Irony

I am now officially the one thing that I swore to my family I would never become- namely, what they are. (Not that there's anything wrong with it, of course.) Needless to say, everyone was delighted to see me eat my words as I shared the news that I was going to become a lecturer at the National University of Samoa after having grown up wanting to be "anything BUT a college professor." A week and a half into the term I am now officially working. Lecturing, getting on students' butts about not showing up on time, inhaling chalk dust by the pound, and asking the kinds of questions that I used to hate as a student, those annoying ones that require them to think. I am teaching four courses that meet twice a week for two hour sessions. The courses are all in special needs education. One is on the individualized education program, one on assessment techniques and teaching strategies for individuals with special needs, one on barriers to learning, and the last on the situation of special needs here in Samoa. It takes up basically all of my time and I hardly have a free moment to get ready from one course to the next, including a schedule that is so confusing I'm never quite sure exactly which class I'm supposed to be teaching until I start, but it's really great to be busy and working all the time. I find with my (slightly) compulsive personality I do much better with too much on my plate than not enough so this has been good for me in that it keeps me totally engaged all of the time. The timing of the term works out perfectly because in the education department the last four weeks of the semester are teaching practice for the students rather than lecture so my courses end the week before we leave to go home to get married. I have a feeling it will be quite intense for the next couple of months working full time and also planning everything but hey at least I won't be bored :)

Home

Here are some pictures of the house. There should be pics of the outside on Andy's website somewhere. It's definitely got an institutional feel but we've done our best to make it as homey as possible. Thanks to Jake for sending me so many great letters and pictures with which to decorate the walls :)

Starting Over

So... Monday was the first day of enrollment for the 2nd term at the National University of Samoa. It also marked my first day in my new position here. I have joined the faculty of education and taken over the special needs courses so that the professor that developed the program can work overseas towards getting an advanced degree in education. It looks as though I will be teaching an extremely full course-load targeted at familiarizing future teachers with the important components of special needs education that will help to prepare them for the general mainstreaming and inclusion movement currently underway in Samoa. This, obviously, means that I am no longer working at FiaMalamalama. There were a variety of personal and professional reasons, one of the greatest being my impending marriage, that led to this transition. I am excited and optimistic that my new position will be a positive on both fronts, as it has definitely proved to be thus far. It was a very difficult decision to leave my initial placement that wasn't made lightly, but I am still looking forward to the rest of my time here in country and fulfilling my service at the university. I am swamped with work currently in preparation for courses which start in a week but other than that things are going very well. My tattoo has finally healed completely, no more bruising or peeling, and I am quite happy with it. Andy told me he thinks it would look REALLY good if I got the other thigh done to match (tattoos are usually symetrical here, not only on one side). I told him as soon as he gets another boat tattooed on his chest I'll think about it.