This is Halloween

Halloween is a day that, typically, I give very little thought to.  The weather is beginning to cool off, cute sweaters are all the rage (even though it’s actually too hot for that), and my boots are out in full force. Last year Saul and I (spur of the moment) decided to be Mario and Luigi and wear our costumes to a Clippers game. We would decorate our house with a few decorations but overall we put pretty little effort into it.

As Halloween approached this year, the weather was getting hotter (and still is), I don’t have any closed toe shoes aside from my workout sneakers, and sweaters are a thing of the past. We celebrated Halloween AmSam style. Starting about a week before Halloween we started making a whole bunch of pumpkin recipes. We made pumpkin mac n' cheese which was delicious! It was homemade (not of the easy mac variety) and came out fabulous. Then we moved on to pumpkin chili which while good, normal chili is about 100x better. Last we made double layer pumpkin cheesecake which pretty much is a pumpkin pie on top of a cheesecake (this was fabulous).

 Halloween just happened to fall during the same week as midterms. This was impeccable timing (insert sarcasm here) for midterms considering they dedicate a whole week to Halloween simply calling it “Spirit Week.” The schedule was as follows: Monday-Jersey Day (Saul and I wore USC gear). Tuesday – Miss Sophia Day (Miss Sophia is the AmSam transgender pageant); while it was pretty interesting to observe Saul and I decided to not participate on this day. Wednesday – FOB day (kids were supposed to dress up like they were “fresh off the boat.”) It was pretty hilarious because a day like this would simply not fly in the states but the kids didn’t see anything wrong with it and came looking like they got dressed in the dark. Thursday (Halloween) – was technically super hero day. Some students wore super hero gear while others simply wore Halloween costumes.

Thursday also marked the day of the infamous Halloween Rally which I unknowingly volunteered myself for. In AmSam, rallies are organized by class (i.e. Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors). Saul and I are senior advisors so we’re expected to help with rallies and other senior functions. Anyways, student council decided that the theme for this rally would be MTV Showdown where the students would have to perform to “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke, do their best Lady Gaga, SpongeBob and Joker impersonations, and the advisors would have to do a skit to include the PowerPuff Girls and Ghost Rider (so incredibly random, I know). Well there are two transgender senior advisors and me (no other women) so I didn’t really have a choice but to help out with the PowerPuff Girls portion of the rally.  I agreed to be Bubbles (the blue one) again not really understanding what I was committing to.  Monday comes around and Sina say “Oh don’t worry, I’m just putting together a little skit.” SKIT?!! I was shocked. I thought we were just dressing up. It turned out that we would be doing a little Beyonce booty shaking, walking it out and our very best fake fighting.  I was terrified! Thursday came and I put my game face on and just went up there and did what had to be done.  My students were so shocked that “Ms. Chelsia can do back flips and dance.” Not to toot my own horn but I became Leone High School famous for like 2 days. I would be walking and hear “awesome dance Ms. Chelsia”  or “the rally was so good Ms.Chelsia.” Turns out the Senior class advisors one the PowerPuff Girls portion of the rally and we won the overall portion. So I suppose all is well that ends well however, I don’t think I’ll be volunteering myself for another rally anytime soon.

-C


P.S. I do have a video of this madness coming soon (thanks to the wonderful hubby), it just takes forever to upload with our slow internet.

This dance was serious business. Had to get some last minute practice in.

Sina, Jayleen and me

Right before we went on stage

Friday Night Lights

It's been quite some time since our last posting. We're really starting to get into the swing of things here on the "rock" and in doing so, have a bit less time to post.

We've experienced not one but two rallies now. The first rally was a welcome back assembly. It's a new teacher right of passage to have to get up and shake what you've got in front of the entire student body and administration. Saul and I plus the other new teachers stood up to be introduced. Sure enough as soon as they were through saying all of our names, the song "Harlem Shake" came on. All of the teachers did their respective dance. Some people did a model catwalk, some people did a goofy swaying, etc. Someone pulled Saul out into the middle of the aisle and he did his best "I'm cool but I’m not about to embarrass myself dance." The students loved it! He kept it very classy.

