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!