Scary Parents, Crash and Burn, and a Merry Christmas Charlie Brown

Hello my friends. I hope you all are dandy. I have lots and lots to tell so lets get to this!

I am going to start off by saying that these last couple of weeks have been really great in classroom 16. My kids do drive me insane, like off the wall crazy sometimes. But its okay because I love them. We have become a family. Even my most troublesome kid and I have the best relationship. It is so true that children need to know they are loved and they definitely return it back to me. They are all hilarious. You guys would love them too.

Last Friday was report card day. This means no school for the students but the teachers had to be in their classrooms to talk to parents. I had this idea in my head that my day would be a successful one filled with redecorating, catching up on grading, and lesson planning. Well, my island sister and also the kindergarten teacher Yosko came by and we were chatting and having a jolly 'ole time. Then she looked out the window to see one of my students father coming to my classroom. Now if you knew Yosko you would know that she is a jokester. She was telling me to get prepared for this dad because he used to make the last year teacher cry. I thought she was just messing with me and of course I could handle any parent. She wasn't kidding. This father comes into my classroom with the most intimidating looking face and I know I am in for a difficult time. I won't go into much detail but let me tell you folks that he had nothing good to say. Of course I put on my "I am the teacher and know what I am doing face" but inside I was crying. This man had made me feel like the worst teacher ever. After talking it out and thinking it out, I realized that he does not know what he is talking about. My 17 students are so important to me and I do my best to teach them, but honestly if they don't understand something like bar graphs, its okay. What is important is that they are trying their best and that they know they are loved. So word got around that Ms. Williams had a difficult parent.

After parent/teacher conferences, some of my friends and I decided to rent mopeds to ride around the island. This is something that my friend J Dub and I had been talking about since being at Southern. I was pretty excited and determined to drive one. So J Dub gives me the bike with a 1 minute explanation on how to drive it. I take a lap around school on it by myself. Then, the boys decide to put Macy on the back. Okay so here is this bike that I have taken around the loop once and now I have this person holding on to me and they want me to take her around the island?! I mean yeah I nailed that loop but I am not pro moped driver. Lets just say the last thing Macy and I said to each other was we are scared and then I crashed. Yes, I crashed.  We didn't even make it around the first turn. I was trying to turn, but the parked truck happened to be there and I felt like it would be so much more fun to hit that! I kid, I kid. We both jumped off really fast and I think I went into shock. Did I forget to mention that everyone was there? The pastor, the principal, all the student missionaries, and some students. That was the beginning and end of my moped driving. The boys drove us around the island and it was so much fun. It takes around 2 hours to drive around the entire island. It was so beautiful especially on the other side of the island because there is only little villages. Sometimes it is nice to be out of the hussel and bussel of the town.

The next day on Sabbath a few of us went camping for one night on an outter island called Nahlap. This island is like a mini resort. There are sanded paths and a water slide. We just relaxed all day and hammocked all night. My hammock actually fell down in the middle of the night. It's funny because one of the last things I said before bed was that the hammocks were up really high. Luckily, I was pretty tired, said ouch when I hit the ground, and fell back asleep. You know how there is always that one person who just gets hurt all the time on trips? I realized that I am that person here on Pohnpei. I don't know how that happened, but it did. Everyone says that its because I take it really well. So I guess I'll take one for the team;)

This last school week was fun, crazy, frustrating, rewarding, and tiring. On Tuesday, I had my first Charlie Brown Christmas play auditions. A lot of students tried out and I was very impressed with them. Thursday was call-backs and we re-auditioned a few and then let them know what their roles were. Charlie Brown was so hard to pick! Mr. Martin(the other director) and myself may have been so unsure between two different students that we rock, paper, scissored it. I am so happy that the cast is chosen and we are ready to start practicing. We have our work cut out for us! If you have any directing/  play/charlie brown tips send them on over!

Wednesday was a holiday and I would like to thank the United Nations for giving us that. I love having Wednesdays off because it makes the week go by so much faster. Franky the principal took us out to see manta rays. It was gorgeous and so cool to see a huge manta ray at the bottom of the ocean. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and going into town for a little shopping trip. I am oh so excited to let you know that I am now a licensed driver in Pohnpei and I have driven the manuel yellow truck that I love so much. Here, the driver's seat is on the right side of the car but you still drive on the right side of the road. I have so much fun driving stick shift on a bumpy, pothole filled road. The rest of the week went super fast. Just keeping busy with the play and the littles. 

I had an adventurous day today, but I'll save that for next time. Lets just say hiking and waterfalls were involved. I want to give a special shout-out to the Berrios family, my grandparents, my parents, the Brassingtons, and the Magsalins! Your packages/letters were received with great joy. I also want to say thank you for continuing to read this little blog of mine and I hope your day is filled with happiness. I miss you all!

Much love from the island.