It was brought to our attention that we don't have any contact info up; here it goes!
Our mailing address is:
Chelsia and/or Saul Castaneda
c/o Isaac Bradshaw
P.O. Box 5411
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799
It only takes one U.S. stamp to get envelopes here because we're a U.S. Territory. Also, if you want to send a package use a flat rate box. They range in price from $7 - $18, I believe. They can weigh any amount and the cost stays the same. This is a tried and true method for getting things to American Samoa (and it's still priority mail). Some post offices request that you put a customs form in the box but you can ask your individual post office in regards to this.
Our joint email address is CSCastaneda08@gmail.com. Let us know if you'd like our personal email addresses as well.
We have cell phones here. Just email us to let us know you'd like the number(s).
Happy Tuesday, world! :)
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
Settling In
It has been just about two weeks since we last posted and so much has happened. I won't bore you with every little detail but it has been such a roller coaster of events.
First, we've finally moved into our new home in Leone. We live on the land of an amazing family (the Purcell's). They have over 11 acres of property and it's just so gorgeous! We have home-grown papaya, limes, breadfruit, bananas, sugar cane and taro; all at our disposal. I'm pretty sure that Saul and I have made something like 5 pitchers of homemade limeade (nom nom). We've also made banana muffins with fresh bananas.
The family was nice enough to invite us to a Sunday lunch where we got to indulge on delicious Samoan food (oka, corned beef, pulemasi, tuna with coconut cream etc.) Honest to goodness the food here is on my personal top three favorite things about AmSam.
Saul has also been moved from Tafuna High School to Leone High School so now we get to teach together. This is such a huge blessing! We've been hoping and hoping that somehow this could happen and it finally has. He'll be teaching business vocational education (accounting, entrepreneurship and computer applications). He has this great room with lots of resources and it's seriously just perfect. Now we get to walk to/from school together, have much more time to do things together after school, no more spending countless $$/time on commute, we'll get to know the same faculty/students, etc. etc.
I've finally got my class schedule ironed out as well. I'll be teaching two periods of algebra 1 and three periods of geometry. I'm super happy with my schedule as I only have two preps. No complaints in this department.
Speaking of school, it was supposed to start on August 12th. Here we are on Monday, August 19th and we've just heard that it'll be postponed for another week. So our start date looks like it'll be Monday, August 26th. This extra time has definitely been a blessing in disguise. While we are anxious to start teaching, it's given us time to get our classrooms ready, do some long term lesson planning and to just get our affairs in order before the school year begins.
We've still been keeping up with our favorite shows: Dexter, True Blood, Ray Donovan and just recently Breaking Bad. We've been reading our kindles incessantly. I think my book count is up to something like 7 since we've been here. I'm currently reading the Confessions of a Shopaholic series (chick-lit ftw!) and Saul is reading the Harry Potter series. We cook pretty much every meal because we don't really have any fast food or Samoan "fast food" in Leone. We do take the odd trip into Tafuna for Carls Jr. or McDonalds but buses run very limited hours so that doesn't happen too often.
I was looking back through old emails that were sent at this time last year and I just can't believe how much things have changed. This time last year, Saul and I had just gotten engaged, I was starting a new job, and we lived in our little house in Redondo Beach. Now we're both starting new jobs, we've been married for almost 4 months and we're living in our little (but bigger!!) house in Leone. I wouldn't trade this change for the world. American Samoa (Amerika Samoa) is a beautiful place with beautiful people (excuse my cliches) and I'm so thankful that we have the opportunity to do what we're doing for the next year. I think about what are livescould have would have become had we stayed and the thought terrifies me. While AS doesn't really fit the standard cliche idea of "paradise," it's definitely our own paradise.
Even though we haven't started teaching yet, we're trying to brainstorm for our next adventure! Life is too short for the redundant and mundane. :) Trying to go on contract here in AS if we like it, and if they'll have us? Opening a Bed and Breakfast in Costa Rica? Teaching ESL in South Korea? Getting jobs in Europe? Going to graduate school?
The sky's the limit.
I love life, I love my husband, I love American Samoa.
-Happy Girl Chels
P.S. Addie (my little sister) is coming to visit us!!!! :) :)
The family was nice enough to invite us to a Sunday lunch where we got to indulge on delicious Samoan food (oka, corned beef, pulemasi, tuna with coconut cream etc.) Honest to goodness the food here is on my personal top three favorite things about AmSam.
Saul has also been moved from Tafuna High School to Leone High School so now we get to teach together. This is such a huge blessing! We've been hoping and hoping that somehow this could happen and it finally has. He'll be teaching business vocational education (accounting, entrepreneurship and computer applications). He has this great room with lots of resources and it's seriously just perfect. Now we get to walk to/from school together, have much more time to do things together after school, no more spending countless $$/time on commute, we'll get to know the same faculty/students, etc. etc.
I've finally got my class schedule ironed out as well. I'll be teaching two periods of algebra 1 and three periods of geometry. I'm super happy with my schedule as I only have two preps. No complaints in this department.
Speaking of school, it was supposed to start on August 12th. Here we are on Monday, August 19th and we've just heard that it'll be postponed for another week. So our start date looks like it'll be Monday, August 26th. This extra time has definitely been a blessing in disguise. While we are anxious to start teaching, it's given us time to get our classrooms ready, do some long term lesson planning and to just get our affairs in order before the school year begins.
