Happy Thanksgiving!

So I figured to get in the true spirit of Thanksgiving (and because I can't say it around the dinner table with my family this year) I'd compile a list of things I'm thankful for:

• My job. There's nothing like an economic depression to make you truly thankful that you even have a job. But beyond that, I truly love what I do every single day. I love the people I work with and the people I work for, and not everyone can say that. 
• The Internet. I know, it's a superficial thing to be thankful for...but I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with all of you beautiful people so well without it. I mean, I'm able to write this so you can all read it, Skype with you, and keep up with you on Facebook and through email. The internet is a wonderful thing, and there's nothing like being halfway across the world from everyone you love to make you realize it. 
• The opportunity to live and work in such a great place. I've had so many great experiences in the three short months I've lived here and met so many great people, and I know there are far more experiences and cool people to come. 
• Having a place to go and a turkey to eat on Thanksgiving. Even though it's the first Thanksgiving I've spent away from family altogether, it will still be a great day. : )
• Love- it makes the world go 'round...: ) I love you all very much. 
• The fact that I will be with my family (my WHOLE family for the first time in 3 years) for Christmas. And that Gaby, Joe, Will, Pat, Chris, Nicole, Klaus, and our newest family member baby William will be joining us. It's going to be an epic Christmas.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I love and miss you all!

My living room all Christmas-ed out. 

My Christmas tree! : ) 

Diving!

So ever since I first arrived here, one of the first questions people asked me was "do you dive?" Apparently in Guam there are a few things everyone should do, and one of those is strap a tank of air to your back and swim underwater with God-knows-what. Now anyone who knows me knows that I have a weird irrational fear/dislike of sea creatures. So the thought of scuba diving had only briefly crossed my mind when I was like...14 and formulating my "things to do before I die" list. However, I'm not one to pass up a challenge, and after enough people harassed me about how sea animals are more afraid of you then you are of them and how I'm probably not going to even see anything scary and how diving is perfectly safe except that one time when my equipment malfunctioned or the time I got the Bends (yeah, way to convince me people) I gave in and signed up for the class. This is normally my technique for doing things I don't really want to do but feel like I should. I sign up, pay the money, and lock myself in.

When my instructor asked on the first night of class "Is everyone excited?" the four other people in my class nodded their heads with enthusiasm. I raised my hand and said "Actually, I'm just scared." He then launched into the normal speech about how nothing bad could possibly happen...and moved on. The first time we practiced diving was in a swimming pool and to my surprise it wasn't that weird to be breathing underwater. I guess since I love to swim (I know, I love to swim and hate the ocean...doesn't make sense) it was just kind of cool to be able to stay underwater for long periods of time. Surprisingly, though, it was awkward. You would think that being underwater would make you a little more graceful because you're all floaty and slow-moving, but it is entirely possible to be clumsy under there. Let's just say I'm a little bit of a mess.

So after the pool dive, I was still not sure about this whole thing. I was a little more comfortable that I wasn't going to drown, but I wasn't sure how fun it would be or that I wouldn't freak out when a fish came at me in the ocean. But the minute that I went down into the ocean and looked around at the reef, I was sold. It was just breathtaking. The fish are colorful, the reef is so cool, and it's so peaceful just floating around under the water. And nothing tried to eat me.

In just two dives, I got to see a sea turtle (soooo pretty), a moray eel, a magnificent anemone with lots of little clown fish, and I got to hold a pufferfish and a sea cucumber (ew). I think I've finally gotten over my fear of ocean creatures, and it only took moving to a tropical island surrounded by ocean to do it. Another one to cross off the bucket list.

Latest adventures

So I haven't written anything in a while...thought I'd update you on life as I know it.

First and foremost, my stuff finally came!!! I am officially sitting on my own couch (way more comfortable than the last), sleeping in my very own bed, and have more than 2 suitcases worth of clothes (although half of those are useless here because they are sweaters and pants). It's so nice to have my familiar stuff, and now I can start decorating and hanging up pictures of all of you lovely people that I miss so dearly. Once I get the place a little more set up, I'll post new and improved pictures of my apartment.

