Last
As my time here in Saipan quickly is drawing to a close, I find myself doing many of my favorite things for the last time. The last day a the spa. The last show-and-tell with my students. The last work-out at the gym. Each thing that I do for the last time, I feel a little sadder inside.
The past week has been filled with many great and wonderful things, many of which I did for the last time.... here's an quick look at what I've been up to.
We climbed the 103 steps up the the look-out, a beautiful view of the island. These are my 3rd & 4th graders from this year.
Ms. Judith's 5th & 6th grade class came along, too, which was nice because the 5th graders were my 4th graders from last year. These are all my students from my time here in Saipan that are still at our school.
From the Gardens, we headed over the the Zoo. It's a small zoo with mostly farm animals, but they do have a lion, tiger, some monkeys and other cool creatures. This is Ozzie the Leopard. He's my favorite. If I could be an animal I'd be him - he's so regal, composed, and beautiful!
That same night (after my last work-out), I met up with my friends for my last street market night. It's always nice to hang out, eat yummy food, and listen to the live entertainment that is going on.
Amy, myself, and John Dax enjoying the night. I always get nachos with extra guacamole from the Hyatt booth. Yum!! And John bought me Jack fruit! I didn't know it grew here on Saipan!
The last TGIS (Thank God It's Sabbath). It's a Friday night get together where the students can come an hang out and celebrate the Sabbath together, since most of them come from non-SDA homes and don't celebrate the Sabbath with their families. This week it was at our house and we somehow packed 27 people into our tiny apartment!! Even though the air cons were blowing full blast, it was still hot, because we were making home-made tortillas. It was great fun until the power went off and we had to move the party outside so we wouldn't suffocate from the stifling heat! But it was still lots of fun to have that many kids over, just hanging out!
After lunch, we went on the last island tour. Late Friday night the new summer ESL teacher arrived, and it's tradition to take new comers on an island tour on their first Sabbath on-island. So it was the first island tour for Megan.....but the last one for us.
Here's the new monument up at Bonzai Cliff. It's really fancy and shiny!
Can you see Sean and my reflection?
Me and my little buddy looking for turtles from the Cliff. He's pretty cute, eh? We saw about 3 turtles from the lookout.
The breath-taking view of Suicide Cliff from Bonzai. I can't believe we ran to the top of that last weekend!!!
The entry to Kalabera Caves. I had never gone to the caves, so I wanted to go at least once before I left.
It was really cool, but dark and stagnant. We were able to climb down a little way until it dropped off into the depths of the earth. We decided not to see how far it went down, because even our lights couldn't penetrate the darkness down there, it was just swallowed up and disappeared into the dark abyss. It could probably be explored with ropes and such, but we decided it wasn't ours to do.
Ancient Chamorro paintings can be found on the walls. If you look closely, you can see a canoe with someone or something inside.
Me at the mouth of the cave.
As the Sabbath was about to end, Sean, Jessica and I drove down to the beach to watch the sunset.....and it was a good one. There's something beautiful about ending the Sabbath and starting the new week by just sitting and talking with friends as the sun slips peacefully beyond the horizon.
From there we headed over to some friends place for Karaoke! It's a big thing with the Filipinos here and they wanted to get us all together for karaoke one last time before we all left. We spent the night singing and laughing and eating! It was great!
Sean, giving us his version of an Elvis song
This was probably...."Dancing Queen" or "Kokomo." I can't remember, we sang so many!
Preschool Graduation was on Sunday afternoon - they were super precious!
Afterwards, we had a surprise baby shower for Sean and Barbara's little baby that will arrive in September.
Sean like's the blue one. It says, "I'm a prince, but my Dad is still the king."
The happy and excited parents!
It has been a wonderful (but full and busy) past few days. The next week will be about the same. But in the midst of it all, I'm trying to enjoy all the last things that I can.
The past week has been filled with many great and wonderful things, many of which I did for the last time.... here's an quick look at what I've been up to.
