New Pictures, Near Death Experience, and an Alternate Universe

Hey everyone,
Check out new pictures in my webshots website. They include pictures of me and my fellow JVs teaching, some of my living situation, and the students. I'll try to get more of me and the students later. Enjoy.
Don't be alarmed by the title of the blog. I'm OK. But here's what happened.
We went swimming to the Japanese dock again. It's nice to get off the Xavier campus on the weekend. It's hard to have time to yourself or time away from the teaching world. Anyway, it was a beautiful, very hot day. Perfect day for a swim and some snorkling. We went in, and it was nice an relaxing. Anyway, we were out pretty far, past the small coral reef that's about 50 yards from the dock. I was with Adrienne and Chris Luthie, another American teacher 3 years older than us. We looke up and noticed that the rain and clouds that were approaching the island were closer than we expected them to be. The waves were starting to get choppy and the current pushing us slighty away from land because of the wind. I looked up as we decided to head back and noticed that half of the island was covered in a grey mist, meaning the storm was coming a lot faster than we thought. I started swimming against the waves back to the dock, but not directly towards the dock in a straight line, because we had to swim aroun the coral. But then it started to rain really hard, which meant I had to stop using the snorkle to breath through. The rain and the waves were getting in them anyway. When I looked up again, I couldn't see anything other than greyness from the rain and clouds. It was even a bit hard to see the coral underneath me. I didn't want to swim into any where it was too shallow. So that was probably the scariest moment: not really seeing where the dock was and anything infront of me, and the waves being really big and the rain being really hard. But I wasn't freaking out, unlike Chris, who was kind of panicking and swimming on his back right towards the coral. So I had to swim to him to calm him down and to make him not swim right into the coral. We found Arienne (I was the only one without flippers) and I told them to head to the coral so we can atleast rest on it. It was sharp at first, but once we grabbed on we were able to stand on it. I got a few cuts since the waves pushed me into it, but I felt a lot better knowing I can stand on it. I told them we should just wait until the storm passed. It eventually did, and we made it back to the dock. The rest of our group was waiting at the dock for us, a little worried, but I was fine. Chris was very glad to be out, because he was freaking out a bit. Adrienne was ok. So it was just for that one minute where the waves were really strong and I couldn't see anything where I got a little freaked myself. But it was only for a minute. Nothing more. I'm brave.

So yeah, it was Adrienne's birthday, so we all went out to the Blue Lagoon, the really fance resort on the island. This is where all the divers come when they stay in Chuuk. It was really an alternate universe. The grass looked well trimmed, the hotel rooms and huts looked beautiful, like something out of a Hawaii resort. The service and food was also very good. There were some Americans and Australians at the bar that we hung out at. It was a really nice time, but it was as if we left the third world and entered Florida. It was a nice break, but I actually felt weird entering into the Blue Lagoon property.

Ok, so that's all that's new. Enjoy the pictures. I have a lot of grading to do, since it's Mid-1st quarter. Peace out! Thanks for the comments and emails.
AJ

Shout-outs and Lists

Hello everyone.

I am going to begin by giving a huge shout-out to Mary from Holy Cross. She sent me an AWESOME care package with lots of goodies and treats. But it was the way she labeled everything that was a really creative and fun idea. It brightened up my day. I ate a lot of the chocolate (NOTE TO EVERYONE: CHOCOLATE DOES MAKE IT IN THE MAIL) already. If you do send things, however, make sure that you wrap it carefully, so the ants don’t get in. I hate the ants. They’re everywhere.
So, if you want your very own shout-out in my blog, send me an awesome care package. It’s kind of like buying your own ad space before the movie starts I the movie theater. Does it still take 20 minutes before the actual start of the movie and the proposed time that the movie is supposed to start?
Anyway, this is a good time to list off some great ideas for care packages.
What to send me:
Snacks (Chips – preferably cheese/sour cream/or olive oil, tomato and Romano cheese flavored; peanuts, yummy snacks in a bag or sealed container)
Sweets (Junior Mints, Hershey Kisses, Junior Mints, York Peppermint Paddies, Junior Mints, Mini Junior Mints, Twizzlers, and anything that is in a bag or box, M&Ms, Junior Mints, anything Dark Chocolate) – As you can see, sweets are hard to come by here.
Pictures – I would love to know what’s going on with you guys. The funnier they are, the better.
CD Mixes – I am probably missing out on awesome, awesome music that you all listen to. Send them my way.
And just be creative.

