One Year Later

Palm tree favors (because we were going to AmSam) with this blog info on it. :)

That was the fastest year of my life. It was also the best year of my life.

It feels like just yesterday I was sitting in my dressing room, anxiously preparing to walk down the aisle and profess my love and everlasting commitment to my soon to be wife. 364 days and a plethora of once in a lifetime experiences later, we were preparing for another amazing experience to round out the year.

We already exchanged gifts on our trip to Fiji during another amazing experience. Our gift to each other was our PADI scuba certification (documented on a previous post).

Now it was time to actually celebrate the day we were married. We booked a room for Saturday night at Moana O Sina, a little bed and breakfast near what we call Airport Beach. It turned out to be a great decision. We were able to escape all of the negatives of American Samoa for a day and focus on all of its beauty. We had an air conditioned room, a hot shower, and a TV in our room. A soft bed with clean sheets, doors and windows that kept insects out and a level of cleanliness that we have not seen in months. We enjoyed all of this while still sitting mere feet away from the roaring ocean of the South Pacific. It truly felt like paradise, and the perfect place to celebrate our first anniversary as man and wife.

We spent the day lounging at the hotel. They have a pool that sits on the Cliffside overlooking the ocean. We took a nice swim, played with the hotel dog (I swear it was the cleanest dog I’ve seen here), and relaxed in bed in our air-conditioned room for a while watching TV (mostly following the Clipper’s game 7 win over Golden State in the first round of the playoffs!) before taking a hot shower and heading out for dinner that night.

We went out to Equator restaurant at the Tradewinds Hotel for dinner and drinks. The main courses were decent, but the beef soup we ordered before dinner stole the show. We went back to the hotel after dinner and toasted to our year together with a bottle of wine.

On Sunday morning, we woke up to a beautiful day. The weather was perfect, but we had absolutely zero desire to leave the comfort of our hotel room. Fortunately check out wasn’t until noon so we were able to relax for a while in our beautiful room all morning. We lounged in bed, watched a few movies on TV, and had the benefit of another hot shower before heading home to continue our anniversary celebration (our actual anniversary was on Sunday).

We left the hotel on foot and walked over to Cost U Less to pick up a few things for dinner that night, then hopped in a cab and headed home. We had a good end to our anniversary weekend that night with a delicious dinner of chicken tacos with guacamole (we splurged on some guacamole from Mexico that we found at the store since it was our anniversary). Chelsia baked a replica of our wedding cake for dessert (marble cake with homemade buttercream frosting and homemade whipped cream and chocolate chip frosting between the layers). We capped the night off with a champagne toast and a romantic comedy (Brown Sugar) in bed.

We couldn’t have picked a better way to celebrate our first anniversary. It was a great close to not only our first year of marriage, but also capped our sixth year together as a couple (talk about established). It was a day that will stand out in our memories forever.

-S

View from the deck of our hotel.

Watching the Clippers score on my phone

Dinner at Equator Restaurant

Wedding puzzle.

Chels recreated one of our wedding cake tiers. Marble cake with chocolate chip filling.

Teacher Appreciation

There’s an entire week devoted to students appreciating their teachers here in American Samoa. In the States, I’m pretty sure there’ s a Teacher Appreciation Day (and I only know that because Target has cards for just about every occasion).  Teacher Appreciation Week is serious business where the students feel compelled to let you know how much they appreciate you even if they don’t quite show it sometimes.

Due to the pink eye epidemic and the health sanitation issues at the beginning of the school year; Teacher Appreciation Week got moved around and Leone High School only celebrated Teach Appreciation Wed/Thurs/Fri. It was awesome nonetheless.

On Wednesday, breakfast was hosted by the Freshmen. All teachers received a boxed breakfast that included donuts, sandwiches, an egg, and some fruit. Juniors hosted lunch on Wednesday where we had pasta, Samoan food, a couple different types of salad and a fresh cracked coconut to drink. It was more food than I want to admit but it was all quite tasty. Saul and I both had students bring us ulas and leis (necklaces stuffed with candy and other goodies/flower necklaces).  On Thursday, the seniors and sophomores hosted a “brunch” buffet at 8:00am. We were fed a plethora of Samoan food, meatballs, and a whole bunch of breakfast pastries. Again, I grossly overate (buffets are my weakness). On Friday, the office and student council hosted our final “brunch” and again, we were overfed and given a huge amount of food (please understand that this is not a complaint ;) ). One of my amazing Freshmen students, Ramona, gave me an engraved pen holder that has my name, the Leone High School seal, and her name on it. It was super sweet. I might have got a bit teary eyed.

Our students were giving us fist-pounds, hugs, and definitely giving thanks. Even though Teacher Appreciation Week is an official thing here, it was so nice to feel appreciated for our work and effort (especially from the students).