It Ain't Where You From Kid, It's Where You At

New place? New place. I'm officially a resident of the village of As Matuis. Or the village of San Roque. I guess it depends on who you ask. Regardless, it's the place I had been looking at online (some of you saw it), and it's the real deal. $500 per month gets me a 2BR, 2BA place that's fully furnished. Not shabby at all. Here's a quick tour:

This is the view from the balcony just outside my bedroom. It doesn't suck.

I'll have some more pics tomorrow. My internet here is hit-or-miss, so once I get to a decent wifi spot I'll upload the rest. Here's a preview: Mangos, Jackfruit, a large living room, and a cow (he lives next door...I've decided to name him "Elvis").

I've found that the island lifestyle is quite different from the one I had in The States. There's really no sense of urgency about anything whatsoever, so your only options are to roll with the punches or allow your head to explode. I'm going with door #1 for now...let's see how long it lasts. Case in point: I got my PO Box on Tuesday, however they only had one key and could not let me take it before a copy was made. I was told that said key would be available to me the following day. I was told the exact same thing when I went in on Wednesday. Earlier today (Thursday, although it's technically Friday right now) I went to Quick Print and was once again told that the key was not mine to have. But wait, "give us a second and we'll take care of it". As I waited I glanced at the Lost and Found section. A few sets of keys and a postcard that appeared to be extremely personal and sincere occupied the space of a 2 foot x 2 foot glass case. Then I heard it. A f*cking key cutting machine. 30 seconds later I was given my key, as they'd obviously just made the duplicate. I have no idea why this hadn't occurred to them on Tuesday, but as I said, you just have to laugh it off.

This evening I accompanied another teacher (Emily) to the Garapan Street Market. My oh my...a full skewer of Korean BBQ Beef: $1. Don't mind if I do. There's a mini-stage where local kids perform dance routines, and it did not disappoint. Would you enjoy watching 10 minutes of hula dancing followed by 10 minutes of junior high kids popping and locking to unedited L'il Jon songs? I thought so. We left the dance area and walked around the market before settling on two open stools at Johnny's, which has an outdoor bar. I enjoyed a couple of Rolling Rocks (seriously, it says "Rolling Rocks" on the menu...not sure where the pluralization of the beer's name came from) while Emily had two mojitos. I dropped the young lady off and made it back to my new place where I was greeted by a tiny gecko on my door. Seriously, the thing wasn't three inches long. I made an agreement with the gecko that I would allow him to stay on the door as long as he cared to, however inside my apartment was off limits.

In all seriousness, everyone I've met and talked to out here is fabulous. Sure, I've been the recipient of more than one "Who the F does this white boy think he is?" glance, but by and large the people here are awesome. I'm hopefully going to be the new owner of a 1992 Camry as of this weekend (it's a hoopty), and when that has been taken care of I'm officially "done" with moving.

I dropped by Marianas High School today to check out my classroom, only I couldn't as it is in the process of being renovated. I found out a bit more regarding the Alternative Education Program which I will be teaching, and it couldn't be more positive and negative at the same time. To wit:

-I'm going to be in a building separate from the rest of the high school. I mean FENCED THE F OFF from everything else. Apparently my students are either being bussed in from jail or are certainly well on their way to being a criminal. Then again, I kinda like those kids...reminds me of people I grew up with.

-The program is "self-contained", which means ALL SUBJECTS will be taught in my classroom.

Just when I thought I was going to look into stiletto wands and stun guns they told me that:

-I'll have a teacher partnering with me ("Team Teaching" as it's known in the biz); and

-Their class size last year in this program: 3. Three students. Three kids, two teachers. I might have as many as five students this year. Ho ho ho.

I'm really hoping my team teacher wants to take over math and science.

That's all for now. As I mentioned before, I'll post more pics once I get the chance. Now please, can some of you start commenting on these posts so I know people are reading them?

-Steve