Day off!

Think I mentioned in my last post that we did a little walk up to Blunt's Point- part of the fortification which took place after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  We talked a bit about cultural adjustment while having a great view!  Think someone also took a picture of a bunch of us sitting on this as well:

Friday I co-taught a lesson on tectonic plates and convergent plate boundaries with Mike who just graduated from Skidmore with a geology degree.  Between the Hagers, the geology boys I went to Honduras with, and him, geologists may very well be the most proud of all scientists or professions!!! Geologists LOVE geology. Like, so much.  It's awesome.  We played games about oceanic and continental plates crashing into one another and the results, so I think everyone had fun.  I named our competition the "Crust Collision Championship".  2 points for alliteration.


On Friday night a group of us went to get dinner and drinks at the "Equator restaurant & bar", where we had a wonderful Fijian waitress who said the WorldTeachers from last year always used to meet up there and she wanted to see a lot of us.  Because it's part of a hotel, a lot of white people there (most of the 50-60 white people on the island at any time are probably all there, for whatever reason).  Some were pilots waiting for their plane to refuel, from Australia, others were construction workers who were going to be in the area for a few months on jobs.  We then carpooled with some of the people we met to a bar called the Bowling Alley, which is literally no different than bars at UVM.... namely, Sputies. SPUTIES SHOUT OUT!!!.... never thought that would find a place in this blog.  We were the only white people at the bar, and got to experience what fa'afafines are really like, even spoke to one named princess, who I guess is in charge of the transgender community group, or something of the sort.  We could tell that any time we engaged in conversation with Samoan men, girls gave us pretty nasty looks.  But I guess that's not different than the states.  However, girls in the bathroom were so nice! (also no different than the states).  We stayed out much later than planned and about 6 of us walked back to Nu'uuli High School at 2:30 am, seeing HUGE rats and many dead frogs in the road on the way.  Didn't have to fend off any dogs, either, which was a relief. We said good night to our security guard and went to bed.

Sunset from Nu'uuli High School one morning- the power lines are in the way and it was was WAY prettier in person but the ocean was like glass this morning and the sky was so pink.  I walked out of my room to use the bathroom and had to stop and go back to get the camera.

Saturday was our first day off!!!!  I got an errand done in the morning.... bought fabric for my church skirt and one puletasi (toughest decision of my life.... I don't do well shopping to begin with then add in the fact that I'm trying to piece my own outfit together in my head).  Then we took 2 buses over to Tisa's Barefoot Bar...AKA where I plan on spending at least every other Saturday.  It's the only place on the island where you can wear a bathing suit (even a bikini if you want!). They have amazing pina coladas, and Tisa lives there with her partner "Candyman", the bartender.  I can't wait to talk to Candyman more, apparently he is a huge fisherman (sounded like he was Australian) and at Tisa's I believe they serve what he catches- or at least local fish.  I guess he's really into fisheries and all that stuff, so hopefully I can learn a lot about the fishing industry here. I didn't try the food at Tisa's yet but others who did said it was amazing.  Looked REALLY good.  

Tisa's reminded me a lot of the bars in Utila, Bay Islands of Honduras.  Such a calm atmosphere, but I'm sure it can get rowdy at times.  Jimmy Buffett and Kenny would like it there.  There are flags hanging down everywhere and I'm hoping to add a UVM flag to the collection....so send me one!  Read the guestbook, there are people from EVERYWHERE!  We swam for a bit but couldn't go out far or much past Tisa's because of the waves and rip tide.  Still managed to snorkel and find a few awesome fish, and tried out the GoPro dive cam!!!!! I'm PSYCHED to take that thing out to a reef.  Video came out awesome, even though there wasn't much to see.

view from Tisa's Barefoot Bar

After some swimming, snorkeling, and pina coladas :) 

Hoping to get a Mass or UVM flag sent to me so I can hang it at Tisa's!

Melanie, me and Dan at Tisa's in the evening.

I also learned that around 500 people applied for the WorldTeach AmSam program this year..... in case we all needed an ego boost here.  I had NO idea!!!!  There are 30 of us here.... it's like getting into Harvard! (We did the math).  And a lot of us didn't even apply for this program.  As if we all didn't already know how lucky we are to be here.


Didn't go to church today, ended up having too many things to do and then a BBQ with everyone in the park across the street where we played some volleyball.  Have to teach an individual lesson to actual high schoolers this week....so nervous! Still working on my lesson plan but I'm doing it on limiting factors of reef formation (temp, salinity, sunlight/depth, and pollution).  Trying to keep it simple but I could go on forever!


Hoping to wake up to watch the sunrise this week and sit by the water for it.  Move into Leone on Saturday and we will have guests with us (some volunteers who are going out to Manu'a, because they need a place to stay while we have DOE orientation here on Tutuila).  I'll be living with Josh, who is an 26 year old environmental scientist from Texas, and then right next to us will be Jill and Kristina.  Jill will be teaching math and has been teaching for 25 years so she'll be an excellent resource, and Kristina just graduated from college in Virginia and will be teaching English.  We meet our host family sometime in the next few days as well!  Have a feeling after this week blog posts will become infrequent, but I'll have facebook maybe!!!! Wooooo!


In other news, I think a few of us have decided we are going to try to go to New Zealand over winter break! It's very cheap compared to Australia, and it's the longest break we have.  And Mike knows a ton about New Zealand because he studied abroad there and has connections.  We may try to get out to Manu'a for Thanksgiving, if the planes are working.


Once I know what supplies I'll need at school, I'll probably send out a letter begging for school supplies!!!  Any of the teachers out there--- getting students to donate school supplies might be a cool community service project..hint hint!!!  Lots of the volunteers here have already talked to past teachers in the states and have organized such projects. I'll send out my P.O. Box once I'm settled in Leone.


Alright, long post.  Generally watch an episode of Boy Meets World with Jacqui and Dan at this time, but might read a bit and head to bed.  Gonna be thinking of the Cleaver/Hager/O'Neill clan this weekend as you all paddle the Westbranch and scatter Grandpa's ashes.  Wish I could be there for it.  Who wants to plan a Westbranch trip for when I return?!  (Although I may have had it with the mosquitos by then).


love love love,
sara