Our tiny island... I drove and Josh took pictures and this is what we got:
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Friday, November 26, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Saipan Holidays
We've been MIA lately. School has gotten the best of us. We have found some time to do some pretty great things around the island recently. Last weekend I, Elizabeth, went hiking to Old Man by the Sea. A small beach area on the eastern side of the island with a rock that looks like the profile of an old man.
Hence the name, Old Man by the Sea.
We spent Veteran's day out at Managaha, the small island in the lagoon.
It is beautiful. Managaha is one of our favorite places out here. The west and south side have beautiful white-sand beaches, while the north and east sides have rocky coral. The water is crystal clear and there are hundred of thousands of fish.
Each time we have visited the island we have seen something new. On this visit we saw a baby shark. It was probably a 3 foot long black tip reef shark. He caught us off guard, but it was so neat to watch him and how the fish reacted to his presence. We also saw a small octopus. These guys are really rare to find, they blend in with the coral so well. This guy was purple when we first spotted him but quickly turned brown to "blend in" after we spooked him.
Another one of our favorite finds are the starfish. Saipan's starfish are pretty unique, they're bright blue.
They were all over on this trip. The first time we went out the island we only saw one, but we saw at least a dozen this trip. I think they're gorgeous! If you hold them long enough, they start to wrap their legs around your hands. So cool.
Today was Thanksgiving here on the island. It was a beautiful day. I am so grateful for all the friends we have been blessed with on the island. They have been our life support in tough times. It was great to celebrate today with all of them.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family back home. We love you all and miss you tremendously. Enjoy your holiday!
Hence the name, Old Man by the Sea.
We spent Veteran's day out at Managaha, the small island in the lagoon.
It is beautiful. Managaha is one of our favorite places out here. The west and south side have beautiful white-sand beaches, while the north and east sides have rocky coral. The water is crystal clear and there are hundred of thousands of fish.
Each time we have visited the island we have seen something new. On this visit we saw a baby shark. It was probably a 3 foot long black tip reef shark. He caught us off guard, but it was so neat to watch him and how the fish reacted to his presence. We also saw a small octopus. These guys are really rare to find, they blend in with the coral so well. This guy was purple when we first spotted him but quickly turned brown to "blend in" after we spooked him.
Another one of our favorite finds are the starfish. Saipan's starfish are pretty unique, they're bright blue.
They were all over on this trip. The first time we went out the island we only saw one, but we saw at least a dozen this trip. I think they're gorgeous! If you hold them long enough, they start to wrap their legs around your hands. So cool.
Today was Thanksgiving here on the island. It was a beautiful day. I am so grateful for all the friends we have been blessed with on the island. They have been our life support in tough times. It was great to celebrate today with all of them.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family back home. We love you all and miss you tremendously. Enjoy your holiday!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Anniversary Celebration
Last weekend was our 1 year anniversary. We decided to go cheapo and stay at one of the local resorts with our "local discount" it was worth every penny we spent and then some.
We started the weekend with an AWESOME seafood buffet at one of the resorts. The buffet was spectacular. We walked away completely satisfied and we'll definitely being going back, soon.
Josh was sad his crab leg broke...
This was the view from the room we stayed in the first two nights we were there. This picture doesn't really do it justice... it was beautiful.
On Sunday, our actual anniversary, we stayed in one of the resorts Ocean Villas. It was a small one room bungalow. It was so quaint, I think we've decided someday we'll have something like this somewhere in the world.
The view from the back patio
Our personal jacuzzi on the back patio. We made it into our own personal flower bath like the one in the spa. Those plumeria are so fragrant and we could hear the waves crashing over the reef in the lagoon. It was so relaxing. The perfect remedy for the longest week of the school year so far...
Not only were the rooms and the view beautiful, everything about the resort was first class. This is the little church on the grounds. We thought it looked very Greek.
The view from the bell tower
That evening we went to the resort's spa and watched the sunset from the infinity pool. It was incredible.
We ended the weekend with dinner at Country House.
We probably should have moved to the other side of the room to get the picture with the huge Texas flag in the background.
This restaurant claims to be the only "Texas Style Steak House" on the island. I've been waiting to try this place out since our first week here. Maybe our standards are a bit too high for a Texas Steak... This place definitely missed the mark. But we now know that Saipan would be a great market for a Texas Roadhouse. There's absolutely nothing like it on the whole island.
Random: We almost ran over this little crab when we came back from dinner... These things are everywhere right now.
We started the weekend with an AWESOME seafood buffet at one of the resorts. The buffet was spectacular. We walked away completely satisfied and we'll definitely being going back, soon.
Josh was sad his crab leg broke...