Next list…
Here is a list of things that the other community mates and I came up with that deal with what we have taken for granted back at home now that we live a very simple lifestyle. Hopefully this list will give you a better perspective into how my life has changed in this short time:
Things We Have Taken For Granted:
-Leaving food out (here they get bombarded by ants)
-Getting food at any time of food whenever you wanted it
-shower
-hot water
- vending machines
- power (it goes off allllllllll the time here)
- copy machines
- nice mattresses
- going places by myself
- paved roads
- internet
- steak, pasta, fresh food, basically any good food
- (for girls) pants – they’re not allowed to wear pants here
- season changes
- the cold, snow, autumn
- public transportation
- a bug-free environment (here, just because you’re indoors, does not mean that there will be less bugs around)
- paper products
- recycling
- basic waste management (thank you Mafia, you kept home so clean)
- radio
- movie theaters (there are none here)
- current world news
- cheese and Junior Mints
- that things actually start on time (here we have something called “island time”…you kind of just show up when you feel like it)
- wounds would heal rather than fester
- having to dry everything completely
- the lack of humidity – also not sweating all of the time
- everyone knows the same language
- things are reliable (construction, computers, businesses)
- long evenings (it always gets dark after 6:30 here)
- carpets!


Here is a list of things that we will probably realize we have taken for granted once we leave this place in two years.
- eating or drinking a coconut whenever we wanted to
- our students (sometimes)
- how diverse our community is
- baked bananas with coconut milk
- ocean/lagoon view
- no snow
- papaya
- walking around barefoot everywhere
- eating fish with the heads on them
- seeing the entire Milky Way at night
- palm trees everywhere
- the quietness/peacefulness
- no TV
- slow pace of life
- no bombardments of advertisements (I hate that!)
- connection with nature
- a little candy you get instead of receiving change (once a store I was at ran out of pennies, so instead of getting 3 cents I got 3 pieces of candy)

If I think of any more I’ll write them down later. But this should give you a pretty good idea of what we have and don’t have, and how that puts a different perspective on things. If you have any questions, send them this way. And send packages. Sending love is fine too I guess.

Still going....

Hello everyone.
Here's what's new.

Nothing big really. You remember how I said I want to end the lives of those roosters outside of our house because they like to wake us up at random times in the morning? Sometimes, it is as if a dog starts barking, and the rest of the dogs in the neighborhood go off. Think of that but with roosters!! Insane. Well, surprisingly, I'm totally used to it now! They may wake me up at 3, but I'm used to waking up at many times during the night, and I tell myself (well, there go the roosters) and then fall back to sleep, involuntarily swatting at small flys and bugs that buzz near my head (kind of like a cow swatting his tail at the bugs, yet not really caring that he has to do the swatting). So I'm like a cow, is what I'm trying to say.

I had the worst class yesterday. First of all, teaching World History is very hard. We changed the curriculum from last year, so I have nothing to base lesson plans off of. I'm all on my own. Also, there are not enough books for the kids to take home to read for homework, so that is aweful. We have to spend class time reading or group reading. And what's more, I can only get the books for my class 2 times a week, maybe 3 if I fight it out with the other teacher.
Anyway, so I had this class planned where I needed books and the kids would get in groups and read certain sections and report important info to the rest of the class and it was going to be great. The first section went very well. The second section, well, I had 5 kids go to the library before the start of class and they came back saying the library was locked. Ok, no problem. I had one kid go to where the offices were to find a teacher to get the key. Then he came back and said that no one knew where the library key way. I was stunned, and I think the kids kind of picked up on my frustration. The person who is supposed to be in charge of the key isn't very responsible sometimes. Needless to say, 3/4 of my planned lesson was now gone, so I tried to lecture longer than I was supposed to to buy up time, but finally I had to give the last 15 minutes of the class to the students to do other homework. I was very upset. It was aweful. My students in that section think I'm probably rediculous. So moral of the story: don't teach a class where a text book is critical unless you have textbooks.

