’t really planned much as what we would actually do when we got there, but it was a nice stay. We stacked our presents under a lamp (our makeshift Christmas tree) and we plopped down on the beds and relaxed. The next 2 days were full of mixed emotions. We were happy to be in such a nice place, but very sad and missing our families at home. The worst part was that the internet was completely down for both days, making it impossible to contact or talk with our family at all. That put a damper on the days, but we still enjoyed ourselves by watching silly marathons of Micronesian MTV shows.

The days following Christmas have been a bit boring actually. It’s hard to find things to do here to entertain you for a day, much less a whole extra week. Yesterday was church, which had an entertaining twist. We got ready and went to church (I wear one of the new dresses my parents got me as a Christmas present) and sat through the beginning of it. Once we knelt or prayer though, I got this really funny feeling…. My head got really tingly and my eyes started getting really fuzzy. I remember thinking that I should get something to fan myself, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground, feeling like I was in a deep sleep. I woke up to Jaimie leaning over me saying, “Carrie, are you OK?” I was really out of it. Thankfully not very many people saw, mostly just the row sitting behind me. I was alert enough to say, “We should go.” So we snuck out the side door and I went back to the apartment and slept for awhile.
That’s basically all that has happened lately. We’re at the resort today, and the internet is working pretty well for the first time in a very long time…. I talked to my parents for like an hour or so… it had been over 2 weeks since I’d heard their voices. I am a very happy camper today. :)

I wanted to thank everyone for the lovely presents they sent to me for Christmas! They meant more than you know. I really appreciate Walla Walla’s packages from people I didn’t even know. It made me feel very special. :)

As far as things I’m needing around here…. My list isn’t very long.

I am always in need of food. It seems like that is the one thing that disappears the quickest ;) Snack foods are always delightful. I got some trail mix from Marissa the other day and ate it in a day. Haha. It was really delicious. I’m always craving like Ritz crackers or Goldfish, or snacky items like that.

I really like instant mixes; like blueberry muffin mix, or pancake mix, or anything mix. Anything that I can just add water to is a lifesaver. (or eggs, or oil… you know.)

I have had a horrible craving for anything veggie food. Redi Burger, Little Links, Big Franks, you name it. Sometimes I swear I can smell it cooking…. What I wouldn’t give for a Boca Burger right now ;)

ANYHOW. I hate asking for things, but people have been asking…. ;) So there you go! Haha.
I hope that everyone has enjoyed their cold Christmas… I hear in Walla Walla it has snowed a good few feet, and it has gotten close to zero degrees! I will enjoy my warm Christmas season for all of you (I went swimming this morning and got burnt?) J It is quite a change, and I do miss Christmasy weather, but I know that this time next year I’ll be wishing for my island weather back, so I’ll enjoy it while I can. I miss you and love you guys, especially around the holidays. Know you all mean the world to me, and I am always praying for you and thinking of you.

Can you believe it’s almost 2009?

Happy New Year!

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December Updates

Yokwe!

I have quite a few things to write about, because it has been forever since I’ve been able to blog about anything. Almost every Sunday for the past three weeks we’ve been packed and ready to come to the resort to use the internet, but almost every week we have SMs who come back saying “it’s not working!” so we decided not to come so we don’t have to sit there waiting for the internet to decide to work.

Well, let’s start with Thanksgiving. It was a good one! We only got that Friday off (the actual Thanksgiving day in the states). People here don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, even though it is a US owned country. All of the other SMs had their own big shebang happening, but Jaimie, Travis, and I kinda just wanted to have a smaller, more homely Thanksgiving dinner together. So we made a FEAST of gluten (thanks to Jaimie’s mom sending her some lovely gluten ingredients), mashed potatoes, stuffing, couscous, peach pie, ice cream, martinellis, and corn! It was beyond delicious. We even went around the table and said what we were thankful for, even though most of us said the same thing: friends, family, and EACH OTHER.

Aw, una familia = so adorable.

Next, this last week we had our class picnic. We were planning on 5-8th grades going on a group picnic to an outer island, named Enemanit; the same one that the whole church went on in the very beginning of the year. Anyways. It didn’t work out. Some of my kids are 9 years old, and their parents were not very thrilled with the idea (who could really blame them?) so we decided to go to a pretty well-known spot here by the airport. David decided to still try doing the Enemanit thing with just his kids, so 5th-7th graders headed out to the airport last Thursday around 8AM. (Well, it was supposed to start around then, but no one really showed up until 9, because of island time and all) So it started out okay. We got there, swam with our kids, had some fun, found some puppies to play with --->

and everything was good. And then it started raining. And it didn’t STOP raining. There we were (the kids were still in the water) but Travis and I were freezing! We were standing there with no shelter, in our soaking wet clothes (which of course we didn’t bring any extras to change into) with the wind making it even colder. Yes, people, I was COLD in Majuro. GASP! Seriously. I was shivering. And I came back super wrinkly, like an old lady. Goodness gracious.

We decorated our room Christmasy on Friday. We had it off, since it was “gospel day” (I don’t really understand what the significance of that really is) but anyways. WE found a box of decorations in one of the classrooms. It is probably the tackiest decorations I’ve ever seen, but it at least gets us in the mood, and makes it feel like Christmas is actually right around the corner (which it is, weird!) I wrapped Christmas presents and listened to the 4 Christmas songs I had on my laptop. I’m going to need to work on finding some more Christmas music to get me in the mood.

Our apartment-mates and the boys next door have adopted a puppy. (Shhhh don’t tell, its against the rules) Here, there are so many stinking dogs that make more and more baby dogs, so people dump them off if they don’t want them. At our picnic on Thursday, we found five that were dumped off by a garbage can because people didn’t want them anymore. The 6th grade teacher, Trevor, wanted to keep one, so he did. They have named her Isabel. She is super adorable, and has quickly made her way into all of the SMs hearts. In fact, as I speak, Trevor is outside (the resort) with Isabel right now. She follows you around and sits and stares at you. It’s the cutest thing ever. We don’t allow her into our rooms, she still has some issues with ticks and fleas. They seem to be doing a good job at taking care of her, although she had an accident this morning (oops!) But she is slowly learning and I know that she will be loved just as much (if not more) than all the other dogs here.

Meet Isabel. :)

Oh, and Friday night Jaimie and I were really bored and did a funny crazy photo shoot. She did my makeup and we dressed up and took pictures haha. Here are some of the winners. ;)

Well, that about wraps it up. I honestly can’t think of too many new things here. We have just two weeks (12 days) until Christmas break. Jaimie and I don’t really have any big plans. We’re going to stay here in the resort for Christmas eve and Christmas night. It will be nice to at least stay in some AC. We’re of course pretty bummed to be so far away from home on Christmas, but at least we have each other. I’m sure we can make it fun. Travis is going to Hawaii to be with his girlfriend. We’re going to get creative to entertain ourselves for two weeks straight. For real. Haha. Majuro doesn’t have many things to do. Perhaps we’ll have to try out the bowling alley or something… Anyhow. I’m planning on mailing my Christmas presents out this week, and hopefully they will get to you all soon and on time for Christmas! I miss you all. Love you!

-Carrie

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