I want candy (canes).

rays of light coming through clouds of smoke while someone burns their trash in the village.

Mail is the most exciting thing ever. How is it that someone in one place can slap a zip code on an envelope and pay a few cents and then days (or weeks…or months……) later it shows up at the exact intended recipient’s address? That is AMAZING! The postal service is more impressive to me than modern medicine or professional athletes. And knowing that someone took the time to sit down and write you a letter or put a package together for you is just so overwhelming. 

So a few weeks ago, my mom sent me three packages. THREE! Oh, when they came in I was so excited. But I opened them up and guess what was inside? Candy canes. Just candy canes, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (because I asked for a lot of things a few posts back and nobody took that list of requests seriously except good, old Shari). But this sweetest mother of mine mailed me enough candy canes for the whole student body of YCHS, and maybe even enough for the whole population of Yap. What a woman. 

the seniors asked if they could take a picture with their candy canes to send to my mother. anything to miss a little class time, right?

After distributing the candy canes and threatening students so they would remember to not leave their wrappers lying around campus, so many of the students asked me to wish my mom Merry Christmas and thank her for the sweet surprise. It just made me remember how much I love my mom. So here’s to you, mama, you’re the greatest lady I know and I love ya so much.

If you recall from the last post, I moved recently. In becoming a resident of this new house I also inherited a cat who kills mice and rats. Mostly I just consider her a bouncer who keeps rodents out.

So the other day I came home to school to find THIS:

Like, still confused about where the majority of the rat’s body went. All that was left was one leg and the tail. I couldn’t stop laughing. It was just so funny to me how unfazed I am by stuff like this now. 

CAN WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE FOR A SECOND?!

Unfazed.

Once, when I was in eight grade, there was a school-wide spelling bee and I was selected as a participant. In the first round, I was given the word “phase”. I didn’t ask for a definition or a sentence or anything, so I just blurted out, “Phase. F-A-Z-E. Phase.” *buzzer noise* nope. I still remember the embarrassment I felt. 14 years old, can’t even spell phase correctly. But if “unphased” isn’t a word and “unfazed” is, then “faze” is definitely a word and there should’ve been some kind of exception for my misspelling. 

Moving on.

But wait, first another thing about Ming.

She like climbs all over the screen on my window and just meows all night and it really cracks me up. It’s not annoying or anything it’s just so funny. So here’s a video of that.

After finals ended, we had a little celebration dinner at the Jesuits’ house. Masco, one of the Jesuits, shared “local sashimi” with us, which was literally dead minnows. Like straight up, just dead minnows. OBVIOUSLY I tried one because I will literally eat anything these days (as if I didn’t before) and it was not good. It wasn’t gross, it tasted just like regular sashimi (which is dope) except it was weird when the eyes exploded in my mouth and also I did not appreciate the texture or idea of the bones. But overall I’d give it a solid 5/10.

local sashimi.

Now that we’re out of school for Christmas break and Sarah and Abby are out of town, we have to get creative with ways to fill our time.

Nick and I literally just drove around the island the other day. We stopped at a store where one of our students works on the weekend and I got an ice cream cone and she hooked me UP and gave me a whole bunch of scoops because I’m the coolest teacher in town. That’s probably not why but whatever. It was really good ice cream and it was a dollar, which beats buying it by the gallon.

fat staaaaaacks, Mr. White.

As we drove around the island, I found myself saying, "I can't believe we live here." Sometimes I really do forget that I live on Yap right now. It's strange. I know I'm far away and the island feels small, but I forget that Yap is still that tiny speck on the map that you have to zoom in a million times to see. It's the little fleck on the map that I pointed to repeatedly for six months when people would ask where I was moving, where I'd be living. I'm here, I've been here for a while now, but sometimes I forget. Sometimes I look at the ocean and I think "oh, that's the Pacific Ocean." It's weird! To actually be living here.

I cried the whole second half of the day on the last day of exams because I just realized how much I'm going to miss my students over the break. I'm here, now. I'm really here. I'm really present. I'm really part of this. And I really love it.

And then after I cried and everyone made fun of me and my students were concerned I've seen like nine of them (at least) in the few days we've had off so far. So like, I'm fine.

Sunday we went back up to Maap for yoga with Sana. I hadn’t been in a few weeks because I was procrastinating with my school work and putting it off until Sunday afternoons which didn’t leave me free for yoga, but now I have literally nothing to do so no excuses. Yoga was so challenging and I’m so not good at it and Devi and I were just cracking each other up the whole time, but it was so much fun.

The following day, Nick, Devi, Mike and I went back to Maap for a beach day. Sana’s host mother cooked us dinner and it was so delicious. Grilled fish, taro, banana pancakes. So, so, so good. I love the local food but we hardly have the opportunity to eat it. 

spider the size of my hand, seen in Maap.

Nick and I ended up staying overnight at our friends Graham and Mercy’s house. They live on a little hill overlooking the beach and it was so wonderful. We wanted to get up early the next day to watch the sunrise, but it poured all morning. We got up anyway and went down to the beach until the wind nearly knocked me off of the coconut tree I was sitting on, so I just went back to bed for like three hours instead. Felt like an appropriate alternative.

view from the house. Maap is rad.

Yesterday we watched “Miracle.” Talk. About. Inspiring. Oh man there are so many good quotes but I can’t think of any. But don't tell me there's not a steady stream of tears coming down your face when Eruzione scores that goal in the third period to put USA up 4-3 over the Soviets. DANG. So patriotic. So important. So moving. 

So far the break has been good. Restful, entertaining, full of random activities and adventures. It doesn’t quite feel like Christmas is coming, but I’ll let you know if that changes in the next few days. 

I hope all of you and your families have a happy and blessed Christmas!