The latest exciting thing that I've discovered here is something called "hashing". Basically, what this is is a bunch of people who like to run and drink beer get together and run through the jungle (or whatever terrain you have where you are, but here it is the JUNGLE!). Someone sets a trail and then sets false trails and basically you have to find your way to the end. The fast people are trying to catch the people who run first and set the trail, but for me I mostly just try to not fall down cliffs and rocks. Along the way, there are usually "beer stops" and at the end there is a campfire and more beer. Needless to say, this is SO much fun. The first time I went was quite an adventure (as most of my firsts seem to be here) that involved a a very long drainage tunnel filled with what seemed like quicksand that we weren't supposed to go through, then having to climb/pull each other out of a concrete ditch, and some serious swimming. I came out of that one with some sweet bruises but it was really fun.

One interesting thing I've discovered here is that you can basically divide the people (or the white people anyway) into certain groups. The first is military people, then there are the lawyers (I know a lot of lawyers), the hashers (people who do what I described up there), and the biologists/University of Guam students. Some of these groups overlap, but for the most part this is how people categorize you here. I'm not sure where I fit, but I'm determined to form a new camp of teachers! Me and Jackie are really the only ones in this group, but perhaps we could recruit more. In any case, there are some really interesting people here. The Chamorro word for a foreigner is "haoli" and I haven't quite figured out if this is a negative word or not. I assume it's like the Japanese word "gaijin"...could be neutral or negative depending on the situation.

Last weekend was Halloween, which is a big deal here. On Saturday night, we had a Halloween hash, which was essentially a scavenger hunt that involved some bar stops. It was really fun. I went as Poison Ivy, and I must say I thought my costume was pretty good. Although the boots were a little hard to walk in after about a mile of walking. Our team made an executive decision to only find 1/2 of the stamps we had to and just sit a little longer in the bars. It was a good decision.

Team 55% (as we deemed ourselves...we exceeded our goal)

If you're wondering what the girl on the left is...allow me to explain. So I described in an earlier post how there are very few bird species on Guam because of the invasive brown tree snake. They eat all the eggs and therefore no birds. Well, the biologists have come up with a solution that involves parachuting mice laced with Tylenol into the treetops for the snakes to eat. Apparently this is toxic to the snakes, and they're hoping it will bring the snake population down. So since she is a biologist working on the brown tree snake project, she chose to go as a dead Tylenol laced mouse...hence the parachute. She made that face in every picture. 

And the latest news in my life is that I've decided to finally get dive certified! I'm starting the class tomorrow night, and I'm really really nervous. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it, but I figured I'd kick myself if I didn't at least try it. So I'm going to go into it with an open mind and try not to freak out. I'll let you all know how it goes. Supposedly Guam has really good dive conditions so it's a good place to learn, then I could dive other islands around there that have more stuff to see (although Guam has really good marine life). 

And to end this post, more pictures of a magnificent sunset from my apartment...feel free to ooh and ahh. 

Red sky at night, sailor's delight.

It looked like the trees were on fire.

Full moon and the evening star...a little blurry but it was so pretty! The night sky here is amazing!

Preschool update. : )

I also wanted to update you guys on how work is going. I love my job. I mean, what other job lets you play all day? Not only that, but every day my kids amaze me with what they can do. Because of their needs, my kids make gains very slowly. But let me tell you, we celebrate every single little milestone. We cheer like they just won an Oscar when they do something they've never done before. It's the most exciting event of our day when one of our girls is able to throw away her paper towel after washing her hands without tearing it into little tiny pieces, trying to eat it, and then running across the room flinging paper towel bits everywhere.

One of my boys started sorting things by color the other day. I was playing one of those magnetic fishing games with him and we were putting the colored fish on paper plates of the same color. I had tried getting him to sort colors another time and he just had no clue, so I just figured I'd try and build it into play to help him understand how to do it. I did a few with him, then I walked away to get something. When I came back, I looked down and the orange fish was on the orange plate. I looked at my aide and said "He put the orange fish on the orange plate!" It was extremely exciting. It's just amazing to see these kids who have all odds against them do the most amazing things. Things that 30 years ago they may not even have been encouraged to do. They teach me something new every day, and I am always humbled by their ability to overcome the hurdles that nature has thrown at them. They're amazing. And I love them.

