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.