I thought I had escaped because I was hiding behind my camera snapping away but sure enough I heard go "Chelsia" and felt a shove from behind. Had I though I would actually be dancing I would have had a plan of attack. Needless to say there was definitely too much booty shaking. I'll leave it at that. The rally was two Fridays ago and the following Monday my students came in and said Ms. Chelsia really knows how to shake it. LOL. Oh dear. I'm still hearing about it from them.

We also managed to make it to the football game vs. Samoana that same weekend. We headed to the Tafuna stadium with Alex, Isaac and Raina to support our JV and Varsity Leone Lions. Steevee and Chaundra were there too! Both teams won and the game was just so much fun. We have some amazing drummers that really get our side pumped up and it was just a great time! The game ended at about 9:30pm and because we don't have a car and buses stop running around 6:00pm we jumped on the football bus with the players. People were standing on top of each other, in the aisles and in the stairwell with the door open. It was just chaos but it was a free ride home. :)

The other pep rally was the "color war" class rally. This is the big pep rally every year and our classes were definitely impacted by it. Classes would be removed from the schedule for a day without warning so that classes could have meetings, classes would be shortened and students were definitely consumed by it causing their attention spans to be nil. All of the classes (freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors) were pitted against each other to come up with the best skit and cheer. Saul and I are both senior advisors so we had to wear hot pink t-shirts with green bottoms; not the most complimentary colors. The rally was a blast and the skits were hilarious. I’ll try to post a video eventually. All-in-all seniors lost (third place) but it was still lot of fun.

We’re midway through week 6 of classes and time is flying by. It’s kind of insane. Saul and I are both getting super comfortable teaching and it makes the whole experience that much better. It’s crazy how rewarding it is when kids actually get things that you’re trying to explain. That’s not to say that we don’t have bad days. Saul and I each have a period that we dread due to the fact that the kids are constantly messing around and pretty much just don’t care about school.  Such is life, though. Our kids have taken to calling us all sorts of names. I’ve heard Miss Chels, Miss Chelsia, Mrs. Chelsia, Mrs. Castaneda, Mrs. Saul, Teach, Miss, Mrs. Bates. Most kids call Saul Mr. C but my favorites are Mr. Chelsia or Mr. Bates. They always give me a good laugh.

Also, I’ve now had multiple students tell me I look like Shakira. LOL so random.

We’re really getting into routine here in AmSam and we love it. We cook SO much. We’ve decided that our future kids are going to be the envy of all their friends because their parents are bomb dot com cooks. I’ve created a running list on the side bar of our blog with everything that we’ve cooked. It’s really becoming a hobby not just for me but for Saul as well. We also read an insane amount. I’m on book 23 in two and a half months and I know Saul isn’t far behind. He recently finished the entire Harry Potter series. Note to anyone going to a tiny island to work: bring a kindle. There hasn’t been a day that I’ve regretted it. Matter of fact mine had a slight malfunction where it started to freeze and I just about had a nervous breakdown.

We’ve continued to watch our shows from back home on our computers. (Insert a moment of silence for Dexter and Breaking Bad coming to their series’ end). Both fabulous.

I don’t want to bore you all with our day-to-day. It would be like writing about our live back in the states. It’s great to experience but not so great to read about.  We miss and love you all!

-C

Saul dancing at the rally.

The entire staff got home-made leis and candy leis.

Saul in front of his SmartBoard.

Rally swag :)

Our football stadium here in AmSam.

The cheerleaders.

We had a staff party down near sliding rock. There was definitely some volleyball playing with our principal. 

Awkwarrrd.

Our little staff party.

Color rally! Seniors were robbed.

Home-made pizza

We had to make meatballs to top our pizza.

He's a real life Emeril.

Into the oven it goes.

NOMMMMM!. So good :)

One of our many weekend breakfasts.

Staff uniform Ie'

Staff uniforms that we had made.

In the back of a truck on the way home.

On our way to airport beach.

Visibility wasn't very good because it had been raining but still so gorgeous.

Hey there! 

More snorkeling at Airport Beach last weekend.

Kisses from my husband.

It was windy and we were feeling artsy.

Grocery shopping at Cost-U-Less after Airport Beach.  It's pretty much like Costco (it even carries Kirkland brand)

Home-made orange chicken cabbage and rice. Yum.