Saul and Chelsia: Over the Moon and Back: 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