I Stand Alone In My Four Cornered Room

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching I've been asked several times as to what I'll be doing out on the island. True, while the thought of a turkey dinner with family blinks in my mind like an old neon sign in North Vegas, you must remember the following:

-It's still 80 degrees here during the day, and,

-I'm 7,000 miles away from friends and family.

Thus, I'll be forgoing the traditional schedule that I had at home of going out to the bar on Wednesday night and trying not to get caught up in a conversation with someone I didn't really talk to in high school, eating a decent amount (but not too much...need to watch the figure) of food while catching some football with my Dad on Thursday, and going over the "should I really be waking up at 4:00AM to go to Kohl's?" debate in my head before compromising and scouring the internet for deals. Instead I resolved to make it easy on myself this year and go to a local resort, drop $15 on a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and heading home to lesson plan (aka drink Filipino rum). It seemed innocent enough until Lauren (another teacher here) won some sort of a crazy raffle which resulted in her taking delivery of a ham, spuds, pie, etc. Indeed, it appears as though the Norf Side will be eating well on Thursday night.

The photo above is a view of the horseshoe pit Andy and I have created in our yard. Top ten in the world? Top ten in the world. We've been playing with increasing regularity and I've gotten quite a bit better at it. Good times all around. A few days ago six or seven local kids (ages: just under a year to 6th grade) provided us with an audience and as we neared the end of our last game they mustered up the courage to come closer. After we finished we introduced ourselves and showed them how to play, standing them 4 or 5 feet away from the stakes and letting them have at it. There's no way I'm letting that happen again without getting a picture, as every one of these kids are beautiful island children and they are hilarious. We hung out throwing the shoes with them for about 45 minutes before the darkness intruded, and that was that. The next day they saw us coming home from school and ran down the hill bearing the gift of tangerines. Tangerines here, while green on the outside (even when ripe), are AMAZING. It's honestly like someone took a tangerine and added juice and sugar.

Oh, Triple J Super Fresh...how I wish you had a consistent supply of anything. There's a island cooler there (not like this island...like, the coolers that are waist high that go down the middle of your grocery store) that has something different almost every week. One week: Bacon. The next week: Brats. The next week: Freshly caught fish and shrimp in Coleman coolers. The next week: Hillshire Farm Kielbasa. Seriously, if you see something you like here you need to buy A LOT of it as you have no idea when you'll see it again. One thing I've learned to live without: Orange Juice. When it's $7 for a paper carton (1/2 gallon) of Minute Maid, the Vitamin C content in a roll of Starburst starts to look like a valuable proposition. Nonetheless, if you're buying anything out here and you'd like it to be fresh, Triple J is where it's at. Truth in advertising indeed.

I don't have many students, but the ones I have...ok, yeah, they're not easily motivated. It's difficult to get kids to learn when they see the cycle of "Turn 18-Have Children-Government Subsistence and Food Stamps" their entire lives. I'm not passing a value judgement...after all, for all I know they could care less about working for a living. They live different lives than you and I, so it's difficult to know where ethnocentrism stops and responsibility starts. Regardless, 1/3 of my class is visible in the photo and I'll definitely get some pics of the full class soon.

Bonus Round!

-If you're coming out here anytime soon, you'll be dealing with Geckos at some point. I'm losing the battle against these mofos, as at any time after 6pm there will be one to three smaller ones on my ceiling in my apartment as well as two or three on the ceiling of my balcony. They don't bother me, and I don't mess with them. For what it's worth: Nick, I'm sorry that I got you and Marnie a gecko for your couples shower gift like three years ago. I know it was a bit insensitive (not to mention poor form), however it was really just a statement against men attending wedding showers (especially couples showers...ugh). There were better ways of going about it, sure, but the fact that I transported the lizard from the pet store to my brother's in a MOTORCYCLE SADDLEBAG should count for something, no? Anyhow, my bad. Now please take the black magic gecko curse off of me.

-Praying Mantises (Manti?) are some bad boys. They take out spiders which are larger than them, and take care of business as efficiently as a ninja. Quick, painless, done. It's also considered some sort of horrible bad luck to kill one, thus I'll be kindly escorting them from the premises should the need arise. Grasshoppers suck, though...I kill them left and right.

-You can see more pictures from Managaha and the island at large on my Facebook page. Don't be shy.

-I've been covering perception and sensation in Psychology class. Check out moillusions.com for some cool optical illusions...easily the best lesson plan I've done so far on Saipan.

-I proposed starting a boxing club at Marianas High School, however the idea was dismissed out-of-hand by the principal. I can't blame him...with the amount of machismo and pride out here I'm certain that these boys would fight until they were hamburger.

-Homemade tacos: Just as good across the Pacific Ocean. Add some Tinian hot pepper (what up Amy) and you have yourself a delicious replacement for a Nedi Pot. Speaking of, my immune system has adjusted to the area, however there is a recent flu and TB scare at school so stay tuned.

-Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and please, please, PLEASE start commenting if you have time. Your feedback is crucial as I have no idea if I'm writing about the things ya'll are interested in.

-Chinese Coke = Mexican Coke = The Coke I grew up with = Coke with sugar in lieu of partially hydrogenated corn syrup. Chinese Coke is readily available everywhere on the island...again, I can see why diabetes is prevalent here. Doesn't matter much, though: Old school Coke cannot be defeated.

Until the next one...