One of my kids fell in the hallway yesterday when she was walking with her aide and she cut her chin open really badly. She ended up having to go to the hospital and get 3 stitches in her chin. Needless to say, I felt horrible (even though I wasn't even there at the time) and I know the aide did as well. I have such a sense of responsibility for these kids to not only be their teacher but their advocate and their cheerleader (which I do pretty well, I must say). I just wish I could show you all pictures of them, because on top of being amazing they are also adorable. But I'll have to settle for anecdotes and descriptions of the wonderful and often hilarious things they do.

Our new bulletin board for fire safety week. : )

Things you see a lot in Guam

1. Rainbows. I used to think they were rare and amazing, but apparently here it's a common occurrence. Today I tried to take a picture of the sun, because there was a rainbow ring around it. You can't really tell in the picture. It was really pretty! Now that being said, I never get sick of seeing a rainbow and I still ooh and ahh  and act like it's the first one I've ever seen every time I see one.

2. Random animals:

• Dogs everywhere! Apparently here they don't believe in leashing or otherwise keeping their dogs cooped up so they are just roaming all over. There are also a ton of strays wandering around. These dogs are referred to as "boonie dogs" and they are permanent fixtures on all the roads. There's one that sits in the exact same spot on the road to work and I see him every day. Now although lots of people don't believe in  penning up their dogs, there are lots of big houses that have really big, mean looking guard dogs in little tiny pens. At night they close the fence around their house and let them run around. The house right near me has guard dogs and if I walk or drive past they snarl and get all scary. I think it's pretty sad. 
• Roosters! I just learned that there is apparently a big cock-fighting scene on Guam. I went on a home visit to one of my kid's houses and they had all these roosters tied to little posts in their yard. I'm pretty sure now that's what they're for. But there are roosters all over this island and they crow all the time. Apparently that whole thing about roosters crowing when the sun comes up is BS because there are roosters in the yard next door that crow at 3:00 in the morning. They also like to cross the street at really inconvenient times. The other day I was driving and a rooster started across the road in my lane. I slowed down and he didn't look like he was going to keep crossing so I moved over into the other lane and at that exact moment he decided to continue crossing so I had to slam on my brakes and wait for the damn rooster to cross the road. 
• Big fat toads. Near my apartment at night there are huge toads that come out of the woods. I have to cringe every time I drive here at night  because I think I've probably killed like 50 toads total. I felt really bad about it at first, but then my friend told me these toads are an invasive species so I shouldn't feel bad about it. 
• Karabao. I had no idea what a karabao was and had never seen a karabao in my life and I was driving down the street the other day and there was this guy just walking with a big cow-like animal on the side of the road. Thankfully, my friend Jackie was with me and when I exclaimed "What is that??" she nonchalantly said..."Oh, you haven't seen a karabao yet?" Apparently there is a guy who walks a karabao on one of the main streets with a dog riding on top. I really want to see this. Today I was driving home and I passed a little group of karabao just mosying along. : ) 

• Now with all these animals, there is a noticeable lack of birds. The brown tree snake is an invasive species that has apparently killed off most of the bird species on the island except for a few. So it's kind of weird to never see birds or hear birds chirping. There are, however, these little black birds called Marianas Swifts that apparently attack people while they're running. I'm tempted to see if this is true. : ) Fun fact about the brown tree snake: I guess the researchers have found that Acetaminophen will kill them. So in order to control the population they have decided to parachute dead mice laced with Tylenol into the trees. The snakes will eat them if they're dangling from the tree but apparently not if they're on the ground, so the government has actually designed a special parachute to drop these mice into the trees. I can only imagine walking through a forest and being rained on by dead mice. 

