'Tis the Season!

Ah Christmas is in the air. Despite the lack of cold weather and snow, it still feels like Christmas time. We are playing lots of holiday music in the apartment and in my classroom and on Tuesday, Karyn and I spent part of the night transforming our apartment living room and kitchen into a winter wonderland. Friday, Karyn and I had cut stars, paper chains, and snowflakes galore. When Jen, Kim, and Denise had finally gone to bed, Karyn and I started to decorate the apartment. Karyn had made most of the decorations because she is really artsy so I was mostly the labor. J We hung paper snowflakes from the ceiling and stuck them to the cabinets, and put up other various decorations we either found in the closet or my mom had sent me. I had also received an 18” tree from Amazon that we decorated and put on the table. We were up until 1:00am, but it was totally worth it! Jen, Kim, and Denise were all surprised and it just put everyone in a more Christmasy mood!

Karyn made a portrait of each of us in the apartment!

I decorated my classroom on the 1^st of December to surprise my students. Oh they loved it! The snowflakes, and other glittery decorations surrounding the classroom had them staring for a long time. One of my students, Alyanna, is transferring to Guam on Wednesday. I’m really sad about that, but I think the class will do well without her. She’s the smartest in the class and she knows it! Everything that she does, everyone else wants to do. It’s really kind of annoying sometimes because I need the kids to be more independent.

I can’t believe it’s already December 7! Time is flying by! Two of the volunteers from PUC are leaving on the 18^th! I couldn’t even imagine leaving now. I love being here too much! Despite my hate for the humidity, I found that I am really enjoying myself here. Although teaching is still not something I really enjoy, I love being with my kids. They have become a lot more loving toward me the last couple of weeks. I get lots of hugs, lots of I love you’s, and lots of pictures drawn for me. One of my favorite students, the youngest in the class at the age of 4, loves to sit on my lap at recess and before class starts in the mornings. My high school kids have also taken a place in my heart. Jeroleen, Demi, and Reyonna made me Thanksgiving cards telling me how they were so thankful that I had come to Pohnpei and that I was a great teacher/best friend. J It made me really happy to read those cards! I keep them by my mirror along with all the other cards and letters my friends and family send me.

This girl right here, just makes my day everyday. :)
I wish she would come to WWU!

I love Fridays because they’re short, and I only have my Kindergartners for about two hours. Danny teaches my kids for half an hour on Fridays and I go to teach his 7^th graders Romanian during that time. I always have one or two kids crying when I leave for that time or for when I go to teach my high school classes. A lot of my kids have started crying a lot lately which is really starting to get frustrating. They cry for no reason and so recently I decided to stop giving them as much sympathy. I tell them that they’re fine, give them a hug, and give them something to do. It  seems to work pretty well so far! But today, Danny stops by my classroom at the end of the day, before we go out to the playground and all the kids run up to give him high fives because they were excited to see him. Seeing that he had disrupted my class, Danny says, “Okay kids! Let’s all go back to our seats!” and starts counting down from 5. But Yuree and Haylee somehow got caught together while running and both hit the concrete ground. They both started crying hysterically and just could not stop for a while. Finally I got them to calm down and we all went out to recess until school was out. Poor Danny felt so bad! We had Power Hour, the elementary vespers here at school tonight. It’s always fun singing songs with the kids and coloring with them. At 6:30, there were still two high school boys waiting to be picked up by their parents. I asked Jade if they wanted some granola bars that my mom had just sent me. He said, “Sure Miss! I don’t know what that is but yes please!” So I get them some granola bars and Jade asks, “Miss, why are you so nice??” I give away candy and snacks to kids who stay for a long time after school on Fridays because I have a lot and they’re hungry! And somehow Jade is always there to receive the snacks. J Haha! After Power Hour, the PUC volunteers came up to our apartment and we had cake and hot chocolate. Today, I had homemade pumpkin chocolate chip muffins sent to me all the way from College Place by Carolyn! They were so good! I feel so loved! J

Our lovely class Christmas tree! 

My sister sent me a mini Christmas tree with little ornaments and the kids had fun decorating it in class today. I ask them,

“Class is it ok to touch the tree?”

“NO MS. C!”

“But you can look at it! Kapeesh?”

“KAPEESH!”

I definitely taught my kids to reply with kapeesh and the hand sign. It’s different than what other classes do and they always respond to it.

We found out that Riley is not coming back to Pohnpei because he is not recovering quickly enough. Please keep praying for him! I also ask that you keep me in your prayers. My wisdom teeth are coming in and giving me many headaches and my knee has also been very swollen the past couple of days and makes standing quite painful as well. I feel like I’m falling apart!

Sabbath Mwahu! (Happy Sabbath!)