Monday.

Oh what a day this has been. What a day indeed. I've had ups, I've had downs, I've had lots of green veggies, and I've had some sore legs.

For some reason, all it's done the past week is RAIN. Rain, rain, rain. It rains at 3 a.m. and is so loud I feel that my house is going to wash away. It rains at 5:30 a.m. when I wake up, and I like to just lay in bed a few extra minutes and listen to it. And then it rains at 7:35 a.m. right as I'm finishing my walk to school. Oh wait, and then it continues to rain all day so all my kids come to class looking like wet dogs. WHAT THE RAIN IS GOING ON? The sad thing is, we're not even in the rainy season yet! Pretty soon I'm gonna be one of those wet dogs when I come to school.

Anyways, my day started with rain. Upon my arrival at school, I had to pick up some test booklets for the SBA (no idea what it stands for) tests that the sophomores took today and take again tomorrow. I got a donut though so that made it worth it. From 8:30-10:15, the sophomores took the test. I walked around while they filled in bubbles, and that was that. Nothing too interesting.

Then the downs started. While the sophomores were taking their tests, the rest of the school was in the gym practicing cheers for 90 minutes. What does this mean? Every single one of my students was HYPER and BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS. Oyy vay. For the next two hours, I had one heck of a time trying to keep my kids quiet. Wheeewie. I was a trooper though and I got through it. Even though my two worst students still pushed my buttons, I wasn't about to let them completely ruin my day.

[Let's have a side note here to talk about my two worst students.] I am probably the least confrontational person you will ever meet. I don't get angry and if something does bother me, I keep it inside and let it go. I'm more of a "whatever" kind of person. I'm not good at confronting people when they do something that erks me. I just can't do it. Being a teacher in American Samoa is forcing me to become confrontational, and while I know that it is necessary, I am not enjoying it one bit. In fact, it's probably the biggest struggle that I've had on island. In my first period, I've got 2 kids, one boy and one girl, who are not fun. In fact, they really make me angry. The boy think's he's tough and the girl thinks she's a queen bee. The boy refuses to do any work in class, and the girl is constantly talking back to me. Last Friday, she just walked out of class after I told her that I was going to send her to the office if she didn't stop talking back to me. I gave her a zero on her quiz and her homework. When I handed back those assignments today, she gave me attitude. "UHH MISS. Why do I have a zero?" Blah Blah Blah. Either way, I REFUSE to let these two immature kiddos to get in my way, especially when I have 100+ others who make me smile 99 percent of the time. [Sidenote complete.] 

After three periods, lunch time rolled around and it was the first meeting for the junior class advisors. Someone said that there would be food. I was expecting canned ham and who knows what else but boy was I wrong. The Home Ec teacher had her students cook for us! I got to eat baked chicken stuffed with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, some sort of pasta salad, and even cake and ice cream for dessert. I ate like a queen! That was an UP to my day.

The rest of my day went just like it had in the morning. Kids wouldn't calm down. Then my fifth period came in and oh how I LOVE them. I literally love them. I've got a kid named Cavey who just makes me smile whenever I see him. Today Cavey asked, "Why do palagi's like to suntan?" I kind of thought about it for a minute. "You know Cavey, I don't really know. I guess we just like to have a sunkissed glow! But we wear sunscreen so we don't get burned." He responded, "I think palagi's just want to be brown." He's just so darn cute.

After school, I was happy to see the kids leave for the day. Ending with 6th period is always hard as they are also a trouble class. I then swept my room (I had about 50 gigantic dust/dirt/garbage piles. Gross.) and then meandered down to the gym for the boys volleyball game. I was never a big volleyball fan at home but I've been to two of the boys games now and I am loving it! We played Nu'uuli VoTech (where I stayed for Orientation) today and we whooped them!

The rest of my night has been good. Abby and I did a P90X video when we got home. I'm gonna be sore tomorrow. Then I made a delicious green dinner. A tuna salad wrap with romaine and cucumber, some fresh broccoli and even a green pepper! Green veggie heaven.

I hope all of your Mondays were just as unique as mine. Much alofa.