3. Really pretty sunsets. 

4. Japanese tourists. They're EVERYWHERE! It's kind of homey feeling though, I'm not gonna lie. The only difference is that these tourists tend to be kind of rude and pushy. I assume it's probably just because of the class of Japanese people that are able to vacation in Guam...who knows, but they are a far cry from the soft spoken, courteous Japanese people I know. There are certain times of year where they just take over the entire island. When I first got here I had a lot of trouble getting a rental car and finding a backup hotel to stay in because there were so many Japanese tourists here. I guess I never realized this was a popular vacation spot for them. 

5. Potholes. The roads here are notoriously bad. The traffic and driving is also terrible. I'm surprised I don't see more accidents. It's always nice to drive behind someone who knows the roads because you can just follow them when they swerve to avoid giant potholes. 

6. Beautiful beaches. Obviously it's an island so everywhere you turn there's a beach, but the other day I went to a beach on the north west side of the island it was like paradise. You had to drive down a really bumpy, crappy road to get there and after we parked we had to walk through a jungle and there were butterflies everywhere and then we came out onto this gorgeous beach! Just another day in the life. : ) 

My car!

So since I'm so excited about my brand new 2010 RED toyota corolla I took a video of my car.

I had a choice when I bought it of pretty much all the colors, and I was torn between the blue and the red. The blue, however, was really really really blue, like Gator blue but with metallic sparkles in it so it was pretty obnoxious. So naturally I went for the more toned down red. : ) I've always wanted a red car. And now I have one!

This video is really awkward because I was outside of my apartment and then my neighbor came home halfway through and I didn't want to look like a psychopath so I stopped taping and then my other neighbor left her apartment so I didn't talk much for the rest because I didn't want her to think I was crazy. But either way, you get to see my car. : )

My first hiking adventure!

So ever since I got here I've been dying to go hiking, which the natives here call "boonie stomping". The mountains here are so beautiful that I knew it would be really awesome! So today I finally got my chance, and it was quite an adventure! The middle school Chinese teacher from my school, Jackie, gathered some people together so we could hike Cetti Bay. She's the same age as me (rare among the teachers at our school, although I'm lucky to be on the elementary side because all the middle school teachers are like 50...a lot of the elementary teachers are 30-40ish). She came here by herself right out of school last year, so she knows what I'm going through and has rescued me from my "I've already driven around Guam 50 times now what do I do?" feeling.

So we all gathered to go hiking. We had to hike down the mountain to get to the waterfalls. Jackie decided to take a different trail from the one that most people take, because she knew of a different way down. So we started down. The view was fabulous!!! However, the way down was a little precarious and we ended up sliding on our butts most of the way because it was pretty steep and rocky.

Starting down the mountain!

On top of the world! : ) 

So we hiked all the way down, ending up pretty much in a mudslide (which was pretty fun if you ask me). When we got to the bottom, we had to walk up a little river to get to the bottom of the waterfall, which had a nice pool. We had all come equipped with our bathing suits so we went swimming! It was so nice and cool after fighting down the mountain! I wish I had pictures of this, but while we were at the waterfall, it started raining so I had to put away my camera. : ( 

But that was ok, because the next part of the hike needed all my attention. We started our way back up, choosing to go to the right of the waterfalls. Because it has been raining a lot lately (it's the rainy season, meaning it pours rain every day) the trail we were on was really muddy. Now, this would have been fine, but the trail was pretty steep and we had to pretty much haul ourselves up. The first part of the climb had a rope hanging down. Apparently a lot of hiking in Guam involves pulling yourself up with ropes. It was pretty fun...challenging, but fun. But after the rope disappeared, the only thing we had to grab on to was the vegetation on the sides of the path, which consisted mostly of something they call "swordgrass" here. I think it's like sawgrass in Florida, but let me tell you it's called swordgrass for a reason. If you catch it the wrong way, it slices you pretty good. So having to pull yourself up a mountain with only swordgrass is pretty rough. Then we got to the top of that part and encountered...A SEA OF SWORDGRASS! We had to push our way through. Now as you can see in the picture above, I was wearing shorts. I look like I got in a fight with a wolverine now. And lost. Now needless to say, I was hiking with 7 girls and one guy (poor guy) and this was by far the whiniest part of the hike. I felt like I was 5 and I skinned my knee. I kept crying "ow, my leggggssssss!" 