This was the view from the room we stayed in the first two nights we were there. This picture doesn't really do it justice... it was beautiful.
On Sunday, our actual anniversary, we stayed in one of the resorts Ocean Villas. It was a small one room bungalow. It was so quaint, I think we've decided someday we'll have something like this somewhere in the world.
The view from the back patio
Our personal jacuzzi on the back patio. We made it into our own personal flower bath like the one in the spa. Those plumeria are so fragrant and we could hear the waves crashing over the reef in the lagoon. It was so relaxing. The perfect remedy for the longest week of the school year so far...
Not only were the rooms and the view beautiful, everything about the resort was first class. This is the little church on the grounds. We thought it looked very Greek.
The view from the bell tower
That evening we went to the resort's spa and watched the sunset from the infinity pool. It was incredible.
We ended the weekend with dinner at Country House.
We probably should have moved to the other side of the room to get the picture with the huge Texas flag in the background.
This restaurant claims to be the only "Texas Style Steak House" on the island. I've been waiting to try this place out since our first week here. Maybe our standards are a bit too high for a Texas Steak... This place definitely missed the mark. But we now know that Saipan would be a great market for a Texas Roadhouse. There's absolutely nothing like it on the whole island.
Random: We almost ran over this little crab when we came back from dinner... These things are everywhere right now.
Monday, September 27, 2010
We are still alive...
School has been hectic the last few weeks. We are still trying to settle into a routine balancing work and home life. I feel like all I do is grade papers and talk and eat...
All the kids I am teaching are great people, on a personal level. I have definitely had my fair share of frustrating days with them, but they never cease to humor me. About 80% of them are lacking in the mathematics department, meaning they don't know how to multiply as juniors and seniors. Fractions, let's not go there... Plotting points on a graph, that's been another fiasco in all my classes. It's rough starting into a lesson thinking, "Oh yeah, this is Pre-Algebra or Algebra I, they should have this stuff down pat, we'll breeze right on through..." Nope!! But besides not knowing basic math, they're great people. I'll have some funny stories about them soon.
Josh is just getting into the meat of his position as a counselor. The second week of school they made a drastic change to the entire bell schedule. They shortened all the classes and took all the prep periods from the teachers to help with the over crowding. All that means they've sent the last couple of weeks dealing with student schedules, making sure seniors were enrolled in all the classes they needed to graduate and that no one was taking a class they have either already taken or aren't qualified to take. He seems to really be enjoying what he's doing.
We both work with some pretty interesting people. People from all over the world and from all walks of life; young and old, new teachers and veterans to the field we all collaborate together to frame out what we feel is the best education for our students. There are many teachers who are new to the island, so we are surrounded by people in very similar situations to our own. My school has several of their own graduates returning to teach this year which it's been neat to gain their prospective of the island and the student's learning ability.
The school year is flying by, we're already into our 4th week of school, progress report grades are due next week, which means we are 1/8 of the way through the school year. YEAH!
All the kids I am teaching are great people, on a personal level. I have definitely had my fair share of frustrating days with them, but they never cease to humor me. About 80% of them are lacking in the mathematics department, meaning they don't know how to multiply as juniors and seniors. Fractions, let's not go there... Plotting points on a graph, that's been another fiasco in all my classes. It's rough starting into a lesson thinking, "Oh yeah, this is Pre-Algebra or Algebra I, they should have this stuff down pat, we'll breeze right on through..." Nope!! But besides not knowing basic math, they're great people. I'll have some funny stories about them soon.
Josh is just getting into the meat of his position as a counselor. The second week of school they made a drastic change to the entire bell schedule. They shortened all the classes and took all the prep periods from the teachers to help with the over crowding. All that means they've sent the last couple of weeks dealing with student schedules, making sure seniors were enrolled in all the classes they needed to graduate and that no one was taking a class they have either already taken or aren't qualified to take. He seems to really be enjoying what he's doing.
We both work with some pretty interesting people. People from all over the world and from all walks of life; young and old, new teachers and veterans to the field we all collaborate together to frame out what we feel is the best education for our students. There are many teachers who are new to the island, so we are surrounded by people in very similar situations to our own. My school has several of their own graduates returning to teach this year which it's been neat to gain their prospective of the island and the student's learning ability.
The school year is flying by, we're already into our 4th week of school, progress report grades are due next week, which means we are 1/8 of the way through the school year. YEAH!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
First Day
Today was our first official day at school. It brought a mixture of emotions, at least for me. I was excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. The teachers I am working with are great. They all seem to be very inclusive and willing to help out the newbies.
