March Madness

Two types of Rota lobster we ate with our friend Kaity.

First off, we were not affected by the tsunami or earthquake.  The island of Rota received a tsunami warning and began evacuating people to higher ground around 5:30 on Friday afternoon.  We received 3 calls initially - one from our neighbor to ask if we could take his dog to Sinapalo with us (this was our first notice of a tsunami).  Immediately afterwards, my mother called (literally a couple minutes later).  That was quickly followed by a call from Sabrina, another teacher at the high school, checking to see if I'd heard the news.  We were already on our way out the door to go to Sinapalo (which is about 400-600 ft above sea level) to lead an Open Mic event sponsored by the high school and Youth Center.  So we picked up Camas on our way, taking with us items like our passports, medicine and changes of clothing.  After Open Mic, we heard that police had blocked the one road back to Songsong Village and so we asked our friends Kurt and Christine if we could hang at their house until the warning was cleared.  We went over there and enjoyed their company and homemade calamansi juice and calamansi wine while snacking on Girl Scout cookies, peanuts, green olives, and Tostitos.  At about 11:30 the "all-clear" was given and we drove back down to our house.  No damage from any wave was recorded here.  We routinely see waves of 10-12 ft height when winds get going fast, and the reef just off the shore protects our beaches from hard-pounding waves.  Scientists say that the depth of the ocean here (the Marianas Trench, which happens to be the deepest part of any sea on Earth) keeps tsunamis from affecting the island, although they still sound the tsunami warnings and get people out.  Correction - the Tsunami warnings don't sound because the batteries aren't working (go fig), so people just call each other to warn about the tsunamis and the police roam around with a bullhorn.

Secondly, Noe has started his online ESL American History class through Rio Salado Community College (AZ).  He's taking this class to learn the history for his upcoming citizenship test and to practice reading and writing more in English.  I looked today online for more ESL classes and I actually found some "continuing education" courses through Cascadia Community College (WA) that are only $109 for each 6-week class.  The two he'll be starting next week are: Grammar for ESL and Writing for ESL.  Although they are not college CREDIT classes, they are good preparation for him so that he's ready to take regular college level classes when we return to Washington this July.  Both of those classes are aimed at intermediate/advanced ESL students who are preparing for college level reading/writing.

Thirdly, only one of the kittens out front has survived - the momma cat had taken him into one of the restaurant speakers and hid him there from us for about 2 weeks.  He's now living in a box under the restaurant and is running, jumping, playing, and attacking bugs.  Pretty soon he'll be given away - there's a lady who has already said she wants the kitten.  Right now he's only 5-6 weeks old.  We like to check on him everyday, even though he's not ours, he's living outside and his mom cat gets food from the restaurant clients and also rats.  We don't feed them, they seem to get just enough food.  They are not feral - they both enjoy human company and the mom cat regularly jumps up onto my lap, purring and asking for pets.

Finally, we are on our last stretch of school.  I have more students this semester, but still within easy classroom management's reach.  I was out sick a few days these past couple weeks due to the cough/sore throat/sinus infection thing that is going around, but my students kept up with the work given by the subs.  At school we've been using our prep time to supervise in-school-suspension students and also subbing for other teachers, so I haven't actually had a prep period to plan/grade for at least 2 weeks now.  I also supervise the cafeteria during our hour lunch for a week, every other week.  So most of my days are non-stop, no breaks.  But hopefully people will be getting over their colds and students will begin to be deterred from chewing betel nut and getting put in ISS so we won't have to supervise them there.  In terms of jobs, I'm looking for Spanish teaching jobs in the state of Washington for next year.  We'll be heading home as soon as school ends, stopping over in Thailand for about 10 days on our way back.