But we made it through the swordgrass field, and then we had to climb up more dirt cliffs. At this point, we were pretty high up and the view was gorgeous!! We could see the waterfalls, the bay, and the valley. However, it was a little scary being on the side of a mountain. So most of the time I was focused on what was right in front of me. I started to have flashbacks of Mt. Fuji, trying to only think about where you were going, not what was behind you (a precipice). I realized that my legs are not long enough for rock climbing, because I kept trying to climb up and would have to reach my foot up to get up a step and half the time I couldn't reach and I would get stuck trying to figure out what to do next. Towards the end I just ended up climbing like a monkey or something on my hands and knees. So 5 out of the 8 of us made it to the top of that portion. One of the girls that was with us was really scared of heights and she was having a little trouble climbing up because she was so nervous. So we were waiting for her at the top when we heard a huge crash of thunder and it started POURING rain. Lightning and everything. Out of nowhere. We all looked down to see little rivers of water beginning to pour down the mountain and started getting a little concerned for the poor girls still trying to climb up in a mudslide. But one person went back down to rescue them (the rest of us huddled under a palm tree so we wouldn't get struck by lightning) and they made it up slowly but surely. 

At this point we were all really muddy, really wet, and pretty exhausted. I felt like I was on Lost or Survivor or something. To tell you the truth it was pretty awesome.  It sounds like a miserable experience, but I was still having fun! The rain finally stopped, and we all stopped to check out our scratched up legs and sliced up hands. It was at this point that Jackie looked at her hiking guide and realized that we had somehow ended up on the difficult path up the mountain, not the one that normal sane people do. But we survived! 

The rest of the way up the mountain was pretty easy and uneventful (anything would have been easy and uneventful after that). So muddy, cut up, and exhausted, we made it back to our cars. It was then I realized that I had just picked up my brand new, sparkly clean car yesterday, and that it has beige interior. So needless to say, my car has been christened with a little dirt and sweat. Gotta get rid of that new car smell somehow! 

After that adventure, we dragged ourselves to the nearby marina and got some lunch and some beers. I think it was a pretty successful first hike. We all agreed to do it again some time, but to actually go on the beaten path, wear pants, and bring some gloves next time. 

Oh, and you could tell it rained really hard because driving back to my apartment I had to go through a flood. Like...a foot of water. I was so scared I was going to get carried away. Yet another Guam christening for my new car. It was like Oregon Trail where you have to ford the river. Thank goodness it didn't turn out like most of my Oregon Trail experiences. 

On a random side note, I would like to share that my neighbor's cat, Morty, is a total creeper and he sits on my windowsill and scratches my screen and makes really scary noises sometimes. But he always comes to say hello when I pull up to my apartment. He's actually tried to come in my apartment on several occasions. I don't mind him though, he's pretty cute. I could do without the scary noises outside my window though. 

Pictures/video of my new car to come! : ) 

Tour of my apartment!

A rainbow! : )

So I went to get in my car this morning and look what I saw:

Isn't it pretty? : ) 

I'm officially a Guamanian!

So I finally got my Guam driver's license today...it was interesting. The DMV was in a warehouse-like building that had a lot of windows and stations to go to. I got in the driver's license line right before it got intensely long. Thank goodness I wasn't registering a car today, because that long was a mile long. Everyone told me getting a license here was hell, but honestly, it was faster than when I got to the Gainesville DMV right when it opened with an appointment. But I had to apply at one window, walk down a long hallway and pay at another, then walk back down the long hallway to get my picture taken and license printed at another window. It was fun. : )

And my picture is terrible. The guy even said "wow, your forehead is really shiny, I'm not sure why that happened..."

I know you all wanted to steal my identity, so I got all technical and used paint to scribble out the sordid details. Nice try though. Because there's no way anyone could figure out what my name is with that awful signature. I've really gotta work on that...I wanted to change my name to McLovin' but that was a little too difficult for the little paintbrush to handle. 