We've still been keeping up with our favorite shows: Dexter, True Blood, Ray Donovan and just recently Breaking Bad. We've been reading our kindles incessantly. I think my book count is up to something like 7 since we've been here. I'm currently reading the Confessions of a Shopaholic series (chick-lit ftw!) and Saul is reading the Harry Potter series. We cook pretty much every meal because we don't really have any fast food or Samoan "fast food" in Leone. We do take the odd trip into Tafuna for Carls Jr. or McDonalds but buses run very limited hours so that doesn't happen too often.
I was looking back through old emails that were sent at this time last year and I just can't believe how much things have changed. This time last year, Saul and I had just gotten engaged, I was starting a new job, and we lived in our little house in Redondo Beach. Now we're both starting new jobs, we've been married for almost 4 months and we're living in our little (but bigger!!) house in Leone. I wouldn't trade this change for the world. American Samoa (Amerika Samoa) is a beautiful place with beautiful people (excuse my cliches) and I'm so thankful that we have the opportunity to do what we're doing for the next year. I think about what are lives
Even though we haven't started teaching yet, we're trying to brainstorm for our next adventure! Life is too short for the redundant and mundane. :) Trying to go on contract here in AS if we like it, and if they'll have us? Opening a Bed and Breakfast in Costa Rica? Teaching ESL in South Korea? Getting jobs in Europe? Going to graduate school?
The sky's the limit.
Throw backs from Blunt's Point hike during orientation.
Move out day. Best day ever!
Back when we were living at the high school (FaceTime!)
Our landlords found California milk at the market and bought it for us! :)
Even though Saul isn't at Tafuna anymore, I loved this mural up in the gym. (DOE orientation)
In our traditional uniforms at DOE orientation.
We hiked to Sliding Rock which is the closest "beach" to our house. It's all volcanic rock and tide pools. So gorgeous!
Our compound!! Blackie aka Rambo aka lots of other things is our favorite dog on our property.
We found Tsunami on our walk to school!
Leone High School!
Saul setting his lab up.
Papayas from the tree on our property
I love life, I love my husband, I love American Samoa.
-Happy Girl Chels
P.S. Addie (my little sister) is coming to visit us!!!! :) :)
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Paradise Found
We finished lessons around noon one day earlier this week and figured it would be the perfect day to find the infamous Airport Beach. Seven of us grabbed our snorkel gear and with the exception of a few, our hiking sandals, and jumped on the Tafuna Bus towards Cost-U-Less. Little did we know Maliu Mai, the marker for the road that leads towards Airport Beach was a ways past Cost-U-Less.
Once we found Maliu Mai we started off down a very long road towards the ocean. A very nice gentleman probably felt sorry for us because he offered to give us a ride down the road which was probably about a mile/mile and a half. The only other direction we really had besides Maliu Mai was once you hit the beach, follow the gate along the airport. It's literally along the runway of Pago Pago airport. This part of the hike was absolutely stunning; lots of volcanic rock, blowholes, and HUGE waves.
We didn't think there was any way that Airport Beach could be as pretty as the hike to the beach had been so our expectations were pretty low. I think it's safe to say that we were blown away when we spotted the actual beach. Crystal clear water. Abundant thriving coral reef. Calm water up to 30 feet deep.
Needless to say, we will be back...and soon.
-C
Ava Ceremony
We are kind of famous here. And by famous I mean we made the front page of the local newspaper! Well at least our group did… the picture of Chelsia and me were on page 3, but who’s counting? The pictures are also online on the newspapers website if you want to see the extent of our celebrity (http://www.samoanews.com/?q=
The newspaper article was about the ava ceremony that our group participated in. An ava ceremony is the traditional Samoan ceremony to welcome guests. It is usually hosted by the Matai (chief) from the village and only the Matai from the visiting village participates. In this case, our head teacher Isaac acted as the Matai and our language teacher (Tamari) acted as the hosting chief, and welcomed us to Samoa. We were all also allowed to participate and drink a bit of the traditional ava drink that goes along with the ceremony. It is a mild narcotic that to me tastes a bit like coconut water. You only have a sip though so there isn’t any effect from the drink.
Overall the ceremony was a blast. We listened to them welcome us in Samoan, had the traditional ava tasting, and finished off with a little singing and dancing. It was so much fun and so interesting. The only downfall was that we had to sit with our legs crossed on the ground the whole time and since it lasted 30 to 45 minutes my legs were dead by the time it was finished (I’m not very flexible).
-S
The newspaper article was about the ava ceremony that our group participated in. An ava ceremony is the traditional Samoan ceremony to welcome guests. It is usually hosted by the Matai (chief) from the village and only the Matai from the visiting village participates. In this case, our head teacher Isaac acted as the Matai and our language teacher (Tamari) acted as the hosting chief, and welcomed us to Samoa. We were all also allowed to participate and drink a bit of the traditional ava drink that goes along with the ceremony. It is a mild narcotic that to me tastes a bit like coconut water. You only have a sip though so there isn’t any effect from the drink.
Overall the ceremony was a blast. We listened to them welcome us in Samoan, had the traditional ava tasting, and finished off with a little singing and dancing. It was so much fun and so interesting. The only downfall was that we had to sit with our legs crossed on the ground the whole time and since it lasted 30 to 45 minutes my legs were dead by the time it was finished (I’m not very flexible).
-S
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