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.

Pictures Speak a Thousand Words

Walking to our first day of school :)

Real men wear skirts aka ie's

Chels' classroom

First day of school assembly

Clean house!

Our compound on a pretty day

We kind of love this dog.

Bigmac's for the win.

Blunt's Point Hike Part 2

I officially feel bad for all of my high school teachers

Teaching. It’s definitely not as easy as I would have thought. With that being said, I didn’t get a whole lot of “teaching” done the first week of school.  Come to find out I have two proficient Algebra I classes, one mainstream Algebra I with 9^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th graders, one mainstream Algebra I with freshmen and one geometry with 10^th, 11^th and 12^th graders. We had an assembly on Monday and a minimum day so classes were about 20 minutes each.  Twenty minutes was pretty much enough time to get names and contact info. That’s all.

The names were probably the hardest part about my first day. My longest is something like 15 letters. I’m so so thankful for nicknames although some students are adamant about being called their full names. I’m working on it.

Aside from the names, classroom management is going to be tough in 2 or 3 of my classes. I have VERY full classes (25-28 students) and it’s quite the challenge to get them all on task and quiet. On Tuesday I went over Mrs. Chelsia’s classroom rules and my consequences. This got most of my students behaving a lot better. I’m really trying not to smile too much and to be on the tougher side these first few weeks. They say it’ll really help with management in the long run but boy is it difficult for me to act like a crazed authoritarian.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent giving assessments to my students. The difference in comprehension, even among the same grade level, is insane.  It’s going to be a huge challenge trying to help kids comprehend basic math and to challenge the students who already understand when they’re in the same class. I’m going to have to get creative with bridging this gap.

We had a long weekend (Friday-Monday), which was SO appreciated after our first week. We got caught up on our cleaning, went to town and got McDonald’s, went into town again and hiked Blunt’s Point, read a whole lot and spent some much needed time relaxing. While it doesn’t sound eventful, it was pretty much the perfect weekend.

Week 2 begins today (Tuesday) and I’m hoping to actually get some teaching done. I’ll be working on basic skills for about a month with all of my classes. I don’t really see the point in jumping on to new material when most of my students have trouble with addition, subtraction etc.

Other fun facts:

The kids here are definitely super cheeky! Saul got asked if he was “going out with me on Thursday” by one of his students.

Today one of my students asked if my husband calls me his seniorita (he was dead serious) because he's half Mexican. lol

I'm a senior class advisor for rallies etc.

All this walking we're doing is getting me in shape :) (yesssss!)

I lost my keys for the first time in my life (booooooooo.) and have been incessantly bothering our principal to lock/unlock my room every morning and afternoon.

One of my freshman students said that the trash can was Blake Griffin and then proceeded to walk over drop his trash in and say that he's Tim Duncan dunking on BG. Love it! :)

I love the cafeteria lunches. Can anyone say free food? It's like mine and Saul's dream place.


-C

Fagatele Bay

This was written last Sunday (August 25, 2013).. enjoy:

So school is finally starting tomorrow! We were supposed to start the week before last, but it got delayed for a week due to "sanitation issues," and then delayed for another week because they weren't able to get everything ready in time. After the two weeks of essentially extra vacation, we will finally begin tomorrow. I think Chelsia and I are both ready to go (and pretty anxious) at this point, and we are both really hoping that it actually gets going and we don't get delayed again.

That being said, the delay was actually pretty convenient for me as it gave me time to settle in to my new school, get my class room set up, and start planning out how I'm going to go about teaching my new interesting courses. This last week off was especially helpful as it allowed Chelsia and I to get over a nasty little cold that snuck up on us last weekend. We spent most of last week not doing much, only coming to school when we had to and lesson planning at home. Then finally on Saturday when our symptoms abated to the point where we could fathom leaving the house for a recreational activity, we decided that we were going to get out and dedicate the whole day to having fun.

We started out the morning by going into town and having brunch at Don't Drink the Water. It's a nice little place that is right on the ocean in the harbor. It was well air conditioned, so it gave us a pleasant escape from the heat. They also had superb coffee at a reasonable price (it's the first coffee I have had that was not the instant "just add water" variety). I have to say that the ambiance/coffee was much better than the food. We both had omelets, which were adequate (a little undercooked). I wasn't too disappointed until my wife decided to ahead and make her own omelets this morning which completely blew theirs out of the water. What should I expect though, my wife is an excellent cook! :)

After brunch we walked down to Samu's and got a quart of Oreo Cookies n Cream ice cream. This is by far our favorite ice cream on the island and Chels has been pining to get a quart and take it home. I have been against trying to do this even though she has been trying to do it for weeks. It sounds like a reasonable request, but it can take up to an hour to get from town to our house on the bus due to the constant stops and requests to take alternate routes (faamolemole routes). We actually got it back without it melting too much so I have to admit that she was right in making me get it (so if you ever live in Leone, know that you can get a quart of Samu's home on the bus).

After we took our ice cream home we decided that we were going to go on a hike, and it ended up being a blast. We hiked from sliding rock (a fun local spot we had been to before) to Fagatale Bay. It took us about an hour to do the hike over the mountain to Fagatale Bay. It was a pretty intense hike, and we had to go up and down some pretty steep hills though the jungle. We felt like we had to be lost a few times because it was taking so long but we just made sure to keep the sound of the ocean on our right side and just keep on trekking. I have to admit that I'm a little bit out of shape and the hills were tough (I won't speak for Chels, but she was breathing pretty hard too). Once we got there we decided to spend some time at a beach called "Small Beach." It is a beautiful, secluded white sand beach with crystal clear water. There was about twenty feet of sand under the water before the coral started so we were able to do a little swimming. It was so nice to take a break in the cool water on such a hot day. We plan on going back soon with our snorkel gear so we can explore the coral a bit.

Well enough blabbering, now we are going to go home and get ready for what will hopefully be our first day of school tomorrow (ahhhhh!!!!).

First here are some pictures from our fun day yesterday :)

At the swimming hole near sliding rock.

A huge hermit crab we stumbled upon during our hike.

Fagatele Bay from up on the mountain.

We hiked from the top left of the map, down to sliding rock and then up and over to the "small beach" at Fagatele Bay. On the way home we hiked out down Futiga Road and walked the main road back to our house.

Chels at the entrance to Fagatele Bay.

Epic fail.

-S

Contact Info

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! :)