My last field trip with my kids. We took the "Chicky Chicky Bang Bang" bus up to the Botanical Gardens where we had lunch and then toured the beauty.
We climbed the 103 steps up the the look-out, a beautiful view of the island. These are my 3rd & 4th graders from this year.
Ms. Judith's 5th & 6th grade class came along, too, which was nice because the 5th graders were my 4th graders from last year. These are all my students from my time here in Saipan that are still at our school.
From the Gardens, we headed over the the Zoo. It's a small zoo with mostly farm animals, but they do have a lion, tiger, some monkeys and other cool creatures. This is Ozzie the Leopard. He's my favorite. If I could be an animal I'd be him - he's so regal, composed, and beautiful!
That same night (after my last work-out), I met up with my friends for my last street market night. It's always nice to hang out, eat yummy food, and listen to the live entertainment that is going on.
Amy, myself, and John Dax enjoying the night. I always get nachos with extra guacamole from the Hyatt booth. Yum!! And John bought me Jack fruit! I didn't know it grew here on Saipan!
The last TGIS (Thank God It's Sabbath). It's a Friday night get together where the students can come an hang out and celebrate the Sabbath together, since most of them come from non-SDA homes and don't celebrate the Sabbath with their families. This week it was at our house and we somehow packed 27 people into our tiny apartment!! Even though the air cons were blowing full blast, it was still hot, because we were making home-made tortillas. It was great fun until the power went off and we had to move the party outside so we wouldn't suffocate from the stifling heat! But it was still lots of fun to have that many kids over, just hanging out!
On Sabbath, we had our last Staff potluck all together. The first of our crew, Riki, will be leaving on Tuesday :( But we enjoyed the time we had together. Here's me and Girlie just chatting and waiting for lunch!
After lunch, we went on the last island tour. Late Friday night the new summer ESL teacher arrived, and it's tradition to take new comers on an island tour on their first Sabbath on-island. So it was the first island tour for Megan.....but the last one for us.
Here's the new monument up at Bonzai Cliff. It's really fancy and shiny!
Can you see Sean and my reflection?
Me and my little buddy looking for turtles from the Cliff. He's pretty cute, eh? We saw about 3 turtles from the lookout.
The breath-taking view of Suicide Cliff from Bonzai. I can't believe we ran to the top of that last weekend!!!
The entry to Kalabera Caves. I had never gone to the caves, so I wanted to go at least once before I left.
It was really cool, but dark and stagnant. We were able to climb down a little way until it dropped off into the depths of the earth. We decided not to see how far it went down, because even our lights couldn't penetrate the darkness down there, it was just swallowed up and disappeared into the dark abyss. It could probably be explored with ropes and such, but we decided it wasn't ours to do.
Ancient Chamorro paintings can be found on the walls. If you look closely, you can see a canoe with someone or something inside.
Me at the mouth of the cave.
As the Sabbath was about to end, Sean, Jessica and I drove down to the beach to watch the sunset.....and it was a good one. There's something beautiful about ending the Sabbath and starting the new week by just sitting and talking with friends as the sun slips peacefully beyond the horizon.
From there we headed over to some friends place for Karaoke! It's a big thing with the Filipinos here and they wanted to get us all together for karaoke one last time before we all left. We spent the night singing and laughing and eating! It was great!
Sean, giving us his version of an Elvis song
This was probably...."Dancing Queen" or "Kokomo." I can't remember, we sang so many!
Preschool Graduation was on Sunday afternoon - they were super precious!
Afterwards, we had a surprise baby shower for Sean and Barbara's little baby that will arrive in September.
Sean like's the blue one. It says, "I'm a prince, but my Dad is still the king."
The happy and excited parents!
Group photo - always gotta have one of these!
It has been a wonderful (but full and busy) past few days. The next week will be about the same. But in the midst of it all, I'm trying to enjoy all the last things that I can.
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