If anyone has suggestions on how to teach world history without a textbook, let me know. Thanks.

Other than that, things are good. I had spam again for lunch today. That's a regular item. I haven't gotten sick yet (knock on wood) and it's been a little over a month since I've been here. That's good.
It's sad to hear about all the crazy stuff happening back home in New Orelans. It's really weird to be completely disconnected. We're just recieivng bits and pieces. I hear HC is accepting students from Loyola New Orleans. That's really cool of them. Go HC.
Anyway, you're all in my prayers. Eat some Junior Mints for me. Peace
AJ

Drunken Spanish Rice

Hey everyone. Thank God it's the weekend.
Last week was a typical week of teaching, nothing big going on, except that I was completely exhausted by the end of every school day. I'm in bed by 10...earlier if I'm lucky. I think I talk too much in class. I need to foster more group discussion out of these kids, or at least get them to participate more. That will take a lot of planning from this experienced educator...

So what else? Friday was very low key. It was the weekend, so that's all we really cared about. Every Friday after school there is choir practice for the entire school. I don't know how that came about, but it seems that every student here is very musically talented. They all have great voices. So we hear groups of students singing here and there. Especially when there are the black outs, and students are still in the main building, their beautiful voices echo through the halls while we wait in the dark for the power to come back on. Anyway, listening to the first choir practice was really great, since the gym they practiced in is close to my office window, so it gave me something nice to listen to as I was grading papers.

Now, once a month a group of faculty and staff will cook for the rest of the faculty and staff on the first Saturday of that month. Yesterday was the first time a group had to go, and my JV community picked to go first. We named ourselves the Tin Sweedish Chefs, which spawned from my original idea "The Food Network" which bacame "The Iron Chefs" which became "The Tin Chefs" and then we had to add "Sweedish" in the title because the Sweedish Chef from the muppets is really, really funny.
Anyway, we all left the campus early in the morning to go food shopping. We had a budget of $100 that the director gave us. It was absolutely pouring cats and dogs yesterday, so by the time I got to the store, despite being covered by my rain jacket, I was soaked. Oh well, at least it was warm out.
Quick side note....Joe had to meet this guy named Clark while we were downtown to discuss sports programs in Chuuk and other sports related things. Nice guy. We all talked for an hour or so. However, I heard him quickly mention his son's name, which sounded very familiar to me. After the meeting, Joe and Jaclyn decided to run up back to campus for a workout, and Adrienne, Chris and I drove back to one more shopping center to buy some final ingredients. We bumped into Clark again, thankfully, because I approached him and asked him if his son went to Holy Cross. It turns out that both of his sons did. They are the two HC grads I am supposed to be looking for because as soon as people found out I was coming here, some HC friends said that they actually know some kids from Chuuk. Anyway, I thought that was interesting. Small world. I'll meet up with them soon.

Anyway, we get back to campus and at 3:00 we all start cooking for the 6:00 dinner. It was Mexican night. We made burrito meat, Spanish Rice, Chris' mango salsa and other assortments. However, the Spanish Rice took a while to bake, and we just threw in a lot of spices, and instead of using a lot of water to cook the rice, we threw in a lot of Japanese beer. It was ... interesting, but still good. Chris was unable to find any Mangos for his salsa, and unfortunately the black beans we bought were drentched in soy sauce, which did not help the salsa. It was also very interesting. We finally decided to pour in the little Mango Rum we had to give it a kick. All in all, cooking was very enjoyable, and the feast was a huge success. We all ate soo much that none of us wanted to move afterwards.

It was a nice weekend, especially to get off campus and not think of school work for a while. The school week is very stressful. The whole notion of "island time" gets thrown out the window if you're a teacher here at Xavier. But it's a challenge and it is exciting. Tomorrow I'm having final tryouts for Romeo and Juliet. Which reminds me, I need to go through the script the students wrote today and "correct" anything that needs correcting. I'll be spending all day lesson planning today. I appreciate the emails and letters I've been getting. Keep sending love. Peace