Saturday, March 14, 2015

3.14

To make today wonderful (and to celebrate pi day), we had pumpkin pie for breakfast.

Win. 

Now you know, so make your day awesome and go get some pie. :)

Friday, March 13, 2015

Unwelcome shower buddy

There are a lot of random critters that I'm learning to tolerate living with while in Chuuk... like rats, cockroaches, termites, and a couple armies of ants. The termites burrow around and leave their little "turdlets" in the corners and all over the floor, which then stick to our shoes and get carried around the apartment. The potential colony queens come in mad rushes and fill the air and cover the counters with their annoying little bodies. They flock in droves to the light bulbs in the bathroom, and if they hit the light they are stunned and drop down onto you - and dive bombing termites isn't a pleasant experience. Also, they are very delicate and weak (their wings seem to fall off if you just look at them), and if they get caught in a drop of water they instantly are stuck and will give up all hope.

you chose this path
The cockroaches are like that too... we've found that the most effective roach trap is to just leave a dish out to soak and those suicidal little fiends will just jump right in!

Rats live in our walls and in the roof, and we can hear them running around there and through our dishes at night. We removed the disgusting couch that was in our apartment and found inside that a rat had gone through our trash and taken the nastiest stuff back to his nest. Eww! And there's also a nice family of rat living in the high school building. I wish they would leave. They ate my  chemistry class's paper mache models of the cell and I'm still bitter.

But the most recent critter that I've come in contact with was one of the worst. For me at least. I was minding my own business in the cold shower when a centipede decided to come join me, and it was more than half way up my leg when I finally felt its grabby little appendages. EEP! I did a jump-twist and flung the offender onto the floor. It was as long as my pinky and its black body twisted and contorted in the water as it tried to climb the wall... I stayed as far as I could in our tiny shower. I really don't like centipedes. Maybe it's the multitude of tiny legs that throws me off, or the freaky way they walk though dirt, or their unnerving butt antennae, whatever it is, ICK I don't like those things, and eww nasty GROSS it was on me. Anyways, I didn't want to squish him and get all those leg pieces all over, so I turned on the water and pushed him over to the drain with a soap dish (sorry Mecha!!), and it committed suicide all by itself. Ha. But I did spend the rest of my shower worrying that he would somehow crawl back up the drain and exact revenge. I don't feel bad. Not in the very least. Mawahaha!

Friday, March 6, 2015

Light

I had to stop teaching 4th grade science a couple weeks ago.

And it's sad, and partially my fault. I wanted to teach fewer science classes so I could concentrate more on the remaining classes, so the principal gave that class to one of the new teachers and gave me an English class. But I wasn't expecting to lose that class. I love those kids! They keep coming up to me, asking when I'm going to come back and why I had to leave - and it's breaking my heart. Sometimes I'll wander into their classroom at random times of the day, and other times when I walk by I have to look the other way because I miss them all so much. One thing that never failed to brighten my day was that class after lunch - these 4th graders have a thirst for knowledge that wakes me up, and that I hope stays with them all through the rest of their schooling.
I miss walking into their classroom to find that they've arranged themselves into a pyramid, which is threatening to collapse because of their body-shaking laughter.
I miss when they beg for me to sing the Star-spangled Banner, and tell me to just close my eyes and pretend that I'm in CenturyLink Field. Like that makes singing in front of people any easier.
I miss when they try to convince me that Gina is absent when really she's hiding in a cupboard again - or under a blanket on the filing cabinet... the twinkle in their eyes always gives them away.
It's amazing how much space in my heart this class has taken.

My days are missing a bit of light.