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