So now I can officially buy/register a car...apparently they won't let you do that without a Guam license. Unless you're military...which I'm not. 

In other news...our new little girl that is in kindergarten but comes to my class for a lot of the day because she gets overstimulated and can't sit still is so adorable but so exhausting. There were three adults with her today and we were still running all over the place. This is the first time since I've been here that I'm actually tired from work. She's gonna be a handful, but a lot of fun! And I have a feeling she'll make a lot of progress over the year, which is always rewarding. Hopefully a lot of that progress will be the amount of time she spends in her kindergarten classroom. ; )

Settling in.

OK, so I really wanted to post a video tour of my apartment but my internet won't let me. So it might have to wait until I upgrade, which I am so that I can also Skype people and have the video actually work.

But besides moving into my new place, my classroom is all settled! Now I'm just working on the logistics like making schedules, materials for circle time and actually planning things for my kids to do! I suppose that's kinda important. But here are some pictures of my classroom!

My first bulletin board! Alright, I can't take credit for this, my aide is fabulous at doing bulletin boards so she did it...but it was my idea! 

My kids made the apples! : ) 

My classroom all set up! I had to cover the shelves because we have lots of busy hands that are easily distracted.

Art center

Circle time area (we're learning about circles, hence the tape circle on the floor. : ) )

Library (had to pad the walls for little climbers)

Housekeeping

And blocks!

So that's my classroom. It'll be a little more decorative once I get my stuff in the mail, but apparently it's still in nowhereland somewhere. 

In other news, I went snorkeling for the first time the other day! Now you all know how I feel about ocean creatures, so this was a big step for me. But one of the ladies I work with was having a little get-together for her son's birthday at the beach on base. It's a really nice little beach with a coral reef. So I saw some really pretty fish. I was really scared at first and I hyperventilated a lot about breathing underwater but I got over it after a little while. But I refused to go out past the coral reef where it was deep and scary. Everyone here keeps asking me if I'm going to get dive certified, but I don't know about that because I might get eaten by a shark. 

Other than that, I've just been procrastinating actually putting anything away in my apartment and trying to find a car. Life is getting pretty good. : ) 

I'll post the video of my apartment as soon as I can! 

Getting myself together

Well things are starting to come together a little bit...I went apartment hunting the other day and found a place I really liked. It's about 15 or 20 minutes from work, has an AMAZING view of the ocean and the pretty hills here, and a really microscopic kitchen. : ) I didn't take any pictures of it while I was there but here is the real estate listing:

http://www.guam.flexmls.com/share/lyg/1711-Rosa-A.-Asher-1st-floor-left-Delor-Apt-Asan-Piti-Piti-96915-GU

The kitchen actually looks bigger in the pictures than it actually is. I'll be moving in on September 1st, which is exactly when the Navy Inn and Suites has decided to kick me out, which is perfect!

My classroom is also coming together a little bit. I've had to scrounge for furniture because my classroom was literally empty when I got here. My aide Therese is fantastic! She has helped me immensely in putting this whole mess together. I've met 2 out of 4 of my kids, and they were absolutely positively adorable! I will meet the others next week when I do home visits. PSCD officially starts next Wednesday, so I'm very excited!

The front side of my classroom (notice the disarray)

The back (I like the blue wall : ) )

The only 2 centers that were set up at the time of this picture-taking.

Our very own kitchen! Yay for being able to do cooking projects! All the Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms have kitchens between every 2 rooms. The windows open up to the classrooms (we're connected to the next Pre-K classroom)

I couldn't figure out how to rotate this picture, but this is the Guam flag/American flag hanging in my classroom. 

So since I took these pictures, my classroom is even more put together, so I will post "after" pictures when I'm done and ready for kiddos! 

I wanted an adventure...and I sure got one.

