Soccer, Sunburn, and Shrimp Alfredo

We have had another exciting week in Saipan.  Classes are still going well, and we feel better adjusted to teaching four classes with a lunch break/prep in the middle.  Our students voted this week whether or not to shorten their lunch break by thirty minutes and get out of school at 2:30 instead of 3:00. We will see where the vote leads us!  Most of our students voted to keep the day ending at 3:00 because they love school!!  

We have to give some major football love all the way from the middle of the Pacific.  GO RAIDERS!!!  We are so proud of y’all on your win over Madison County.  We miss Friday Night Lights in Raider Stadium on John Larry Black Field, but we are with y’all this season in spirit. 

Congratulations also go out to the Cardinal and Falcons as well for beating Notre Dame and the New Orleans, respectively.  Huge win for Stanford!  Thank goodness we have unlimited data on our cell phone so Joey could keep up with the score.  We don’t have TV or internet at our house, but we HAD to know what was going on with the Cardinal and the Irish!

Joey coached his first U-14 boys game of the season, and they won!  No surprise to me, his kids and parents love him, and he’s really loving them! 

Mellow Yellow also won our game last week.  Good times were had by all. 

 

Many of our teammates have become close friends of ours.  They are mainly teachers and lawyers, and a few play for the National Team on the side!

On Saturday, Colleen and I babysat Claire.  Claire’s Dad teaches with us at MHS, and he, his wife, Claire, and their two-month old son, Lucas, moved to Saipan one month ago.  Could you imagine traveling all they way over here with a one-month old and living in a hotel for a month?!  I had seen the family out and about, and I felt like the Mom just needed a break!  This Saturday was moving day for the family, so I volunteered to watch Claire for the morning while they moved from their hotel to their new apartment.  Claire is precious!  We went to the playground, played in the ocean, and ate tacos by the beach.  After all that fun, Claire sacked out!

As Carolyn Wilson would say, "Bliss!"  After our fun-filled day baby-sitting, Colleen and I got a pedicure! 

Sunday morning, Colleen and Brian invited us to go snorkeling at Pau Pau beach.  It’s where the locals go, and we certainly were the only non locals out and about.  We found a secluded spot and snorkeled for hours and hours.  We saw magnetic blue star fish and tons of other sea creatures.   

The water is so clear here, it’s not even funny!  We saw a bunch of tuna (we think) surfacing and wrestling.  Very cool!  What was not so cool was the sun.  It took one month, but I did get my first sunburn in Saipan!  I tend to forget how close we are to the equator here, and I did not re-apply while we were snorkeling.  Lesson certainly learned!  After the beach, Joey had a scrimmage with his U14 boys.  They only practice on Wednesdays, scrimmage on Sundays, and play games on Saturdays.  To cap off our wonderful weekend, Colleen and Brian invited us over for a home-cooked, amazingly, delicious meal…shrimp alfredo and steamed veggies. Colleen was in culinary school before she came to Saipan, so the meal was made from scratch incredible!  We ate outside on their huge porch with the rustling leaves of palm trees serving as our background music.  Just wonderful!

In closing, I just had to include this picture of Sashi asleep on our porch.  Again, bliss!