An Almost Perfect Weekend

Talofa!

Even though I'm 6,000+ miles away from home, I'm still an American. I just sent in my absentee ballot (my first one ever!) and I'm excited for this election to finally be over. It turns out that I am able to do a lot more here than I originally had thought and planned, although it takes a little bit longer than what I'm accustomed to. For example, I sent in a transcript request form and student loan deferment request via snail mail because our fax machine does not go off island. So even though it took my transcript request 4 weeks to get back to Ann Arbor, I finally got confirmation it was there and processed. So even though I did a lot of work before I left to get everything together, applying to law school is really hard from abroad. However, slowly but surely everything is falling into place. Hard to imagine that a year from now I will be sitting inside a classroom being a student once again. Now that I've been a teacher for a little bit, I understand how good the students have it. We just go and listen. We prepare all necessary work, but our job is to learn, not to teach. This is one of the reasons why I'm so thankful that I took a year off. I now have a new perspective on learning, and while I'm sure it will continue to change as my year away from home progresses, I'm already grateful for the things I am learning.

This past weekend was great. Although Michigan lost, the game was broadcasted here!! I had an almost perfect Saturday. I woke up early and went on a long walk/run by myself all the way to the ocean. I walked on the beach and just sat on a rock and looked at the waves for a while. Taking in everything. I'm still in awe of the constant beauty I'm surrounded by. After going back home, I was able to skype with some people back home. I then went swimming with the family. We sat in the ocean, ate papaya, and saw a whale swimming in the distance. Then when I got home, the football game was on! Totally unexpected, but I was able to cheer and cry along with the rest of my fellow wolverines. The reason why I say this day was almost perfect is because MI didn't win, but if they had, this would easily be one of the coolest days here. I'm loving it. Sunday was wonderful as well. Skyping with Patti, Rick, Caleb, and Rowan, and then my Mom, finishing lesson planning, and spending time with my adopted family. Sunday evening Mama and Papa surprised everyone with ICE CREAM. We were sitting outside chatting and all of a sudden out comes bowls of ice cream. It was funny because I was just telling my mom how I haven't had ice cream in like 2 months and I was craving it.

As you can see, things are going well here. I'm enjoying my village, the people, and constantly learning new things. I'm also starting to slowly understand when people are talking. I can put simple sentences together, but it is harder than it seems.

I'm very excited to come home and see winter in less than 3 months. Miss and love all of you. Wish you were here. xoxoxo