Spirit Week!

Last week was spirit week at school, each day students and teachers dressed in the theme of the day. It was fun getting dressed up and seeing students in non uniform clothing.

We began the week with twin day. Sarah and I both wore green dresses and black tights. Sorry, we didn't get a picture that day.

The following day was Hawaiian Day. I found a pink grass skirt at the 100 yen store. The kids all looked so cute in their island attire!

The next day was Crazy Day. The theme this day was crazy hair and socks. We told our students to just be as crazy as possible. Interesting to see their view of "crazy".

Jessica and I accidently dressed similar on crazy day. I guess our view of "crazy" is similar. we came out of our rooms and laughed at how much our outfits looked alike!

My students loved my "sock-shoes" they were a bit confused as to why my socks looked like shoes. Haha.

My class on crazy day, some interesting choices!

A few kids thought I dressed a little too crazy =)

Our last day of the week was Character Day, I was Pippi Longstocking. I cut hangers and braided my hair around the wires and spray painted it a dark pink. One of my students moms gave me the pink hairspray, she told me where to buy hairspray in red but when I went to the store they said they didn't have it. I also bought knee high, striped socks which you can't see in the picture. My hair was a little too thick for the wires to hold it up all the way.

It was an exciting week that helped making learning and teaching a bit more fun. The kids were sad to be back in their uniforms on Monday.

Friday night was the spring concert at a nearby church. The students practiced very hard the past few weeks to prepare for the concert. We met at the church at 5 pm and had to wait for the preschool and kindergartners to perform and complete their concert. 1st-6th grade waited in the multipurpose room at the church. Each class waited with their teacher, we didn't end up going on stage until 7:50 pm! It was a long wait, we had our students play games and take naps if they wanted to. I was proud of the way my students played together and sat nicely, couldn't say the same for the other classes (and we were the youngest ones in the room!).

Here are my students entertaining themselves pre-concert.

A few actually chose to take naps. So cute =)

I tried to ease the tension and calm the nerves of my students who were VERY anxious. I sat on the floor and played a few games with them, had them take a few deep breaths and relax.

Class picture right before show time!

Rocky took a lot of great pictures that I will post as soon as I get them from him. The show went well, they all looked very cute and did a great job! Here is one of my blurry pictures of grades 1-6 on the stage (I was sitting in the way back because I had to walk the students to the stage).

I have to mention (once again) that the parents let their little kids run around during the entire show. There were kids running near the front of the stage, up and down the aisles and in and out of the church doors. Mr. Elofson was sitting in his seat, grabbing kids as they ran by. He was getting very annoyed. Today in our morning devotions, he mentioned that parents need to watch their kids during these events. I told him it's like that at every event we have here!

After the concert Rocky and I met Lori and her family at Yogurtland. Rocky had never had frozen yogurt. He liked it but didn't like how expensive it was. He said he would stick to ice cream. I told him that eating healthy is expensive but worth it =)

Here are two videos I took during the concert:

I didn't get home until after 11 pm Friday night. It was a long day. I slept in Saturday, did some cleaning, laundry and a lot of relaxing. I didn't leave the apartment once on Saturday, which was my goal. Sunday, Tamara (the lady that observed my class at the beginning of the year) signed me on base and into the commissary. I bought a large quantity of groceries, which I hope will hold me over for the next 4 weeks. Half of what I bought consisted of fruits and veggies, which I couldn't resist when I saw how fresh they were and how cheap the prices were (compared to off base anyway).

Today is Monday and I have less than 4 weeks left on Okinawa. It's officially rainy season here and it POURED the entire weekend! My hair, clothes, everything got soaked when bringing my groceries up to my apartment. It stopped raining today and the weather forecast calls for clear skies the next 3 days (we will see if that holds true). Luckily, it hasn't been too humid but it's getting there. I was so thankful we had three nice days last week so I was still able to exercise outdoors.

My news of the week: My good friend Wendy is coming to visit me THIS WEEK! She had been wanting to visit but was waiting to pass her physician assistant board exam. She passed the exam last Thursday and booked a flight on Saturday! She will arrive to Okinawa Thursday evening 5/20 and stay for 10 nights, leaving Sunday 5/30. It's a great surprise and I'm very excited about spending time with her. Time really is flying by and I'm sure it will go even faster once Wendy arrives. I will keep you posted on what Wendy and I are up to. In the meantime, see you in less than 4 weeks!

XOXO

Kristen