My room is still in a state of disarray. At some point during the summer the maintenance guys scraped most of the bubbled up paint off the walls in anticipation of the walls be repainted during the summer break. Well, school starts in 5 days and the walls still are not painted... I have been told that they'll be painted before school starts, I even got to pick out the paint color I wanted, but I'm not holding my breath for the task to be finished on time. With all that said, I can't fully set up my room until the walls are painted so I'm doing what I can as I can. The desks are in place, at least the ones I have, I'm short seven desks for my biggest class. Our class sizes range between 31 and 35 students.
In more exciting news, Josh has a teal blue office, it's pretty grand. I guess that's the island style, lots of offices and houses even are painted in tropical pastel colors. Josh's school is the largest on the island with about 1200 students and mine, SSHS, is overcrowded with about 900 students. He has about 265 students under his counseling wing. All of the other counselors are females which means it's gonna be just like working at the office again. Except now he has his OWN office that's actually about the size of the office we shared back home.
There have been many changes to the school system since we arrived which have had us on our toes the last couple of days. Josh's principal went to the states for vacation and is now on permanent sick leave and that's all we know. But in order to fill her position, two days before teachers report, the commissioner decided it was in best of the students for the principal of my school to take over at MHS (Josh's school). So, one of the vice principals from my school will now be our principal. It has left everyone in a whirlwind to figure out what's going on and to define what void they need to fill.
Needless to say, it's going to be an interesting year, for both of us. We have loved almost every minute that we've been out here. Church, Sunday, was a bit difficult, at least for me. That was the point that I've felt the most home sick. But we have done so many cool things since we've been here. Staying busy has helped keep our minds off the fact that we're so far from home. We will, hopefully, move into our apartment tomorrow so pictures will come soon, I promise!
My room is still in a state of disarray. At some point during the summer the maintenance guys scraped most of the bubbled up paint off the walls in anticipation of the walls be repainted during the summer break. Well, school starts in 5 days and the walls still are not painted... I have been told that they'll be painted before school starts, I even got to pick out the paint color I wanted, but I'm not holding my breath for the task to be finished on time. With all that said, I can't fully set up my room until the walls are painted so I'm doing what I can as I can. The desks are in place, at least the ones I have, I'm short seven desks for my biggest class. Our class sizes range between 31 and 35 students.
In more exciting news, Josh has a teal blue office, it's pretty grand. I guess that's the island style, lots of offices and houses even are painted in tropical pastel colors. Josh's school is the largest on the island with about 1200 students and mine, SSHS, is overcrowded with about 900 students. He has about 265 students under his counseling wing. All of the other counselors are females which means it's gonna be just like working at the office again. Except now he has his OWN office that's actually about the size of the office we shared back home.
There have been many changes to the school system since we arrived which have had us on our toes the last couple of days. Josh's principal went to the states for vacation and is now on permanent sick leave and that's all we know. But in order to fill her position, two days before teachers report, the commissioner decided it was in best of the students for the principal of my school to take over at MHS (Josh's school). So, one of the vice principals from my school will now be our principal. It has left everyone in a whirlwind to figure out what's going on and to define what void they need to fill.
Needless to say, it's going to be an interesting year, for both of us. We have loved almost every minute that we've been out here. Church, Sunday, was a bit difficult, at least for me. That was the point that I've felt the most home sick. But we have done so many cool things since we've been here. Staying busy has helped keep our minds off the fact that we're so far from home. We will, hopefully, move into our apartment tomorrow so pictures will come soon, I promise!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Saipan Life
We have arrived and Josh and I are getting accustomed to island life. It's much different than life in San Antonio. Only one road has a speed limit higher than 35 mph and that is only 45 mph for a short stretch of the road. Signs are written in Japanese or Korean and then English which is interesting compared to our English/Spanish signs back home. No one has central A/C! Everyone uses window units in the bedrooms and fans in the rest of the house which will be a huge adjustment for me. The temperature is nice at 85 degrees or so, but the humidity is a killer. It makes you feel like you don't even want to be outside unless you're in a body of water. Despite all that, we love it! Work starts Wednesday and after that, we move into our apartment!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Halfway There
We are currently sitting in the Honolulu airport waiting to re-board our plane and head to Guam. We left San Antonio at 730 this morning after staying up all night to pack, needless today we are exhausted. It's a nine hour flight from here to Guam, the longest stretch of our journey. Hawaii is beautiful! If this is even minutely similar to Saipan, I will be trilled! We'll keep you posted but if all goes according to the plan, our next post will be from Saipan! Much love!!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
It's finally happening...
This is it! We finally got our travel itinerary from the school district. We leave Tuesday. Our flight leaves San Antonio at 730am and lands in Saipan 23 hours later at 900pm (Saipan time). It's finally official, this is actually happening! We can't wait!
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