So I've been in Guam for 3 days now and it's already been quite an adventure. I won't bore you with all the details, but needless to say I was almost homeless, almost without a car, and almost had a nervous breakdown. But things are starting to smooth out a little bit now. After much heckling at the Navy Inn and Suites, I at least have a place to stay until Friday and hopefully I can squeeze a few more days out of them while I look for an apartment. I have scheduled an appointment with a realtor tomorrow to go and look at a few places. Some of them looked promising, so hopefully I can find a place to live. Then I will just need a Guam driver's license and a car and I'll be good to go! 

I think I will like it here though. The people here are really welcoming and laid back. I met two guys in the airport who were from Guam and they basically told me that the only way the people here won't accept you is if you refuse to eat their food. I think I'm good on that one. : ) 

I think I realized I would like it here when I was going through the customs line at the airport. Now I had just traveled all that way and it was 2 in the morning and I was exhausted and delirious. And I had one of those stupid airport carts for luggage piled with my 80 pounds of clothes. It was one of those airport carts that you have to press down on the little lever on the handle to get it to move but if you let go it brakes (which I always thought was dumb). Well I was pushing my cart up to the little window and I was trying to get out my customs form and my passport at the same time and I let go of the little lever. The cart stopped really suddenly and I impaled myself on the cart. I mean, I practically fell over the front of the cart. I was going to try and play it off but then I looked at the guy at the window and he was cracking up at me. Now if you've ever been through a customs line at the airport, the people there don't usually crack a smile but this guy was full on laughing at me. I laughed it off and he said "Oh, yeah, that happens all the time and I find it super funny". Now if the customs guy at the airport at 2 in the morning has a sense of humor, I'm thinking the people here are pretty cool. 

Just like in the pictures, this place is absolutely beautiful. After a stressful arrival at 2:00 in the morning, I woke up the next day to go pick up my rental car (after calling every place on the island to find one...apparently half of Japan is here on vacation) and stepped out of my hotel room to this beautiful view: 

There are so many places like this on the island...it's really breathtaking and I feel like I should be on vacation, not here to live! While I was driving home the other day, there was a turnoff for a lookout point over Asan Bay. This was one of the beaches that the US troops landed on when they were taking the island of Guam from the Japanese. The picture I took can be matched up to the picture on the sign and you can see where the forces landed and where the Japanese had bunkers and stuff (unless it's too small and then just know that the Americans landed on July 21, 1944, to the left were "Japanese caves and pillboxes" and to the right were "banzai charges on July 25-26". I thought it was an interesting piece of history. 

So the scenery is nice at least. : ) 

The new teachers at my school started yesterday with meetings and orientation. My school is practically brand new and it's HUGE! It's amazingly nice and coming from the states it's really crazy to see how much resources there are. I would post pictures of my classroom, but right now it's completely empty. Last year the room was used for 2nd grade, so all the Pre-K and PSCD (Preschool for Children with Disabilities) stuff is scattered around the building in storage or in other classrooms. So I have to collect it all and arrange it. 

I'll be teaching PSCD full time (it used to be half day, but thankfully for me it's full day now). I have a full time program aide as well as one or two more one-on-one aides. And right now I only have 4 kids enrolled! Yes, 4 kids. And at least 3 adults. My enrollment will probably go up as we get referrals from other agencies, but for the moment that's what I've got. So I think I chose the right place to do my first 2 years of teaching...: ). Along with my aides, I'll have an OT, PT, and Speech Therapist working with me and my kids as well as a Special Education coordinator who will help me. Not to mention the Vice Principal and Principal as well as all the other staff I have met are extremely helpful, supportive, and welcoming. 

Apparently the VP has put in a request for some Navy volunteers to come and help me get stuff to my classroom. So the classroom pics will have to wait until some strong sailors come and help me move stuff from the storage closet (literally piled to the ceiling with furniture, toys, and probably tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff) downstairs. I think I'll take a picture of it tomorrow and show you all just how ridiculous this storage closet is and just how much stuff is sitting in there NOT BEING USED! I wish I could box some of it up and send it to some of the stateside schools I've worked in. 

So that's my life right now...cross your fingers that I find a place to live tomorrow!