Here's my weekly
update:

Life in the islands has been
amazing. I'm getting better on my guitar
although I still can't recognize the song I'm playing. Occasionally there will be a snatch of a
melody and I get so excited but then it's gone, lost in the cacophony that is
my practice sessions. But I'm plugging
away on it with the help of my host mom, who is amazing and will be teaching me
Marshallese songs soon. Other than that,
I've been reading a lot, collecting shells on the beach, swimming, and trying
to plan my lessons for the first week even though I don't quite know what
grades I'm teaching. When I'm not doing
one of things, I'm practicing my Marshallese which is getting better aolep
iien. (always)

One funny thing that happened last night
was my conversation with my host mom about Mark Zuckerberg. By the way, my host mom loves facebook. She goes on to chat with her friends and her
daughter in America and I'm helping her post some pictures this year. She talked about how Mark Z must be a genius
to create facebook and when she asked how old he was, she was shocked. She couldn't believe that someone so young
was a billionaire. Then I told her about
the movie about him, The Social Network, and she got really excited. If someone can copy that movie to a
flashdrive or disc and send it to me, I think that would be a good Christmas
present.

On Friday, I went on
a jambo (walk/trip) to Wodmej, which is another island in my atoll and also
where Kathleen, my fellow volunteer is stationed. Wodmej is beautiful with white sandy beaches,
lots of fish and awesome people. I met
Kathleen's host family and her host mom Tisee taught me how to make birds out
of pandanus leaves. I love them! They are adorable so prepare yourselves for
little bird gifts. I also saw 30 little
baby sea turtles and Kathleen and I started naming them: Ralph, Rolf, Lily,
Marzipan, Pebbles, etc. They were the
cutest things I've ever seen! I'm sorry
I don't have pictures…:( On the way back
to Wotje, we stopped while my host dad, Jibaebe, went fishing and now we have
fresh fish for dinner. The lagoon was
beautiful and clear and the day was sunny, a perfect day. And yes, if World Teach is reading this, I
did wear my life jacket, beacon and whistle included.

All in all, it's
been a great week. I sent out some
letters on Tuesday so several of my friends and family should look for
something in the mail. I'm on a limited
supply of envelopes until my shipment comes in so sorry I couldn't write
everyone something just yet.